Khwai

Last week, Roz and I collected some samples from both Valkyrie and Jezebel. Valkyrie chose a relatively dry area of Khwai to use, which made me rather happy. We used the eastern boundary road for Moremi, which I had not driven up before, and was mostly fine, except for some very bumpy sections that must have been a nightmare in the rainy season. Valkyrie had moved back into NG41 by this time, so we did not find any buffalo, although we did bump into several waterbuck, which was lovely as I do not get to see them very often.

At one of the points that I wanted to sample, we found a large bull elephant resting in the shade. We left that point for a couple of hours in the hope that he would move on. By the time we went back, he had only moved as far as the next tree, but looked like he might move further, so I drove away to wait for him to move on under a tree. Unfortunately it turned out that the tree I had selected was also his next target, because the next I knew was Roz saying he's here, and there he emerged from the bushes, mere metres away. It was too late to move away, and my car was not starting on the first try, so I just decided to sit and wait. He was after the camelthorn pods and when he had scooped up the ones that were already on the ground, he shook the tree for more. As he picked them up delicately one by one, he stared at us from just a few metres away. After about ten minutes, he moved on to the next tree and we went back to sample the site.

Despite a bit of waiting, we managed to get everything done in time to get back to camp that night, and then sampled a few sites used by Jezebel the next day. On the way back from Khwai, my accelerator had become stuck and was progressively getting worse, but Moses had a look at it and made a plan with something he found in the workshop. His plan stopped the accelerator sticking, but created another problem, but that was fixed this week.

I flew up to Kasane this week to give a talk to the heads of primary schools in Botswana. It was lovely to go somewhere new, and they covered all of my expenses, including a cruise on the river. I thoroughly enjoyed watching elephants chasing baboons on the bank, as for once their trumpets were not directed at me!

Hippo Pools

Last week, Roz and I went to sample from the route that Jezebel took from her wet season home range to the flood season area. On the first day, we set out and bumped into a herd of buffalo just in front of HQ, so we got some population dynamics data from them, then continued down to Kazikini, where we sampled from the area that Jezebel had been using prior to the long distance movement. We then headed back towards HQ, but spotted a cheetah lying on the main Moremi road. We realised that there were three cheetah there - a mother and two cubs. We radio-ed Dog Camp, and they were preparing to come out and try to dart the mother, but the cheetah were in fairly dense mopane and I unfortunately lost them before the guys from Dog Camp could reach me.

The next day, we sampled further along the route, which went up to Hippo Pools, where we found another herd of buff. The area is fairly wet, so I wanted to see whether it was still possible to get to the Gomoti, or whether it was completely inaccessible. After a small amount of battling to get around water and palm scrub, we found our way around and were able to get to the channel, which is very impressive. Jezebel has since returned to the Gomoti, so being able to reach it will be useful! We came across a secretary bird trying to get comfortable in a tree.

The last day of sampling was along the Mogogelo drainage road, in the hunting area, where we managed to spot two eland running off into the bushes. We finished and were back in camp by lunchtime, after which a collared zebra was called in, keeping an eye on 6 lions eating a warthog. Hattie, the zebra researcher, was preparing to come out and dart the zebra, but they got a bit freaked out, especially after they ran into two leopards whilst evading the lions. They ran off, and Gabriel could not keep up with them, so that was another aborted darting.

Tomorrow, I am heading up to Khwai, which is where Valkyrie has been for the last few days. I have no idea what to expect in terms of flooding, but I hope to be able to access some sites at least!

Floods!

I realise that it has been quite a long time since my last blog. This is because I have been severely hampered by large amounts of water, both in the form of late rains and high floods. The heaviest rains fell at the end of April, filling all the pans and stimulating a new growth of annual grasses, causing the buffalo herds to stay in their wet season home range until the last couple of weeks. We have had several herds in the vicinity of my camp, but only last week did a collared animal, Jezebel, come our way. I recorded population dynamics from her herd of about 300 animals last week, but as yet she has made only one trip to floodplains that used to be grassland but have been flooded for several weeks now.

Of my other collared animals, Lilith's collar has been misbehaving for a month now, but has just started sending through occasional fixes again, so I have not entirely lost hope. However, she is on the edge of Chief's Island, and there is absolutely no way for me to drive anywhere near her. Pandora is currently taking refuge on a small island on the Boro, since her usual home range has been subjected to very high water levels - again, I cannot get to her. The last cow, Valkyrie, has been close to Mababe for the vast majority of the wet season. She has recently left the area, and has not gone to Savute as I feared. However, she is currently on the Khwai river, which was not supposed to be in my study area, and I do not know how flooded it is up there, but will soon go to try and find her.

However, as usual, my vehicle has started struggling, so I am waiting for a verdict and quote on repairs. Of course, I am coming to the end of my fieldwork, but I still need the vehicle for a few more months, and need to be able to sell it for a decent price, as I am relying on proceeds from its sale to support me for a while in the UK during the write-up.

The hydrological difficulties have meant that I have had a lot of time to read scientific articles and think about how to analyse all my data. I have also finished the first draft of my methodology chapter and am waiting for comments from my supervisor.

I will let you know if I manage to do some fieldwork!