Close encounters of the buffalo kind

I came back yesterday from 4 days spent in the field with the buffalo. We were very lucky with the weather and only had a spattering of rain. The ground was dry and sandy for the most part, although there were a few pans in the open mopane, which seem to be starting to dry up with the recent sunshine. We got stuck once, driving over a large log that got stuck on the front diff, but we got free with a bit of jacking. The vehicle has suffered a little from all the mopane bashing, with scratches along her side and a bit of bent body work. I dread to think what she will look like after two years of this!

We found the buffalo without too much difficulty, although staying with them was a different matter, especially in the mopane, where they spent most of their time, as I scared them when I came crashing through, which made them run away and was very counter productive. After 4 days of us following them, however, they became quite used to the car and only some of them ran for a short distance and then relaxed again. They were mostly curious about us, as opposed to aggressive, although some of the bulls tossed their horns at us. But several times they came to investigate us, from about 10 m away. The first night that we camped, they had headed off in another direction but 20 minutes later they came walking up to our camp and had a good long look at us from about 20 m away. Something spooked them and they ran away, luckily away from our camp and not straight through it!! The second night that we camped, one came and stood next to me tent, breathing quite heavily and sniffing around. Laura (my assistant) fell straight to sleep and was completely oblivious to the large curious animal right next to us. We heard lions roaring yesterday morning, but that was the only sign of any carnivores around. In fact, apart from steenbok, we only saw buffalo, not even any impala, which was interesting.

Luckily they did not move too far over night and we were able to pick up a signal every morning and find them within an hour or so. We tried to stay with them throughout the day, but inevitably lost them for a couple of hours each day. This has made me think about revising my data-collecting protocol, which I will be discussing with my supervisors next week.

The map shows the recent movements of the collared animals. Two sets of two buffalo are in the same herd, the northern ones in NG32 and the western ones in NG34, which is why there are only 4 red dots (current location) in the overall map. The three in NG34 were all in the same herd for a few days, but they have split up again. We will be heading out towards the end of next week to follow another individual (or two if they are together), probably in NG34 again, as NG32 will take longer to dry up.

Tracking buff through mopane

We had a few days without rain, which was very pleasant and gave the roads at least a chance to dry up. However, 23 mm a couple of days ago topped all the road puddles up again. I managed to fly one morning, which was very still and pleasant. We tracked and found all three of my buff on this side, all close together in NG34, and very close to a road. So Laura and I drove across to have a look at the ground in that area to see whether it would be possible to do some field work off road.

The ground was very sandy and completely devoid of pans or any other nasty surprises. So we came back and packed the car for a few days camping to follow the herds. We drove back out despite the storm the previous night, and the ground was still very firm and fine to drive on. We found all three animals within a few hundred metres of each other, but all hidden in mopane stands. We did not want to disturb them during their resting period in the middle of the day, so we waited until 3.30 to try and get a visual. This was the right time to move, as they all decided to move off in a concerted march south. We followed their tracks for about 3 km, through rather dense mopane (which luckily usually bends under the car) until the tracks spread out a bit more and we found them in a section of open mopane that was apparently their destination. By this time it was getting dark, so we set up camp and went to bed. We heard the buff calling all around us throughout the night. However, it also rained for 6 hours that night, a good deal of it heavy rain, with very loud thunder and impressive lightning. This meant that by the morning time, the ground in the mopane had become completely waterlogged, so we left the buff to it and retreated.

Hopefully the rains will become less frequent, so that the ground can dry up in between the rains, as at the moment, the ground water levels are still very high, so that any rain takes a long time to sink through and causes the ground to become saturated and cloying.

We had a few close encounters with elephant whilst driving through mopane, but luckily none of them felt too aggressive, although some of the bulls we saw were enormous, with huge tusks (for Botswana). I haven't seen any predators lately, except for the ever hopeful spotted hyaena that comes around the kitchen most nights, even though it never gets anything.

Rain in the Stanley's area

Earlier this week, I drove up to Stanley's Camp to check on my buffalo up there. There is one herd close to the main road, whose signal we picked up as we were driving in. We went off-road to try to find them and were getting fairly close but we were thwarted by a very large lake fed by several smaller channels. We returned to the main road and continued up to Stanley's, arriving without incident. However, the guys working at Stanley's told us that they have received over 300 mls of rain in January alone. All of the crossings, which should be completely dry at this time of year, are fully flooded and it has been raining every day, so the ground has had no chance to dry up. We tried to find a road across to where the collared buffalo are, but we got stuck quite badly with 10kms to go. We headed back down the road to try again with the others, but there had been heavy rain and even the soil on higher ground had puddles on water on it.

We therefore retreated back to Maun to review options and speak to one of my supervisors. He agreed that trying to go off-road in these conditions is futile and will result in numerous hours spent getting unstuck with very few results. Other researchers have also been having problems with driving off-road.

We have had a couple of days without rain so I am hoping that this weather stays, but there has been more heavy rain forecast for next week, and one newspaper article mentioned that rains may continue until the end of March. I will concentrate on office work for the next few days/weeks, depending on weather. I will also develop my vegetation sampling methodology, concentrating on areas very close to the road. Walking any distance from the car is not an option given the height of the grasses, so I will see how that goes. I will also try to fly over the herds to get some idea of numbers and composition, and the habitats that they are in.

Otherwise, the car is running well, and made it through fairly deep water without any problems. We had to give a hand pulling one of the Stanley's Cruisers out of the mud, which, together with the fact that we made it through all the water, helped to dispel their ideas that two girls doing fieldwork in a petrol Hilux are more than a little crazy. My assistant, Laura, is settling in very well and, of course, growing to love living in the bush.