Angry hippo

Last week I decided to take Rodney up on his kind offer to lend me a vehicle from HQ, and did the fieldwork that I had wanted to do two weeks ago. We set off early from HQ on Wednesday and came across a herd of buffalo, just as they were crossing the main Moremi road. They were fairly relaxed, and I got a good count, including quite a large number of very small calves. We sampled from Jezebel, but her herd was in such thick bush that we only managed to see four animals and so we left them to it. We back onto the road close to the Kazikini hunting camp, and shortly afterwards spotted a group of eland running off into the bushes. I suspect that it was the same herd that I saw last year and Gabriel saw in January, of ten adults and 2-3 youngsters, although they were very skittish and we could not get a decent look at them. We made it to S-bend, where we were threatened by an angry hippo but managed to escape with our dignity intact. As we were heading back to camp, we spotted a big buffalo bull walking down the road towards us. I stopped and switched the car off to see how close he would get. He literally walked straight up to the vehicle and got to within 5 m before suddenly realising that we were there and moving off the road.

The next day we sampled from Valkyrie, up near Mababe. On the way in we saw a roan run across the road and we then saw a herd of 21 giraffe that also ran away from us. We managed to get all of the samples that we needed bar one, so the season's sampling is nearly done, which is a relief given that the end of the month is fast approaching!

Elephants in the bush

Last weekend I organised a fundraiser, involving a tournament of human foosball (table football), with PVC piping and rope connecting people in several lines that they were not supposed to leave. Five teams turned up and several spectators, so there were over a hundred people there, all of which said they had a really good time. We managed to raise over P3,500 in profits, and everyone said they would be keen to participate if I did it again.

On Friday, Roz and I went out to sample the last of the points for the baseline Low Mixed Woodland habitat types. We started seeing elephants almost as soon as we left camp, and managed to sneak through a breeding herd with only a couple of outraged trumpets. Shortly after we started sampling, we spotted some buffalo on the road in front of us. The vegetation was quite thick, so the only animals that we could see were the ones crossing the road. We were very patient and were rewarded by over a hundred animals walking in front of us, including several very small calves.

I was not sure how wet the area would be, and I know several roads that can be particularly tricky when wet, so I decided to play it safe and avoid those. This made the whole trip significantly longer, and we ran out of water before the end, but we did succeed in sampling all the sites that I needed to reach.

I was planning on going out this week to collect the last samples for the wet season. My car, on the other hand, had different ideas, so I am currently waiting for a new carburetor to be sent up from Johannesburg, which should arrive on Thursday. As soon as it has been fitted, I will have to dash out and complete my wet season sampling, as the rain is definitely starting to thin out.