Collecting samples in the dark

Last week, Jennifer and I went out to find a few herds of buff and collect some samples. We found Lasanya fairly quickly and got a decent count, although it was definitely more difficult than usual to find sufficient faecal samples. We went down to where Chanel has been for the last few weeks, which is between our main access road and the main South Gate road. Unfortunately there are not many roads in that area and, as I found out, the bush there is fairly thick. We got a recent fix for the herd from Keren, but by the time we got there we could not get a signal, meaning that the herd had moved at least 2 km further. We did a few points in the area and headed back to the road. We spotted some buff along the fence, but they ran away into fairly dense bush and we lost them.

We went back up to sample points from Lasanya and bumped into the herd again, several km further south from where we had left them. We had had a storm already and the sky was looking ominous at that point and it was getting towards evening time, so I decided that we would head back to camp to avoid trying to cook food in the pouring rain. We headed back out early the next morning to do some more samples and found Lasanya again. For some unknown reason she has always been the easiest buffalo to find, and I am starting to think that she follows me as much as I follow her!

We continued up to collect samples from points used by Bambi Whilst sampling one of these, we heard buffalo fairly close by, so we finished quickly and headed across to find them. They were fairly skittish and we were only able to get a small population dynamics count, but it is all useful. They disappeared off into thick mopane at a rapid pace and we left them to it. We got an updated fix for Bambi from Keren and headed in that direction and picked up a fairly strong signal. Right next to us we saw a small group of bulls and cows, but they did not seem to associated with Bambi's herd. We followed the signal, which was an active one, indicating that she was moving. We were slowly catching up to her, but it was obvious by the signal and the tracks that the herd was on a mission. We followed their tracks through dense mopane and only managed to catch a glimpse of a couple of animals. By that time it was around 17:30 and a rather large thunder storm hit us, forcing us to abandon the tracking idea. I am not a big fan of holding up a large metal antenna when lightning is hitting fairly close by!

When the storm passed, it was past 18:00 and the herd had moved further still. I decided to leave them and head back to do some more points. As we were doing the last point of the evening, we again hear buffalo calling not too far away. We finished quickly and headed towards them. They were very relaxed and I was able to get a good count of the herd, since they were grazing and checking us out from about 15m away. After I had gotten a decent count, I wanted to collect faecal samples, but they seemed to enjoy my company so much that they were reluctant to move off and I didn't want to disturb them after we spent that time getting to know each other. Eventually the main herd moved off and I got out my torch to look for fresh faeces. Obviously I was aware that the buff were close by, so drove around looking for samples and did not venture far from the car, but all went well and I managed to find all the samples that I needed. We camped close by, since the herd had moved off by the time I found all my samples, and spent a lovely night under the stars. We headed back to camp the next day, sampling points on the way. By this time, my vehicle was stuck in low range and the steering rod was not quite as straight as it had been, so the rest of that day was spent fixing her up!

While we were out sampling, the wild dogs came through camp and killed an impala, so we were sad to have missed that, but it can't be helped - the buffalo are the priority for me!

Crossing the Gomoti

Last week I went out on Wednesday to find Bianca. She has been moving around in the area between the Gomoti and the Santantadibe. When we crossed, the water came up to the windscreen and came close to pouring in the windows. I managed to keep the vehicle moving, but there were several seconds where I thought we would get stuck. Needless to say, this was not an experience that I wanted to repeat, so we returned via the Morutshe gate, which is a longer way round, but much less river infested.

Before leaving camp, I had obtained the latest fix from the collar, taken earlier that morning. We drove down the road but failed to pick her up. I radio-ed Keren for a more recent fix, which turned out to be close to the road at the same time as we were driving it and tracking. I am concerned that the VHF has stopped working on that collar, as the point was less than a km from where I was tracking. We drove to the most recent fix and found fresh tracks and faeces. We started to follow the tracks as an alternative to using telemetry, but I drove over a small stick and then smelt a rather strong petrol scent. Upon investigation, I found that the pipe running out of my reserve tank and into my main tank had been damaged, so that petrol was coming out fairly rapidly. I managed to make a plan with a clamp so that the leaking stopped. However, I did not want to risk it happening again, particularly as most of the area is covered in mopane. I therefore headed for home with only 4 samples and no buffalo sightings. Louis and Duncan helped me all the next day to fix the problem, which has been sorted.

The next day I had to go to town to extend my waiver, which was done without incident. I spotted two chameleons mating in a tree at a friend's house in Maun, proving that there is wildlife in Maun as well!

Duba Plains

I managed to arrange a visit to Duba Plains with Wilderness Safaris last weekend. I went up on the Friday and came back on Monday. It was lovely to spend three nights there, going on game drives and managing to see lion and buffalo on each one. I spent a good deal of time talking about buffalo, which is always exciting for me.

The lions were following the buffalo for most of the time, but did not manage to take one down. The best opportunity would have been on the last day, when the whole herd crossed a channel, but there were no lions around at that time. On the first morning I did see a chase, but happily it was some buffalo bulls chasing a lion and not the other way around!

The structure of the lion prides up there seems to be very disrupted. There are two prides sharing a dominant male and the females have been systematically killing all their cubs for the last couple of years, including some killing and eating their own cubs. It was very interesting to see the different dynamics of the buffalo herd up there as well. There is only one herd, close to 1,000 strong, that lives in a relatively small area dominated by couch grass. There are hardly any daggaboys and lion predation is the main cause of death, although the pressure from lions now is far less than it used to be.

I have just found out that one of my collars (B76 - Nokya) is sending out a mortality signal, so I will go out tomorrow to recover it and collect some samples from the area.

Between the Boro and the Santantadibe

I went across into NG32 a few days ago, between the Boro and the Santantadibe, to collect sample from Bongolo. I was pleasantly surprised by the low levels of water, especially compared to last year. I got a total of 16 samples over 2 days, as a lot of the points were in grassland and I did not want to oversample that habitat type. Unfortunately I did not manage to find the herd in whose tracks I was following, as they managed to stay more than 2 km from my position at all times, which puts them out of range of my telemetry equipment. I did however manage to track down one of the GPS only collared cows, who was in some fairly dense mopane but with a few open areas allowing me to collect some population dynamics data. I did see a very young calf in that herd as well, which looked rather unsteady on its feet, so had probably been born the previous night. The range on those collars is much better, and I was able to pick up the signal from the collar from around 4.5 km away.

Most of our time was spent off-road, but we were able to stay in grassland areas between mopane and had very little bashing to do, although I still managed to crack my rear window and stub my toe. We saw quite a few elephants and heard lions and hyaenas close to our campsite but no one came to visit us this time.

Dog Camp had a vet out for the last few days, mostly to try and replace collars before they go down, or to swap collar types. On the first day they darted Frankie the cheetah and changed his collar. Rio (one of our staff) had gone across towards Kazikini to look for Barros but bumped into what he thought were 3 male lions. Gabriel asked me to help out since my vehicle is closed and safer to dart lions from. We drove across and realised there were actually 4 males, but they got quite nervous and kept running from us. There were a couple of opportunities but they were in very thick mopane, so even if we had managed it would have been a bit nerve wracking working on one male knowing there were 3 others out there that we couldn't see. We had to give up because they were just running as soon as they saw a vehicle. So we headed back to camp and I bumped into a herd of buffalo on the way, so it was a useful trip for me as well!

Dog Camp also managed to change collars on Vera (hyaena), Priya (cheetah), Apollo (hyaena) and Barros (lion). They found Claire (lion) looking very ill and injured, so have been keeping an eye on her in case she dies so that they can recover the collar. They almost got Tori, the hyaena that has proved rather elusive in the past, but somehow the dart went through a very small twig and missed her.

Gabriel left yesterday and we went across before going out for fieldwork to say goodbye to him. We spent a while at the pan at the back of Dog Camp, because an elephant has died in the middle of the pan. When we were there, there were 14 hyaena all around, swimming out to the carcass and fighting over the meat. It was amazing to watch them in the water and to have them all around us. Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me, so missed the photos.

Tracking buff

Last week Jennifer and I went across to the eastern part of NG34 to collect some data. We found Nokya fairly quickly but she was in very dense mopane and it took a while to actually find the herd, which made it very difficult to count them. We operated mainly off road, though we stumbled onto a road partway through the trip so we used that a little. There were quite a few elephants around and a couple of times we got into the car during a sample because we heard them coming our way, but they did not come within visual range of us. Sven helped us out with getting a recent fix for Lasanya, and we were able to track her down as well. She was fairly relaxed, but also in dense vegetation, so it was very difficult to get any population dynamics data and pretty much impossible to estimate herd size.

We kept heading north and during a sample we heard buffalo, so when we finished we went to find them. They were in a slightly more open area and were relaxed enough for me to position myself on top of the car in a location that they were walking past, so we were able to get a better sample from them. They turned out to be with Bambi, meaning that we found all of the herds with satellite collars in the area. We did not get any signal for any of the GPS collars.

We camped not too far away that evening since the sun was setting as I was collecting my last poo samples from that herd. During dinner an elephant rumbled fairly close by so we got into the vehicle and finished eating in there. I never saw anything, but Jennifer was a bit confused as she thought the sound was a vehicle quite far away. She also didn't wake up when there was an elephant walking past our tents just before midnight. My tent flaps were down as it looked like it might rain, but I heard him walking towards the tent, blowing air out of his trunk and shaking his head. He moved off after a few minutes. The next morning I checked his tracks and he must have been about 10 m from the tent. We also heard lions roaring in the evening and the following morning but did not pick up any collared animals.

We continued our sampling missions the next day and managed to finish everything by around 5pm, so I decided to head back to camp as I had things to do the next day. We drove all the way back and ended up in camp just in time for dinner.

This morning I had a slight surprise as I saw two female waterbuck in front of camp. They quickly ran off so I was unable to get photos, which I guess means it didn't happen! The vet at Dog Camp arrived last night so they are all gearing up to dart various animals over the next few days.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! I was in bed early for New Year, but I did catch my first ever fish on the Gomoti beforehand.

I went across the Gomoti last Sunday morning to collect data from one of my herds. Most of the points were fairly close to the road going down the Gomoti side to the fence and there were no major issues with water, which was nice. I had a rather close encounter with eleven elephants as we were sampling the last point on Sunday evening. We heard them coming through the mopane, so we got into the vehicle and sat tight. They didn't notice us at first, but when they did they all came over towards us with their ears out and their heads up. I did not want to provoke them, so I just sat very still and hoped that they would eventually leave us alone. They got to within 20 m of the vehicle, at which point I realised that I did not have many options if they all decided to do something. However after looking at us for a while, they all moved off into the bushes and we finished our sample.

I finished off the last of the points early on Monday morning and then tried to find the actual buffalo herd. I radio-ed for people at HQ to download the most recent fixes from her, but it seems that she was moving a lot over those couple of days and I managed to miss her, despite going all the way across to the Santantadibe side and along the fence. She just slipped by me somehow, which was rather frustrating, so I gave up and came back across the Gomoti on Monday.

On the Santantadibe side I did bump into a few lions though. There were two big blonde males and a young female. I found them just next to the road when I was checking for one of the collared lionesses for Dog Camp (Elle). She is also across that way, but was not with the three that I found, and was quite far off road so I did not see her. However, I showed the photos to the guys at Dog Camp and they reckon that the three lions are usually with the collared female.

Christmas in the bush

I have had another quiet week in terms of research, as it was Christmas. Jennifer went across and stayed at Dog Camp so that she could go out with the researchers there and see carnivores.

I did some office work and had a bit of a break. On Christmas Eve the HQ posse drove across to Dog Camp to sing Christmas carols. Unfortunately they were mostly asleep by the time we made it across, although we did see a civet on the way. We woke some of them up and spread Christmas cheer.

On Christmas day I chatted to my parents for a while and had a lovely brunch with Keren and Duncan. I then headed out to the Gomoti, where Dog Camp were having a braai. I spent a couple of hours with them by the river, before coming back to camp around sunset to help prepare a beautiful roast dinner. It was a lovely Christmas altogether, and I can only hope that those of you who celebrate it enjoyed it as much as I did.