Zimbabwe Wild Dogs

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Feb 24 2008 | By: admin

Howzit everyone, this is Mike here (currently posting under Peter’s name until I can work out how to add myself as an administrator).
We’ve had a very frustrating few days, over two hundred kilometres of driving, hours of tracking and still no sighting of the dogs. Well, for me anyway. The other evening Peter bumped in to what we think is the ‘Jacana’ pack about 200 metres from our house and one of our scouts almost rode his bike into the same bunch the next night. All attempts to find this pack during the day have failed and so too has the search for the only radio-collared pack in the north of the conservancy, the ‘Maera’ pack (the elusive Wild Maera Dogs, or WMDs).

On the plus side, while on one of our fruitless forays into the bush, we were extremely privileged to see a snow white waterbuck cow, which is probably rarer than anything else I’ll see this year.

It was also pleasant to spend an hour of my Sunday morning watching five elephant bulls, without a care in the world, slowly and gracefully demolishing the maize fields of the nearby illegal squatters. Good work lads!

The new vehicle has been put through it’s paces and is going well. So far, it has managed to avoid the inevitable dents, deep scratches, flat tyres and damaged windscreen. All this in spite of my best efforts.

Peter will be away for a few days while he brushes up on his immobilising drugs handling and wildlife capture, in preparation for the darting and collaring we hope to do this denning season. I am also disappearing for a day or four, searching for dogs further north in the conservancy. Hopefully, I’ll return to the blog with stories of success and the pictures to prove it.

Sarai zvakanaka,

Mike

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Feb 21 2008 | By: admin

I write this blog rather bleary eyed after having been kept up all night by the sound of neighbouring villagers bashing drums and cracking whips in an attempt to keep elephants out of their maize fields. This time of year, the grass in the bush starts to turn yellow and elephants switch from being primarily grazers to browsers coincides with the time when crops like maize are ripening. During this time, elephants develop a real taste for crops and local farmers have their hands full as a result (as suggested by the pic above [photo by Trent Binford]). Anyway, back to the issue in hand…the wild dog project. Excitingly, we have at last taken delivery of the new field vehicle. It has taken three years of fund raising to enable us to buy this and the team is ecstatic. After years of heading out into the bush in a 36 year old land rover with the constant feeling that we were about to break down, we can now focus purely on the job in hand: conserving wild dogs in the area. Between the death of Steve the 36 year old land rover, and the delivery of the new car, we had a short hiatus in our field work efforts. During that time, we lost track somewhat of where the different dog packs are. Now we face the challenging task of tracking them down again. We have two months until the denning season begins, during which time we need to get a really good idea of where all the nine packs are moving within the conservancy, otherwise we have no chance of finding the dens. Finding the dens is crucial in terms of enabling us to count the dogs, to determine how many pups are born, and this year, to dart at least one dog in each pack to attach a radio collar. Mike and Ruben, featured in this photo will be doing most of the field work, and I will be handing the writing of the blog over to Mike as he will be the lucky one that gets to experience the day to day excitement of working in the bush. Mike is the project manager and Ruben the head tracker. However, I will still be on hand to answer any questions that anyone may have about biological or science issues.

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Feb 13 2008 | By: admin

Counting lions in Savé Valley Conservancy

During the last few years, conservationists have become aware that African lions are declining in both total population size and distribution at an alarming rate. Previously, lions were thought to be in fairly good shape in conservation terms and so the species was largely neglected while most conservation focus was given to vulnerable cheetahs and endangered wild dogs, both of which are much rarer. However, it is now apparent that intervention is required to halt or at least slow the decline before lions do face a more serious conservation predicament. Latest estimates put the number of lions at somewhere between 16,500 and 40,000 lions, down from an estimate of 30,000-100,000 in 1996. The wide variation between methods is due to different census methods being used, but also due to the difficulty associated with counting carnivores over such vast areas. What is clear though is that the population trajectory is down. The primary causes for the decline in lion populations include: conflict between people and lions over livestock, habitat destruction and the loss of wild prey due to unsustainable bush meat hunting. Fortunately for the species, where lions and their prey are adequately protected (such as in most national parks), lions tend to do very well. Savé Valley Conservancy is no exception.

Prior to the formation of the conservancy, lions were made virtually extinct in the area through persecution by cattle ranchers protecting their stock. Since then though, lions have started to naturally re-colonize the area from Gonarezhou National Park to the south. Initially, the lion population was very slow to increase as most of the individuals re-colonizing the area were nomadic males who found it difficult to find female lions. Over time though, small groups of females filtered through into the area and the population started to increase more quickly. Then, in 2005, a pride of 10 lions were reintroduced into the northern half of the conservancy. Sadly, shortly after release, disaster struck: at least two of the adult females were killed in poachers’ snares shortly after release. Thankfully though, the remainder survived and are breeding well.

Last year, we counted the lions using a combination of call-ups (where noises of dying lion prey were played at high volume through speakers in the bush, attracting lions, which we then counted) and spoor counts. The spoor count method worked best and in April this year, we will repeat the census. Last year, we counted 48 lions which was up from the 25 or so counted in the previous census. This year, we expect the population to have increased significantly again. Lions have the potential to increase in number rapidly under the right conditions, and given the amount and quality of habitat present in Save Conservancy, ultimately, we can expect to see a population of somewhere between 200-300 lions, which would be of major conservation significance.

However, such a large lion population would undoubtedly have a negative impact on the wild dog population of SVC. Lions kill wild dogs, adults and pups when they get chance. Perhaps more serious is that wild dogs tend to select for habitats that have low lion densities so as to avoid contact with them. This means that they are forced to occupy areas with lower densities of prey and suffer greater exposure to snares and other forms of human disturbance. A key component of our research is to assess the impact of the increasing lion population on the behavioural ecology and conservation of the wild dogs.

Prior to the re-colonization of the area by lions, the wild dogs exhibited several characteristics that were suggestive of ‘competitive release’ – or freedom from competition with lions. Some of these included: home ranges falling in areas with highest prey densities, relatively small pack sizes and very high pup survival rates. As the lions increase, we now expect to see the wild dogs using more marginal habitat (i.e. with lower prey densities, and possibly areas outside the conservancy), larger pack sizes (necessitated by the need to protect pups at the den) and lower pup survival rates. Hopefully, by gaining a better understanding of the relationship between wild dogs and lions we will be able to contribute to understanding of how to manage the species in protected areas. The significance of competition between lions and wild dogs is that wild dogs tend not to do well in protected areas with lots of lions. This means that conservation strategies for wild dogs have to focus a lot on finding ways for wild dogs to survive, and coexist with people outside of parks networks.

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Feb 07 2008 | By: admin

We work across the south east of Zimbabwe, but our focal study area is Savé Valley Conservancy (SVC). SVC is an incredible place, and so I thought I would take the time to give you some background information about the area. SVC is one of (if not the) largest privately owned wildlife areas in the world at 3,450 km2, or approximately 900,000 acres. To put that in context, SVC is just a shade smaller than Yellowstone National Park in the USA (I almost said Jellystone there…too many Yogi Bear cartoons during my childhood!). SVC was formed in 1991 from 18 different cattle ranches. Leading up to 1991, the profitability of cattle ranching had started to wane due to a recurring droughts and falling productivity of the land after years of over grazing with livestock. Then, in 1991, southern Zimbabwe suffered one of the worst droughts on record, which drove many cattle ranchers virtually to the point of bankruptcy. Most of the ranchers in the area made the decision then to switch to wildlife ranching. However, another key factor came into play which helped to mould the formation of a large collaborative wildlife area, rather than a set of individual ranches separated from one another with high fencing (as is common in game ranching areas of South Africa). At the time, Zimbabwe (as with several countries) was suffering an epidemic of rhino poaching. The Parks and Wildlife Management Authority made the decision to move rhinos that survived the poaching onslaught from the vast Zambezi Valley to private ranches in the south of the country where they could be protected from poachers more effectively. Several of these ranches were located in the Savé River Valley, in the south east of Zimbabwe. It made sense for neighbouring ranches to manage reintroduced rhinos collectively, and so the decision was taken to form a collaborative wildlife area, or conservancy. And so Savé Valley Conservancy was born.

With financial assistance from the Beit Trust, twin 9 foot electrified game fences were constructed around the 350 km perimeter of SVC and a security system with a network of anti poaching game scouts established in the conservancy. Then, the process of re-stocking the area with wildlife began. There was a reasonable amount of wildlife in the area before the formation of the conservancy, but several species had been extirpated due to competition with livestock, persecution by cattle ranches protecting their stock, or due to bush-meat poaching. The re-stocking process was done on a massive scale, and was an incredibly exciting process to experience. Perhaps most amazing was the reintroduction of elephants into the area. An experienced capture unit, led by the late Clem Coetzee set about catching elephants from the neighbouring Gonarezhou National Park and moving them to SVC. Initially, progress was extremely slow until the team developed a method to capture and move entire family groups of elephants. Thereafter, the pace of the translocation programme increased significantly. By mid 1993, 553 elephants had been reintroduced into SVC in what was the largest translocation event involving that species ever undertaken (before or since). Another 3,150 individuals of twelve other species were introduced into SVC during the 1990s, and populations of several other species, including African wild dogs, brown hyaenas, cheetahs, lions and spotted hyaenas re-colonized the area naturally. Gradually, over the years, SVC transformed from a piece of over grazed, fairly empty ranch land into a place literally teeming with wildlife. From a conservation perspective, the greatest achievements of SVC have been the recovery of two endangered species, the black rhino and the African wild dog, both of which now occur in significant numbers in SVC.
I have been lucky enough to have been present, or to have visited the area regularly from the early days of the conservancy, and to witness the recovery of the wildlife populations has been one of the most wonderful experiences that a conservationist could hope to have. And, as you can see from the photos, SVC is beautiful.

But then I could be biased…

8 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Feb 01 2008 | By: admin

Yesterday, I spoke of how we have finally managed to raise enough money to replace our old field vehicle, Steve the 36 year old land rover…

This is a huge relief, because although Steve had character in huge doses, he was about as reliable as a drunkard working in a liquor store…

In fact, our field work during the last two denning seasons was severely hampered by constant break downs, often in the most remote places…

And during the denning season, we do not have time for break downs. Just in Save Valley Conservancy, our focal study area, we have nine packs and finding all of the dens is a major undertaking. At this stage, we only have two packs collared, and so to find the dens, we have to drive slowly through the areas where the dogs are known to occur and look for spoor. When we find the spoor, Ruben and Mishek, our two human bloodhounds set off following the tracks.. and eventually, after seeing and following enough spoor, they get lucky and follow a set of tracks that lead right up to the den.

This year will be particularly challenging, because we are also going to try to find dens in the adjacent Gonarezhou National Park (‘Place of the Elephants’). Gonarezhou is an enormous wilderness area, and very little is known about the status of wild dogs or other carnivores in the park. We plan to conduct spoor counts in the park to get an initial idea of what kind of densities the various carnivores occur at, and specifically, how many different packs of wild dogs there are.

The denning season is short, roughly 3 months, and so during that time, we have an incredible amount to do. Before then, we need to make sure that our vehicle is fully equipped and ready to go. It is for this reason that I make this urgent appeal. To convert our new vehicle into a field vehicle, we need three crucial accessories: first, we need a safari seat (similar to the one featured on Steve the land rover in the photo) so that Ruben and Mishek can sit comfortably during the long hours searching for wild dog spoor on rough roads. Second, we need to fit bull bars. Sometimes, we need to ride off road through the bush, and bull bars are crucial for protecting the headlights. Thirdly, we need to fit an extra fuel tank. Fuel is incredibly short in Zimbabwe and is only available in a few selected locations. Coupled with that, we will be working in some remote places and we need to be able to head out into the wilderness safe in the knowledge that we have enough fuel to get back!

So, I make an appeal for assistance to help turn our new car into a bush mobile….

We need to raise about $2,500 to achieve this: $500 for the extra fuel tank; $1,000 for the bull bars and $1,000 for the safari seat.

We need a name for the new car, and so the person making the most significant donation to the bush mobile fund will get to the privilege of choosing the gender, and naming it
This is an important decision, because the gender of the vehicle will certainly affect its character
Also, we will acknowledge the names of any people making donations on stickers posted in the tail gate…so you get to accompany us into the wilderness, in a manner of speaking….

The vehicle is delivered on the 11th of February. We need to convert it into a bush mobile by the end of the month so that by March 1 we can start doing the ground work and getting a clear idea of the areas that each pack is using, before the denning season starts in earnest in May.

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