Zimbabwe Wild Dogs

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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