Maningi Maphumi
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Mar 30 2008 | By: admin
(Plenty of wild dogs)
Howzit guys,
We are still going strong. One day last week, Reuben and Misheck found two packs in the same day!
One was an unidentified group of five dogs, but they wisely decided to stop tracking them when they started running into elephants in the thick bush.
The other pack we suspect to be the Saindota Pack (named after the river that runs through their range), but they were so wary that we couldn’t get close enough to take any pictures or even count them. Rascals!
People have really been great with calling in their sightings recently. I guess they can hear us on the radio when we’re following up their reports, and so know they aren’t wasting their time. It is a huge help to have all those extra eyes out there for us.
Gratuitous picture of elephants raiding crops.
I am moving to a house in the north today, which will help with getting to the dog sightings quicker. I’ll warn you in advance then, that my blogs may not be as frequent as before as I won’t have internet access there. Fear not though, Peter will be able to fill you in if I can’t.
A new member of our team, Rosemary, arrives from the UK next week as the project manager. She has already done much for the project, securing funding for VHF and GPS collars, among other things. No doubt she’ll be pressganged into writing a few blogs too, including an introduction.
Sarai zvakanaka,
Mike
Another pack found
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Mar 26 2008 | By: admin
Howzit everyone,
Well, the run of luck continues. We (meaning Reuben and Misheck) found another pack today. I’ve managed to match up one individual, so I’m hazarding a guess that this is the ‘Bridges’ Pack. One more located!
They’re looking at the car. But I’m not in the car….
‘What are you grinning at?’
Yesterday, I went to the south of the conservancy on my own, to try to locate the Mavericks Pack. As one of them is collared, I thought I would be able to pick them up quite easily. I thought wrong. I’d driven around and climbed several small hills but I still couldn’t recieve their signal.
I also spent some time as the guest of a particularily soft patch of muddy road. Still, nothing an hour of lugging rocks, digging with hands and copious swearing couldn’t sort out.
The pack may have temporarily left the boundaries of the conservancy but, due to my unscheduled ‘rest’ stop, it was too late for me to search in that direction. I’ll look for them again in a few days.
Thanks to those of you who made the effort to vote on the new pack’s name. Humani it is then. Who says there won’t be a fair election in Zimbabwe this year?!
Sarai zvakanka,
Mike
Got ‘em!
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Mar 23 2008 | By: admin
Howzit guys,
Can you believe it? A ZWD blog that isn’t about failure, hoping to find the dogs next week, unsuitable weather conditions, or other feeble excuses.
Yes, we have actually found dogs… for three days in a row! Ok, it’s all the same pack, but it’s the one we’ve been looking for for weeks. We had been patrolling their area for ages but we just couldn’t find spoor. As we were just about to stop using that route, we found some. Then came the rain, which didn’t help, but a few days later we picked them up again. The first time, they were lying up in tyre-and-paintwork-punishing mopane scrub and we couldn’t get to them in the car. We tried to get close on foot but they always saw us before we saw them.
Yesterday, we found them resting in the shade, on a bank of the Mokore River. They were on the opposite side of the river, but this gave us a better view of them. The coat patterns matched those from older photos, which confirms this as the Jacana Pack.
A day at the beach.
Bath time.
This morning, I received a radio call telling me that they had just been seen around the same area. With Reuben and Misheck searching for packs elsewhere, I set out on my own, hoping the dogs hadn’t gone too far as I doubted an attempt at tracking would be successful. By luck, they were visible from the road, lying around a pan. The area was open and so I could drive closer to them. I kept my distance at first, to let them get used to the vehicle, before creeping closer in a wide zig-zag (a direct approach normally unnerves them).
My reward was to spend a couple of hours relaxing in their company, listening to the birds and watching the dogs as they dozed. God, it’s Hell in Africa!
How many dogs in this picture?
Only two days left to vote before a name is decided for the new pack. It looks like ‘Humani’ is winning hands down so far. Sorry for that, Reuben!
Sarai zvakanaka,
Mike
Another thrilling week
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Mar 18 2008 | By: admin
Howzit guys,
Hmmm, I see that our blog’s comment sections have been targeted by spammers. I’ll continue purging their ever-so-interesting comments whenever I can.
Not much happening on the dog front at the moment. I hope this doesn’t keep up, or I’ll be forced to regale (read as: bore) you with off-topic stories of previous experiences in Africa.
We have had a light smattering of rain over the past few days. This usually stops the dogs from ranging too far (they don’t like the wet grass) but it also obscures or erases their tracks. We were hoping they would use the roads more but, if they are, they aren’t the roads we’re looking on.
If only we saw these more often. No, not pens.
The scouts have just moved base, slightly ahead of schedule, to the ranch in the north and I plan to follow them as soon as my accommodation there is ready. We’ve managed to get our hands on a motorbike, which means we can search different areas simultaneously, greatly increasing our coverage.
We still need to decide the name for the new pack. I am using ‘Humani’, after the ranch they inhabit, but Reuben wants to be more specific and suggests ‘Gomo’, the ChiShona word for hill/mountain, as he says they prefer to frequent that habitat.
Therefore, I am opening up this decision to you guys. Whichever of these two names has the most votes by next Tuesday (25th March) will be the winner. Feel free to get your friends, relatives, lovers, parole officers, etc. to sign on and vote too.
Sarai zvakanaka,
Mike
Back on the case
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Mar 13 2008 | By: admin
Howzit guys,
Don’t worry, we’re back. We’ve just had a few days off but now we’re all ready and raring to go.
It’s bizarre how we can spend days searching for the dogs without even seeing one pawprint, and then we find some without even trying.
For the past two days, we have located the new pack (provisionally christened, the Humani pack, after the area they occupy) within twenty minutes of setting off. UTM / Arc1950 36K 415431:7741236 and 413184:7742737, map fans!
Although our intitial sightings are on roads, they are currently using very dense, and pointy, riparian vegetation to rest up in. This is too thick to for the car to get through, so we follow them on foot (did I mention it was pointy?), as I am trying to see if the snared female has hooked up with them. Unfortunately, due to the thick bush and the amount of doggy eyes scanning for intruders, we cannot get close enough to determine if that is the case. If we disturb them twice, we leave them in peace, rather than keep pushing them. We will just have to bide our time until we find them in a place that is accessible by vehicle.
Misheck and Reuben stand at ease.
The other packs are as elusive as ever. We have received reports of sightings, but we are usually too far away and by the time we get there, it will be too late to begin tracking. As the sun gets higher, the shadows cast in prints diminishes and they cease to stand out, unless they are on really soft terrain.
In early April, we will be based on a more central ranch in the north of the conservancy so we should be able to respond to calls much sooner. The north has all but two of the known packs in the conservancy, so we should be kept busy, especially during the upcoming denning season.
Sarai zvakanaka,
Mike
Just missed
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Mar 06 2008 | By: admin
Howzit everyone,
Wow! Do you guys have this blog on an RSS feed or something? My last post had a comment within three minutes and that was quickly followed by several more. Not that I’m complaining…
This morning, we were just setting off to collect the guys’ pay and to get some supplies, when I thought I heard a dog calling nearby. No one else had heard it, so, thinking I was mistaken, we carried on.
When I arrived at my destination, I got a radio call to tell me that wild dogs had killed an impala by the Turgwe river, in full view of the camp next to our house. I just know they do this sort of thing to annoy me!
I returned and set out to follow the spoor, which meant wading back and forth across the river, but I lost the tracks eventually. When I was walking back I came across the spoor of a single dog and I think this was the snared female. Maybe she heard the commotion and came to investigate. I was wondering if she had teamed up with the pack but, just as I was sitting down to start this blog, I heard a dog calling close by. Hoping it was the female, and wanting to check her condition and if she was still snared, I grabbed my kit and ran out to find the source, but it stopped calling before I could locate it. I then tried to mimic the call but my impersonation can’t be as good as Reuben’s. Maybe I haven’t got the accent right or something.
If it was the female, and if she keeps hanging around in this area, I’m sure I’ll find her eventually.
Not wild dogs.
I haven’t had any sightings for a few days now, which is very frustrating. I did see three cheetahs yesterday, which I was very happy about, having never seen any in the wild before.
The scouts are on their days off now, so I’ll take the opportunity to take it easy. I’ll still be on standby to follow up any sightings and may try to pick up the collared Maera pack (as my tracking ability is pretty poor at the moment).
Sarai zvakanaka,
Mike
New pack?
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Mar 04 2008 | By: admin
Howzit guys,
Thank you all very much for the kind words of support for the project.
As requested, I have put all the blogs together again, even though it pains my ordered mind. ‘Uncategorized’ indeed!
Yesterday morning, we found the pack that has been hanging around the area. They were extremely wary of the car, and we couldn’t get very close at all before they ran off. In the late afternoon we returned to the site and found them a few hundred metres away. After tacking very slowly towards them, and in spite of their early-warning vultures perched nearby, we got much closer and they seemed to be less worried about us than before. It may be that they felt less exposed and vulnerable, as they were lying in a patch of small but dense shrubs.
We believe that this pack hasn’t been located while denning and so isn’t habituated to a vehicle, not as adults anyway. I also cannot find a match for their coat patterns in any photo records, so we think that this pack may have slipped below the radar. They could have always been mistakenly reported as the Jacana pack. An old, abandoned den was found a few years ago (approximately twenty kilometres south of here) that was never attributed to any of the recorded packs, so it could well be that it belonged to these guys.
‘We refuse to be filmed.’
Unfortunately, and most probably because part of their range appears to be in a resettled area, at least two of this pack are carrying snares. One has a neck wound, similar to the female we saw a few days ago, and one has a snare around the waist. Another dog was limping on the right foreleg, but we think that is just an injury picked up in day to day life.
We have not seen or heard anything of the snared female since my last post. I have contacted the conservator, as he has the licence and equipment to dart and treat animals, and we will call on him if we see that dog again. The others will be difficult to dart as they are still with their pack, but I will see what the conservator says.
We tried to find the new pack again today, as I’d like them to get used to the car in case we have to dart, but our searching was to no avail. When we returned, we were informed that they were spotted last night, hunting to the west. We had spent the day looking further and further south. Thanks for the timely tip, lads.
While we were out though, we saw four white rhinos in a group (or ‘crash’). Whenever we see a rhino, we take note of it’s location, any ear notches, etc. and report it to the conservator or his rhino scouts. This co-operation is reciprocated whenever they come across wild dogs (I hope).
Reuben risks it.
I’ll post again in a few days.
Sarai zvakanaka,
Mike
Wild dog update
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Mar 01 2008 | By: admin
Howzit again,
I’m afraid I start with a very frustrating and sad story.
Yesterday, we had just set off to look for tracks when a female wild dog walked across the road in front of us. My elation soon turned to dismay when we saw that she had been caught in a snare and it had cut a ‘red collar’ around the poor animal’s neck. Peter is qualified to dart the dogs in these cases but, unfortunately and ironically, he (along with all the equipment) is away on a refresher course for that very ability.
As darting wasn’t an option, and we couldn’t be sure if we would ever see her again, we decided to follow her to see if she was sufficiently weakened for us to catch and get the snare off. It would be painful for her (and possibly for us) but she would have a much better chance of survival with the snare removed. Distracted by trying to locate her pack, and the obvious pain and discomfort, she walked within ten metres of where we were crouched, but the distance was too great for us to make a successful attempt. She eventually saw us and ran off. I just hope she can be helped before it is too late. Another example of the cruelty of wire snares.
We are still getting reports of dog sightings, but we haven’t had much luck following them up. Our normal procedure for trying to find the uncollared packs is to choose an area where dogs were recently seen and slowly drive the roads and walk around the nearby pans looking for tracks. We are still waiting for the break that we will get a call when the person has just seen the dogs, instead of hours or days later. We can then sprint over there and hopefully get a good sighting and some pics.
From putting together the reports, we think that a new pack has formed in a previously wd-vacant area of the conservancy. This area is occupied by squatters and we suspect the snared dog may be from that pack, although I am still trying to match up her coat pattern to see if she is from the Jacana pack, as they also use this area.
I hope I have happier news next time.
Sarai zvakanaka,
Mike
Tags: 1122
Success at last!
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Mar 01 2008 | By: admin
Howzit guys,
First of all, let me apologise for the delay of the update. I arrived back home to find that we had reached our internet limit for February. I blame Facebook! Also, being a stickler for tidiness, I have tried to organise the posts into different categories but this may have caused some confusion. Please let me know if you would prefer me to lump all the blogs together, regardless of subject matter.
The almost record rainfall we had earlier this season has caused an amazing explosion of vegetation. Unfortunately, the grass is now very high and thick, which really hinders our trackers. This, combined with a lack of recent information on the packs’ locations, makes finding the dogs extremely difficult.
However, now that the landowners and scouts have realised that the project is back in full swing, they are starting to radio in sightings that we can follow up, and we finally managed to track down the collared Maera pack (twice), so things are definitely progressing.
While we were watching the Maera pack resting a few days ago, one young upstart had had enough of our proximity and approached the vehicle. He started to make short, gruff barks while stomping both his front paws in our direction. This activity alerted the rest of the pack, but, apart from a few uncertain barks, they weren’t too bothered and just moved further away from us. We will have to keep an eye on this troublemaker!
Currently, we only have one spare wheel, so any puncture means a hasty return to base, as I don’t want to risk being stranded in the bush should I get another. Fortunately, Antonio C has made a generous donation and I’m hoping that it will be used to buy another spare, which will really help with keeping the team going in the field. Thanks Antonio.
Talking about being stranded, earlier this week I tried to cross the Msaize River in our new Ford Ranger and got it stuck. Unbeknowst to me, this had been witnessed and, much to my embarrassment, there was a small army of workers and a tractor on the scene almost immediately. The workshop manager then got in the Ranger and charged it across, no problem. Therefore, any donations of dignity or pride will also be gratefully received!
Sarai zvakanaka,
Mike
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Rosemary Groom is a post-doctoral research scientist with the African Wildlife Conservation Fund -
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- Jun 30th Deborah S. USD5.50
- Jun 2nd Deborah S. USD5.50
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