Zimbabwe Wild Dogs

Category: Uncategorized | Date: May 27 2008 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Howzit guys,

 Sorry to run out on you all but, due to administrative difficulties, I have decided to leave the relative safety of Zimbabwe and return to the stab-happy UK, for a life of shelf stacking, rain and chavs, so this will be my last post.

  I nave managed to return to Zim, albeit temporarily, along with Rosemary, and the items we bought are now safely in project hands.

 The vehicle is kitted out with six new tyres and various other bits of handy equipment and will shortly be converted into a bush-eating beast that will laugh in the face of stumps, thorns and inconveniently placed trees (famous last words). The scouts have various new pieces of kit and so can function much more effectively.

 Also, the house now has a battery inverter to keep electrical equipment going during the frequent, and increasingly longer, power cuts and there is a gas bottle and burner for cooking. To keep running outside to a fire is awkward enough in Summer, but worse in the chill of Winter.

 I just want to say thank you to all of those that have commented on my blogs and to those who have donated to the project. Even greater thanks to those of you who have done both! I hope you will continue to support it, especially as it is going from strength to strength, and has some very exciting action coming up.

 Sarai zvakanaka,

 Mike

2 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: May 26 2008 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hello!  This is Rosemary here - the new wild dog project manager.  Sadly Mike has resigned from the project, so apologies to all of you who have been enjoying his witty posts… I’ll do my best in his stead.  I am assured his resignation is nothing to do with my arrival (!), but I shall certainly miss him (not least because I now have to figure out this blog system for myself…). I also apologise for the delay in getting a posting out - we had some problems signing in when the login details were changed.

Anyway, let me introduce myself briefly first, and then I’ll give you an update on the project.  I grew up in Zimbabwe and after finishing university (in England), I worked for a few years in Botswana, and then for 4 years in Kenya whilst doing my PhD.  When I was offered the job of running this wild dog conservation project, I jumped at the chance.  Not only did it get me back ‘home’ to Zim, but it sounded like a great opportunity to do really worthwhile conservation work. Not to mention being based in the most stunning area….

Rosemary tracking wild dogs in the Save Valley Conservancy
 

Anyway, I’ve been out in Zim for a few weeks now, and am enjoying getting the project up and running again at full capacity.  We have our new vehicle - which is currently being kitted out for the bush with bull bars, a long range fuel tank and a safari seat - and a motorbike which our scouts use for looking for spoor on the roads (saves a lot of fuel).   

Rueben and Misheck on the project motorbike

The most exciting news is that a couple of days before I came up to Harare to get the work done on the car, we found our first wild dog den for this year!  We suspect it belongs to a pack we call the Jacana pack but we’ll have to get a better look at some of the dogs to confirm that.  The pups are still too young to be out at the moment, but hopefully in a couple of weeks I’ll be able to show you some pictures of the puppies.  Wild dogs have an average litter size of about 10 pups, so the dens can get quite busy! 

The time in Harare waiting for the car is going ok - I managed to find some diesel coupons (which was a relief, otherwise I’d be stuck in Harare for ever more…), get our radios programmed, pick up some uniforms for our scouts and collect our dart gun. Oh, and get hold of some money and groceries, which is always useful.  Otherwise it’s just a case of catching up on the never-ending paperwork - at least being car-less in Harare makes me do it! 

Anyhow, I’ll leave this blog here for today, because I want to check it all posts properly before getting too carried away.  I’ll try and keep updates fairly regular from now on, so keep reading…the denning season is here now and it’s such an exciting time for the project.

Cheers for now,

Rosemary 

2 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: May 09 2008 | By: admin

Hoe gaan dit, mense,

Hmmm. In spite of my not being in Zimbabwe and not having much previous experience with wild dogs to draw on, it appears I am still the person to write the blogs.
So, if you want to read anything about wild dogs I suggest you look at another blog now.

If you’re interested in long and tedious stories about shopping for tyres, inverters, kitchenware and vehicle accessories, then this is the page for you! Any personal details concerning me and my current situation are classified.

After two weeks in South Africa I have managed to buy or order almost everything that was on our project list, with varying degrees of accuracy. The most important thing is that we’ve now got new, bigger and stronger tyres. As much as I liked starting the day changing a flat tyre, I’m hoping it won’t happen again for a long time.
I was going to use the webcam on my laptop (my camera is in Zim) to take a picture of the new tyres on the vehicle and then I realised they look exactly the same as the old ones, which made the whole exercise a bit pointless.

I’m staying in Pretoria and so enjoying the availability and choice of items, currency that doesn’t devalue in your pocket, constant electricity and water supply and a fairly up-to-date cinema. Even the inevitable human contact is bearable, although thankfully limited by my being an Engelsman in a mainly Afrikaner city. I don’t know, you kill 20,000 of their women and children in concentration camps and they still bear a grudge. Come on guys, if you can’t take a joke, you shouldn’t be in Africa.

Well, that’s the blue touchpaper lit, so I’ll retire now. More exciting adventures soon.

Bly lekker,

Mike

5 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: May 05 2008 | By: admin

Howzit guys,

Sorry for the huge delay in the wild dog updates. However, I still can’t provide you with any new dog info.

This is due to the fact that I have had my residency cancelled by Zimbabwe immigration and so am now in South Africa trying to sort out visas, etc.

While I’m stuck in South Africa though, I’m spending your generous donations on equipment for the car and other bits and pieces that it is either impossible, or too expensive to buy in Zim. Thanks particularly to Nancy A and the anonymous donors that have recently contributed to the project. Your money is being put to good use.

Sarai zvakanaka,

Mike

4 responses so far