Zimbabwe Wild Dogs

Category: Random | Date: Nov 16 2008 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi guys,

It’s not always action here at the Lowveld Wild Dog Project in Zimbabwe. The last few days have been a quiet period with Rosemary and Rueben away; we haven’t seen or found sightings of the Wild Dogs for a few days, and have spent time on ‘housekeeping’ activities such as bicycle and motorbike maintenance—transport in the bush creates heavy wear on vehicles of all kinds and repairs are often needed, despite lack of parts, so we often have to improvise.

Here’s how we pump fuel for a fieldwork trip, using a gravity (siphon) pump.

The elephants were becoming such a problem on the ranch where we stay that we had to start doing night patrols and firing warning shots to scare them off. Interestingly, on the night that we started, the elephants were suddenly nowhere to be seen or heard, and haven’t been around since. Coincidence, or did they (somehow) get the message?

The rains have come here, and there have been a couple of gorgeous torrential storms on the ranch which wipe everything clean and re-shape the sand in the roads. It seems the storms do something to the sunlight, which looks clearer and crisper afterwards.

The impala must be nearing their birthing season (usually at the start of December, when the rains have come) because I observed some of the rams starting their ‘false rut’ behaviour, when the hormones from pregnant females stimulate some mating behaviour, although the main breeding season for impala is in June-July. The males were roaring ferociously, sounding frighteningly like lions, and chasing females around.

Having said that, as I lay in bed the other night, I did actually hear lions roaring outside.

Till later,

Roy

Tags: elephants, impala, Wild Dogs, zimbabwe