Zimbabwe Wild Dogs

Category: Other wildlife, Random, Wild Dogs, zimbabwe | Date: Dec 18 2008 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi folks,

Sorry for keeping you all in suspense over the fate of the baby warthog…!  Fortunately, this story is one that has a happy ending, so keep reading.

This is a photo showing ‘Squeaker’ when we first found him… You can see from the first picture how hard he was to spot…

This closer-up photo shows just how stuck and muddy the little fellow was.

I managed to wade into the mud (very nearly getting stuck myself!) and pull him out, and Misheck and I washed the worst of the mud off with some fresh water we had in the car.  Unfortunately his back legs didn’t seem to work at all, but otherwise he seemed to have quite a fighting spirit. 

Having absolutely no idea how to raise a baby warthog, I took him over to some friends who very kindly helped me get some rehydration fluids down him, and then provided me with some powdered baby milk.  I took him home and put him in a dark, cushioned box with a couple of sarongs for him to ’burrow’ into.  And then fed him with baby milk by pipette once every few hours…. 

The next day I took him to another ranch in the conservancy, to a very kind lady who has a great deal of expereince raising orphaned animals of every kind.  Despite my best attempts at physio (!) his back legs still were not working and he was really very weak. I have to admit that I didn’t hold out too much hope for him, but if anyone could pull him through it would be Anne.  Anne immediately took him under her wing and before I had even finished explaining his presence, she had listened to his chest, daignosed pneumonia and rushed off and fetched antibiotics, aspirin and a proper bottle of milk for him. 

He was touch and go for a while, but now seems to be improving steadily and getting around just fine, despite his dis-functional back legs. I’ll give you an update on him from time to time, but I’m sure he will now enjoy a good life in Anne’s tender care (with other baby warthogs and an orphaned bushbuck for company!).  

Squeaker dozing in the shade

Back soon,

Rosemary

Tags: conservation, warthog, Wild Dogs, zimbabwe

5 responses so far

Category: Wild Dogs, zimbabwe | Date: Dec 13 2008 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi guys,

Sorry to report that we still haven’t succeeded in removing the snare from that pup.  I had everything organised, and Graham (who helps do the darting) had come up the night before.  Misheck found a signal from the dogs at around 6:00 a.m. and we were all set to go.  Just as I arrived to collect Graham though, we heard a report over the radio that a rhino had been poached in the south of the conservancy.  Graham is one of the key players in the anti-rhino poaching efforts and so unfortunately had to rush off to deal with that instead.  I went out anyway to see the dogs and thought it might be possible to do something to help the pup despite Graham’s absence, but unfortunately we couldnt get within range.  We did however see the pup quite well at one stage and he is actually still looking okay - not too skinny and not really struggling to keep up so we may still have a chance with him. 

On a more positive note, while I was waiting by a waterhole in the hope that the dogs would come back to drink and we could have a go at the pup, Misheck spotted a tiny baby warthog stuck in the mud.  I’ll do another post on that once I’ve had a chance to download some of the pics, but we managed to pull him out and are still doing what we can to save him.  So, while we failed on the pup, we at least may have save a baby warthog instead!

Back soon,

Rosemary

Tags: rhino poaching, snaring, warthog, Wild Dogs, zimbabwe

One response so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Dec 08 2008 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi guys,

Just wanted to send a quick project update.  Unfortunately Roy has left the project now - he’s gone to be a guide in South Africa, so it’s back to being just me for a while.  Sp forgive the infrequent posts from now on: I don’t have too much time on the internet.

Anyhow, just to update you on things as they are.  The newly collared male from the Mapari pack is doing well - we’ve located the pack several times since the collaring, using his collar and all is well.  They seemed to have completely moved from their old core home range to an area quite close to where I live, which is very convenient!  

We are going to try again with the snare removal of the pup on Wednesday. I have been spending quite a lot of the intervening time trying to habituate the dogs to the vehicle, in the hope that we can get close enough to dart, but they have been remarkably difficult to even find (I think the collar battery is going flat) and then often they are in a place inaccessible by vehicle.  Anyway, we’ll keep working on that today and tomorrow and then try to dart again on Wednesday.  Fingers crossed we succeed this time.  And thanks again to those of you who donated money to help us do this.  Every little bit helps and makes continued efforts possible. 

The Bedford pack is doing well - this pack is frequently sighted at water pans and is still about 30 individuals although reprts on the exact number have varied.  I’ll be going down to check up on them on Thursday or Friday hopefully.  The Mavericks pack which live in the south of the conservancy has sadly lost one member and is now down to 3 dogs. 

Mina’s pack (the Nyarushanga pack) we get internmittent reports of.  Unfortunately we didn’t manage to collar this pack before they left the den, so are unable to check up on them regularly.  But from the occasional report, it seems they are doing fine and still have all their pups.

It’s horribly hot here at the moment, and reasonably humid too, but there doesn’t seem to be much sign of rain.  I hope it comes soon - it really is very dry here!

Back soon,

Rosemary 

Tags: collars, packs, snares, Wild Dogs, zimbabwe

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Category: Wild Dogs, zimbabwe | Date: Dec 05 2008 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Dear friends,

Third time lucky! After 3 days’ worth of attempts, we were finally successful, yesterday, in installing a collar on a member of the Mapari Pack, a male Wild Dog called Darkie. Since Sandy’s sad death by snaring just over a month ago, we have had very little information about the Mapari Pack, as there has been no radio-collared individual in the pack to help us locate and study them.

Around 1^st December, a pack of Wild Dogs was spotted quite close to our research base. They were resting in the shade by a water-hole in the heat of the day, and stayed there long enough for us to receive the message and reach that location. It turned out to be the Mapari Pack, travelling unusually far south, and that and subsequent sightings have been the best views we have had of the pack since the denning season, so we have in the last couple of days been able to build up a database of individual ID photographs for all the pups as well as the adults. It turns out that currently the Mapari Pack comprises a fascinating mixture of adults originating from the Star Pack, ‘Leon’s’ Pack, and the Sango Six-Pack within the last 6 months. This provides us with fascinating information about the mobility of Wild Dogs.

We were blessed to receive the assistance of the Tikki Hywood Trust who were generous enough to volunteer their time to help us with the darting when one of their licensed team members (Ellen Connelly) was down in the conservancy.  Without their generous donation of time and expertise, this darting would have been a lot harder to organise and we may have missed this valuable opportunity.  Trying to find un-collared packs in not easy!!

The Mapari Pack have been quite relaxed around our vehicle as we’ve approached them for darting attempts the last couple of days. We were able to get within the 25 metre darting range and shoot a dart at Darkie, who was in an appropriate position. He moved as soon as he heard the dart gun’s ‘pop!’ and so the dart hit him in the tail rather than the muscle of the back leg. However, somewhat to our surprise, he was staggering a few moments later and the immobilisation drugs soon took full effect, allowing us to install his collar, take hair and tissue and blood samples, and weigh and measure his body and teeth, all the while keeping his eyes covered with a blindfold and spraying him with cool water to prevent overheating.The rest of the pack moved off slowly as we approached the immobilized Darkie:

It was a busy scene with everyone helping as we did what was needed:

When he shook his head to shake off the water-droplets, we knew he was coming round from the ketamine—and in moments he had leapt up and run away, a very fast recovery. For a couple of minutes he was disoriented and looked dizzy, but he was soon able to move in a straight line and he moved around the water-hole looking for the rest of his pack. We left him lying in the shade near where the pack were when we found them.  He was reunited with the rest of his pack in a short time, as we returned to check on the pack a couple of hours later and found them all lying together, with Darkie, in the shade of a big baobab.

This morning Darkie was behaving normally, and with the aid of his new radio-collar, we were able to locate the Mapari Pack and watch him and the others playing and resting in the Msaize River.

Back soon,

Roy & Rosemary

Tags: collaring, conservation, darting, immobilisation, Wild Dogs, zimbabwe

5 responses so far