Hi folks, Good news! We found another den site yesterday… We suspect it may be for the Ingwe pack: a fairly small pack that has been seen in that area before, although it is not their usual range. I will be going there this afternoon to see if I can see the dogs and/or pups and get some photographs to try and identify the pack for certain. I’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile, here is a picture of the Jacana pups… There is no good reason I should stick this photo in here, but I wanted to anyway, because I feel so privileged to have had such amazing sightings of such wonderful animals that I had to share it with you. Three inquisitive pups! The photo was taken early this morning, when I was at their den site trying to get a collar onto one of the adults. We already have a GPS collar on that pack, but those collars have a very poor signal range so we try to pair them with a VHF collar which has much greater range. The adults weren’t co-operating however, and were staying just out of range of the dart gun and/or just behind bushes. Frustrating, but we have tried unsuccessfully twice now, so as per my generally optimistic personality, I’m expecting to be third time lucky! Anyway, the misbehaviour of the adults was more than compensated for by these curious and bold little pups who spent a long time checking out the car and playing all around us. There are still 14, so no pup mortality so far. Rosemary xx
Hi folks, Just a very quick post today to illustrate the crazy money situation we are now having to deal with here: Zimbabwe notes - the 10 million note (the red one 6 from the left) was first out in April. The highest note out at the moment, the $50 billion note, is worth about 1US$ on the black market and a lot less than that at the bank rate. A household mop (yes, a normal kitchen mop) now costs one point three trillion dollars - at the bank rate, that’s about US$75! But no point in worry about the prices of things anyway - since Germany have stopped supplying the paper to print the bank notes, there is no cash anyway… Even if there was something more exciting than a mop for sale - which there isnt. Just a little glimpse into life in Zimbabwe… Back soon with a wild dog update, Rosemary
Hi folks, I’m pleased to be able to report that yesterday and today I saw the pups of the Maera pack for the first time. Curiously, it seems that there are only 4 puppies which is a very small litter size, but all appeared fit and healthy. I’ve posted a picture of them below with one of our collared males who is the alpha male of the pack and was regurgitating to the pups when I took this photo. Having said there were only 4 pups - I saw something very interesting yesterday. All those readers that know about wild dogs - I’d be keen to hear your interpreation of this… I was sitting (in the car) near the adult dogs near the den. It was the middle of the day so the dogs were pretty lazy and not doing a lot. And no pups were out when I arrived. The Alpha female and male were resting somewhere near the den and then came to lie under a tree quite close to my car. Then suddenly, for no reason apparent to me, they both jumped up and ran towards the den. When I found the Alpha female in the binos, she was suckling the 4 pups. Then the pups disappeared back into the den and the alpha female went into another hole of the den site and came out with what looked like a TINY pup in her mouth. She then appeared to kill (and partly eat) that pup and then went back to the den and came out with another TINY one. (The four pups I’d seen her with earlier were much bigger – about 6 weeks old probably). The second tiny one was squeaking away and I couldn’t see what she did with it because the vegetation was too thick. Now how’s that for interesting behaviour? Now - I know there are two lactating females in that pack – the alpha female and one other female, and clearly these were two separate litters that I saw because of the size difference. So either the alpha female had decided to kill the other female’s pups (that has been known to happen apparently) – but why do it then in the middle of the day, and where was the other mum?? OR that first pup was dead and she was taking it out of the den (may as well eat it hey?!) and then moving the other one?? I’m not sure what was actually going on, and unfortunately the vegetation impeded my view quite a bit. But nonetheless, it was fascinating to watch, and I’d be keen to hear if any other wild dog people have seen something similar. I went back to the den early this morning, and saw just the 4 bigger pups and the alpha pair, until the rest came back from hunting… Back soon, Rosemary
Hi all, This isn’t going to be the most exciting post ever, as I’ve been doing admin for the past few days (urrrgh) but I just wanted to respond to a query in the comments from the last post… The fact that we haven’t found the dens doesn’t necessarily mean the dogs aren’t denning. These are incredibly elusive animals, with HUGE home ranges (recorded up to 1200km2), which makes them pretty tough to find. Although they tend to use much smaller home ranges when they are denning, this means they leave fewer tracks on the roads, making it hard to find spoor. Also, many packs seem to den in very dense, hard-to-access areas. Gratuitous picture of wild dog spoor to make this post more interesting
However, we do think that two packs are probably not denning this year, due to the fact that we have managed to locate them fairly frequently (one pack even has a VHF collar), usually during the middle of the day, and they are always in different places. When the dogs are denning, they usually rest up at the dens in the middle of the day, i.e. always in the same place… It’s also very obvious when the alpha females are pregnant or lactating and we are pretty sure that for these two packs, they are not either. Possible reasons for this were mentioned in a previous blog: for one pack the alpha male was killed and no males unrelated to the alpha female have joined the pack. For the other, it is possible that the alpha female was killed. Alternatively this latter pack may just be denning late – although May-August is peak denning season, nature has a habit of proving exceptions to every rule, and maybe this pack will start denning soon. As for the others – they probably are denning and I’m sure we’ll find the dens soon. (How’s that for optimism?). Back in a couple of days with more news/general waffle, Rosemary
Hello all, This is going to be a fairly short post I’m afraid (although you may be relieved to hear that after the last one!) as there is not much new to report. The dogs are still being very elusive, although we find their spoor regularly. Unfortuately we cant always follow up on sightings as it is the hunting season here at the moment, and if there are hunters in the area where the dogs are, we cant go in to look for them in case we disturb the hunt. Frustrating but understandable! Our two newly collared dogs are doing well:
The picture at the top is the male from the Maera pack and the bottom picture is the Jacana pack female… These pictures also give you a good idea of how we individually identify wild dogs - look at the markings on each dog (especially the white patches). They are different on every individual, so can be used to tell who is who. The problem is matching the left hand side views with the right hand side views to get an identification database going! We are hoping to collar another pack in the south in the next week or so; I’ll keep you posted. Rosemary
Hello, I’m going to have to be a bit careful what I write here for obvious reasons, but since today is the day if the run-off elections here in Zimbabwe, I just wanted to reassure you that my scouts and I are doing fine, and to let you know a little about what is going on where I am. The ranch I live on has its own polling station in the compound where I live (all the ranches in the conservancy have their own polling stations), and voting has been going on very quietly all morning. I think the intimidation in the run up to today has been sufficient to avoid the need for any further violence today… I would hardly know there was an election going on actually, if it wasn’t for the rather bored looking policeman sitting outside the polling station, who waves at me with his clenched fist whenever I walk past! Some friends have arrived from Harare to spend this election period down in the bush here, and they tell me the exchange rate is now about 50 billion Zim$ to 1US$, forecast to be 100 billion by next week. That means that next week, US$10 will be worth one trillion Zimbabwe dollars - How crazy is that?! Imagine writing a cheque for (for example) thirty seven trillion, seven hundred and sixty eight billion, four hundred and twenty three million, one hundred and eighty two thousand, eight hundred and ninety six dollars… And that would be about US$300 only. It was bad enough writing the cheques when it was just billions, but this is getting absurd now. Luckily, they are making the cheque books extra long and the putting extra lines to write on now…seriously… And I am told they have just bought out a 50 trillion dollar note. Can it get any more stupid? The good news in that when I run out of loo roll, I can use all those 10 million dollar notes that I still have! Anyway, news from the wild dogs: unfortunately we have not yet located any more dens. We know that one pack is not denning this year because the alpha male was killed in a snare last year, and the only other male in the pack is the alpha female’s son. Sadly that pack is also down to only 4 adult dogs now, because they are surrounded by resettled farmers and the snaring is pretty bad in their home range area. We also suspect a couple of other packs are not denning – or at least not yet. Being optimistic, I could attribute it to the fact that they are just late denning this year, but being more realistic, it is possible the alpha female has been killed somehow, and they therefore wont den this year at all. Anyhow, we should have about 8 or 9 packs in the conservancy, so we are still out every day following spoor and following up on reports, and we’ll hopefully find at least a couple more dens soon. That’s all from me for now. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that something positive comes out of these elections, and I’ll try to keep you updated about the situation where I am. Bye for now, Rosemary
Hi everyone, Good news! I managed to get two GPS data logger collars onto the wild dogs a couple of days ago. We put one onto an adult male from the Maera pack and one onto an adult female in the Jacana pack. Both collars store the GPS positions of the individuals at certain times – we’ve set ours to record positions at 5:00a.m., 7:00a.m., 9:00a.m., 12:00 noon, 6:00p.m., 8:00p.m. and 1:00a.m. That way we get information about where they rest during the middle of the day and the middle of the night, and where they go hunting. It will be extremely valuable information. Also, the political situation here is a bit worrying at the moment, and if for any reason we have to leave the field at short notice, it will be good to know that those collars are at least collecting some information for us! Picture of the scout team with the immobilised adult female
I was a little concerned about disturbing the pups at one of the dens where we collared the female dog, but just as we finished the collaring, and came back round to the den to check that the newly collared individual had joined the rest of the pack, all the pups were out and playing, and clearly not remotely bothered by us! A wonderful sight – and there are 14 pups now, not just 12… I’m sure they multiply every time I see them! The dogs and pups at the den
Anyway, will be back with more news soon. Bye for now, Rosemary
Hi all, Good news! Last week, I posted a picture of five puppies at one of the dens. Well, we saw that pack again yesterday, and those five pups were actually five of twelve… All twelve were out yesterday, playing around the den site and the adults were nice and relaxed too which made it a great experience. Adults and pups at the den
And for those of you who have been following the pack histories, I’ve managed to get an individual identification on several of the dogs from the pack with the puppies and can confirm that it is the Jacana pack. They are an un-collared pack, so it’s great that we have found their den site so early in the season as it will give me a chance to get a collar onto one of them. I’ve also got some sad news – I found a wild dog carcass last week – a young adult killed by a snare. And our scouts found another dead dog yesterday – probably also due to snaring. Just a reminder of the constant threat these dogs face from human activities… The head of the wild dog killed by a snare
Anyhow, the denning season is a time to be positive and hopefully with all the work we are putting into the conservation of these wild dogs, incidences like this will become more and more infrequent. Back soon, Rosemary
Hi guys, Just a very quick post as I am flat out with field work at the moment . I just wanted to share this picture with you - the first pups we have seen this year!
And the proud mother….
We have found 2 dens now, and one probable one, and hope to get our first collars on next week. And of course see lots more pups. Back with more news soon, Rosemary
Hello all, I’m finally back in the conservancy now. It’s great to be out of the city and back in the bush where, instead of waking to car horns or an alarm clock, we are woken by bird calls (or even in the past leopard calling or lions roaring). The car is looking super-smart now: it has front bull bars and roll bars at the rear of the cab for safety, a seat in the back for the scouts, proper wheel brackets so we can carry two spare tyres, and (most usefully) an extra 110 litre fuel tank! Our newly kitted out vehicle
The extra fuel tank is especially useful on the long drive to and from Harare - we ran out of fuel on the way in last time, despite having a full tank (before this new bigger tank). It’s situations like that - when driving past enless empty, deserted fuel stations with your fuel warning light on - that you really notice the collapse of this country. And speaking of collapse - I did get my hands on a 25 billion dollar bill the other day! I’ve posted a picture of it here. It was worth about US$20 when I got it - now it is worth less than $12…
I only got back to the field late last night, so I havent got much wild dog news to report quite yet. But the scouts have been working hard while I’ve been away and we have plenty of sightings to follow up on. We’ll be putting the collars on in the next month or two, so lots of photos of that coming up… Lastly HUGE thanks to all those who have donated to our project - money goes a long way out here in Zim, and with the support we have recieved so far, we have managed to do an awful lot. Many thanks. Rosemary xx
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