Still progressing
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Apr 08 2008 | By: admin
Howzit guys,
Sorry for the late post. We are all still here and all waiting to see what happens with the elections, like most of the country’s population.
Last week we were concentrating on finding a pack of five dogs that were being reported near our new base. It was hazardous following them because the first two times the guys were tracking them, they led them straight into elephant herds with very protective mothers!
We finally found three of them resting at a waterhole and we heard the other two calling nearby. We waited for them to show up but, after an hour, they still hadn’t appeared and our presence was preventing other animals from drinking.
One wildebeest bull was more concerned with the dogs though, as their being there was spooking his herd. He put his head down and advanced towards the dogs who weren’t too happy about this turn of events and scattered. They settled down behind a bush about 75 metres away, but the wildebeest seemed satisfied with this distance. We decided to leave everyone in peace and headed off.
‘What is that animal doing?’
‘Scarper!’
We hope to find the full group of five once we can get started on the dogs again.
The fieldwork team are taking their (much needed) days off this week, so you’ll be hearing from me after then.
Sarai zvakanaka,
Mike
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
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
Hunting dogs
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Feb 24 2008 | By: admin
Howzit everyone, this is Mike here (currently posting under Peter’s name until I can work out how to add myself as an administrator).
We’ve had a very frustrating few days, over two hundred kilometres of driving, hours of tracking and still no sighting of the dogs. Well, for me anyway. The other evening Peter bumped in to what we think is the ‘Jacana’ pack about 200 metres from our house and one of our scouts almost rode his bike into the same bunch the next night. All attempts to find this pack during the day have failed and so too has the search for the only radio-collared pack in the north of the conservancy, the ‘Maera’ pack (the elusive Wild Maera Dogs, or WMDs).
On the plus side, while on one of our fruitless forays into the bush, we were extremely privileged to see a snow white waterbuck cow, which is probably rarer than anything else I’ll see this year.
It was also pleasant to spend an hour of my Sunday morning watching five elephant bulls, without a care in the world, slowly and gracefully demolishing the maize fields of the nearby illegal squatters. Good work lads!
The new vehicle has been put through it’s paces and is going well. So far, it has managed to avoid the inevitable dents, deep scratches, flat tyres and damaged windscreen. All this in spite of my best efforts.
Peter will be away for a few days while he brushes up on his immobilising drugs handling and wildlife capture, in preparation for the darting and collaring we hope to do this denning season. I am also disappearing for a day or four, searching for dogs further north in the conservancy. Hopefully, I’ll return to the blog with stories of success and the pictures to prove it.
Sarai zvakanaka,
Mike
Tags: 1122
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Rosemary Groom is a post-doctoral research scientist with the African Wildlife Conservation Fund -
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