Cheetah Energetics Study

Saturday I was on cheetah watch in the morning, this was the day they were to be released from the boma. We, the volunteers and myself, arrived to find them lying relaxed in the sun trying to get some warmth. After a while they got up and started walking lapse around the perimeter of the boma. I could tell they were feeling pent up and were not happy to be in there. Their patrol turned in to pacing back and forth and each time they walked past us they would give a low warning growl.

Soon Kobus, the reserve manager, showed up with a dead impala and it was time to release the cheetah. They dropped the impala outside the boma and the cheetah ran out and just dragged it back in so they had to go back in take the impala off the cheetah and try again. Not an easy task to take food from a hungry cheetah. Jabu and Djuma growled and charged at each attempt to remove the impala but eventually we got it away. We dropped it outside the boma again and as they came out to grab it we shut the gate. They tried to pull it back in but when they hit the fence they dragged it to another shady spot and began to feast. We sat for the rest of the morning as they tore into the impala.

Alex came to take over the afternoon watch and as we were driving back to base we saw two female leopards crossing the road in front of us. A perfect ending to a very eventful morning.

Cheetah Darting

Another amazing opportunity has arrived at GVI. We have been asked to carry out a study on the energy expenditure of the cheetahs on our reserve. It sounds so scientific and in fact it is but for us it basically means walking with the two cheetah boys, Jabu and Djuma, from sunrise to sunset, recording their behaviour and collecting urine and scat samples.

Tuesday we darted the cheetah to inject them with something called "heavy water", at this time they were also put an implant in them for tracking and removed Jabu's collar replacing it with a temporary one for the study. We were originally told we would not be their for the surgery but then in the morning we were allowed to come and watch. It was very much like when we darted Zero, our male lion, helping to roll the cheetah, Jabu, over and making sure his paws didn't get in the way. The surgery itself only took about a half hour. I got to hold Jabu's head while they lifted him from the table and laid him in the shade getting a bit of Cheetah drool on my hand in the process. Alex then took first watch over them while they were in the boma. Not much happened after that as they were still sleeping from the drugs but I look forward to my first walk with them.

This is why I get out of bed!

It had been storming all night and was slightly drizzling when my alarm woke me at 5:00am. “Do I really want to get up and go on drive?” I asked myself but the answer had to be yes. I couldn’t turn down a chance to sit in the back of the vehicle where the vantage point is higher and I am able to take better photos. Especially since Ouma, one of our rhino gave birth to a calf three weeks ago, a leopard with four cubs has been seen and most recently Ketsweri’s, our collared cheetah, has finally come out of her den with five little cubs. Baby cheetah was at the top of my list.

So out of bed I crawled, made sure I had a fully battery in my camera and climbed onto the back of the truck. The morning started out slowly and cold. Luckily the rain stopped but the sky was cloudy. We were having no luck finding the cheetah boys so attempted Ketsweri instead. We realized we were getting closer to her and as we turned the corner there she was right in the middle of the road with 5 fuzzy bundles jumping and playing all around her. As soon as it sunk in what I was seeing I let out a squeal, very similar to the noise I made upon seeing wild dog for the first time, Sarah and Joni I’m sure remember the sound. I was so excited I could hardly remember to take photos but luckily I managed a few. Ketsweri was much more relaxed them I expected her to be and the cubs played in the road for about five minuets before heading off deep into the bush and out of sight. Not a long sighting but more than made up for not being able to sleep in.

Lion vs Rhino

Saw a stand off occur between a young male lion and a female rhino with her calf yesterday. The rhino’s were sleeping in a nice shady spot under a tree and the lions were about ten meters away basking in the sun in some long grass. Both animals did not seem bothered by the others presence but eventually the lions curiosity, or maybe it was hunger, got the better of him and he wandered tentatively over to the rhinos. I was not sure if he was planning on trying to eat one or if he just wanted to check them out but the rhinos quickly got to their feet and grunted at him until he ran back to his patch of grass in the sun. The rhinos laid back down and went to sleep but you could see their ears were still alert for any more sound from the lions. I sat with them for an hour but nothing more occurred. Rhino’s 1: lions 0

Hyena Focus Part 2

After much discussion it was decided that the best course of action for the injured hyena was to put it down. Unfortunately the cost of darting it to remove the snare is too high and leaving it is just not an option. Again we had to attract the hyenas but this time to put the snared one down. Another donkey was brought in and unloaded. Helen and Laura took the first watch and about an hour in it started pouring rain. The focus was called off and we postponed it to another night. Helen and Laura had to load it back on the vehicle in the pouring rain and we had to store it at base until the rain stopped. Fortunately the rain stopped by morning and the focus was set again for that night.

That afternoon Kaggie, Helen and I took the carcass back to the location to unload. As we dropped it onto the ground Kaggie got splashed by some of the donkey guts and they went right into her mouth. YUCK!

Kaggie and I were scheduled for the 1 to 4 am shift. When we arrived there was no activity but around 2:00 the first of the hyenas showed up. This time only three arrived even less then Wednesday night. There was no sign of the snared hyena so we sat and watched as they tore into the donkey. They seemed less skittish and we watched as the fended off their food from the jackals that had come to scavenge. By 3:30 the three hyenas ate as much as they could and then dragged the remains away and at four only the jackals remained to scavenge and remaining meat. Since the injured one was not see we have to do another focus and we will keep doing so until he is.

Hyena Focus

Since the poaching incident the reserve manager, Kobus, has been worried about the number of hyena on the reserve, as we don’t see them very often. Therefore he has asked us (GVI) to do hyena focus. This means counting how many we have and trying to make ID’s for them. The quickest way to go about this is to bring a dead carcass into the area where they are suspected to be and do all night shifts to watch as they come feed.
The first carcass, a donkey, was brought Wednesday night. We did shifts of three hours each and call all staff when the hyena showed up to help in identifying them. My shift was 2 am to 5 am. When I arrived one hyena was feeding but the arrival of my vehicle scared her away. We sat and waited but only a side-striped jackal showed up. Finally, after an hour the first hyena reappeared and soon the while clan showed up. To our surprise there were only five of them as opposed to the last time we saw the whole clan there were at least 9 maybe 10. They hyena seemed very skittish constantly stopping to smell the air and running away at the slightest sound or unknown scent. We thought it must have been because the lions were seen in the area just a few days ago. It was at this time we noticed a snare around the neck of one of the younger hyenas. The snare looked very bad but the hyena, who probably chewed himself free, seemed to be coping with it quite well. Maybe it was the loss of so many of their clan members to snares that made them so uneasy.

Poachers

Last week Kaggie and I returned from drive to find our gate wide open. Shocked by this we wondered if we never locked it properly when we left in the morning but realizing that we must have shut it behind us we let Kobus, the base manager, know and soon the locks were changed. A few days later one of the guides on the reserve found a Kudu that had been caught in a snare. Upon hearing this Alex and Andreas rushed out the door and the hunt for poachers and their snares began.
When I hear of poachers I always think of Elephants being slaughtered for Ivory and rhino’s for their horn but there is also a lot of poaching done by people for other animals for their meat. This is what the poachers were looking for.
A few hours later Alex and Andreas returned the poacher’s camp had been found and the poachers were seen but they managed to escape through a hole they had made in the fence. Stupidly they left their ID behind in the camp so we sent it to the police to handle. Since this incident 80 snares have been found and thirty snared animals had to be shot including giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, kudu and impala. We don’t even think we got all of the snares but hopefully there are not many left and we will find them before we loose any more animals.