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.

Saving of the Shrew

Had another wonderful night sleep in the mountains and woke up to a foggy morning. The air was so still and the quiet was enveloping us we all felt the need to whisper. By the time we went to check the traps the fog had risen and the day was becoming sunny and warm.
We had caught four mice this time and two shrews and as we brought them back to be measured we noticed one of the shrews and one mouse looked dead. However, when we removed them from the trap we saw that they weren’t quite dead but they were very close. Kaggie explained this could happen because it was so cold. So Kaggie and I wrapped them in our coats, massaged them so the blood would keep flowing and tried to blow warm air on them.
We took them back to the cabins and put them in a container for the rest of the day to keep them warm. When it was time to check the traps in the afternoon the shrew and mouse were much more lively and we released them back to the wild.

Mice and Shrews

Tuesday started out great with the fact that I could sleep in until 6:00am; and that is waking up early for the mountains. Slept amazingly well because of the cool crisp air, I am loving the mountains.

Went and checked the traps and we caught 2 four striped mice and a forest shrew at the grassland sight and nothing at the forest sight. Took the measurements of each animal including weight, body length, tail length, ear size, and foot size. The mice were very calm and relaxed while we took the measurements but the shrew kept trying to bite us and get out of the bag we held him in. Rachel, one of the volunteers, decided she hates shrews because of this but I think they are cute.

After we went to the river for a swim and a picnic. They have a rope swing to swing from so we all took turns jumping in. The water was freezing but once you got used to it it was not too bad just made our hearts stop for a bit. Paul, a volunteer, went the most times trying to do some tricks as he jumped off but mostly he just ended up doing a back or belly flop. I spent most of the time in the water while most of the girls decided they would rather sun tan.

The afternoon we went back to the trap sights and we had caught more four striped mice and again nothing in the forest area. We then went to a big waterfall to take some pictures. Kaggie dropped us off to walk to the waterfall and went to the other side to take photos of us on the waterfall. We somehow missed the path and ended up getting a little lost but we found it in the end.

The evening was spent cooking dinner and more games of cards – mostly “Uno” and “blackjack”.

Photos - Rachel on rope swing & Everyone learning how to measure the animals

Mariepskop

Last week I was able to spend the week as the intern for our Mountain Project in Mariepskop. The mountain project is a side project run by us and each week a group of our volunteers goes up to the mountains to help with small mammal trapping, reptile trapping and butterfly catching. Kaggie who manages the mountain project usually has an intern but for this group she didn’t so each of the staff has been taking turns being her intern up the mountain.

We arrived on Monday afternoon after stopping in Hoedspruit for supplies and lunch. After unpacking Kaggie gave us a demonstration on the traps we would be using and we headed out to our trapping sights to set out the traps for the week. One sight is in the grasslands closer to the bottom of the mountain another is in the forest near the top of the mountain. We are trapping in different areas to see what kind of animals we catch and if the logging that is going on upon the mountain has disturbed them. Once the traps are set we headed back to base for a warm meal and card games around the table.

I must mention the view from base is absolutely gorgeous and the cabins are so quaint I feel like Heidi.

Operation Zero

So far in Africa I have had many amazing experiences but Thursday has topped them all!

I spent the morning holding the paw of our big male lion, Zero, while he was being operated on.
Zero had a collar on that we used for tracking him but the reserve decided that an implant would be more aesthetically pleasing. So Thursday morning Sarah, Joni and I tracked him down and waited until the vet arrived to dart him. Then we drove away as the vet, Beth, and Kobas followed him until the tranquilizer took effect. As soon as he was down Beth, Kobas and the vet got out to load him in their truck. While they were preparing him to be loaded they heard a roar and out of the bushes came 2 sub adult male lions charging at them. Kobas, with pistol in hand, and the vet, who was throwing rocks scared them off while Beth continued preparing Zero for Transport. We were quickly called in to block them off from the lions while they worked. Then we all rolled Zero on a blanket and carried him into the back of the truck. We transported him to a fenced off area in the reserve called a Boma to be operated on. Once there I helped unload him out of the truck, onto a table, tie back his paws and hold them out of the way while the vet and nurses cut a slit in his abdomen to place the implant in. While they were operating he would growl occasionally and lick his lips. There was a point where they were worried he was waking up so they gave him a bit more sedative and back to sleep he went.

All the while I was holding onto his forepaw on one side and Beth his other able to watch the whole process. Joni was put in charge of taking photos for the vet and Sarah switched off with Beth and I holding his paw so we could take photos. The whole procedure took 2 hours and then we carried him off the table and left him asleep in the boma with some water and a dead impala ready for when he wakes up. So far he seems to be doing fine. We hope him a speedy recovery.

More Photos on Facebook

Hyaeni-dae

Last night I spent 2 hours watching the hyena’s gorging themselves on a dead horse. Now, you may think that is sad and disgusting but to be honest it was amazing. The horse belongs to one of the lodges that do horseback safaris in the reserve and it needed to be put down. So unfortunately, they put him down and put his carcass in the bush so the hyenas would have some yummy food. So around 9:30 pm we drove out to where the carcass was and the hyena were already there.

It was very interesting watching how they interacted with one another, such as the matriarch coming in and growling at the other females to back off so she could get her fill. We saw them greet each other by licking each other, we heard them communicate by grumbling noises to warn uncertain scents or sounds, we saw them fight over some of the more tasty parts of the carcass and scent marking, known as "pasting" to mark their territory. As we sat we watched as an unrelenting jackal kept coming in and trying to get some food. We were all rooting for the jackal because a) he is so cute and b) he was so sneaky. The jackal would come near and get some food run off with it and eat it and then come back for more but this time the Hyena would chase him off. He stayed around for the whole 2 hours darting in and around the hyena in hopes of getting even the smallest piece of meat. We also saw a wild cat skirting in and around the area too.

I was surprised to see how nervous they were, they would look up at any noise and run away at the slightest hint of danger, considering how many of them there are and how strong they are. We finally left the Hyena’s at 11:30 and they had eaten about 90% of the carcass but were still going strong.

SCARY ELEPHANTS!

This week Helen was nice enough to give me Friday and Saturday off and then Tuesday and Wednesday. So I decided to rent a car, drive down to Nkambeni, and visit my Bushwise friends KC, Suzie, Ruth, Dario and Chris on the Friday night. It was great to see them again and we spent most of the time talking about Bushwise and updating each other on how our current placements were going. I soon realized that I was so lucky to have come to Karongwe for my placement, where I liked and became great friends with all our volunteers and that having to guide and take tourist out sounded horrible. Yet, I also realized that Suzie and KC were lucky to get to drive around the Krueger everyday and the chances of them seeing different more rare animals, like wild dog, was greater and that was something I was missing out on. So, I decided I would spend Tuesday and Wednesday driving around Krueger and try and see something new.

Three of the volunteers who would not have a chance to go to Krueger before heading home came with. Robin wanted to see rhino; James and I really were hoping for wild dog, and Keith, well he was just happy to see any thing. The day started out great! Ten minutes into the park and we came across a herd of buffalo on the left and a mother elephant and her calf on the right, both very close to the road. We stopped to take pictures but the buffalo moved off into the bushes. I backed up to see them more clearly causing the elephant to become protective of her calf and she started charging us. There we were in this tiny little Hyundai Atos with this angry elephant coming at us. Her head down, ears flapping, looking mighty large and terrifying. Elephants are beautiful animals and incredibly smart and I absolutely love watching them, from a safe distance, but they are also huge, unpredictable and terrifying at the same time especially when charging toward you. All I could do was turn out the window and yell at her to “back off” while clapping loudly and pray that she would, which thankfully, she did. The guys in the car were very impressed with my quick reaction but I sat there pale, with my heart pounding, trying to catch my breath.

About an hour later we saw another elephant. This one was walking along side us but at a distance of at least 150m away when we spotted him. Just after we saw him though he saw us and changed his course to come charging toward our car! Now, I don’t know what it is about this little white car but all I can think is that other people in little white cars have pissed these elephants off and they remember that, because their was absolutely no reason for him to come charging at us. Again, I had to stop the car and shout him off only this time with much more vigor in my voice and this time he came much closer to us before turning and leaving. Again my heart was racing and I told the guys, we are not stopping any more for elephants!

If only I kept to that rule. As the afternoon wore on we stopped and had a brief lunch then came to a lake where other cars where watching 2 big male elephants cooling off. Since the other cars where there I thought this should be OK. Well it was for a while until a female elephant showed up and the 2 males decided to like the cars that were there. The one elephant kept displaying warning signals to the car on our right while the other was coming very close to us on our left. We were trapped between an angry elephant and elephant that could easily become angry as we would have to drive toward it to escape the elephant on our right. Soon the car on our right just sped off and this attacked the one elephants attention to him so we were able to also leave. Safely!

Cats

Some days I go out and it takes hours and hours to track down the animals and then you don’t even get to see them because they are hiding in the long grass or just behind some trees. The only thing telling me that there is a cheetah or lion in the area is the beeps coming from the Telemetry set. Well, today was not one of those days. We, me and the group of volunteers, started out in the usual area and had just t-lemed for the cheetah boys but had only a faint signal in a Northerly direction so we started to head that way when we noticed two jackals on a dead wildebeest on the side of the road. Obviously the jackals did not kill the wildebeest so we sat and waited in hopes that the lions would return to the kill. It was an incredible sight watching the very skittish jackals pick there way through the carcass. Then we here a loud roar and the jackals take off as Zero walks down the road. Sauntering in like he owns the place, such an impressively terrifying look on his face it almost sent shivers down my spine. He reached the wildebeest where he picked it up and hauled it off deep into the bushes to finish eating it in peace. On a side not the jackal came back and stole some bit of stomach that had fallen off when Zero dragged the wildebeest away. We were amazed at how lucky we were to have just come across this scene not only seeing the jackal but then Zero too so we left the sighting on a bit of a high.

As we drove down on down the road still on our way to the Cheetah boys we noticed up a head something that looked like a lion on the side of the road. My first thought was that it was one of the sub adult male lions, that by the way I have not yet seen, but as I looked through my binoculars I came to realize that this massive cat was not a lion at all but a big male Leopard! I quickly grabbed my camera a snapped a few shots before he slinked off into the bushes and then spend down the road in hopes to get a better view but unfortunately no luck. Still a leopard sighting is rare and am always excited at even the briefest of visuals

So thus our drive continued still making our way north to cheetah boys. Because of the major rains lately and all the flooding the rivers are un-crossable so we had to drive out of the reserve on the roads along the fence line. As we are driving along to the next gate to enter in there are the cheetah boys just lying along the fence. Since we were on the other side of the fence we were able to walk up close to them and sit and with them for a while before they got up and moved to the shade of a nearby tree. Thus we saw all the big cats in one drive and never even had to work hard for it.

Stuck!

Our first group of volunteers for the New Year has arrived and we are finally settling into the flow of a very crowded house. With eighteen volunteers and eight staff it makes for a very busy place around here. The volunteers range in age from 18 to 70 with most of them being in their early 20’s and they come from all over the world – Australia, America, the UK and Europe. They are seem very excited to be here and are very helpful.

Last Friday the sky darkened and the heavens opened and it poured and poured here with 120mm of rain in one night. The next morning we were unable to go out on research as it was still raining. By the afternoon we had learned that all of the 4 rivers on Karongwe were extremely high and flowing fast, many of the dams had overflowed creating new rivers and washing away many of the roads. This week as the rains have died down and the hot sun has emerged we find ourselves not able to locate many of the animals. Not because they had escaped or drowned or anything like that but because every time we turn around we get stuck in a new sinkhole or unable to pass a road that has been washed away. I have been stuck 8 times in the past 3 drives.

It is so frustrating yet we have fun digging ourselves out. Yesterday I had all four wheel sunk into the ground and the car completely bottomed out. Andreas came to rescue me and he ended up getting stuck, or should I say drowned, in what he thought was just a puddle but turned into a massive whole that covered the hood of his truck. We were both eventually rescued by one of the other lodges me only to get stuck not even 1 minute later in another sink hole. It is a bit ridiculous but I think the volunteers are secretly enjoying it. There is a competition around on who gets stuck the most. I think I am winning.