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.