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.