Another Outstanding 2 Weeks – 22nd Nov 2011

Spotted Hyena

Its been a wild and crazy couple of weeks!  Our volunteers were here for just a little over 2 weeks and it all started fairly slow.  Having been delayed due to Quantas strikes, they arrived on the Thursday instead of a Monday and were thrust straight into it with lion tracking on Friday morning!  Although the lions were playing hard to get that day and we didn’t manage to get a visual, despite being very close, the thrill of the almost is just as good.  The following week we were busy with some more hands on work.  This involved a couple of new projects such as pit fall traps for catching insects and small bugs, setting up the camera trap under a tree that had been used by rhino as a rubbing post, more lion tracking and some elephant stake outs.  But then things really started to take off, on our second lion tracking attempt we managed an awesome sighting of the female and her 2 cubs and then on the way back to camp, 2 male cheetah on the open plains, a very rare sight indeed! After a weekend spent in the north of Kruger and seeing animals on mass the volunteers were back for Monday and another week on the reserve.  We caught sight of a breeding herd of elephants at a nearby waterhole followed closely by a spotted hyena taking an early evening dip to cool down after the hot summer’s day.  As if things could not get any better that week we were graced by a huge white rhino under the very tree we had placed the camera trap and unusually it didn’t disappear straight away!  We managed a good 30mins of taking photo after photo, maybe 200 between us.  So the week concluded with a birthday celebration and braai then back to the airport, 2 weeks is just not long enough and I agree.  Thanks guys for your hard work and safe travels until we see you next year.

Dave Pugh – Project Director

Recent Amazing Events – 24th Sept 2011

 

The Re-collaring of Pam; the Matriach of a large breeding herd.

Its been a while since my last update, we have been so busy here and the volunteers have been involved in some amazing work both on and off the reserve. It began early this month with a call from a neighbour to assist with a leopard that had been caught on a local farm. Myself and the volunteers headed out to assist with the transfer and release on to a local carnivore friendly reserve. It was a sight to behold, the leopard came storming out of the cage, with a quick snarl and charge before disappearing into the bush and freedom once more. We have been busy setting up the camera trap in order to capture pictures of the elusive rhino. Although we have had some success the photos are so far not good enough to get conclusive Id’s, we will keep trying! Last week was the big one though – to dart and re-collar an elephant on the reserve, this is part of a big elephant management plan that we are helping with. It was an amazing day and possibly a once in a life time experience for everyone involved – the helicopter ride was pretty good as well!

Dave Pugh – GWC Volunteers Project Director

Coming Up Next Month – 16th August 2011

Next month GWC volunteers will be involved in some very exciting projects.  VLNR’s management team are planning to replace one of the GPS Collars on an elephant in the reserve.  Pam, who is the matriarch of the largest breeding herd in the reserve, has had a collar on for the past few years.  However the battery has recently run out and the collar is no longer working.  GWC and our volunteers have been asked to assist with this huge and difficult task of changing her collar.  First we will need to locate Pam, not so easy in nearly 100000 acres, then using a helicopter and a vet, Pam will need to be tranquilised so they can replace the old collar with a new GPS collar.  A ground crew will have to locate her as soon as possible to ensure she doesn’t harm herself and to keep the rest of the herd at a safe distance while the collar is replaced. Its a huge operation and Galagos Wildife Conservation Volunteers are very lucky to be involved in this.  In all my years in Africa I’ve never experienced anything like this and I cant wait to be involved alongside the VLNR team and the GWC volunteers.

Magnificent Bull Elephant at Sunset

DNA Sampling with Biopsy Darts – 02nd Aug 2011

The team hard at work in the field preparing the biopsy dart

Last week I spent four happy days biopsy darting lions on VLNR with Galagos Wildlife Conservation as my helpers. I am a doctoral student under the supervision of Dr Paul Funston at Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria and a big part of my project is looking at the genetics of isolated populations of lions on small reserves in South Africa, hence the biopsy darting to collect tissue samples from which the DNA can be extracted.

The lions on VLNR are part of a large population of lions in the Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conservation Area and little is known about their genetic origins so not only will the info from these samples help with the genetic management of theVLNR’s lions, but it will also help to determine which, if any, of the large populations of lions these ones are most closely related to.

Biopsy darting is simple, in theory. Step 1. Find the lion. Step 2. Fire a biopsy dart at the lion using a traditional dart gun. Step 3. Retrieve the dart (unlike darts that are designed to deliver a drug, the biopsy dart is not barbed and so falls out almost immediately, with a small tissue sample inside the hollow needle). Step 4. Transfer the sample from the needle into a tube with a buffer solution. Repeat as necessary for each lion.

Step 1. Finding the lion – As anyone who has spent any time on VLNR will tell you, this step can be very difficult and this time was no exception. With 34 000 hectares of reserve to hide in, even radio-collared lions can be hard to find and the lions must have known I was coming as Thika (lioness) and her two 18 month old cubs were hiding in the extreme south-east corner of the reserve the entire time I was there. However, she didn’t completely elude us and eventually, after many hours of driving both on and off road by Dave and exceptional radio-tracking by Wendy, we managed to locate her, not once, not twice, but three times.

Step 2. Hitting the target – Again, sounds easy, and it is, if the target is a cardboard box with a target drawn on it. Not quite the same with a live, moving lion. Once again, perseverance paid off and there were only a few misses due to unexpected movements of the lions and one perfect hit that for some reason didn’t result in a sample.

Step 3. Retrieving the dart – Probably the hardest part, especially as Thika and her cubs seemed to have acquired a taste for the darts. They managed to chew up two of the darts (not the needles thank goodness as one of them had a sample from Thika in it) before we were able to retrieve them. Some careful manoeuvring of the vehicle and a close lookout by those not doing the retrieving were essential to keep us all safe.

Step 4. Transferring the sample – This part was easy, although my hands were shaking from the adrenaline of successfully firing the darts!

Overall, a successful trip to the bush. Thanks to Dave and everyone at Galagos for your help – I couldn’t have got the samples without you – I hope you all enjoyed the experience!

Susan Miller – PhD Student, Pretoria

Caught on Camera – 13th July 2011

GWC Volunteers recently captured images of a brown hyena on the reserve.  Little is known about this nocturnal and elusive carnivore.  A few studies have been done and in particular on the skeleton coast inNamibia.  The brown hyena’s coat is long and shaggy, particularly on the tail and back. The general fur color is dark brown, while the head is gray, the upper body tawny and the legs grey with dark horizontal stripes. Erectile hairs cover the neck and back. Brown hyenas have powerful jaws and can easily crack bones, though this ability deteriorates with age as their teeth gradually wear. The skulls of brown hyenas are larger than those of the more northern striped hyenas, and their dentition is more robust, indicating less generalised dietary adaptations.  Brown hyenas have social hierarchy like wolves, with an alpha male and alpha female. They are social animals that may live in clans consisting of one adult of each gender and associated young, though there are reports of clans composed of four males and six females. It is thought that in the latter situation, there is at least one dominant male. Brown hyenas maintain a stable clan hierarchy through ritualized aggressive displays and mock fights. They typically forage alone, and do not maintain a territory, instead using common hunting paths.  Brown Hyena studies are currently being conducted on the reserve and we hope learn and see more of this amazing animal.

Dave Pugh – GWC Volunteers Project Director

Brown Hyena captured on a camera trap

A Month of rare sightings (04th July 2011)

A Young Leopard

June was month unlike any other I’ve experienced in the African bush.  It began at the beginning of the month when we stumbled across 2 male Cheetah early one morning.  Although they are naturally occuring in the area, seeing 1 or in this case 2 is very special.  But this was only the beginning of what was to be “one of those months”! 

A couple of weeks later, driving through the reserve in the heat of the day and out of no where, a very elusive animal just seemed to appear on the road meters in front of the car.  It was a big male leopard and he seemed almost as shocked to see us as we were to see him. A desperate effort to photograph an animal rarely seen ensued but to no avail as he slipped into a ditch and as if by magic, disappeared. At this point I thought it had been a pretty good month! However, it was to continue a few nights later…….

Again, driving back to the GWC bush camp, the sun was well set and night had decended upon us.  A shadow moved up ahead in the beam of the headlights.  Not knowing what it was we moved slowly forward, turned the corner in the road to be confronted by a brown hyaena!  An animal that stalks the bush only by night and very little is known about.  My excitment was not containable, it was my first ever sighting of this mysterious animal and as hyaena’s are known to be, this one was very curious. Not only did it not run away, it actually came towards us for a closer look.  Clearly identifiable for future ecounters by the lack of his left ear! 

I wonder what excitment July will bring us – the best thing about living here is you just never know what each day will bring.

Upcoming in July – GWC volunteers will be assisting a PHD student from the University of Pretoria to do Biopsy dartings on some the lions in the reserve. This involves tracking specific lions and using a dart to take a small sample of DNA from the lion   She is working on a very important project to create a genetic map for lions in South Africa.  Its going to be an exciting month ahead for all volunteers here.

Dave Pugh – GWC Project Director