Week 11 - Thanda Camp

This camp is quite posh!  I have my own ‘chalet’ with in-suite bathroom and shower, there is a lodge type area where we have our own cooks and indoor/outdoor lounge – it’s kind of nice not having to cook for my last 2 weeks J.  There are a lot of people here because there are 2 other volunteer groups based out of this park.  This park is different than the others because it is a private game reserve and therefore not managed by the South African government.  An interesting thing in Africa is that in a private reserve (or on privately owned property) the animals are owned by the owner of the property and not the government.  This comes with its pros and cons that I won’t try to get into now, but it makes for interesting conversation with the monitors.  The permanent monitor here is Michelle – super nice girl and has been working on the Thanda reserve for 6 years so she is really knowledgeable about the area and critters.  Michelle went on holiday towards the end of the week, so the relief monitor, Ashley, arrived on Friday evening.  My friend, Angela (with me during my first 2 weeks), is also here with one of the other volunteer groups.  It is really nice to catch up with her again and swap stories since we both have been to each of the other parks.

There is 1 pack of 6 adult wild dogs at this reserve, and the alpha female, Stitch, has recently had 9 puppies – they are the CUTEST!  This pack is no different than the rest of the packs I’ve had the opportunity to monitor – they make monitoring difficult J.  This pack has decided to go out of the park to hunt and have kept the puppies in a fairly remote area of the park where there aren’t many roads.  We also saw on Tuesday afternoon that Stitch was snared around her neck.  We tried to draw her out in the open several times in order to dart her with a tranquilizer and remove the snare, but she was very shy and wary of us.  Luckily, we were finally able to remove the snare on Thursday evening.  Also, during one of our attempts, we were able to collar another of the young females, Thula.  Wild dogs are an endangered species, and there is so much snaring done by illegal poaching at some of the parks, that these packs have to be intensively watched over in order to remove the snare before the animal dies.  Also, as an update from week 10, I found out that the snare around the Mkuze female, Thandifa, was able to be successfully removed the afternoon that I left that park.  I’m very relieved to know that both of these dogs are back running with the pack and eating again.  These dogs are so resilient!

We’ve had quite a bit of rain this week, which has kept us indoors for some of the time, but I did have an opportunity to go on a short bush trek to a bat cave.  We had a good time checking it out and watching the Sundevall’s leaf-nosed bats fly around the cave.  I love being able to walk in the bush.  You get such a more intimate feel of the environment – and when you see recent leopard tracks its really cool!  There are lots of other critters in this park too.  The monitoring here is focused on the wild dogs, cheetah, black rhino, lion and elephant.  There are 2 male cheetah that are so chill they hardly move when the truck comes near.  I was able to get some great sightings of them one morning J.  More rain is expected this coming week, so I’m not sure how much we’ll be able to get out and about.  The roads are very muddy and slippery and it’s really easy to get stuck - we've already been stuck twice.  I hope the weather clears up for at least 1 day, otherwise I’ll be reading a lot of books in my room.

Since I only have 1 week left, I will be posting my next, and last, blog from my hotel room on Sunday night.  I hope everyone at home is doing well and I’ll talk/see everyone soon!

All my love,

Stef

View of Thanda from the hill top where we were able to explore a small bat cave.

A pair of lesser-striped swallows.  These birds are all over camp and they let you come close.

The first time I have seen a giraffe drink :-).  It takes them a little while to get down there and they are very cautious when drinking since this position makes them vulnerable to predators.

These 2 male cheetahs were resting at the same water hole as the griaffe.  The giraffe didn't seem to mind the cheetah being close to them.  I guess they knew they were too big for the cheetah to try to pursue.

These two rested within 25 feet of the truck for about 45 minutes.  They yawned, stretched, and rolled around for us.  They have been the most chill cheetah I've seen since I've been here.  Usually these cats are very shy and run away quickly.

Here are 8 of the 9 wild dog puppies of the Thanda pack (the 9th is just out of the frame laying in the grass).  It has been such a pleasure to watch them play with each other and the other 6 adults.  

During one of our attempts to tranquilize Stitch to remove her snare, we had an opportunity to collar one of the other young females, Thula.  Here she has been tranquilized and is being fitted with a new radio collar by the Wildlife ACT team - Chris, Michelle and Cole.

The next morning, Thula was hunting with the pack sporting her brand new collar :-).