Week 12 - Thanda Camp

WOW!!!!  This week was hectic, exhilarating, frustrating and a fantastic way to end my time with Wildlife ACT.  It started off with us getting royally stuck and having to leave the truck for 2 days in the mud.  The mud in this area is very slick and sticky, and even though you don’t sink in too bad you slide around a lot and the truck can’t make it up the hills very well.  At the beginning of the week I did a lot of waiting around for the rain to stop and the mud to dry out so we could get the truck back up the hill.  Since we were stuck inside a bit, I was able to get a lot done for Michelle regarding the data spreadsheet and was able to preliminarily map her information on GIS – so that was helpful, but I really wanted to be out checking on Stitch and the rest of the wild dog pack.

We finally had some sunshine come out on Tuesday and were able to get the truck out of the mud and did a bit of a drive around the main roads of Thanda.  The relief monitor, Ashley, has taken a new position with another reserve, so the new relief monitor, Jonathan, arrived on Tuesday afternoon and we took him around to get a feel for Thanda.  We were also able to get a signal for the dogs, but we couldn’t go in to see them since the roads were still a bit too wet.  On Wednesday evening, the roads dried up enough and we were able to get a good visual of the dogs, however we didn’t see Stitch and were starting to get a little worried about her.  Thursday morning we were able to get a good sighting of all the dogs, including Stitch J.  Everyone looked happy, healthy and snare free – and Stitch’s wound was nice and pink and looked like healthy healing tissue.  However, the dogs were still on the neighbor’s property and he was getting a bit annoyed, so the reserve manager decided that we would begin darting the dogs that afternoon to relocate them back on Thanda in a temporary holding pen (called a boma) until the fences could be fixed and checked to make sure the dogs couldn’t get out again.  The Wildlife ACT team mobilized quickly in order to have everything ready to try and catch 15 wild dogs!  Thursday evening we were able to dart 2 adults (Stitch and Topaz) and 3 puppies.  Friday and Saturday we were only able to get one puppy each day (7 total in the boma), and all the dogs were VERY wary of the truck and bait by that time.  It was decided to give the rest of the pack (4 adults and 4 puppies) a break and not try to dart them again until Sunday evening, but Michelle and I still kept an eye on them so the team would know where the rest of the pack was located on Sunday.  Being involved with that process and seeing and learning all the ins and outs of trying to catch such mobile animals was absolutely amazing!  This is truly an experience I will remember forever.

It’s hard to believe that 12 weeks have already passed.  I have had some really amazing and interesting experiences during my time with Wildlife ACT and I’m so glad I took this adventure, but I am very ready to come home.  This trip has made me realize that while I love Africa and all its beauty, there really is no place like home.  My heart definitely belongs to Florida and I’m so excited to get back home, but this isn’t the last time I’ll be in Africa.  I leave tomorrow morning at 8:15am from Richards Bay and then I have a stop in Joburg, New York and DC before arriving in Jacksonville on the 25^th at 2:15pm EST.

This blog was started to share my experiences here with all of you, so now that I’m on my way home, this will be my last blog entry.  I’ll be working on posting pictures on Facebook after this so you can all see some more of what I've seen and done, so stay tuned on that site for future posts.  In the meantime, here is a list of all the critters I’ve seen while at Thanda – not as many as the other reserves just because the dogs took up all our time on the neighbor’s property J.

Animals: African elephant, African wild dog, blue wildebeest, cheetah, giraffe, grey duiker, impala, kudu, leopard tortoise, lion, nyala, plains zebra, red duiker, Sundevall’s leaf-nosed bat, vervet monkey and warthog

Birds: little bee-eater, southern boubou, dark-capped bulbul, golden-breasted bunting, yellow-fronted canary, rattling cisticola, Burchell’s coucal, pied crow, namaqua dove, fork-tailed drongo, martial eagle, tawny eagle, Wahlberg’s eagle, fiscal flycatcher, southern black flycatcher, crested francolin, natal francolin, crested guineafowl, helmeted guineafowl, African harrier-hawk, white-crested helmet-shrike, African hoopie, southern yellow-billed hornbill, hadeda ibis, brown-hooded kingfisher, yellow-billed kite, crowned lapwing, red-faced mousebird, fiery-necked nightjar, red-billed oxpecker, African paradise-flycatcher, black-backed puffback, red-capped robin-chat, common scimitarbill, Cape glossy starling, woolly-necked stork, scarlet-chested sunbird, lesser striped swallow, purple-crested turaco, Cape turtle-dove, lappet-faced vulture, white-backed vulture, blue waxbill and cardinal woodpecker

I’ll see and talk to you all very soon!

With much love,

Stef

With all the rains during September, spring finally started to show its colors.  This is a view of Thanda with all the fresh new leaves starting to sprout.

This giraffe was lying down right next to the road when we drove past.  It is always funny to me to see giraffe lying down or drinking.

A herd of zebra was seen one day in a forested area on our way to track the wild dog pack.

I was lucky enough to be able to see the cheetah boys, Phil and Rusty, one last time on Saturday morning.

Here are 3 of the 6 adults from the Thanda wild dog pack, Thula, Trixie and Topaz.

One of the puppies looking up at a crow as it passed overhead - they are just so cute (photo by John, relief monitor).

Thula and puppy in road when we were tracking them one day.

Because the wild dog pack was on private property, the Wildlife ACT team needed to be called in to relocate the pack to within the preserve boundaries.  During the first darting session, the team was very lucky to get 2 adults and 3 puppies moved to the holding pen, called a boma.  Here the dogs have been tranquilized and are waiting to be given a rabies shot and then loaded into the vehicles for transportation.

One of the puppies from the first darting session loaded and ready to go to the boma.  No that's not blood in the truck, just some rust and yes the puppy is tranquilized.

As occurs with each darting session, you usually end up waiting for the dogs to cooperate.  During this second session we were only able to dart 1 more puppy - the dogs were getting pretty wary of us by this point and tended to stay too far away.

During our third darting attempt, we also were only able to get 1 more puppy.  Here I am helping to load the tranquilized puppy on the truck in order to be relocated to the boma.

The final count on Saturday night was 2 adults (Stitch and Topaz) and 5 puppies (#1,2, 4, 5 and 7) relocated to the boma.  Here is Topaz and 3 of the puppies inside the boma.  Once all the dogs are brought into the boma and the holes in the boundary fence are repaired, then the pack will once again be released to roam the reserve.

Here is my last sighting of Stitch inside the boma.  You can see the wound on the back of her head is nice and pink, a sign that it is healthy healing tissue (photo by Angela).