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).

Special Report - Stitch's Story

As reported in my blog from Week 11, the alpha female of the Thanda wild dog pack, Stitch, was seen with a snare around her neck during the evening monitoring session on September 11, 2012.  There was much rain during the previous week, so monitoring was not able to be conducted for a few days due to inaccessible roads.  It was presumed, due to Stitch’s poor body condition and based on the observation from the last monitoring session, that she became snared during the rainy time and it may have been on her for 4-5 days.  Stitch was observed to have lost weight, had a swollen face and neck and was salivating and drooling – an indication she may not be able to swallow.  However, she was still moving around and running with the pack when they hunted, but she would stop and rest frequently and always lay down on the outskirts of the rest of the pack and puppies.  She was not observed eating on a carcass, which, combined with her weight loss, further corroborated the theory that she could not swallow or had lost her appetite due to the pain.

The Thanda monitor, Michelle, called the Wildlife ACT team to see who was available to come to Thanda the next morning to attempt to tranquilize Stitch and remove the snare.  The Wildlife ACT team promptly responded and arrived on the scene by 6:00am, September 12^th.  Michelle was provided a female impala by the Thanda reserve farm manager to use as bait to draw the pack out from the bush into the open so Stitch could be darted in a safe setting.  No such luck.  Only 4 of the 6 adults came out to feed on the bait – no sign of the alpha pair.  After a few hours and still no sighting of Stitch, it was decided to go back to camp and try again in the afternoon.  Wild dogs usually rest during the middle of the day, so the best chance of seeing them is when they move from their resting spot to go hunt in the late afternoon.

The team went back to the area by 3:30pm on the 12^th and was able to see all 6 adults and all 9 puppies.  All the adults and puppies came to the leftover bait to feed, except for Stitch.  She remained towards the back of the pack off in the bush and was too far away to be darted.  The pack then decided they had enough of us and went back into the bush to rest for the evening.  Even though the attempt was not successful, we were happy to get a visual of Stitch so we knew she was still alive and still with the pack.

The next morning, September 13^th, we arrived at the area at 5:30am to try for the third time.  We were able to locate the dogs with telemetry in the same location we left them the previous night, but the dogs decided they were sleeping in that day and never moved from their resting spot.  We never saw them that morning.  It was decided that we would come back again later that afternoon.

By 3:30pm on the afternoon of September 13^th, Michelle and I drove up to the area the dogs were resting.  We tied the remaining rib cage and legs from the leftover bait to the back of the truck.  Almost immediately, 4 of the 6 adults and all 9 puppies came out of the bush to investigate the remains of the carcass.  We decided to drag the carcass down the road and draw the dogs out into the open for the 4^th darting attempt.  Luckily, all the dogs followed us – including the alpha pair coming up the rear of the pack.  The 5 adults and puppies were very interested in the carcass, but Stitch remained in the back away from the commotion of the rest of the pack.  As we let the dogs feed on the carcass remains, Stitch was able to be successfully darted with the tranquilizer when the rest of the team arrived.  She walked into the shade of a bush and within 5 minutes was asleep.  By this time, the Thanda farm manager arrived with a fresh male impala carcass to provide to the pack so they would be occupied while we worked on removing the snare from around Stitch’s neck.

The snare caused quite a wound.  It was looped around the front of one ear and down around her neck.  It had cut into her skin and flesh to the point where it was close to cutting off her windpipe.  The fact that it was around the front of one ear probably kept it from slipping too much tighter around her windpipe, which would have killed her by suffocation.  Pictures were taken as evidence of the damage snares can cause and then we quickly used wire cutters to cut the snare off.  She was then given an antibiotic shot, a vitamin B shot and a rabies shot.  Her neck wound was sprayed liberally with an antibiotic spray to help assist the healing process.  I was able to assist by putting some lubrication in her eyes to keep her eyes moist until she woke up from the tranquilizer.  We then moved her to a shaded open area where she would be comfortable during the awakening process.  The rest of the pack was preoccupied with the fresh bait provided and when they were finished feeding they rested nearby in the bush.  We previously saved a leg from the fresh bait and laid it near Stitch’s head in order to entice her to wake up quickly as well as to have something easy to eat since it was evident she lost a lot of weight and was probably very hungry.  We waited for Stitch to wake up enough that we could see she was trying to stand and use her legs again, although she was still pretty wobbly when we finally had to leave her.

Michelle and I arrived at the area where we left Stitch by 5:30am on September 14^th.  She was up and moving around and drinking water.  She had not yet eaten on the leg of bait we left for her.  The rest of the pack was still resting off in the bush.  Stitch called for them to join her, and they all promptly came out of the bush.  Stitch went around to each member of the pack and licked and greeted them.  After a warm welcome back to the pack, the pack started picking at the leftover carcass and Stitch found the leg we left for her and started eating it.  She ate about a quarter of the leg before she seemed full and laid down in the bush to rest.  We could also still see the blue antibiotic spray around her neck, which luckily wasn’t washed off from the rain during the night.  We are all very relieved the snare was successfully removed and that Stitch got her appetite back so quickly after the removal.  Now that she can eat again, she should recover nicely.  I am excited to be able to continue to monitor her and the rest of the pack for the next week to see her recovery.

Stitch is the dog in the background lying down.  You can see how her head appears swollen.

After successfully tranquilizing Stitch, we were able to get a good look at the damage the snare caused.  You can see the snare has cut into her flesh in front of her left ear and around her neck behind her right ear.

We were able to quickly cut the wire snare with clippers and remove it from around her neck.

After the snare was removed, we quickly took some pictures of the damage it caused.  Stitch's head is on the right side of the photo, so this picture shows the wound from the bottom of her neck.  It may be hard to tell here, but the wound was very close to cutting into her windpipe.  It is incredible to me that she survived as long as she did with this kind of injury and not being able to eat.

I was able to assist with putting some lubrication in her eyes so they would stay moist while she took time to wake up from the tranquilizer. (Photo by Michelle)

It was a bittersweet moment at this point.  I was happy that we were able to help Stitch, but was also close to tears at the damage that was done to such an amazing animal. (Photo by Michelle)

We then carried her to an open area where she could wake up comfortably and where we could keep an eye on her during the awakening process.  Since she had lost so much weight, it was decided to give her some subcutaneous fluids so she would have an extra boost of energy to help her wake up and get on her feet. (Photo by Michelle)

The next morning, Michelle and I were able to observe Stitch eating on the leg we left her.  If you look closely you can see the blue coloration of the antibiotic that was sprayed around her neck wound.  I am amazed at how quickly these dogs are able to recover and heal from such a wound.  I hope it stops raining so I can have one more chance to see Stitch running with her pack. (Photo by Michelle)

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 :-).  

Week 10 - Mkuze Camp Pictures

Since I am able to use a good internet connection today, here are some photos from my time at Mkuze as promised in my previous blog post.  Cheers and I'll be updating another blog post on Monday :-).

Black rhino mother with calf - she's the one we surprised and mock charged us before turning around and running away.  This is a fantastic photo taken by one of the volunteers, Tania Taylor.

This white rhino mother and calf were one of the many rhinos that came to the water hole on the night we spent at the hide.

This black-backed jackal was gorging itself on a carcass that the Mkuze ecologist and I laid out for the vulture survey.  He had a very full belly after about an hour of feeding.

 This is a group of white-backed vultures and a couple of lappet-faced vultures seen one morning while we were on our way to find the wild dogs.

This female suni stuck around for about 5 minutes while we took photos when we were looking for the wild dogs in a thick bush area.

Leopard tortoises came out onto the road to drink water from the puddles during the rainy days.  This picture is for you Steve :-).

The view of a portion of Mkuze from a rocky high point.

These are fever trees.  This forest of trees was so beautiful and quite peaceful.  

The night of the blue moon.  This night was really warm and clear and the moon was so bright that night.

Week 10 - Mkuze Camp

August was a blue moon month (when there are 2 full moons in the same month), so the night of the 31^st was beautiful.  We went monitoring for the wild dogs in the evening and even though we didn’t see the dogs it was still a gorgeous night with a HUGE full moon – albeit red instead of blue J.  On the 1^st I went on a vulture survey with the Mkuze ecologist, Tarik.  We saw about 50ish white-backed vultures when we arrived at the count sight, but they flew off and didn’t come back to land again during the time we needed to do the survey.  It was really windy and they all decided they had more fun soaring in the thermals then coming down to feed on the ground.  We did get a good sighting of a black-backed jackal   that gorged itself on the carcass before walking off into the bush.

Sunday, the 2^nd, was a pretty busy day.  We had fun exploring the more wild side of the park, driving through some really thick thorn bushes and some amazing fever tree forests in search of the wild dogs.  The thorns on these bushes are longer than my index finger and about half as thick in diameter – definitely would poke your eye out.  The fever tree forests almost don’t look real.  They are a bright yellow-green and are so beautiful – I could have sat in that forest all day, it was so peaceful.  The permanent monitor here, Liam, has resigned and is leaving the organization at the end of September.  His replacement, Cole, arrived that night and spent the rest of the week with us learning the ropes.  He is really nice and sociable – I think he’ll make a good addition to the Wildlife ACT team J.  We also had a great opportunity that evening to spend the night in the hide overlooking a water-hole.  White and black rhino came throughout the night to have a mud bath.  Since it was a full moon we had good light to see them and the sounds they made were very cool.  They would do a heavy chuffing when they got too near each other and the babies would make a whining sound begging their mothers for milk or attention.  We also had a brief sighting of a male leopard, but he decided there were too many rhino for him to come all the way down to drink, so he sat in the edge of the tree line and called for a bit before heading off to hunt – wicked cool to hear a leopard calling J.

On the 3^rd we were able to find all 9 members of the wild dog pack as they were out hunting.  We were also able to get a perfect sighting of a female suni during our tracking and a good sighting of a tiger snake on the way back to camp.  Kevin, the relief monitor (who was with me at iMfolozi and Tembe), arrived on the afternoon of the 4^th – it was nice to catch up with him again and have him as a monitor for the rest of my stay.  However, rain started on the 5^th and put a literal damper on our activities for a few days.  I got a little cabin fever and went out a couple of times, but getting pelted in the face with rain on the back of a truck is no fun, so Viviane and I ended up staying at camp for much of the time it rained L.  I’ve been told the KwaZulu-Natal area is in a pretty major drought, so the rain was definitely welcomed and has been the first heavy rain I’ve seen since I’ve been in Africa.  The leopard tortoises really seemed to enjoy the rain and they were coming out of the bush and onto the road to drink in the small puddles.

It finally cleared up a bit on the 8^th and we were able to enjoy our evening monitoring session.  Yesterday we found all 9 dogs again, but one of them, Thandifa, had a snare around her neck.  We were able to coordinate with the park biologist to attempt to dart her and remove the snare, but the dogs decided they liked it better in the middle of the bush and we couldn’t get to her.  I hope Kevin and Cole are able to help her out this week – I’ll stay tuned to Facebook to see if there is an update.  In the meantime, I am on my way to the next, and final, park – Thanda.  I am looking forward to meeting the monitor there, Michelle.  

Until next time, here is a complete list of critters I’ve seen at Mkuze Game Preserve:

Animals: African wild dog, black rhinoceros, black-backed jackal, blue wildebeest, bushpig, Cape buffalo, chacma baboon, giraffe, grey duiker, impala, kudu, large-spotted genet, leopard, leopard tortoise, nyala, plains zebra, red duiker, scrub hare, spotted hyena, suni, thick-tailed bushbaby, tiger snake, vervet monkey, warthog, white rhinoceros and white-tailed mongoose

Birds: acacia pied barbet, black-collared barbet, bateleur, dark-capped bulbul, golden-breasted bunting, black-bellied bustard, yellow-fronted canary, long-billed crombec, pied crow, red-eyed dove, square-tailed drongo, tawny eagle, giant eagle-owl, southern black flycatcher, natal francolin, Egyptian goose, spur-winged goose, crested guineafowl, African hoopoe, crowned hornbill, southern yellow-billed hornbill, hadeda ibis, striped kingfisher, lesser masked-weaver, red-faced mousebird, speckled mousebird, eastern nicator, fiery-necked nightjar, black-headed oriole, red-billed oxpecker, great white pelican, green-winged pytilla, black-chested snake-eagle, black-bellied starling, Cape glossy starling, woolly-necked stork, scarlet-chested sunbird, white-bellied sunbird, spotted thick-knee, Kurrichane thrush, purple-crested turaco, Cape turtle-dove, lappet-faced vulture, white-backed vulture, blue waxbill, spectacled weaver, emerald-spotted wood-dove and cardinal woodpecker

I hope everyone at home is doing well and am sending you all much love.  Bad internet connection this time, so pictures will come later.  Only 2 weeks left and I’ll be home!

Stef