Details of Grants made by PCT: March 2007 September 2007 October 2007 September 2008 May 2009
2009 Progress reports: 15th February 2009 22nd February 2009 27th March 2009 29th March 2009 4th April 2009 20th April 2009 16th May 2009 7th June 2009 6th July 2009 6th August 2009
2008 Progress reports: January 2008 , 9th April 2008 , 13th April 2008 , 20th April 2008 , 18th May 2008 , 1st June 2008 , 10th August 2008 , 31st August 2008 , 1st October 2008 , 17th October 2008 , 18th October 2008 , 21st October 2008 , 25th October 2008 , 14th December 2008.
2007 progress reports: March 2007, August 2007, September 2007, October/November 2007, December 2007 field trip.
Spotted hyaenas are the most abundant large carnivore in sub-Saharan Africa occurring in a wide range of habitats. However their range, especially in southern Africa has become drastically reduced in this century. This reduction in the number and distribution of spotted hyaenas has been accelerating as human population increases resulting in an increase in conflict with human development. This problem is accentuated in areas of high density, such as the Caprivi and Kavango Regions.
The future for spotted hyaenas outside protected areas remains precarious. They are formidable livestock killers and are actively persecuted. Hyaena social structure is complex and the removal of a number of key individuals is likely to lead to the breakdown of the social group. Once a spotted hyaena social group has disappeared, it is difficult to repopulate the area. The spotted hyaena is unable to inhabit agricultural areas successfully and its future is tied to the long-term future of conservation areas.
Most Namibians depend on the land for their subsistence, but the present of many species of large mammals, combined with settlement patterns of people, leads to conflict between people and wildlife. Large carnivores occur throughout the Caprivi and Kavango Regions and frequently cross international borders. Their population dynamics, movements and conservation status are poorly understood despite ongoing conflict with local people. In the Caprivi Region between 1996 and 2001, 246 predator incidents were reported, resulting in the death of 694 livestock equivalents. As the number of communal conservancies increased so has the systematic reporting of problem animal incidents through the event book system highlighting that previous reports on livestock damage were most likely under reported. Event book records show that between 2001 and 2006 some 2766 large carnivore incidents were reported of which 1401 were of spotted hyaenas, resulting in damage to 3125 livestock equivalents.
Whether problem causing hyaenas are resident within the communal area or originate from the park is unknown. Human – wildlife Conflict (HWC) is an issue of pressing conservation concern particularly when it involves threatened species, and accurately identifying the causes of such conflict is fundamental to developing effective resolution strategies. Long-term conservation of spotted hyaenas in the Caprivi and Kavango depends on their persistence in protected areas like Bwabwata National Park and in resolving human-wildlife conflict with the communities on the periphery.
Hyaenas are unique and vital components of most African ecosystems and understanding the mechanisms that regulate or limit their population should be taken into consideration when developing management plans for protected areas. For example, in a study in Etosha National Park, 71% of hyaena mortality was due to lions. Diseases in spotted hyaenas may play an important role as a limiting factor in populations inside protected areas. Blood samples taken from spotted hyaenas throughout their range have tested positive for antibodies for a wide range of viral diseases including rabies and anthrax. There is some evidence that rabies may depress the southern Kalahari population and in the Serengeti, cubs under the age of six months succumbed to the 1993 canine distemper outbreak There is little data from the Namibian population and none from the Caprivi Region. Additionally, Spotted hyaenas have a substantial effect on less abundant prey species or the establishment of new species in protected areas and can even effect other carnivore populations.
Home range sizes and densities in spotted hyaenas vary considerably in
different habitats. In Etosha National Park, Hyaena home ranges of up to 360 km2
have been recorded. No study of spotted hyaenas has yet been undertaken in the
Caprivi Region, but it is likely that home ranges fall across international
boundaries which could have strong implications in trans-boundary conservation
strategies
Problem causing animals are and always will remain a challenge in Africa
wherever people and wildlife live together. Sound ecological data, such as
reliable population estimate, distribution and population demography are crucial
in the implementation of conservation strategies and conflict resolution.
The intensive study area focusing on population ecology of spotted hyaenas will fall within the Bwabwata National Park with particular focus on the core conservation areas of Susuwe and Buffalo. This area is 32 km wide and 190 km long and covers approximately 6000 km2. It stretches from the Kavango River in the west to the Kwando River in the east and is bordered by Angola in the north and Botswana in the south. Bwabwata national park does not appear on any maps as it is in the process of being made a National Park. It will be made up of two parts - the main part is what is currently the Caprivi Game Reserve, and the second part is the Mahango National Park. This area will also form a key part of the proposed Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier park which will create a single park that includes areas of Namibia, Angola, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The extensive study area focusing on land use practices and human-wildlife conflict will fall within the human settlement areas of the Caprivi, i.e. communities within the Kyaramacan Association of the west Caprivi and the conservancies of the east Caprivi. It covers an area of approximately 20 000 km2 of which the majority falls within Kalahari woodland land type and has an mean annual rainfall of 550 mm.
1. Demography, land use characteristics, social structure and limiting factors
Spotted hyaenas will be immobilized with Zoletil and fitted with GPS and VHF collars as well as visual collars. At least two high ranking individuals in each clan will be collared with GPS collars due to the probability of clans moving across international borders and to establish the land use characteristics of the clan. Two additional individuals in each clan will be radio collared with particular attention to emigrating males in order to monitor their daily activities and movements outside the protected area. Radio collared hyaenas will be located regularly by aircraft followed by ground observations to record group composition.
Visual collars will be placed on additional hyaenas living close to the boundaries of the conservation area so as to assist with identification should they move out into communal and livestock farming areas or are killed as problem animals.
Clan structure will be studied by individual identification through recognition spot patterns, scars and natural ear notches when monitoring communal den sites with individuals considered to be clan members with repeated visits to the den.
2. Genetic status and disease
Blood samples will be taken from all collared hyaenas and in collaboration with Dr Michael Briggs of African Predator Conservation Research Organisation (APCRO) and Dr Jean DuBach of Brookfield Zoo will be analysed for a wide range of viral antibodies. DNA analyses will be done to establish genetic diversity and viability of the hyaena population.. In addition, blood samples will be sent to Dr Mike Pierce in the United Kingdom to be analysed for blood parasites.
The trophy hunting concession holders have agreed to allow post mortems of trophy hunted species. These samples along with post mortem samples of carnivores killed in conflict by the community will be analysed for infectious disease by Dr Mike Kinsel of Illinois University.
External parasites will be collected and sent to veterinarian Dr Kathy Alexander for identification and to establish their role as potential disease vectors.
3. Human Wildlife Conflict
A survey will be conducted to assess the animal husbandry methods used throughout the communities of the caprivi with particular attention to kraal construction and vigilance of livestock owners. Where possible, losses will be followed up in order to establish the species of problem animals and compare these to perceptions of the community. In collaboration with the community, livestock protection methods will be improved and implemented.
4. Community Training
Individuals from communities falling under the Kyaramacan Association will be identified and trained in research field techniques. These will include taking post mortem samples and techniques in radio telemetry for the ongoing monitoring of large carnivore population as well as wildlife diseases within the Caprivi Region.
In March 2007 the Trustees of the Predator Conservation Trust made a grant to Lise Hanssen to fund a field trip for her to do the preliminary surveys and meetings necessary to prepare her application for a research permit to study large carnivores in the Caprivi region. Read Lise's report on the resulting field trip.
In late September 2007, the Trustees of the Predator Conservation Trust received a request for funding from Lise Hanssen for the Caprivi Carnivore Project. After evaluating the proposal, the Trustees approved funding for the project. The funding will cover a number of items essential for the project to get fully up and running. The main item is a dart gun (plus darts) for use in tranquilising animals to allow collars to be fitted and blood samples taken. Also covered by the grant are a number of items of medical and veterinary supplies including the animal tranquiliser Zoletil which will be used when darting the Spotted Hyenas being studied, visual identification collars, fuel and various other items.
In October 2007, PCT received a donation of a digital SLR camera plus lenses and a flashgun along with a number of reference books, research papers and other equipment for Lise Hanssen’s project. PCT Trustee Anthony May was travelling to Namibia on holiday in October and delivered them to Lise in Windhoek.
In September 2008, PCT received a donation of a video camera along with a number of reference books, research papers and other equipment for Lise Hanssen’s project. PCT Trustee Anthony May was travelling to Namibia on holiday in September and delivered them to Lise in the Caprivi.
In May 2009, PCT made a further grant to Lise Hanssen. The grant was
for £2000 and was to cover a VHF signal boosting device for the receiver to
increase the chances of locating collared Hyenas. The grant also covered
camping fees, purchase of meat for bait, tranquiliser darts, Zoletil (a
veterinary tranquiliser), as well as fuel and repairs for Lise's vehicle which
takes a severe battering when driving off road in the project area. The
Trustees are pleased to be able to support Lise Hanssen and her valuable work.
See second page for reports from 2007
I returned to the Caprivi in early February and spent some time sorting out the
camp at Mokolo, which had fallen into a state of minor disrepair during my
absence. In addition some vital pieces of equipment, including the hilift jack
needed to be mended before I could return to field work.
Jaco Rossouw from Take Note Media in Windhoek edited the various sound files of
animals in distress and feeding hyaenas and was able to put a realistic sounding
predator/prey compilation into one sound file which has been copied onto the MP3
player.
I had hoped to get into the field to test out the effectiveness of using sound
to attract hyaenas as soon as possible, but I had problems assembling the
various components. Thank you to Tiaan Loubser in Kavango for assisting me with
getting the problems sorted out.
While in Kavango I attended the AGM of the Game Rangers Association of Africa (GRAA), which was hosted by Mark and Charlie Paxton at Shamvura Camp. Various topics relevant to the Kavango and Caprivi Regions were presented by Namibian speakers.
I was able to test out the sound system immediately upon returning to the
Caprivi. The last baiting site where I had spent many nights trying to catch
hyaenas was Malombe Pan so I decided to return to this area. I was accompanied
by Jade Jacobsohn who is volunteering for IRDNC.
As spotted hyaenas generally spend time around the den site at sunset, it is
preferable to call much later and picking up the shine of their eyes with a spot
light at night makes it easier to locate them rather than in the low light of
dusk.
There had been a big shower of rain late that afternoon and conditions were extremely damp, which can affect sound carrying over long distance. I propped the horn speakers at 180 degrees to each other on the tail gate of the bakkie. The sound file is approximately 5 minutes long so I played it twice in a row followed by silence for twenty minutes and then played it again followed by another twenty minutes of silence. There was no response. On closer inspection I noticed that Malombe pan is very low lying with increased elevation to the north and the south. Lack of response could be due to any number of reasons, but the wet conditions and low lying site were not helpful.
The following night I drove to the Botswana side of the park and took a back road into the core area. I stopped as soon as I reached an elevated area where I could see the surroundings dropping away below me. I tossed out some bones and sprinkled the area with scent so that any hyaena responding to the sound would get a reward so that they would respond in future even if they figured out that the sound was a fake. This time around the canopy of the bakkie had been removed and we were operating from the back with the horn speakers propped between the roll bar and the roof also at 180 degrees from each other.
I was able to hear the approach of an animal in the long grass to my right over the terrible sound of a squealing pig playing at full volume within two minutes of switching on the sound system. The spot light illuminated a very large female spotted hyaena, which I estimated to weigh around 70 kg. She must have been in the immediate vicinity when we arrived. She quickly approached the vehicle with her ears erect and got to within a distance of about 6 metres. She then circled the vehicle and headed in the direction of the smell. The spot light bothered her so she ran to the far edge of the light and hung around for a while before disappearing.
Immediately after that a large male leopard approached from the rear. He was very calm and sat in the road about 20 metres away. He bypassed the vehicle and continued down the track in front of us, without moving in the direction of the scent.
While driving along the track, we bumped into a group of five hyaenas walking with intent on their way to the calling area. One of them was quite young and appeared to my inexperienced eye to be about 12 to 14 months. I stopped the car and all the hyaenas stopped about 5 or 6 metres away. The young one came into the track and approached the vehicle while licking and salivating slightly. I can only assume it was the smell of the scent in the back that he was after. The adults then continued in the direction from where we had been calling and after some time the young one followed.
Carnivores are extremely bright and will not take long to realize that the sound
is not real so I decided to give them a break for a night and only use sound
again when I am ready to dart and collar, which will hopefully be tomorrow
evening.
I will depart for Katima first thing in the morning to pick up meat at the
butchery. Tomorrow night I will dose the meat with dormicum and throw chunks of
doped meat on the ground in addition to hanging some in a tree to keep the
hyaenas, if any, interested until the dormicum takes effect so that I can get
close enough to dart one.
Lise Hanssen
After a few weeks in Windhoek sorting out vehicle repairs and other jobs (as well as sheltering from the rains in the North) I have arrived safe and sound at my camp on the Kwando after stopping over at Shamvura Camp in Kavango. I am sure you have all heard about the flooding in northern Namibia, but there are no words to describe the sight of the Kavango River at the moment. The floodplain is completely flooded with trees sticking out of the water as far as the eye can see across the plains of Angola. The omurambas which are low lying fossil river beds which are usually covered in vegetation and grassland are full to the brim with water that has overflowed from the Kavango.
I hit the road early this morning for the Caprivi and it feels really good to be back. I was very concerned that if the Kwando River looked anything like the Kavango then there would be no camp to come back to, but the Kwando has a massive flood plain and it didn’t seem that much fuller when I drove over the bridge. When I arrived at camp at 10.30 am there stood my tent still on high ground, but the water level in the adjacent channel has risen considerably.
I was devastated to find that someone had emptied out my drum of scent/bait that has taken me so long to accumulate and stolen the drum. I think I would have been less upset if my tent had been stolen rather than the stinking barrel as it is such a vital component to attracting hyaenas. I am sure that the person who stole it did not realize how important its contents were and I can imagine how useful the container would be in these parts. Unfortunately there is no way of making up another batch as the abattoir in Katima is closed due to the foot and mouth outbreak and the only place to get that much blood would be from Windhoek. Nothing else was missing.
After unpacking and sorting out camp I jumped into the river for a quick splash and then Bliksem and I headed for Katima to buy meat for bait and a new drum (much smaller this time). I phoned some friends and asked them to catch some barbel fish for me the next time they go fishing. I spent a small fortune on eggs and cheese at the supermarket which together with the fish and some road kill will hopefully do an adequate job of making bait.
The Zambezi has overflowed its banks and is now running right next to the edge of town. I cannot imagine how many people have lost homes and possessions in the floods. The rain to the roads throughout the Kavango and Caprivi is considerable so it was interesting navigating around town today.
I was donated a gas freezer for blood samples by an old friend called
Reinhardt Kusters, which will make a huge difference to quality of life at camp.
Tomorrow will be spent setting it up, making up a new drum of stink and driving
around Bwabwata hunting for hyaena calling sites where I can operate from
tomorrow night.
Lise Hanssen
In December 2008 I was offered a wireless remote camera by Vincent Guillemin of the French Embassy who is working closely with WWF Namibia. The camera comes in a tough camouflage, waterproof housing that in turn can be placed inside an additional metal housing and padlocked to a tree in the field. Remote cameras have a come a long way in the digital era as now all pictures are saved on a memory card which can store up to two thousand photos. You can apply an array of setup criteria before placing the camera in the field. For example, you can set the camera to take a photo at intervals from every few seconds to weeks apart. The camera battery lasts for up to six month before it needs recharging and this can be done by means of a solar panel which can be attached without removing the camera from the site.
Additional information is also recorded such as the phase of the moon for night photos, whether the camera is in a north/south or east/west direction, the GPS position and even the wind direction and air temperature and of course, the time of day. This information will be included on each photo as it is downloaded to a computer or memory card reader. One is also able to transmit pictures from the camera to a base station via radio signal without visiting the camera site.
Luckily Vincent has spent quite some time experimenting on how to get the most useful and clear shots. One camera that he placed at a brand new waterhole in Kavango took a photo of a pack of wild dogs using the area. Ideally the camera should be placed at approximately 50 cm above the ground and should be free of vegetation within the photo area range. The best quality photos are taken with the subject at a distance of 6 to 10 metres.
I have bought chain and a padlock for additional security so that I can chain the camera in the metal housing to a tree and leave it there without the fear that it will be stolen. This camera will be ideal in a setting close to a den site where there are cubs and one is unable to approach without them disappearing down a hole.
I look forward to the results although I am sure it will take some practice before I my skills at remote photography and sharpened. I would really like to thank Vincent Guillemin from the French Embassy and Greg Stuart-Hill from WWF for the loan of this camera in my field work.
Lise Hanssen
Working at night in the park with carnivores has turned out to be a rather perilous undertaking and I now no longer go on my own. Most dangerous carnivores are nocturnal and working on one which is darted while one’s back is turned to the rest is asking for trouble, aside from the elephants that silently appear out of nowhere.
The rains are now getting far less although there is still the odd shower and it seems that the elephants are on their way back to the core area as they have appeared in droves whenever I go out and can seriously derail activities especially by chasing my vehicle or getting upset for any number of reasons and have made us call off work at night on a few occasions already.
I now have the calling down to a fine art and play the combination of the squealing pig and excited feeding hyaenas for approximately 10 minutes with the two speakers pointing in opposite directions. I then wait for half an hour and rotate the speakers by 90 degrees and call for a further 10 minutes. If there is no response then I leave as either there are no hyaenas in the immediate vicinity or they could possibly be occupied on another food source which would definitely prevent them from inspecting. Additionally one has to be careful not to overuse the sound as they quickly learn that you are messing with them and they might stop coming completely.
On one occasion, accompanied by Mario Koegelenberg, I drove about 20 km west of the Kwando River and then up a track until I was on crest where the sound would carry for some distance to the north and the south. When we played the sound a group of elephants with a very young baby approached the vehicle to within about 10 metres. They broke the branches around the car, but didn’t act aggressively at all. We switched the sound and they eventually departed. Once the speakers had been rotated and the sound switched on again, the elephants immediately returned and approached the vehicle resuming their branch breaking activities. In the spot light we were able to see that the baby elephant was very small and its possible that the hyaena sounds might be threatening to the herd. We departed and drove to another area.
At a high point we put out the bait and played the sound. I know now that if unoccupied and within hearing distance, hyaenas respond immediately and it wasn’t long before one was dashing at top speed around the outskirts of the periphery of the spot light. We switched it off and waited in the darkness and then heard the sound of the hyaena attempting to steal the bait. We switched on the spot light and it was running at top speed down the track away from the car leaving the bait swinging on its rope. It hung around for quite some time and we could just pick up its eyes in the light and then eventually disappeared. Knowing what I know now, if I had been patient enough it would have returned as I am sure there are few hyaenas who can resist such easy pickings. I cut off a chunk and left him a reward before we packed up for the evening.
It seems that the success rate of calling hyaenas is definitely dependant on the hour of the night. The later the better so I decided to get set up in the park at around nine rather than seven as previously tried for so many occasions. I also laced two pieces of meat with dormicum which is a heavy sedative and left them lying on the ground under the bait. The bait was hung on a cross branch of a tree so that it was dangling just out of reach of hyaena jaws. This time around I was accompanied by both Mario and Geoffrey Likando.
The response to the sound was practically instantaneous with one hyaena rushing past the vehicle at top speed and two others approaching from a different direction altogether. The single hyaena stopped and looked around suspiciously. It definitely seems that the hyaena sounds aggravate them quite a bit which is more effective than the sounds of prey in distress. I highlighted the bait with the spot light and the hyaena ambled over in that direction. The other two had disappeared at this point. Although I didn’t see it eat the dosed meat on the ground, I was almost sure it had. It then ambled over in the direction of the car and lay about 15 metres away and watched us silently. I could see it in the moonlight as its black muzzle showed up against the vegetation. It seemed quite happy to lie there all night, but didn’t like the spotlight at all and every time it was switched on to check, the hyaena would run away. We waited for over and hour while the hyaena came and went. After a long time it seemed that it had given up, but it was in fact hiding behind a termite mound close to the bait where every now and again it would dash out and attempt to grab it and run. Luckily it could not get a full grip otherwise that would have been the end of the bait. For quite some time we watched it run out, make a grab for the meat and then dash behind the termite mound for safety leaving the meat swinging from the rope.
After some time it got more brave and Mario said it seemed to be drunk although I didn’t notice this. It stopped hiding and circled the meat for quite some time while I was able to take aim at its shoulder. Eventually it stood still long enough for me to get a good view through the rifle sight and the dart hit home.
I am not sure whether it was a combination if the dormicum and the zoletil, or whether my dart hit an artery, but the hyaena dropped like a stone. Her breathing and respiration were normal and quite calm and I had to top up her dose almost immediately as she started lifting her head.
As I am rather out of practice in field work it was all rather chaotic to start, but I managed to get blood samples, photos and put the collar on. The hyaena was a 50 kg female and had definitely had cubs at some point, but was not presently lactating. She had absolutely no parasites, which I find astounding especially with all the lush vegetation and the struggle I have keeping the ticks off my dog. She had old scars on her shoulders and flanks, which looked like old bite marks, but was in generally excellent condition.
I have often heard people complain how much hyaenas stink, but often this is from rolling in rotten carcasses and vomit. She didn’t stink at all. There was quite a bit of chipping and breakage on her teeth, but the definition on her premolars was still quite pronounced. She seemed quite young even with the wear and tear on her teeth.
We managed to collect all our samples and measure her within 45 minutes, but had to wait until after 2.00 am before she was on her feet and we could leave her alone. The danger of leaving a sleeping animal in such a high density carnivore area is that she would get attacked and killed while incapacitated.
I need to get the next collar activated to take five positions every 24 hours and this has to be done from South Africa via the cellphone network. In the mean time I will be leaving the hyaenas in peace while they get over the interference. This animal was collared next to Long Lagoon on the way to Horse Shoe, but next week I would like to try and attract hyaenas on the Susuwe side of the park.
Lise Hanssen
I have managed to secure an assistant by the name of Callicious who will be accompanying me on an ad hoc basis into the park at night time. I will be looking for funding to possibly expand this position into a permanent one. This is mainly due to the threat of elephants but also other carnivores as well as a training exercise. Callicious participated in the Caprivi Bush Experiences Guides training course run by Bazil Roth at Kubunyana.
The sound system started giving trouble soon after I darted CCC-1 with the quality of sound declining with every attempt. Unfortunately the environmental conditions are not technology friendly with dust, sand and rough roads being the biggest problem causing the equipment to get beaten up quite badly. Kenny Storbeck from Katima kindly assisted me with fixing the sound and it now works better than ever. It is hard to say whether the lack of response of hyaenas to the sound was due to the poor sound quality or the fact that I might have been overdoing the calling, but I decided to give it a rest for a while. In addition it is time to move into the interior of the Caprivi and start working around the multiple use areas like Chetto and Omega and the Khwe villages.
When one starts a study such as this, one has to judge by the terrain and environment how to tackle the field work. The Caprivi is actually the perfect study site as it has defined boundaries which include the two perennial rivers on the east and west sides. The vegetation is mainly Kalahari woodland and is pretty homogeneous throughout the park except for the riverine woodland along the Kwando and Kavango rivers. For this reason when I initially started this study I decided that it would be best to stratify the study site into the different vegetation types, but my brief glimpse into hyaenas movements have made me think otherwise.
On arrival I knew very little about the movements of wildlife in the Caprivi and had to rely on public observations as well as advice from tour guides, etc who spend so much time doing game drives with tourists in the park. Naturally there are many spoor of hyaenas seen within the core area so this is where much of my effort has been. Since collaring the hyaena and attempting to pick her up with the VHF while driving the roads of the core area, not once have I found her there. I have picked up a faint signal using the whip antennae on the vehicle and leave the receiver on while doing other work and she seems far inland.
It is easy to assume that the hyaenas are mostly in the core area due to the spoor frequency but biased because this is also the only area that the guides ever drive. It is also the area with the most used tracks and hyaenas favour natural pathways while out and about at night. From the literature the prefer less wooded areas for dens and are easily capable of walking many kilometres in one night. In other studies it has been found that hyaenas do not necessarily have dens where the game density is highest, such as along the Caprivi systems where most of the game gathers. From this I am deducing that though there may well be dens close to the rivers, it is likely that the hyaenas are visiting the core area regularly by foot to look for food, but in fact are coming from further away.
I am busy with the planning of a hyaena survey which also works for lions throughout the Bwabwata National Park. This will take place well into the dry season, but I have already met with Beaven Munali and Friedrich Alpers from IRDNC to start working on the logistics. Although I need the information for this study, this is also the ideal opportunity for a training exercise for hyaena and lion monitoring to be carried out by the community game guards, in the case the Kyaramacan Association of the Khwe people of the west Caprivi. This small, but vital project will be carried out by a group of us including myself, KA game guards and MET personnel over 2 to 3 weeks working only at night. I will attempt to raise the funding for the entire exercise including per diems, food, equipment, vehicle running costs. The raw data will also be shared with the wildlife monitoring teams of the various NGO’s as part of their annual wildlife census. This way the hyaena study can contribute to long-term monitoring of these two important carnivores species within Bwabwata National Park especially as they are both utilized through trophy hunting.
I have had no feedback from the GSM collar on the hyaena which is very worrying indeed. I have contacted AWT who manufacture the collar, but am told that the collar is out of range of the network. I spoke to Mark Jago, the game capture vet for MET who suggested that I leave the collar on the hyaena for a few weeks before interfering with the situation. Tonight I will be tracking the hyaena using radio telemetry and I am specifically interested at this point whether she is within network range when the collar is supposed to transmit data.
Klaus Schindler who is presently working on a contract for IRDNC has donated a Garmin eTrex Vista GPS to the project and John Inglis from Area 51 Productions has donated six new tyres for my vehicle. Both these donations are most welcome especially as they will save grant funds which were designated for just these items. Klaus is also to be thanked for his tremendous patience in guiding me through my elephant saga and both Klaus and Jade Jacobsohn have been fantastic in joining me in the field and providing much needed assistance.
Lise Hanssen
I have not been receiving data from the GSM collar which Is supposed to transmit locations via the cellphone network. Luckily the collar does store the data points until the collared animal is within range. I contacted African Wildlife Tracking (AWT) and was told that the collar needs at least two bars of reception in order to download and the hyaena is most likely out of cellphone range.
I received a call from Werner Kilian from the Etosha Ecological Institute. He is involved in a spotted hyaena study being undertaken in Etosha National Park by Dr Martina Trinkel. He was concerned as none of the collars that they have put on hyaenas in the park have transmitted data either and was enquiring as to my progress. We agreed to keep each other informed as to the outcome and also bounced ideas around on how else to retrieve the data. They are considering removing the collars, downloading the data and then putting the collars back on. Unfortunately hyaenas in my study area would not be this co-operative and of course I am dealing with a number of international borders.
Accompanied by Callicious at night time I have attempted to pick up the VHF signal on the collar using the whip antennae as well as the hand held, but have not yet picked up the signal. Although hyaenas do love water and make extensive use of pans, I am assuming that the hyaenas in the west Caprivi are not swimming across the Kavango and Kwando Rivers due to the number of crocodiles. From the literature they appear to be very aware of crocodile infested water. Given this, it is likely that the population is not moving in an east/west direction unless they make use of the road bridges, but these are manned 24 hours a day by veterinary and police checkpoints. No hyaenas have been observed crossing the bridges by the police and veterinary personnel guarding the checkpoints, but this does not make it impossible and so I assume that this will happen on the odd occasion.
It is likely that most of the movement in and out of the study site is taking place in a north/south direction into Angola and Botswana. Although international borders make the perfect study site boundaries and is a great opportunity to study trans-boundary movement of wildlife and shared resources, it has its distinct disadvantages in conducting field work. I am only able to operate within a 31 km wide area and hyaenas are quite capable of moving up to 70 km in one night. I find it fascinating that one animal could travel to three countries and back in one evening, but this leaves me with a very narrow window of opportunity to both catch them and follow them.
Although I am one and half years into the project I am still sitting with the same problem of how to catch enough of these animals on a regular basis in order to monitor them effectively. The challenges are many. Firstly, hyaenas are extremely bright and very cautious especially where they have been persecuted. Secondly, these hyaenas could be in one of four countries of which I am only able to work in one. Thirdly, my movements within the study site are restricted to the tracks, which are not numerous. Bundu bashing off road is limited due to the vegetation, which is very thick woodland in some areas, and dangerous due to the occasional landmine and other ammunition which can still be found lying around in the unexplored areas. The number of observable hyaenas within this narrow study area is dependent on density. This, of course, is also the main focus of this project.
If response to sound can be used as a measure of abundance and density, then
I have to assume that this is quite low in the areas that I have worked in so
far. It would be ideal if I was able to work in broader area to the north and
south, but this is unlikely for the time being.
In east Africa it has been found that the density in woodland areas is much
lower than in the plains. Satellite imagery of the Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA)
Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA) reveals woodland throughout the entire
west Caprivi stretching for a long distance north into Angola. More open sandy
conditions exist just south of the Namibian border in Botswana stretching into
Namibia just south of the Buffalo Core Area.
I have only recently started work on this side of the park as I have focused
much more attention on the Kwando Core Area and the conservancies within the
Mudumu North Complex, which fall on the eastern boundary of the park. The reason
for this is because of the problems caused by hyaenas in this area. I will be
spreading out my capture attempts throughout the west Caprivi from now on and
will have to deal with the hyaenas in the conservancies in an entirely different
manner.
Recently while driving with Klaus, Jade and Callicious in the Kwando area, we came across three spotted hyaenas with very full bellies. Two ran away at the sight of the car, but one attempted to follow the vehicle as it repeatedly sniffed the odours coming from my vehicle. I had rotten meat in the back of my bakkie and this was definitely of interest to the hyaena. When I stopped the vehicle, the hyaena would circle using the adjacent bush as cover. This went on for over half an hour until eventually the hyaena took off. We could smell a rotten carcass in the immediate area, so it had to be something very large or it would have been entirely consumed by the hyaenas.
The following evening Callicious and I returned with the dart gun, spotlights
and collars. Although we spent some time dodging an elephant that was hanging
around in the same area, we eventually made our way to the same spot. Two
hyaenas were prowling around with very rotund abdomens. This time they both
circled the vehicle sniffing the air. The dart gun was ready, but every time I
had a clear shot, the hyaenas were actually too close. I decided to take a
chance on one hyaena that was clearly visible, very close, but was moving around
and so I missed with the first attempt. Surprisingly the hyaena just ambled off
a few paces and then stopped. I had to keep moving the rifle between the various
open windows to follow the hyaenas and this is not an ideal situation. One came
to rest, but within a 10 metre distance, which was far too close. I took the
chance anyway, and the dart hit him/her, but bounced out spraying the Zoletil in
the air. Once again the hyaena only moved a little way away.
Although taking this kind of chance is so tempting, it shows that one should be
entirely in control of a darting situation having set it up from the beginning.
Although the hyaenas were still around I decided not to shoot anymore as it is
very invasive and disturbing. The following night we returned and there was not
a hyaena in sight or even a whiff of a carcass. We dragged rotten meat, laid
scent trails and called with the sound system, but there was absolutely no
response.
For the first time I attempted calling on the Buffalo side of the park. I would like to get a collar on an animal using this area as well as look at the response to sound. In four attempts no hyaenas responded although I did hear whooping sounds coming from the flood plain on one occasion. As this was some time after the sound had been played I assume they did not hear it. On the suggestion of Joseph and Rafael from Buffalo MET, I set up bait and scent at Delta Pan near Nova Ranger station close to midnight. It seemed that nothing responded, but on departing there were fresh lion spoor over my tyre tracks which led to the bait and then walked back along the same path again. This is the first time that a lion has responded. Up till now I have been quite concerned that there has been no lion response to my activities and I know that there is general concern regarding the lack of lions in the west Caprivi.
On driving back to Kongola, we came across dead wild dogs on the side of the road. They had both been hit by a truck. They could not have been killed too long ago as full rigor mortis had not yet set in. I used the opportunity to conduct post mortems on both dogs.
As this operation was being carried out in full view of passing traffic on the trans Caprivi highway, the post mortems were limited to taking samples of the main organs and easily accessible muscle tissue. I removed both heads, which are now decomposing at my camps. These will be turned over along with the post mortem samples to Robin Lines who is studying wild dogs in Namibia.
Unfortunately I had to put everything on hold due to a bout of malaria, but much more of my time will now be spent in the Buffalo Core area and the central areas around Omega and Chetto where many of the residents in the park live.
My vehicle now has a full set of new tyres which donated by John Inglis from Area 51 Productions in Cape Town. Thank you to John for the tyres, Anton White for arranging to have them freighted to Katima, Dave Orr and Bernd Coetzee from Mukusi Cabins for arranging a drop off point for delivery.
Lise Hanssen
I returned from Windhoek to the Caprivi to find the Kwando River fuller than I have ever seen it. I rushed to my campsite to find the road flooded with the water still rising, but my tent still on high ground. The following day I drove west past the core area to start looking for in roads to the Botswana and Angola borders both for calling survey and for collaring hyaenas. I bumped into Benson, the KA game guard when I got as far as Mashambo Village and he kindly showed me some tracks that lead to both borders in the north and the south. I also bumped into Friedrich Alpers on his way through the Caprivi and he told me about an elephant that had been killed by four lions just north of the Susuwe Ranger Station about a week previously. The carcass was still lying there.
At 19.00 pm that evening I picked up Callicious and Euster Kumana who works for IRDNC and is based at the A-frame opposite the ranger station. He showed us where the carcass was. Apparently hyaenas had been there pretty much every night during the past week. When we got there, the carcass had been dragged around several times, but was now just a pile of bones. We decided to set up anyway and paced out 30 metres to park the car and play sound. Unfortunately the sound quality was very bad and the sound system definitely needs to be looked into. Two caracals visited the site and waited about 20 metres from the car without moving until we started the engine.
The following day I had to leave the core area to drive west to the Popa Falls campsite where I was meeting John Leach and his student group from Rhodes University in Memphis Tennessee. On the way through the west Caprivi I stopped off at Omega to meet with Liep to ask his permission to bring the students there to attempt calling hyaenas.
I was joined at Popa Falls by Kathleen Halton and Jamie Boyce from Cape Town. Both Kathleen and Jamie have experience in the production business so Kathleen contacted her business partner John Inglis in Cape Town who emailed a whole range of new sound files, which Kathleen edited into a new sequence for the night work. Jamie inspected the sound system, testing the amplifier and the speakers separately. It turned out that the problem was due to a faulty cable from the MP3 player into the amp as well as the power supply. He replaced the cable and plugged the amp into the inverter using the car battery as power and the sound was once again pristine.
The student group arrived at the camp site and I gave them a brief talk on my work and hyaenas in general. The following morning they did a game drive around Mahango while Kathleen, Jamie and I explored some of the tracks and roads around the west of the park. In the afternoon we departed for Omega to arrange bait in advance. Unfortunately Liep had been held up in Rundu at a meeting so was unable to make it, but Tienie, the secretary of the Kyaramacan Association made himself available to assist me. We drove to five villages around Omega as well as various livestock owners within Omega itself, but were unsuccessful in finding bait.
Tienie and I were joined by Paul Menard, a Peace Corps volunteer based at Omega and the three of us met up with the student group. The entire group went into the bush around 21.00pm and called from two different calling stations. On the first station one a set of eyes appeared in the spotlight almost immediately, but I was unable to identify the species. The eyes soon disappeared into the vegetation and did not reappear again. Usually hyaenas will hang around for quite some time. We waited about half an hour after calling at each site, but nothing more appeared. After dropping Tienie and Paul the whole group camped just north of Omega.
Thereafter we agreed to meet up in the East Caprivi so that I could do some test sound runs in the Conservancies in preparation for the sound survey. I picked up Callicious that evening and assembled at Camp Kwando, where the group were staying. We spent the following four hours in the forest areas just north of Mudumu National Park calling every five kilometres or so with absolutely no response from hyaenas even though we were right up against the border of the park.
It will be interesting to see the response once a wider area is covered. Mark Jago has also agreed to fly the MET aircraft to locate the collared hyaena when they are doing buffalo work in the Caprivi.
I will be out of the country for the following two weeks, but will be going directly to the Caprivi upon my return.
Lise Hanssen
I met up with Robin Lines and Ana Puerta from the Wild Dog Project at Shamvura Camp. They were visiting the area to share information on their work with Wild Dogs in the Tsumkwe District with the Conservancies of the Caprivi Region. We drove through the west Caprivi towards my camp at Mukolo and I took waypoints on the GPS of villages and landmarks in Bwabwata along the way. This is in preparation for a future survey on diseases in domestic dogs that live within the park.
All the Caprivi Conservancies were attending their quarterly planning meeting held at Salambala Conservancy, which we only heard about at the last minute and decided to attend. This was the ideal opportunity for both projects to share our experiences and report on our progress to a large audience. The meeting was attended by the management of most Conservancies as well as staff of IRDNC.
On the way through Katima I picked up 20 kg of meat for bait at Ngwezi Butchery and then had it sealed and permitted at the State Vet’s office. I also emailed African Wildlife Tracking to instruct them to activate one of the GSM collars as field work was about to commence. Although the foot and mouth disease outbreak is now under control, the quarantine restrictions will remain in place well into next year. This is a big stumbling block to getting bait inside Bwabwata and is also very costly.
We made camp at the Salambala Conservancy campsite and got in touch with
Sylvester Ntonda who was chairing the meeting to ask for a slot the following
morning to present out information. Sylvester kindly accommodated us by allowing
us to jump the queue and do our presentations very early on in the day. I spoke
about the challenges of researching spotted hyaenas in the Caprivi and how the
field work had progressed so far.
Some of the questions raised included how I planned transferring skills to the
community for long-term monitoring. To this I explained that funding especially
in the present economic climate remains the biggest hurdle as individuals that
need to be trained in these skills need to be paid. Although someone from the
East Caprivi is employed on a part time basis and works with me in the field, it
would be ideal to be able to train someone from each area like the Mudumu North
and South Complex, West Caprivi and East Caprivi. Another problem of having
trainees is transport. I have to work on a method of getting them mobile within
their area even if I am working elsewhere. This could possibly be done via the
conservancy management and the game guards. Human Wildlife Conflict was another
important issue that was raised especially with regards to dealing with a
specific animal that had killed livestock. I explained that my role is to
provide as much information that I can to the community, but the decision
regarding action was theirs alone to take. If a hyaena is wearing a radio collar
this does not automatically exclude it from being dealt with in a HWC situation.
A collared hyaena is no different to any other hyaena, but the collars are
purely for monitoring and research. I was asked whether I would be able to
provide information to the community about where a specific collared hyaena is
moving given that the collars transmit data via the cellphone network. This
should in fact be no problem if the collars were transmitting properly, but I
have had no feedback in three months from a deployed collar due to the weak
network in some of the study site. Collars put on animals in the east Caprivi
should transmit data more frequently as the cellphone network coverage is much
better.
The community was very supportive and in favour of the continuation of the study with suggestions made to look at other carnivores at the same time.
African Wildlife Tracking informed me that they were not getting any feedback from the two collars at camp and it is likely due to the network coverage. I took the collars to Kongola and James Chapman who owns the Engen garage and shop kindly agreed to keep the collars inside the shop until they were reset via SMS from Pretoria. I tested the network coverage on my cellphone and it was full. I am currently waiting for the new collar schedule to be updated.
Calicious Kulobone, Dave Ward from WWF Namibia and Euster Kumana from IRDNC accompanied me into the park to set up the bait. We dragged a scent trail behind the bakkie all the way from the tar road to the area where we found a hyaena latrine. Calicious then dragged the scent from the road to the place where we hung the bait. At the same time we put up a remote camera provided by WWF Namibia at the baiting site to monitor any visitors.
There were 12 droppings in the latrine so we collected parts of them, while
leaving some to hopefully keep other hyaenas interested. We continued dragging
the sack containing decomposing bones and meat away from the bait down the track
in the opposite direction. After some time we realized that the rope had snagged
and broken through leaving the sack behind. We also found a second latrine and
stopped to pick up some of the scat. On the way back we stopped at Nambwa
campsite to assist Robin who had major vehicle problems and was stranded in the
park.
While driving in the park, I always leave the receiver on attached to the whip
antennae to scan for VHF frequencies. We picked up the signal of the collared
hyaena on leaving Namwa while driving up a dune and just as we got to the top we
got a visual of her with another hyaena. They both quickly moved out of the
track and disappeared into the vegetation. It was most rewarding to finally have
a follow up on this hyaena as I have not heard or seen a thing since she was
collared.
We continued along their spoor. They had walked some distance and we were curious if they had found the bait having followed the scent trail. It seems that they walked off the track in the direction of the bait, but then turned around and continued walking along the road where they bumped into us. They had not entered that track from the tar road, but rather from a side road well into the park.
The following evening we drove the same track dragging more scent, but this time on a stronger rope. We stopped at the bait site and removed the memory card from the camera to download any pictures that might have been taken. Nothing had visited the bait site in the previous 24 hours. We changed the settings to take photos every three seconds if something should appear. We then continued making scent trails until the bag was ripped apart by snagging on some barbed wire which must have been lying in the track. On our return journey there was no fresh spoor of any species over our tyre tracks.
I now have twenty more scat samples that I will analyse for prey remains and baiting will continue in the same area. I would like to thank the Predator Conservation Trust for an additional grant that will fund an extended range receiver and anaesthetic as well as some camping, fuel and meat costs. I would also like to thank John Leach of New African Frontiers and Rhodes University group from Memphis, USA for their contribution to the Spotted Hyaena Project.
Lise Hanssen
The last month has been the most productive yet since the Spotted hyaena study was started. Much time and effort have been put into late night field work and it has finally reaped rewards. I have realized that all these months spent trying to make inroads into the world of hyaenas have not been wasted at all, but in fact have been a process to the present breakthrough. Since early 2008 I have experimented with every field technique to catch hyaenas that has ever been used in the country. Each and every one has been tested for practicality and success, from baiting and sneaking up on unsuspecting animals at dawn, to sitting night after night in a hide at a bait until sunrise the following morning, to putting out bait laced with powerful sedatives in areas where hyaenas are known to be active. The testing of these methods in my field work has been conducted on and off for well over a year. Each method has to be given sufficient time to prove successful or not before calling it off.
Although these methods have been used successfully on their own in many study or hunting areas, the Caprivi hyaenas require a different approach. The reason for this is that they do occasionally get killed as problem animals in the conservancies and they get hunted in both the conservancies and the parks. Spotted hyaenas are exceptionally bright, which makes them a formidable opponent in a human wildlife conflict situation due to persecution by livestock farmers over many years. A combination of persecution and trophy hunting has made them extremely difficult to capture through baiting and darting alone. They are not often seen, but judging by spoor it is thought that there are many spotted hyaenas in the area, which is also very productive in terms of prey species. Therefore it is assumed that they live at high density in the Caprivi Region. In addition, they are thought to kill more livestock than all the other large carnivores put together, which supports the fact that there appear to be many of them. Safari guides report lots of hyaena spoor in the core areas along the river systems where the game density is high.
The general consensus is that there are a lot of spotted hyaenas in the Caprivi
and they kill a lot of
livestock.
It is with this understanding that I started the process of trying to capture
spotted hyaenas. Using
methods that had been proven to work elsewhere and an area with supposedly lots
of hyaenas led to
much confusion, especially when I didn't see any and had little success even
though I have spent
hundreds of hours in the field.
After a year and a half spent on this project mostly trying to catch hyaenas and
getting extremely
despondent in the process, there has finally been a breakthrough. It has been
through using a
combination of the above techniques as well as weeks if not months of patience
to habituate a group
(clan) of hyaenas to my vehicle and to the baiting process. This habituation is
now at the point where
some of these clan members are approaching and even eating off the bait within a
distance of 30 metres
from the car.
In order to count all the hyaenas that make up the group, not all of which will
approach the bait, we
have combined the baiting with sitting in the vehicle for hours at a time with a
red filtered spot light.
The spotlight picks out animal eyes which reflect the light perfectly so we are
able to count the
individuals that are in the immediate vicinity as well as those that keep their
distance.
With the aid of the remote camera loaned to the project by WWF in Namibia, which
has taken clear
photos of hyaenas that have visited the bait site even when there are no
observers present, we have
now been able to identify individuals from their spot patterns and their size as
well as just counting
them through observation. The camera has produced over 1800 photographs in the
period of a month,
which also includes other animals like elephants and baboons that are moving in
the area. As the
camera records the time of the visit we have been able to monitor over what
period of time these
hyaenas are actively visiting this side. As hyaenas are nocturnal most of the
visits have been late at night
or during the early hours of the morning, but some were recorded visiting the
bait as early as 19.00 pm
to as late 09.00 am.
Two spotted hyaenas photographed at 9.00 am at the bait site.
We have now monitored one bait site intensively for approximately one month through direct observation, spoor and the remote camera. In addition we have darted hyaenas twice at that bait, but have had technical problems and dart failure. Surprisingly these hyaenas have not been scared off and return regularly to the area. Another regular visitor is the collared hyaena. Through ongoing observation and driving the tracks using VHF to pick up the collared hyaenas, we have identified no more than five adult hyaenas in this group. These hyaenas often walk along the vehicle tracks, occasionally backtracking and often walking long distances. The spoor left by this hyaena traffic could easily give the impression that there are many hyaenas around. We have managed to identify the sex of three of them. There are two females of which one is lactating and judging from her size I am quite certain she is the leader of the clan.
The large grey lactating female
The other female is the collared hyaena who was not lactating in April when she
was captured. The
third hyaena appears to be a young male, but this could still turn out to be
incorrect as females and
males are very difficult to tell apart especially before a female has produced
cubs. We are basing our
conclusion not only on his smaller size, but on his subservient behaviour and the
squealing noises he
makes to the large lactating female who growls at him around the bait. Although
he is much smaller
than the two large females, it is possible that this is just a much younger
animal as his coat pattern is
very dark. Older hyaenas often look grey with fainter spots.
Giving study animals names is often frowned upon, but we have found that naming
them according to a
familiar characteristic helps us to remember their individuality for
identification. We are now able to
identify the three hyaenas that are regularly photographed by sight . The first
hyaena to be named was
Two Spot, the young male. This was because of two very distinct large blotches
on either side of his
spine. We have since found that this characteristic is shared by the large
lactating female, which we call
The Grey One and the collared hyaena, which is called Solo or Collar. Spot
patterns or natural markings
are an excellent method of identifying individuals and works very well in
spotted hyaenas. In some
study areas, hundreds of individuals are known purely on markings alone.
As the GSM collar has still not downloaded the location data, our plan is to recapture her, replace the collar and then take the old collar into an area with good cell phone coverage to download the data. These locations will give an indication of the territory and movements of this hyaena group. This will most likely change dramatically over time with increased locations. Thereafter we will attempt to capture the large lactating female as she is most certainly the leader of the group. As she has dependant cubs, we hope that we will be able find the den where she is keeping them through the GPS locations recorded by the collar. As these hyaenas are extremely shy I suspect it will take some years of habituation until they are at a point where direct observation is possible. It is likely that the disturbance of observing the den will make them move the cubs to another den. The remote camera can play an important role in monitoring den activities. Although it is extremely time consuming, it is possible to use this method to identify different clans as well as the number of individuals that make up those clans. Along with home range data eventually retrieved from the collars, this method and using sound call ups can be used to accurately estimate the number of clans and hyaenas that are inhabiting the park as well as being able to monitor them over time.
A student group from Emory University in Atlanta accompanied by Prof. Larry Wilson travelled to Namibia with John Leach from New African Frontiers. During their field trip they are exposed to various community and wildlife projects. They spent three nights in the Kwando area where they were given a talk on spotted hyaena conservation and large carnivores in Namibia and learned about techniques used in field work. I would like to thank the Emory Group and John Leach for their contribution to the Spotted Hyaena Project.
Lise Hanssen
The remote camera was removed from the monitoring site along the Kwando River and set up in the Buffalo core area on the Kavango side of the park. During this time I attended the planning meeting for the Caprivi Game Count which was held at Kamutjonga Inland Fisheries Institute (KIFI) by WWF and the Ministry of Environment (MET). I was accompanied by Greg Stuart-Hill, Raymond Peters, Ben and James Bartlett. We placed bait inside a hessian sack and dragged it from the Buffalo gate into the ruins of the 32 battalion base where we hung it from a tree at a distance of five metres from the remote camera. We also sprinkled a bucket of decomposed bones around the area in the hope that the smell would attract carnivores to the site.
The camera was left for a week and a half and photographed a host of wildlife including kudus, aardvark, steenbok, warthogs and also one hyaena. The hyaena took about two days to find the bait site according to the time and date recorded on the camera. This is the same length of time that it took for the Kwando hyaenas to find their baiting site. I was hoping that more individual hyaenas would have been recorded visiting the bait site so as to get some idea as to clan size, but the single hyaena seemed to lose interest when he no longer received any reward in the form of food for his effort.
The camera was removed from the Buffalo area and taken back to the original baiting site on the Kwando. The same dried out piece of meat still hung there so it was rapidly replaced by a fresh piece and the camera was set up again to monitor the site. Within a few days the camera captured a leopard that tried to steal the bait. He was able to break the rope to free up the meat so ended up jumping up to hang off the bait while he ate off it. He would then jump down again to rest. This exercise continued over a period of approximately 6 hours. In addition the camera recorded a visit by a pride of four lions, three females and one sub-adult male. They played with the bait hanging from the tree for about twenty minutes until their curiosity over the camera got the better of them. They then sniffed the camera and pawed the metal housing until they broke the chain that holds the camera to the tree in four places. We found the camera lying on its back in the sand and the pieces of chain scattered in the immediate area. There have been no lion spoor or photographs of lions in that area since.
Within a few nights of actively baiting and monitoring the Kwando bait site as well as using sound, all three of the known hyaenas (including the collared one) appeared at the bait site at the same time. As the GSM collar on CCC-1 had not yet downloaded due to the poor network coverage, I had planned on recapturing her. I would retrieve the data by either taking the whole hyaena with the collar to a place with good network coverage where the collar could download at around midnight (its scheduled time) or I could remove the collar and recapture the hyaena later to put it back on again. The decision was easily made when I darted her and saw that the collar had rubbed a raw patch on one side of her neck. I removed the collar and sprayed her with necrospray and notched her ear so that she could easily be identified in the future when it came to replacing the collar. The ear notching system is identical to that used by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) to mark translocated and reintroduced black rhinos. The hyaena (CCC-1) had gained about 10 kg in the space of five months and was in excellent condition. Her measurements were taken again and fresh blood samples were collected. She was also lactating and it was hoped that the locations retrieved from the collar would indicate the den site. She was back on her feet and stumbled into the bush at around 01.35 am.
After no data downloaded from the collar after a day or so, even though it was in good cellphone range, I was instructed by African Wildlife Tracking (AWF) to put the collar in an area where it could connect with satellites. It was left on the roof of the Engen garage in Katima in full view of the open sky and with no obstructions at all. After not receiving data immediately I became concerned but was told that it would take a few days as it had five months of stored data. The collar finally downloaded on day five. The data was fascinating and showed a home range stretching over a distance of 17 km by 22 km, which covers an area of approximately374 km2 Although this is similar to home ranges recorded in both Etosha National Park and the Namib Desert where other hyaena studies have taken place in Namibia, I suspect that the Caprivi home range size will increase over time. It is possible that the hyena's movements might also be restricted by having dependent cubs inside the den. She is only one of a clan of a minimum of five individuals, whose individual movements will likely increase the clans home range considerably.
Although I have long suspected that there is trans-boundary movement by most mammals in the Caprivi Region, the collar data shows that this hyaena moved within a much localized area, which does not include Botswana or Angola. I have also long suspected that hyaenas do not cross the main rivers bordering the park to the east and the west, i.e. the Kavango and Kwando, even though they are partial to water. This seems to be confirmed by the location data from the collar. During five months she was not located within the east Caprivi conservancies once although this could also change over time.
The locations superimposed on Google Earth showed three areas of concentration which were likely to indicate den sites. These were investigated on foot during the daylight hours. Two of them were definitely inactive dens, but were still frequented regularly judging by the amount of hyaena spoor in the immediate vicinity. Both inactive dens had three entrance holes. The third site proved to be the active den, where a young adult was lying close by in the shade. The hyaena ran off and watched the proceedings from a distance of about 100 metres. The den entrances were quite distinct and had a polished appearance from the cubs moving in and out. The adults do not go inside the den. The inactive dens were high on a dune in Mopane scrub and the active den was in a Mopane forest area with very large, old trees. The entire area between the den sites which ranged between 500 metres and 1.5 km apart was littered with hyaena scat and latrines. Old bones were found outside only one inactive den and might just as easily have been left there by porcupines rather than hyaenas. It is likely that at least two litters of cubs are living inside this den as two females of the Kwando Clan are lactating. I estimate CCC-1 s cubs to be approximately 2 to 3 months old given her condition from two darting sessions. A second lactating hyaena from the same clan has been photographed at the baiting site, but her cubs could be any age up to a one year or so as this is how long spotted hyaenas suckle their cubs.
The present den site is approximately 3.4 km from permanent water and 1.2 km from seasonal pans that fill up with water during the wet season. Spotted hyaena enjoy bathing in pans in hot weather and have been seen lying in the water of Malombe Pan during the day time (F. Alpers). During full moon we had little response to the bait while we sat up at night. The remote camera recorded hyaenas visiting the bait site, but only during the early hours of the morning. Once the moon started rising later in the night we had one hyaena visiting the bait site. It was a thin, old hyaena with sunken eyes. I have not seen her photographed with any of the known hyaenas from the Kwando Clan to date so her origins are yet to be established. She ate the bait with the dormicum as well as all the other bait that was available to her and then she disappeared in the direction of the river and had not returned within an hour. The decision was made to restrict the amount of bait available to the hyaenas so that they would not be able to eat their fill before the sedatives can take effect. A few nights later we only arrived at the bait at 21:45 pm and there was already a hyaena prowling around the immediate vicinity. He waited some distance away while we set up the darting site. We put out a piece of meat laced with dormicum and waited at in the vehicle. We watched him take the piece with the dormicum by spotlight. Within ten minutes he was heavily affected and was swaying and stumbling around. He approached the vehicle to within a distance of about a metre and stared at us for quite some time without moving. He appeared to be quite small so the dormicum dose must have been quite heavy. The hyaena was too close to dart and seemed extremely disorientated. It turned suddenly and made a beeline for the bush where it walked in a straight line out of sight at high speed. I did not think it would return, but it reappeared quite soon at the bait site and it was darted straight away. It succumbed to the anaesthesia within five minutes. On examination it turned out to be a male hyaena. He was very young with his adult teeth still erupting. I was surprised that he was alone due to his age. No other hyaena appeared in the vicinity at all that night. He had definitely walked to the bait completely on his own. He weighed about 40 kg, which is average in some areas for male spotted hyaenas, but he is likely to fill out a bit because he is so young. He was much too small to risk collaring so he was physically marked with an ear notch for future identification and possible collaring as a full adult.
Two nights later we waited at the bait while a large and very wary female approached. She would hide behind bushes every time the spot light was turned on her. Within moments she had taken the meat with the dormicum, but it was a full hour before she showed any effects and this was only picked up by observing a very slight stumbling in her gait. Even though sedated, she was quite active and would not stand still for very long periods. I took a chance and darted immediately when she was illuminated in the spot light. She was down within about ten minutes and was so large that she had to be topped up with anaesthesia quite frequently.
Through direct observation of hyaenas as well as photos taken of them by the remote camera it has been straight forward so far to identify individuals by their size, gait and spot patterns. However, this method does not work at all once the hyaena is at close quarters and under anaesthetic even though some of the spots fit the required pattern. I was unsure which hyaena I was dealing with, but her identity could be established later once she was photographed by the remote camera with her collar on. She was promptly collared, ear notched and measured. Her weight was estimated at between 70 and 80kg, which is large so I expected an animal in its prime. I was surprised to discover that in actual fact she was a very young adult. Her teeth were white and ridged with only very slight wear on the premolars. She had already produced cubs at some point but was no longer lactating. After marking, collaring and blood sampling, the hyaena was allowed to recover and move off.
Darting activities were put on hold for a few days to allow the hyaena clan to calm down and the rest of us to catch up on much needed sleep. The remote camera was left to monitor the area. After three days, the camera showed that almost three hundred photos had been taken. During the absence of human activity, all of the marked hyaenas had visited the area together as a group and individually. In addition there were new hyaenas that were unmarked and unrecognized. CCC-3, the newly collared hyaena, turned out to be the one which I had termed Two Spot for identification purposes. Two spot, a male, had turned out to be a female, which I believe is a mistake regularly made in hyaena studies.
MET and WWF are in the process of holding their annual game counts. Game
guards from the Kyaramacan Association (KA) of the west Caprivi as well as some
MET and NGO personnel were camping
at the A-frame during the count of the Kwando Core Area. During this time I had
the opportunity to share the recent developments with the Khwe community in the
evening after their field work. Thank you so much to Friedrich Alpers (IRDNC),
Simon Mayes (SPAN), Dave Ward and Raymond Peters (WWF), Peter Alexander and
Robin Lines for all the assistance, input and suggestions.
What remains of the dry season is being spent in intensive field work. Attempts will be made to recapture CCC-1 and an additional female for GSM collaring. All other captured hyaenas will be visibly marked until additional funds can be raised for the purchase of collars. In addition I will be investigating Omega and the Mudumu North Complex conservancies for intensive field work after the wet season for the expansion of the project to include human-wildlife conflict (HWC) issues.
Lise Hanssen
© Predator Conservation Trust.
