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, 15th September 2009.
2008 progress reports (this page): 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 field trip, August 2007 , September 2007 , October/November 2007 field trip , December 2007 field trip.
I have been awarded a Grant through the WildiZe Foundation in the United States for around US$16,000 which will cover the costs of GPS collars and a VHF / UHF receiver, which will allow me to start field work as soon as the rains have declined. I am presently working on developing a questionnaire for a survey of Human Wildlife Conflict to be carried out shortly among the communities in the Caprivi Region.
Lise Hanssen
A substantial grant from Sidney Schultz was made to the Hyaena project through the WildiZe Foundation in the USA. This majority of this grant will be used to cover the cost of GPS collars and telemetry equipment and along with the grant received from the Predator Conservation Trust, which covered the cost of a dart gun, veterinary drugs and other supplies, will get the field work up and running.
Excessive rain in northern Namibia including the Caprivi Region delayed my departure somewhat, but I was able to purchase a number of items of equipment and do extensive research on the intricacies of GPS collar technology. Examples of some of the technical aspects of concern are as follows: Does the VHF tracking facility work all the time or only at preset times? Do the collars come with remote release features or does the animal have to be recaptured to retrieve the collar? Does one have to be line of sight or within a particular distance to the UHF receiver to remote download the stored locations? . Researching carnivores in many places in Namibia is rather unique in that they are extremely shy of people, the areas they cover are vast (in the Caprivi they could cross four international borders in one day) and access to those areas can be extremely difficult if not impossible so certain GPS collar features can literally be the difference between getting data or losing it all.
I met with Apollo Kannyinga at the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) office in Rundu and Philip Steyn (MET) at Shamvura Camp to discuss the issue of setting up baits to lure in hyaenas when the time came for darting and collaring. Using the meat of domestic stock as bait is often assumed to promote livestock predation and as livestock loss is already a problem for the community living within Bwabwata, this option would not be possible. I was instructed to write a separate proposal to my initial research proposal justifying the use of bait for darting as well as for calling stations. Once the trophy hunting concession tenders for Bwabwata have gone through the process, then hopefully obtaining some sort of bait will become easier.
I am focusing on conducting a questionnaire survey on human wildlife conflict (HWC) throughout the west Caprivi (Bwabwata) and the Conservancies that fall within the Mudumu North Complex, which are four Conservancies (Mayuni, Mashi, Kwando and Sobbe) on the boundary of Bwabwata on the eastern side of the Kwando River. If time allows I would like to include some of the villages in the Kavango Region that fall between Bwabwata and Mahangu Park on the Okavango River.
Carrying out the survey is by no means a straight forward process. On meeting with Friedrich Alpers (IRDNC) at Buffalo, I received extensive advice on who in the community should be kept informed at all times about my movements in the Caprivi. This includes the police, the military, the conservancies, the Kyaramacan Trust, MET and the NGO’s. Much of my time is spent on setting up the survey and PR before venturing out to actually gather the required information.
I have met with the Facilitator and the Secretary of Mayuni Conservancy as well as the Research Co-ordinator of the Mudumu North Complex to introduce the project and get their input on the final version of the questionnaire. I have set up meetings with the Chief Game Guard of Mayuni in order to go through the Event Books for the Conservancy where incidents of HWC have been recorded over the years, with the Co-ordinator of the HACCS project (an insurance scheme for HWC) and with the Kwando Conservancy to present the project to the community.
Dan Stephens from Mazambala Lodge has arranged for me to set up camp at their campsite which is only two kilometres off the main tar road and just across the bridge from Bwabwata. From here I only have to drive five minutes east to Kongola where IRDNC and Mayuni Conservancy have offices and five minutes west to Susuwe where there is a MET Ranger station.
The questionnaire is in process, but the actual survey cannot be conducted before I have consulted with the remainder of the Mudumu North Complex Conservancies and the Kyaramacan Trust.
Lise Hanssen
Things are progressing slowly, but smoothly and definitely forward. I have driven the east Caprivi conservancy route flat and some more than once trying to cover everyone who is anyone. I got approached yesterday by a local who already knew that I was here to study hyaenas as it was brought up at a workshop in Katima two days ago. The word is getting around.
The local wildlife has become my immediate neighbour. A large baboon spider has moved into my kitchen utensil trunk and hides behind the spoon every time I lift the lid. I now leave it slightly open so he can come and go as he pleases, but use a fork to prod around on the bottom to find things rather than using my hand. I got serenaded by two rock thrushes this morning who kept going at full pitch for ages.
There is a thriving NGO and research community around Kongola and I keep bumping into folks that I have met over the years or Masters students doing some or other wildlife study. I got fetched by some guides yesterday evening and taken by boat along the Kwando River and then treated to supper at Mazambala which was a most unexpected treat. The joys of unconventional work – one ends up doing amazing stuff.
I put up my big tent yesterday after staying in the little one for a while now and it is absolute luxury. Ones sense of luxury definitely takes on a new perspective out here. Running water out of a tap near by is very luxurious – no dredging the river with 20 litre plastic bottles. Last night a hippo was grazing away just outside and I felt perfectly safe.
The pace of life here is very slow. I always compare it to swimming through honey. Even the oxen dragging their loads along the side of the road seem to move in slow motion. I have met heaps of new people with the strangest of names. Yesterday a guy introduced himself as Moscow. There seems to be quite a bit of interest in Bliksem as most of the village dogs don’t even get noticed. They are just part of the scenery and Bliksem takes an active role everywhere he goes. In Kavango I was surrounded by a bunch of tiny little village kids who screamed with delight when Bliksem swam out and retrieved sticks from the water.
Cow bells have become part of the ambient Caprivi sound along with turtle doves and is very soothing, but I am sure they sound more like the dinner bell to all lions far and near.
Lise Hanssen
In order to conduct the HWC survey it is vital to identify the stakeholders and understand the complex system of beneficiaries within the Caprivi Region. Most of my time on this trip has been spent on developing the questionnaire with the input of the relative support bodies and network of partnerships and collaborators on the ground. I have learned an incredible amount on how the conservancy system works, but it has been time very time consuming.
The Conservancy system was developed so that people living on state land could receive the benefits from consumptive and non-consumptive wildlife utilization within their area. This would include trophy hunting, tourism through joint ventures and training through research projects. They become stakeholders in income generating projects like lodges, campsites and trophy hunting concessions. Conservancies have defined boundaries and with the assistance of NGO’s , develop management plans which include wildlife and forest utilization and long-term monitoring. The Conservancy is then officially gazetted by the Namibian government so it is a legal body. In order to thoroughly represent the individuals within their community, the staffing structure is quite complex. Each has a manager and a secretary who are based at the conservancy office. There are a number of area representatives who liaise between the management and the people. The monitoring process is carried out by the game guards of which the number depends on the size of the conservancy. The game guards are headed by a Chief Ranger and a Field officer.
There is a largely San community living within the west Caprivi which has now
been officially declared as the Bwabwata National Park and falls within the
Kavango Zambezi (KAZA) Trans-Frontier Conservation Area. Because the area is a
National Park, the residents are unable to form a conservancy. In order to
receive benefits from the utilization of wildlife through the two trophy hunting
concessions inside the park boundaries, through trophy fees and meat, they have
formed the Kyaramacan Trust, which mostly functions along the same lines as a
conservancy.
There are vast areas outside the National Parks which have diverse species of
trees and other vegetation that can be utilized by the communities in and around
them. Some of the areas fall under the management of the Forestry department in
the Ministry of Agriculture and others have been declared as Community Forests
and monitored by the Conservancies.
The Mudumu North Complex (MNC), which is where I will be working in the East Caprivi, is the area covering the Bwabwata National Park, Mudumu National Park, Community Forests, National Forests and four conservancies in between. The monitoring of plants and wildlife and the utilization thereof is under joint management between the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Agriculture and the four conservancies. The MNC has its own personnel structure, which includes a General Co-ordinator, a Research Co-ordinator and a Monitoring Co-ordinator who are chosen from with the surrounding community. These individuals might also fall within the Conservancy Structure.
Wildlife monitoring within this entire area is carried out under the game guard system. Each game guard works within a specific block, which would include villages and surrounding land. The information they collect through the event book system is extremely detailed and impressive. They will cover their entire block through the period of a month where they record incidences of livestock loss to predators, poaching, wildlife deaths, predator observations and spoor, observations of rare and endangered game species, like sable and eland that have been reintroduced to the area by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism. With NGO logistical support, they also conduct a bi-annual wildlife census of the parks and conservancy areas for the Caprivi Region.
While developing the questionnaire I have met with the Managers, Secretaries and some of the Head Rangers of the MNC conservancies. I have given presentations to Area Representatives and Game Guards at the Kwando and Mashi Conservancies. I still need to meet with the Field Officer and Head Ranger of the Kyaramacan Trust as well as introduce myself to the Chief of the Mbarakwena people.
Instead of including unnecessary questions about the livestock farming system it was necessary for me to discuss the industry with the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS). The veterinary technicians, Israel Kaatura, Sharon Zambwe, Sandra Nyame and Marklee Matengu based at the Katima regional DVS office explained about the commercial beef industry and the vaccination procedures for livestock. The technicians visit DVS sub-sections which include a number of villages throughout the east Caprivi and vaccinate all livestock and domestics dogs for rabies as well as other diseases. They kindly provided me with a map showing every single village and the sub-section boundaries of the east Caprivi. This map will be used to choose the villages where the questionnaire will be carried out.
Interestingly, no vaccinations of livestock and dogs are undertaken in the west Caprivi. This is because there is no commercial trade and livestock is kept on a subsistence basis only. Therefore it does not fall under the control of the DVS which is within the Ministry of Agriculture. Any animal-related activities within west Caprivi fall under the Ministry of Environment. It would be interesting to perform viral antibody tests on the domestic dog population of the west Caprivi.
The above information provided by DVS was thorough enough so as to exclude it
from the questionnaire. In addition, records of stock losses to predators,
poisonous plants and theft are also kept by DVS and will be interesting to
compare to the information received during the survey.
I also met with Beaven Munali based at the IRDNC Caprivi office in Katima to
discuss the objectives of the study and the logistical problems in carrying out
the survey. He suggested that with the help of IRDNC, we will hold a training
workshop for the game guards of the MDC conservancies and Kyaramacan Trust and
thereafter they would carry out the survey within their patrol blocks as they
know the area intimately and can also speak the language. The first draft of the
questionnaire has been circulated and I have received excellent suggestions.
After modifications, the second draft will be distributed to the conservancy
management and NGO’s over the next two days.
I briefly met with Shadreck Siloka, Chief of Caprivi Parks to update him on my activities and progress so far.
During last week it came to my attention that the UHF receiver used to download locations from GPS collars was no longer available from African Wildlife Tracking, the company that is providing the telemetry equipment for the study. Instead they have introduced a UHF/GPRS receiver which is slightly more complicated to work with. One has to download the location as before, but is unable to access them from the receiver. One then has to travel to an area that has cell phone network coverage and the data is sent via the GPRS network to AWT. One can access the data from their website using a password system.
The wildlife field work will begin within the Kwando system where there is reasonable to good cellphone coverage so I have ordered GSM collars for this part of the project. I will also be able to use GSM collars on the Okavango River side of the park. No receiver is required and the locations of the collared hyaenas are automatically via SMS to my cellphone daily. If a collared hyaena goes out of cell phone range, the collar continues to store data using the GPS facility on the collar. These locations will immediately be sent to me via SMS the minute the animal steps into cellphone range again.
I will reconsider the GPS collar system when work has developed to the point
that I can move on to the central part of Bwabwata, where there is little to no
cellphone network coverage at all. I have ordered a whip antenna which is
attached to the vehicle. This will allow me to leave the receiver on scanning
mode so that all VHF frequencies can be scanned constantly every time I drive.
Collaring is due to start in the latter half of May.
I contacted the Hyaena Specialist Group before departing from Windhoek and asked
if they would send me hyaena posters which they compiled a number of years ago.
These posters have pictures, facts and distribution maps of the four hyaena
species that exist throughout the world and will be distributed to schools,
conservation bodies, NGO’s and conservancies throughout the Caprivi and Kavango
Regions.
Lise Hanssen
The second draft of the questionnaire was distributed to the Mayuni, Mashi, Sobbe and Kwandu Conservancies as well as the Kyaramacan Trust before I had to leave for Windhoek. It was also translated into Afrikaans for the West Caprivi residents and emailed to employees of IRDNC for their perusal. The managers and field officers were requested to go through the hard copies and make any changes they thought necessary. Some of the changes suggested to the first and second drafts included the following:
Through IRDNC staff I was able to set up a meeting with the Traditional Authority (TA). Luskin accompanied me to the Khuta (Office of the Traditional Authority) to translate my explanation of the hyaena project to the Ndunas. They asked me many and varied questions, but mostly regarding my impact on the area and the villagers as well as long-term benefits for the community. I was then taken to be formally introduced to Chief Mayuni at the Palace. Luskin and one of the Nduna’s accompanies me and performed the translations that is tradition when speaking to the Chief. His questions of this study were mostly conservation related and I was challenged on how my project could provide additional knowledge when so many other projects and training had already taken place. The Chief and the Khuta have given outright approval and support to the Hyaena study.
While in Windhoek I received the hyaena posters that had been sent by the Endangered Wildlife Trust via the Hyaena Specialist Group to distribute to the conservancy and conservation offices as well as to schools in the north east of Namibia.
I met with Chris Weaver from WWF to ask advice on funding administration for the project. He suggested that I contact Namibia Nature Foundation (NNF) as they administer funds for an extensive range of conservation and community projects for a reasonable fee. I have since been in touch with NNF and plans are in progress.
I also had a number of meetings at MET. One meeting was with Mark Jago, the Game Capture Vet to discuss ear notching of hyaenas and to get some diagrams of the configuration used on black rhinos by MET. The second meeting was with Pierre Du Preez, Chief Scientist for Scientific Services to discuss quality of GSM collar data and setting the number of locations per day for the collars. Graphs comparing data quality between satellite and GSM collars showed that GSM data was far superior in terms of regularity of feedback. He also showed me how locations received from African Wildlife Tracking can be overlaid on base maps from Google Earth as well as base maps from their website using the collared buffalo and sable in the Caprivi as an example. He suggested I set the collars to take five locations per day rolling over by one hour every 24 hours so that over time I could get locations of hyaenas around the clock as well as extend battery life of the collars. For carrying out the questionnaire Pierre suggested I zone the villages in the East Caprivi according to the distance from the National Parks and then randomly pick villages within the zones as well as within the conservancies so as to look at whether attitudes to predators differ with distance from the parks as well as within different conservancies.
In meeting with Sobbe Conservancy on my return to Caprivi I realized that it is also necessary to include questions about whether people thought that predators came out of the park, killed livestock and returned to the park or whether the predators were resident in areas surrounding the villages. This came from getting the questionnaire back from the Conservancy Manager who had misunderstood my request and had filled in the questionnaire as a respondent. I saw that he had put lions and spotted hyaenas down in the Big Problem category and he lives in a village that is over 40 km from the boundary of Bwabwata National Park. Interestingly he also ticked the category for wanting predators (all species) to increase in the area which lends weight to respondents filling in what they think interviewers want to hear. I am hoping that using the local game guards as interviewers will minimize this problem. In question time after presenting the project to the conservancy the questions were many and varied and mainly focused on job creation, remuneration and training within the conservation field.
I have contacted Beaven Munali at IRDNC Caprivi office to start setting up a questionnaire training workshop for the game guards of the Kyaramacan Trust (KT) and the Mudumu North Complex Conservancies. I will have to contribute towards transport costs and daily per diem for the game guards to carry out the survey.
The next week to ten days will be spent in the West Caprivi setting up meetings
with the Headmen of the villages and the game guards of the KT to learn more
about predator problems within a National Park where no predators can be
classified as “problems” because they have protected status. I will also be
driving most of the dirt tracks in the park to tracklog them on my GPS as well
as looking for hyaena activity through densites, spoor and latrines. I will be
out of contact for most of this time as there is little cellphone coverage in
the interior of the park.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mazambala Island Lodge for making
me feel so welcome and providing me with the ideal base from which to carry out
my work.
Lise Hanssen
I was accompanied by Dan Stephens, a guide from Mazambala Island Lodge, on a week long trip into the interior of Bwabwata National Park. The aim of the trip was to gain a better understanding of the lay out of the park such as border cut-lines, pans, tracks, vegetation type and cover, dens and animal sightings or spoor. All places of interest were recorded on the GPS. In addition we were looking at ideal habitat and areas where the field work of marking and collaring spotted hyaenas could take place.
I had been wondering if most of the game and the carnivores were concentrated along the core areas which fall in the park extremities along the Okavango and Kwando River systems. Apart from these rivers the only other available water within the interior would be concentrated in pans - many of which would have dried up by this time. We were on the lookout throughout the trip for vegetation and animals which were water dependent and which would give us some indication of available surface water.
As I do not yet have the track logs of the interior roads of the park on my GPS, we started the trip at Buffalo Ranger Station. Inside the office is an impressively detailed map including pans, tracks, villages and game concentration of Bwabwata. We took detailed photographs of the tracks and points of reference for guidance and then proceeded into the Buffalo Core Area. Within an hour of driving we had seen a young male leopard, buffalo, kudu, impala, crocodile, hippo and warthog.
Although the rivers are receding, they are still reasonably high so some areas are inaccessible.
Spotted hyaenas do like crocodile free water and it will be interesting to see if they spend time around the marshy areas once the river level has dropped. On the first night spent camping along the Okavango River, we heard very loud, frequent and prolonged vocalization of a number of spotted hyaenas.
Every track leading north and south from the main tar road that runs along the middle of the Caprivi was explored as we travelled in an easterly direction towards Cheto. I was keeping an eye on the cellphone network coverage for the possible use of GSM collars anywhere in the interior. Unfortunately it seems unless I am specifically working within the Omega vicinity which has a tower, GPS collars are going to be necessary once moving inland from the rivers.
Although the habitat in the Caprivi appears homogeneous from the Trans Caprivi Highway, it is actually incredibly varied from the interior. There are numerous pans though out the park, many of which have dried up since the wet season, but some were slightly damp near the bottom. All of these were investigated for carnivore spoor, but only one had fresh spoor of a lioness and cub that had drunk there within the hour. This pan was approximately 30 km west of the Kwando River, which is a reasonable distance from the main river. The spoor then led in an easterly direction.
Some of the tracks are fairly clear but others are so overgrown that it is hard to tell there is actually a track there.
Spoor of an array of animal species were seen throughout the park. Fresh tracks of spotted hyaena, cheetah and wild dog were picked up between 40km and 60 km east of the Okavango River towards the Angolan border as well as cheetah scat. Fresh cheetah tracks as well as numerous disused hyaena dens were found in the middle of the park near the Botswana border in a mopane woodland habitat. One pan that was filled with water, but was within 100 metres of human habitation and had no tracks of wild animals whatsoever. There were only tracks of livestock that had drunk there.
While driving on a track north of Cheto about 1 km south of Angola we came across two water filled pans with numerous antelope tracks present in the mud. A lone elephant bull with a satellite collar was the only actual wildlife sighting in the vicinity. The habitat east of this area changed to bushy scrub, very similar to areas within Nyae Nyae and ideal for wild dog, where we found and GPS’d a disused wild dog den. There was even a preserved spoor in the hardened substrate on the side of the den just inside the entrance.
Many areas in the Caprivi undulate and change from open grassy veldt to forest thickets very quickly. The forested areas are where most of the spoor and scat of all wildlife was seen.
On Wednesday 28 May 2008 I drove to Popa Falls community campsite to attend a meeting of the Kyaramacan Trust to update them on my progress and inform them of my future plans. I explained the project outlay in having three main objectives, i.e. spotted hyaena demography, human wildlife conflict and community training and capacity building. The biggest San (Bushman) communities within the park are around Cheto and Omega and this is where a number of problems involving large carnivores, especially wild dogs occur. Unfortunately these people are unable to take action when they lose livestock as they are living inside a protected area so none of these animals may be declared “problem animals”. I explained that I would like to investigate in detail occurrences of livestock losses so that we can gain a proper understanding of the conflict and come up with solutions for the long-term. My intentions for capacity building are to train individuals within all the relevant communities of the study to be able to carry out research technician work including collecting samples and use radio telemetry effectively. All training will be done under the guidance and in collaboration with IRDNC and with the communities themselves.
Hyaena information posters provided by the Endangered Wildlife Trust have been handed out to the Sobbe Conservancy office and the Kyaramacan Trust at both the conservancy office at Cheto and at Popa Falls as well as the IRDNC office in Katima Mulilo. All the GPS positions of the carnivore spoor collected during the trip will be recorded in the Incident books at Susuwe Ranger Station in the park.
The telemetry equipment will be ready to send to Namibia from South Africa in early June. I will travel to Windhoek to make arrangements for import and collecting the equipment. Field work will commence in Kwando core area, slightly away from the river due to elephant disturbance. Thereafter I would like to look immediately at the area surrounding Omega due to the conflict.
On Tuesday I depart to Cheto to go through the Event Books where problem animal
incidences as well as predator observations and spoor are recorded by the KT
game guards. I am in the process of writing a report for the Ministry of
Environment and Tourism in order to renew my research permit.
The time has flown by on this trip. Its hard to believe it has been almost a
month since I left Windhoek. It feels so good to be back in the field again. I
forgot what I was missing all this time. One thing that I remember well is that
no two days are alike and it is really difficult to get a schedule going as one
is often working by the seat of one’s pants. Another thing that is glaringly
obvious when one is working on a tight budget is the increasing price of fuel –
I swear someone made the size of a litre smaller too as not only does the bakkie
cost one and a half times more to fill, it seems to get one and a half times
less mileage on the same fuel. Weird.
As I have mentioned before, but not explained – I had the formal introduction at
the Khuta (Traditional Authority office). I was terribly nervous as it is
a whole formal ritualistic thing. The whole meeting introduction to the
Nduna’s (tribal elders) was set up by a local guy called Luskin who is
wonderfully helpful. He instructed me to wear a skirt and to look clean and
neat. I didn’t pack a skirt so I managed to buy a colourful traditional
wraparound that the villagers wear round here. Some of them are a bit
loud, but I got my hands on a nice orange one that would go well with my orange
T-shirt. Back at camp I paraded my outfit to Jeffrey and Raymond who gave
me instructions on how to wrap and tie it properly. They were very
enthusiastic about my traditional dress and said that that the Khuta would
approve.
For a first timer, a khuta is really intimidating. One has to go on ones hands and knees and clap outside the door with your head bowed. The Nduna’s file in and one only speaks when spoken too and this is through a translator. The tribe and language is Mafwe and as I have no previous exposure to it, I had absolutely no idea what was being said. I was politely grilled by the Ndunas on my intentions and I kept an eye on Luskin’s body language out of the corner of my eye and copied every move he made. The Chief was not present, but I was asked if I would like to see the Chief. Now that question is not as easy to answer as one thinks. If I said yes, I might sound demanding and out of place and if I said no, I might come across as rude and arrogant so I ended up saying “only if the Chief has time” - How was I to know that this question was part of the whole introductory ritual. The Chief was at the palace at the far side of the yard. Everyone speaks in hushed tones and bows their head non-stop in a submissive way. I thought I would explode from stress and tension. One Nduna came back to confirm that the Chief would like to see me now. I was hoping that he would be too busy so was getting really nervous at this point.
The clapping, kneeling and submissive ritual outside the palace was quite hectic and once in the presence of the Chief, one stays on the floor until he invites you to sit on the furniture. Chief Mayuni is a wonderful man. He is kind and a visionary of note. A real father figure type. I made so many faux pax in that scenario I couldn’t begin to tell you. I blush when I recall. I have since, on another occasion in an informal setting, met Chief Mayuni again and I bought him a beautiful tie in Katima Mulilo to go with the suit that he wears to formal functions. He is very good looking so I thought that tie would look spectacular on him and he really loved it. I look forward to my next interaction with him.
My bakkie is taking a hammering of a lifetime and I am averaging one flat tyre per week. Not the end of the world and thank goodness it’s a hilux. Toyotas truly are the best. I reckon its got some life left in it yet, which is just as well as one ends up taxiing folks all over the place and loading their thatch grass and reeds that they cut to repair their homes. This is the way of the life here and I am fitting right in. Bliksem is having the time of his life and the challenges and learning curves make him the happiest dog of all time.
Lise Hanssen
I travelled to Shamvura Camp in Kavango and picked up all the darting and
veterinary equipment as well as visual collars that were being stored there
until I set up a permanent camp. On the way I had the opportunity to be
introduced to the Khwe Chief Ben from the west Caprivi. Although I have had
several meetings with the Kyaramacan Association, the Headmen and the Khwe
community, Chief Ben has been unavailable to date.
The GPS collars, R-1000 handheld receiver and two antennae were couriered by
African Wildlife Tracking (AWT) to Windhoek where Vincent Guillemin from the
French Embassy was able to assist me with the import. As I was in the Caprivi
when the equipment arrived, I contacted Simon Mayes and Friedrich Alpers
regarding transport from Windhoek. Friedrich was in Windhoek at the time and was
able to bring the equipment as far as Buffalo, where I picked it up from him.
The GPS unit inside the collar has to be initialized so they are presently
hanging in a tree at the camp where they have good access to overhead
satellites. The units include a VHF facility. All of these operations are
controlled remotely from South Africa by AWT.
I met with the Sobbe Conservancy to familiarize them with the field equipment. There is some concern among conservancy members about creation of jobs and employment within the study. I reiterated that I am not an NGO with a huge budget and at this early time I am unable to commit to such an undertaking, but confirmed that training would take place exposing as many people as possible to field techniques used in the study. Assistants from the community would eventually be required, but this is something that cannot be decided upon in advance and I would prefer to liaise with IRDNC who have background knowledge and a long history of community development in the Caprivi before any decisions are made.
The dart gun has been sighted in and I have had several practice sessions for accuracy over different distances. Ideally I would like to attract hyaenas to within 30 metres of the vehicle or a hide, but a 50 metre darting distance is probably more realistic.
It has recently become clear that a darted hyaena might disappear into the thick surrounding bush or cover a long distance before it is totally immobilized. This could make recovering the animal extremely difficult and possibly dangerous and one would need to track it through the bush in the dark. I am presently looking into telemetry transmitter darts to solve this problem. The embedded dart transmits a frequency that one is able to pick up using a telemetry receiver to find the sleeping animal.
Hyaena scat has been picked up in around the Horseshoe area in the Kwando Core Area. Preliminary analysis shows the remains of tortoise shell, impala hairs and small quills from bird feathers. Once a substantial amount has been collected it will be thoroughly examined and prey remains identified.
Once the equipment arrived I had to start baiting for hyaenas and asked around the conservancies for advice on where the best places would be. Aldrin Siyama from Mayuni suggested I bait near the bomas where the reintroduction of wildebeest by MET took place as hyaenas are regularly seen and heard from there. At the time the hunting concession holder had a client and they were baiting in the area for leopard. If I had baited within a few kilometers of this site, it would have disturbed their activities. Christopher Puso, an employees of Mazambala suggested I look at the area near Nukwa as there are few villages in the area and many animal are seen. I drove to the military base at Nukwa and introduced myself and the project to the personnel. I offered to give notice in advance to the Sergeant if I was darting in the area and explained that I would be hanging bait in the area.
I managed to buy some rib, leg and back of a cow from Sibinda and tied them altogether and attached the bait to a tree between the tar road and military base. I waited at the bait on the first night, but there was no response. I examined the bait the following morning and found leopard and hyaena spoor over a large radius from the bait. There were also pastings on grass stalks, broken grass and scratch marks in the sand. The following night I was in place before sunset and although a leopard visited the bait, there were no hyaenas. I checked the bait for days after that and it was continually visited by leopard, but not by hyaena.
At this point my research permit has expired so I have not continued the baiting until the renewal is in place. I have applied to bait inside Bwabwata National Park which might delay the renewal a while. I have been in touch with trophy hunters to get advice on successful baiting techniques which have worked for them in the field.
I have started examining the construction of livestock kraals in the Mayuni Conservancy and have photographed the many different varieties that I have come across. They range from enclosures made only of cut grass, to thorny sticks, tree branches and logs.
IRDNC have developed a lion-proof kraal of which there is a demonstration model at the office of the Mashi Conservancy and one at Chief Mayuni’s village. This structure is made of very long upright poles (approximately 2 metres) which are sharpened at the end and then interwoven with flexible branches to make almost a solid matting through which there is little visibility. The lion-proof kraal works in a number of ways. Firstly, the visibility through the walls is poor and this is a big factor in whether a predator will attempt to enter the kraal in the first place as it is unable to see the livestock moving about inside. Secondly, the walls are very high which means a lion or another predator would have to climb the walls instead of being able to jump over the side. Thirdly, the structure is very strong, which stops cattle from breaking through the walls when they are scared by a predator that is prowling around the outside. The kraal is constructed wall by wall which means it can be dismantled and moved, which is necessary during the wet season when the floor gets very muddy from water and cow manure.
I have no doubt that this structure will reduce livestock losses inside kraals and many people are vigilant about keeping their livestock penned at night – far more so than I have witnessed on commercial farmlands.
To understand the extent of livestock losses in the area I have been meeting with the field officers of the conservancies and examining the event books. The event books are a monitoring system used within conservancies by the game guards to monitor game and predator observations, livestock losses, problem animals and rare and endangered game species. The sections dealing with livestock losses and predator sightings show that relatively speaking, few predators are actually witnessed on a regular basis and livestock losses are sporadic rather than a constant ongoing problem. This, however, does not make it less of a problem as the number of livestock owned per household is few compared to livestock on commercial farms, therefore so much more damaging to the livestock owners, so even one predator attack is a severe financial setback. From next year when I have a number of hyaenas collared I plan in depth investigation into livestock losses and how exactly they occur, which will assist with livestock management strategies.
My research permit expired at the end of July 2008 so I spent the end of the
month of June and into early July working on a report for MET on my activities
over the past nine months. Most of the report covered my setting up of the
project in the Caprivi Region, basic field work covering the study area and
refining the methodology as well as communication within the conservancies and
communities in the area.
I approached the Namibia Nature Foundation, a Namibian non-profit,
non-government organisation that operates under a Deed of Trust, to administer
project funds on my behalf to which they agreed. An sub-account for the Caprivi
Carnivore Project has been established under their main bank account at Nedbank
Windhoek. This allows eligibility to certain grants and funding that is not
available to individuals, but I can also seek funding within my individual
status. NNF produces an annual financial report and provides me with monthly
financial statements.
The constant rise in petrol prices are a matter of great concern. They are
presently one and a half times higher than they were at the start of this study.
I am currently in the process of writing a number fundraising proposals of which
a large part of the budget is vehicle expenses. I hope that my research permit
will be renewed within the next week or so.
Lise Hanssen
I got the news this morning that my research permit has been renewed. I will pick it up from MET office next week when I go down to Windhoek for the workshop. At last. It has been a long wait.
I have just moved base camp, leaving Mazambala and have set up camp about 5 km away at Mukolo. There is no shower or toilet, so it’s the river and hole digging ….. but it does have an excellent view. Besides leaving Mazambala, my bakkie has a disintegrated CV joint, won’t engage four wheel drive and has two more smashed windows. On Monday I'm having the CV joint fixed in Katima Mulilo then I am operational again. I have got my bucket of cow stomach steaming in the sun and am heading out to the field this evening – dart gun in hand.
In around a weeks time I will be heading to Windhoek for a National Lion Conservation Strategy Workshop, organised by MET, and will have various other meetings before heading back to Caprivi.
Lise Hanssen
In September 2008 I was lucky enough to spend two weeks in Namibia helping Lise Hanssen with her field work. This is a report on my trip.
Lise’s camp is in a beautiful location - on the very edge of the Kwando river floodplain with views out across it. The flood levels are quite high at the moment so the flood plain is flooded and a shallow channel runs past the edge of the camp. In terms of facilities at the camp, then that's easy to describe - there are none. The camp is a campsite which is still in the early stages of being developed and which as yet has no toilets or water supplies. Toilets at the moment consist of the "dig a hole" type. Drinking water has to be brought in from elsewhere, but water from the river channel serves for washing clothes and dishes. It also helps Bliksem cool off as he loves paddling in there and hunting for frogs as well as swimming in a couple of deeper bits. Luckily the channel is shallow and clear and most importantly is crocodile free.
The next morning involved a trip to Katima Mulilo (around 2 hours drive away) to see the state vet to discuss baiting. Because of a foot and mouth disease outbreak in Kavango region all movements of meat were severely restricted which had prevented us bringing meat from Windhoek to use as bait. At the time of the trip, no meat was allowed from East Caprivi into West Caprivi and beyond - and vice versa. The state vet advised that we could take meat in as long as it was purchased from the butchers as this was all checked and proved to be FMD free before going on sale. Once we bought the meat we would have to get it sealed with a veterinary seal then he would issue a permit as it was a special case. Despite the fact that buying meat in this way was going to be far more expensive than other options, it was the only way we could start baiting so we chose to go ahead. I purchased a large piece of cow (just over 23Kg) which we then got sealed and obtained the permit. We then did some shopping for a couple of essentials, had some food then drove back to camp. On the way back we stopped at a roadside stall to purchase some meat. A cows stomach, heart and liver were purchased to go into a plastic tub and rot down to produce a foul stench that we could use to make scent trails. We dropped the tub of meat at camp then drove into West Caprivi to set the bait. The bait was tied to a tree using yellow straps and ratchets to stop the hyenas from dragging the bait away - the idea is to keep them at the bait long enough for them to be darted and fitted with radio collars.
On the way back from setting the bait we stopped in at Susuwe to have a few drinks with various people from WWF and IRDNC who were in the area carrying out the annual game counts. While we were there, Simon Mays let us know a Hyena which had been hit and killed by a vehicle a few days earlier had been taken away by local bushmen to eat, but had eventually decided not to eat it and had thrown the carcass into the bush not far away. We decided to check it out the following morning when there was sufficient light to see.
The next morning we searched in the area where Simon had said the hyena had been dumped, and with some help from Simon and an MET ranger we located the hyena carcass. It was swollen and rotting and was already starting to smell strongly. Hyenas had chewed away a part of the rear end. To identify the age of the hyena accurately Lise needed to remove the head so we could remove the skull. This allows the teeth and skull to be examined later for growth and wear to identify the age of the hyena. Lise therefore had to cut the head off a very unpleasant smelling hyena carcass with her Leatherman knife. Back at camp this was added to the tub or rotting meat to speed the decomposition up and allow us to remove the skull. When we added it, a large number of maggots emerged from inside the eye sockets, attracted by the contents of the tub. We then decided to move the bait we had placed the night before. It wasn't rotten enough yet to smell much, so moving it to near the hyena carcass would be better as the rotting carcass was already attracting hyenas to the area.
That evening we sat at the new bait site for a couple of hours to see if any hyenas would come. Nothing came, and as it was now too dark to dart anything we went up to Susuwe for a braii with the people from WWF and IRDNC who were still in the area.
The following day was spent dealing with emails and other office type work, then in the afternoon we checked the bait and it was clear that something had fed on it after we left. Spoor showed that a leopard had fed on the bait, and that a hyena was also present. A professional hunter who has worked in that area advised that the hyenas are very wary as they've been shot and persecuted, so they wont come anywhere near a vehicle. We therefore decided to relocate the bait the following morning to an area where we could leave the bait in a position that would allow us to approach unseen on foot.
The following morning we went to move the bait only to find that it had completely vanished. Spoor showed a number of hyenas had been there, and they had simply pulled on the meat until the nylon webbing straps had given way. These straps are extremely strong, so for a hyena to snap it gives an idea of how powerful they are. As well as taking the bait, they had also either eaten or carried away the rotting hyena carcass without leaving any sign that it had ever been there. After finding the bait gone we spent several hours scouting for suitable baiting sites where we could hang the bait out of the reach of the hyenas so they couldn't take it away, and which also allowed us to exit the vehicle some distance away and to approach unseen on foot. We identified an ideal looking spot which we marked on the GPS and returned to camp. While travelling back to camp, Lise got a call from a professional hunter working in East Caprivi. A client of his had shot an elephant, and the PH was offering us a piece of the meat to use as bait. We agreed to travel to the hunters camp the following day as long as permits could be arranged. Because elephants are a protected species then transporting the meat or other parts of the carcass without a valid permit is a serious offence. When a trophy hunter shoots an elephant or other animal the meat is donated to the local community - which in the case of an elephant is a large amount of meat which is a big help to very poor communities. The Professional Hunter is able to keep some meat for use as baits, and can make arrangements with the community to keep some more meat which in this case was donated for Lise's conservation work.
That afternoon was spent checking for other possible baiting sites in the West Caprivi. We had to make detours to avoid flooded areas where the road is impassable, and also to avoid a bush fire. As the rains were due in a few weeks then there are fires all over the Caprivi as people burn the bush to clear fields. There are also fires set by officials to get rid of overgrown dry vegetation safely as leaving it to catch fire naturally could result in a serious fire rather than a controlled burn. The atmospheric conditions seemed to help control the fires as during the day they burned fiercely with smoke rising into the atmosphere, but at night the smoke didn't rise very far and stayed near the ground like a thick fog, and the fires also died down. The smoke did make it hard to breathe on occasion and irritated the throat, so on our way back to camp we stopped at the "Cheap shop" shebeen near Kongola. A shebeen is a cross between a local shop and a bar and typically has loud music blaring out late into the night.
The next morning we set off to the hunters camp. When we got to Katima Mulilo we stopped at the state vets office and checked about permits. We were told to collect the meat then bring it back to the vet to be sealed with a special veterinary seal and a permit issued (as we'd done with the beef). We then headed East till we reached the Botswana border at Ngoma. Shortly before the border post we turned off onto an unsigned dirt track and headed east till we eventually reached the hunters camp on the banks of the Chobe river with a beautiful view of Botswana just across the river. The professional hunter gave us some paperwork to prove the meat had been donated to Lise and giving details of the permit under which the elephant had been shot. We were then shown the meat and given help loading it into the back of the Hilux. The meat was a piece of trunk from near where it joined the head. I was stunned by the size of it - I couldn't put my arms around its circumference, and despite being only a foot or two in length was extremely heavy - maybe 50Kg. I commented that the hyenas wouldn't drag this away easily but the PH said he'd seen a single hyena drag an entire elephant head for over 100m !! After loading up we headed back to Katima Mulilo and purchased a ground sheet and some cable ties so we could wrap the meat and fasten it up ready for the veterinary seal to be attached. We then headed over to the state vets office to get the seal and permit. We then decided to treat ourselves to a proper cooked meal and stopped for burgers (as the camp has no refrigeration facilities meat is off the menu unless its tinned as fresh or frozen meat goes off very fast in the African heat). After sharing our burgers with Bliksem we headed back to camp for a well deserved sleep.
The next morning we headed out early to our chosen baiting spot and began a long hard job of hanging the bait. The first step was to open the bundle to get at the meat. This proved to be very unpleasant as by this time the meat was stinking with a very powerful and unpleasant odour, and it was crawling with maggots - we realised then that this wasn't going to be a fun job. Because the meat was a piece of trunk, it did have one big benefit for us - we needed to thread straps through it to hoist it into the tree, and this was made a lot easier because the nostril holes ran though it, so we just had to push the straps through and tie them off to get a good secure fastening. Unfortunately lifting the meat proved harder than expected. To get the height we needed I had to stand on the lowered tailgate of the bakkie and try and use the ratchets to winch the meat up. Unfortunately they weren't strong enough to lift it, so manual lifting and looping the straps and hooks round strong branches proved to be the only option. Despite this the meat wasn't quite high enough, so Lise volunteered to do the worst job of the morning - she crawled under the meat and lifted it on her shoulders while I pulled from above and finally managed to tie it off in a suitable position. It was at this point when we were both covered in blood, slime and maggots (Lise got the worst of the maggots from going under the meat) that we realised that for the first and only time during the field trip, we'd come out without any water. This meant we were going to have to drive back to camp covered in blood, slime and maggots. Before setting off we removed as many maggots as possible and Lise used a bottle of liquid from the cow bucket to lay a scent trail, then we found something for Lise to sit on to avoid ruining the seats then we drove back to camp and raced for the water to get ourselves clean. Lise headed off for a swim while I tried out a portable shower I'd purchased the previous day and which thankfully proved to work well. After we finally got clean and put our clothes in water to soak we were able to relax for a few hours.
The afternoon was spent with Lise working on the laptop dealing with emails, writing proposals and reports, while I spent some time tackling the hyena head that we'd collected a few days earlier. The head can't be left to soak for too long or the teeth all fall out, so I removed it from the bucket of blood and meat and tackled the job of removing the fur and meat to reveal the skull itself. With the exception of a couple of teeth that had already fallen into the bucket, the skull was removed intact and the lower jaw in two parts.
In the evening we did a quick check on the bait (untouched) and then headed off to a lodge around 30 minutes drive away for dinner with an elephant researcher who was based there and working in the area. Again it was nice to have a good cooked meal (and not have to wash up afterwards).
The following morning started with a trip to check the bait. Spoor showed that a hyena had found the bait and looked at it carefully but it hadn't attempted to feed on it - it was clearly suspicious. While we were there we used some spare rope from the washing line in camp to pull the meat up a little higher as it was sagging down on one side and could easily be reached by a hyena if we didn't lift it higher.
After breakfast we went to visit Chief Mayuni at his village. This was an informal meeting so we could look at his lion proof kraal. A formal meeting would involve a trip to the khuta with all the rituals that involves. We then did another drive through the west Caprivi looking for alternative darting/baiting spots, but the drive had to be cut short due to elephants blocking the road.
Back at camp Lise mixed up some zoletil and calculated dosages before attempting to load the darts ready for morning. Unfortunately there was a problem due to the hypodermic needles in her kit being too short. This meant a darting trip for the morning was out of the question so we planned to check nearby medical clinics to see if they had a suitable needle we could get. The darts are loaded by filling a hypodermic syringe with the drug being used and then inserting the hypodermic needle down the needle of the dart until it punctures a membrane inside the dart. This membrane hold the drug inside the dart until the dart impacts on the target when the force bursts the membrane. The hypodermic therefore needs to be long enough to pierce the membrane and also the correct thickness - too thick and it won't fit through the darts needle, too thin and it risks not being effective.
The following day was spent travelling around East Caprivi checking medical
centres, pharmacies and vets for a suitable needle. Nowhere had the right size
needle, but we did manage to get an IV canula (used for delivering drugs
intravenously) which was just long enough and of a suitable width to allow Lise
to load the darts. It seems hard to imagine if you haven't spent time in places
like the Caprivi that it can take an entire day just to get something simple
like a hypodermic needle, but that's the way life is there - there aren't many
places where supplies of any sort can be bought, and most involve a two hour (or
more) drive, and if there isn't any stock then that's half a day or more wasted.
There is also no such thing as a quick drive as you frequently have to stop to
give people lifts. People in the Caprivi are very poor and there is no public
transport so people get around either by walking long distances or by getting
lifts from passing motorists. People living or working in the area are expected
to stop to offer lifts and almost all do.
The next day we left camp at 5.15am to try and reach the bait around sunrise. We misjudged the distance from the bait and stopped around 2km away instead of the 1km we had intended, so by the time we reached the bait the sun had already risen. Spoor showed lots of hyena activity but still none had attempted to feed on the bait.
The next day was an even earlier start - leaving camp at 5am. This time we had planned ahead and placed a discreet marker by the dirt track so we knew where to stop, and we arrived at the bait on foot just before the sun came over the horizon. Unfortunately the hyenas had already left by this time. We headed back to camp for a quick breakfast before we packed some supplies and set off on the long drive to Windhoek. We had planned to stop half-way but were making good time so pushed on and after 12 hours driving we finally made it back to Windhoek ready for my flight back to the UK the next afternoon.
Although we didn't manage to dart a hyena, the trip was still very productive as
it confirmed that hyenas will come to bait, and also gave Lise ideas on what to
change in her baiting strategy to have a better chance of success on the next
attempt.
The trip was certainly not a relaxing one, but it gave me a much better insight
into the realities of studying hyenas - late nights, extremely early mornings,
extremely basic accommodation, and of course the smells of rotting meat that are
not pleasant for those doing the work, but which are irresistible to a hyena.
Anthony May
While in Windhoek I was successful in obtaining proper rope to replace the yellow nylon straps, but despite calling all the medical and veterinary supply wholesalers, was unable to find 2 cc 18 gauge needles. I was able to get a number of 2 cc 18 gauge IV canulas from SWAVET which they sold to me at a discounted rate.
Veterinary Services have been hopeful that the foot and mouth disease outbreak would soon be contained and I was hoping that I would be able to purchase game meat from the commercial farmlands as well as obtain blood from MEATCO for scent trails before departing for the north. Unfortunately the quarantine conditions were still in place at that time.
When I returned to Caprivi after three weeks in Windhoek, the elephant bait was still hanging in the tree although it was rock hard. On examining it I found that it had been eaten from the back end by a leopard and there were claw marks in the tree trunk. There were also fresh leopard and hyaena tracks around the tree and fresh hyaena scat close by. It is possible that hyaenas have visited this bait daily during my absence. I put the bait on the ground and removed all the straps and ratchets.
Alan Cillier, the previous hunting concession holder advised me that he and his clients were successful in shooting hyaenas on the bait only during the early morning hours as they were unable to hunt at night. Although Ant and I had attempted sneaking up to a suitable darting point near the bait as early as 05.30 in the morning, we were not successful. As the predators in Bwabwata are so skittish I decided to erect a hide in the form of a small tent about 30 metres at the bait site a few days before the baiting process continues, so tonight I am off to set up a hide at the same place and want to sleep overnight in the park to see if I can get one in the early morning.
The dried and shrunken (but still intact) bait in the tree
Ngweze butchery in Katima provided me with a large piece of shoulder bone and meat at a discount rate which was sealed and permitted by veterinary services. Unfortunately the FMD outbreak has spread so quarantine restrictions will remain in place indefinitely.
I paid a visit to the military base inside Bwabwata to ask whether they had a rubbish dump near the base which the park hyaenas might pay a visit to. Fresh hyaena tracks are often seen on the sandy track leading to the base. I drove to the entrance of the road and noticed that close to its entrance was a large concrete culvert that led under the main trans- Caprivi highway. On closer inspection I noticed both leopard and hyaena spoor leading into the culvert on the Susuwe side and exiting on the military base side and then proceeding along the track. From other spoor inside the culvert it seems that many species of wildlife are using these tunnels to cross the main road. The Staff Sergeant said that hyaenas regularly visited the base, but that the rubbish was no longer dumped inside the park. He showed me the old dump and there were fresh hyaena spoor nearby. Behind the dump was a large hyaena latrine with a number of visible hyaena scat. The soldiers said that they see and hear hyaenas often. This could be interesting as they are obviously used to people in this particular area which might make darting easier. The Staff Sergeant and the soldiers were most accommodating and had no objection to the darting and collaring of hyaenas from the base. Baiting at the military base will take place once the Susuwe hyaenas have become slightly more habituated.
The heat is now white hot. The midday's are torture. Getting up at five in the morning now, might change that to four just to get stuff done as it is just too hot over lunch time. Forget sleeping in a tent right now - it’s a shady tree or the river only or you will fry to death. Heard the first thunder yesterday afternoon and the clouds are building up for the wet season. I thought that it might rain yesterday, but may be a while yet.
Lise Hanssen
Bait follow up…… After checking the area at first light the following morning, I found that the elephant meat bait that I'd placed on the ground had disappeared. A light shower of rain during the night was enough to obscure any spoor of visitors to the bait site. The very first time it was put on the ground it disappeared without a trace. Those yellow straps must have freaked them out enough for them to not touch the bait while it was hanging up. Its amazing that they have probably visited that bait every single night since it was first put out. Imagine how they must have been salivating over it. Shame. I have got proper brown rope now so hopefully this will sort that problem out.
Anyway, the hide is up. I am going to leave it there for a few days just so they get used the flapping sounds and the colour. Next week I am off to Katima Mulilo again and will hang the meat probably on Monday night. The stinky liquid is still here in bottles so the scent trails are taken care of.
A bottle containing liquid for scent trails
I am going to leave the bait up for about three nights and then I am going to overnight in the hide. By then they should be well used to the hide and should be visiting the meat in droves. After that it’s the military base.
Lise Hanssen
The hyaena skull has now been glued together. Unfortunately one of the canine teeth is missing, but other than that it looks good. I am the process of brewing a new stash of stink which I also added a few eggs to this time – should come out beautifully.
After the hide had been in place for 3 days, the chunk of meat was chopped in half. One half stayed in a flour sack at camp to rot, while the other piece was transported across the checkpoint to the park. It was firmly strapped up and hoisted into the same tree that the elephant meat had been hung. I was interested to know the reaction that any visitors would have to the tent that is clearly visible from the tree, but the next morning there were quite a few spoor of hyaena in the sand nearby. None had approached the tree, but it seemed that they had stood around for quite some time looking at it.
From a number of sources I had learned that the longer the bait is left, the more hyaenas it would attract. It would be ideal for darting to have a feeding frenzy as individual animals don’t seem to realize that they have been darted in all the excitement and often blame their immediate neighbours for the sharp sting of the dart. I decided that the bait should hang for another three nights and then the hide could be tried out. While I waited this out, the bait was checked daily for activity, but it seemed that interest in the bait was waning despite putting a lot of effort into reinforcing scent trails on a daily basis.
Lise Hanssen laying a scent trail to attract the hyenas to the bait
Its still as hot as hell here although we had a sprinkling of rain yesterday. Just enough to bring out a huge batch of mosquitoes.
Lise Hanssen
The hyaena scat samples collected by Dan Stephens who used to do game drives in the park for Mazambala Island Lodge and the scat collected at the latrine behind the military base were examined in order to identify choice of prey species. There is often very little evidence inside hyaena scat because their digestives systems are so powerful that even the organic part of bones is absorbed leaving only the inorganic part to be excreted.
That is why hyaena scat is white and powdery almost like chalk. What was discovered was most fascinating and included red, white and black hairs from impalas, tan hairs from kudus, wiry black hairs from warthogs, matted soft hair from scrub hares, a single yellow chick feather, lots of small bone fragments, one tooth fragment, one horn fragment, insect pupa casings, beetle exoskeletons, hoof fragments, two baboon finger nails and what looked like the broken brown glass from beer bottles of which there are many in the old dump site. The contents have been properly sorted, stored and labelled for a more thorough analysis at a later date.
After the third night of declining interest in the bait, I decided to make a massive effort with scent trails from the reeking bale of rotten meat and water brewing back at camp and then spend the first night in the hide. As the hide’s objective is to be able to dart successfully, little thought was put into whether it was ideally situated for sleeping in when initially erected so was not tested out for hillocks and other lumps under the ground sheet. These have now become apparent after spending a couple of nights sleeping jammed between the rifle and equipment cases.
As the park carnivores are very skittish I have not wanted to use a spot light or torch from the hide. Unfortunately this leaves me with a small window which falls between sunset and dart and dawn and sunrise the following morning in which I hope they will pay a visit to the bait as it is light enough to see. The first evening was very quiet and there were no sounds during the night. In the morning, only one set of hyaena tracks were found with difficulty. It seemed that it had strolled past at a distance and not even stopped to get a closer look.
I decided that it was time to use the rotting piece of meat tied up in a bag at camp. I would drag it and then reinforce this trail with scent made from the mixture of meat and water that had been lying in the sun for three days. When the meat was dumped out of the bag, a truckload of maggots followed, which I hoped might also attract attention. I tied a rope through the bones of the meat and then dragged it on foot through the veldt and tied it at the base of the tree in the hope that this would entice the hyaenas well within darting range.
Nothing appeared before dark, but around 23.30 there was a loud crunching of bone at the bait tree. Later on the evening the bone crunching resumed and there was also quite a bit of noise from an elephant very close by. At first light in the morning there was a growl from a leopard only a few metres away from the hide and then silence as the sun came up. Spoor revealed that there were at least three hyaenas and a leopard at the bait. One set of hyaena tracks came very close to the tent. The bait was dragged the extent of the rope length away from the tree and had been half eaten, bones, maggots and all. I was surprised that 3 feeding hyaenas had made so little sound. Most of the noise had been made by the elephant whose spoor had followed the scent trail all the way to the bait tree. Its possible that it had made an attempt at chasing the carnivores away leaving the meat only half finished.
As the hyaenas are visiting so late and the moon has been rising only in the early hours of the morning, there is no choice, but to use artificial light for darting. A double thick red filter has been put on the Maglite. Its success (or failure) will be reported on in the next update.
Lise Hanssen
Since the last update, I have been actively baiting and laying scent trails over great distances, which were “refreshed” on a daily basis. I have kept thorough records of the baiting and scent trail process and a general pattern has emerged. Contrary to information I have received regarding large numbers of hyaenas attracted to bait over time, I have found, with the exception of one occasion, only three or four sets of hyaena spoor at the bait over a period of three or four days. The bait quickly attracts leopard which will visit nightly until the bait disintegrates. I suspect that my presence in the hide has much to do with my lack of success as hyaenas are notoriously suspicious of people especially in areas where they have been persecuted. Data from the event books appears to back this up as the presence of hyaenas has been noted through sightings of spoor only, with the exception of a couple of actual visuals. Results from the dry season game count data from WWF for the Caprivi region show the same thing with actual sightings of hyaenas counted at less than 10 individuals.
With the onset of the rainy season, baiting has become difficult as rain washes away the scent trails and I am even more dependant on hyaenas that know that the bait is there, rather than attracting individuals that happen to pick up the scent trails. Essentially the baiting process has been one of chance even if I have improved the odds by increasing the distance of the scent trails. As a result I have looked into various methods used in southern Africa for the capture of spotted hyaenas and have had a lot of feedback from people working in areas such as Kruger National Park, Etosha National Park and the Kalahari.
I also investigated the use of Dormicum which is a powerful sedative often used as a premed in human surgery and which works very well in felines where they are wary of people. Although I have heard mixed reports regarding hyaenas and dormicum, including that it can excite them rather than sedate them, I also received some excellent information from Gus Van Dyk, who I worked with in the 90’s during a cheetah reintroduction into Madikwe Game Reserve. He had tremendous success with Dormicum while capturing spotted hyaenas in Etosha for Madikwe and even managed to sedate 12 individuals at one bait site.
Dr Paul Funston from Kruger kindly provided me with the specs for a sound system in order to project sounds of animals in distress over distances exceeding 7 km.
The rough field work and possibly the wet conditions have been extremely hard on
my vehicle. One morning while making my way back to camp after a night in the
hide, the fuel injection system packed up leaving me stranded in the park out of
cell phone range about 20 km west of Kongola. After walking along the main tar
road, I managed to get a weak signal and was rescued by Andre Schroeder from the
Engen Station at Kongola. I was towed to Katima by Dan Stephens where the fuel
injection system was bypassed temporarily so that my car would at least start.
I decided that it was time to make a trip to Windhoek to get my vehicle fixed
up, get a prescription for Dormicum from Dr. Mark Jago from MET and to buy a
sound system for call ups.
While in Windhoek I also visited the WWF headoffice and was kindly offered a trip camera for the hyaena work in Caprivi. Vincent Guilliame from the French Embassy instructed me on the correct use of the camera. My vehicle was serviced and repaired and I managed to put together a state of the art sound system which includes, an MP3 player, two 60 W horn speakers, 20 metres of cables, a 120 W amplifier and two dry cell 12 V batteries. The entire system cost approximately N$7000, but in addition to baiting I will use it for call stations during the dry season, which will be repeated annually for the next three years in order to monitor the spotted hyaena population throughout the Caprivi.
I have contacted by film producers in the UK to make a documentary on the hyaenas for Discovery Channel. I will be departing on the 15 December for Omaruru to meat up with a crew to discuss filming the promo for Discovery. Thereafter I will be driving back to the Caprivi where I will attempt to improve the hyaena response using sound.
Lise Hanssen
© Predator Conservation Trust.
