Main Painted Dog project page: Updates from 2010
Archived 2009 updates: March 2009 April 2009 July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 November/December 2009
Archived 2008 updates: April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 August 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008
Archived 2007 updates (this page): January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September/October 2007 November 2007 December 2007
Archived 2006 Updates: February 2006 April 2006, May 2006, June 2006, October 2006 November 2006 December 2006
Arguably the most significant event to take place, in the struggle against the relentless tide of poaching, since we set up the first professional anti poaching unit in 2001, occurred this month. It was named “Operation Bush Buck”.
A significant aspect of our committed anti poaching effort is the development of relationships with the local authorities such as Police, National Parks and Forestry Commission. Martin Stiemer has been at the forefront of this, with his professional background proving invaluable once again. He has worked closely with our APU Supervisor, Sikhosana Sibanda, stressing the importance of building and maintaining such relationships. Sikhosana has listened well. He has liaised with these authorities over the years, on many occasions talking about the frustration of arresting the same poachers time and again.
Operation Bush Buck was born out of these numerous discussions.
On January 11th I received a letter from the Officer in Charge of Dete Police Station, outlining the operation and seeking our support. I instructed Sikhosana to attend the briefing, which was conducted on January 17th. The Officer in Charge placed a very strong emphasis on the need for secrecy.
On January 18th, Sikhosana accompanied the Officer in Charge, the Warden from Main Camp and the Supervisor from the Forestry Commission station in Dete. Their aim was to survey the targeted villages of Magoli, Mambanje, Chezhou, Chentali, Marist and Nyagara. These villages border Hwange National Park on one side and Forestry Commission land on the other. Over the years, we have arrested more poachers from these villages than any others. It was certainly time to “up the ante”.
At 2am on January 19th, a combination of Police, National Parks Scouts, Forestry Commission and our APU met at the Dete Police Station and were divided into two teams of 26, before they headed for the targeted villages. Like a scene from a Hollywood movie the teams struck at first light, catching the poachers by surprise. With little, if any struggle, an impressive haul was recovered. A total of 54 people were arrested. Of these, 38 people were charged with poaching related offences. They received penalties ranging from 35 hours community service to 2 years in prison.
As stated, such an action is a considerable step towards dealing with the menace of poaching. The Officer in Charge, Dete, has pledged that he will carry out similar raids in other regions in the same manner, with utter secrecy and the necessary manpower to make the exercise a success. This action is greatly appreciated and comes at a time when we are under so much pressure as we remain as the only professionally run anti poaching unit in the region, with other initiatives, though well meaning, having come and gone. With appropriate committed support we would increase our APU effort, recognising that it is the only solution to talking the immediate threat carried by poaching to the regions wildlife recourse. Education and development programmes are essential for long term change, however they need time to work and without a concerted, professional anti poaching effort, we will run out of time.
Our thanks and sincerest appreciation goes out to the Officer in Charge, Dete, The Warden at Hwange Main Camp and the Supervisor at Forestry Commission in Dete for their help. Above all, we would like to express our gratitude to the organisations and individuals alike, who continue with their committed support of our anti poaching efforts.
Peter Blinston
Photo
© PDC
February proved to be a hectic month.
Our Anti-Poaching Unit were again in the headlines with the arrest of yet
another poacher. This particular poacher was one they have been after for some
time, clearly a “professional” at his deadly trade, our Anti-Poaching Unit
recognising his style of setting snares on a number of occasions. On two
previous occasions they had sat in ambush for him, only to be frustrated by the
fact that he did not return to check his snares. Our men were beginning to think
that this poacher had supernatural powers of sight, a “strong dreamer” who knew
that his snares had been found and a trap set, thus he would not return to his
snares, avoiding the inevitable capture. Superstitious belief is a very real
phenomenon in Africa.
On an early morning patrol our men followed the signs to a freshly set snare
line. Two buffalo lay dead, contorted bodies testament to their agonising
struggle, our men commented on the use, yet again, of the telephone wire, which
they had reported to the local phone company. Our men recognised the poachers’
hand and set the ambush accordingly, taking extra care as this guy had “powers”.
Their patience and determination were rewarded this time as their particular
nemesis emerged from the bush and gave up without any struggle. At the police
station in Dete, he confessed to this offence and other incidents, describing in
detail the location of snares he had set, which matched the records of our APU.
He was sentenced to ten months in prison.
Tragically, two of our Mashambo pack was run over on the main Bulawayo to Vic
Falls road, reducing the pack to 5. With only the alpha pair, one surviving
female from their 2005 litter and two pups from the 2006 litter, they are again
looking very vulnerable. It’s a long process, but we have again approached the
Ministry of Transport for authority to erect more road signs, warning motorists
of the dog’s presence. Most of the original signs that were erected in 1997 have
disappeared, taken as souvenirs by passing motorists!!
We received a report of a dog carrying a snare from a local safari operator, and
with the report of the death of the two Mashambo still very fresh in our minds,
Jealous was determined to find this injured dog so that we could treat it. He
knew it was the Pilansberg pack; there was no doubt, as the report came from the
area they currently occupy. To add to that was the fact that Jealous had
recovered the bodies of two of the Pilansberg a couple of weeks earlier, killed
in snares in a notorious area, which has seen a relentless tide of poaching
following the resettlement of local people into a formerly pristine wildlife
area. All of our anti poaching efforts have struggled to make much more than a
dent in these particular poaching activities and we are trying to work with the
new landowners, encouraging them to set up permanent anti poaching initiatives
of their own. It’s a slow process.
Jealous was on the case, he did not want to lose another of “his dogs”, like
Greg and I, Jealous takes the loss of any dog personally. He dissected the
region in search of the pack as best he could, given the torrential rain and
very treacherous cotton soil, which can entrap a careless driver in his
landrover for many days. All of the Pilansberg pack are collared and he picked
up the signal from one of the collars as the rain poured down upon him. He
skilfully manoeuvred his way through the sticky mud towards the pack, he had to
see the dogs, his trained eye would spot the slightest sign of injury. The mud
and rain defeated him, however rather than return home for a hot shower and a
warm meal. He slept in his landrover, cold, wet and hungry. He would not abandon
his dogs. At first light the dogs moved out on their daily hunting forage and
Jealous followed, quickly closing in on them, as his priority was to get a good
“visual” on the pack. To his relief they were all there and showed no sign of
injury. He concluded that the person reporting an injured dog had perhaps
mistaken the collar for a wound. Tired, wet and hungry he came home. The fact
that the dogs were safe and well mattered most.
Peter Blinston
Photo
© PDC
Sometimes in Rains. Not in the real sense of welcome nourishment for the parched landscape, but in the sense of a seemingly relentless onslaught to our emotions, as our lives are intrinsically intertwined with those of our beloved dogs.
Beans died in March. He was the brother of our Umtchibi packs Alpha male, Pita. He was the dog that led the fight against the marauding lions, who killed three of his brothers new born pups back in July 2006. The courage he showed then won him a special place in our hearts and we have been desperate for news of his whereabouts since he dispersed from his brother’s pack in October 2006.
Staff at the Wilderness Camps contacted us towards the end of February this year, saying they had seen a very sick looking dog on its own. It was collared and they thought that it was the same dog they had seen some weeks before, part of a pack of five. The Wilderness Camps are a long way from our normal area of operation, so we welcomed this news as a sighting but felt that there was little we could do as they did not know where the dog was on the day we got the report. Only a week or so later they contacted us again, saying that the same dog was now lying near a waterhole and looked even worse. I was in Harare, the birth of my son tearing at my loyalties and commitments. Jealous of course was on the case and accompanied by our Phd student, Ester, he drove to the location immediately. Three hours later, he picked up the signal from the collar, which identified the sick dog as Beans. Beans did not move as they drove closer and got out of the landrover by his side. They placed him in the landrover and rushed back to our rehabilitation facility and reasonable communications. Beans was too sick to make the journey to the nearest vet in Bulawayo and so the vet, Bonny Reid Rowland, talked ester through the procedures necessary to try and save his life. These included stitching up his severed windpipe. His horrific wounds caused by a snare that had missed his protective collar and cut deeply into his throat. This wound and what appeared to be bite marks on his back were infested with maggots. Ester and Jealous, aided by our Office Manager, Foggie, did all they could but Beans died. My torment at not being there was complete and I lamented the fact that our clinic was still under construction rather than operational. Maybe, just maybe, Beans would be alive if the clinic was open, with a resident vet on hand and appropriate equipment available.
This tragedy was soon followed by the mysterious death of Marble, the Alpha male from our Mashambo pack. Jealous, as ever, was searching for the pack, relying on his acquired knowledge and the signal from Marble’s radio collar. He picked up the signal but knew immediately that there was a problem as the collar was giving out the “dead” signal. A slow 6 beeps per minute pulse that tells us that either the dog wearing the collar has not moved for over 24 hours or the collar has fallen off. We always hope for the latter, but usually in such instances it is the former. This was no exception and Jealous walked in to find Marble’s decomposing body. There was no snare, or sign of injury. Inspecting his mouth revealed very worn and broken teeth, indicating that Marble was very old and so perhaps he simply died of old age. We will never know. What we do know is that the Mashambo pack has now dissolved. Marble’s death left the alpha female with her 21 month old daughter and two 8 month old pups. Jealous has searched their home range from top to bottom and not located these missing dogs. Confirmation of their demise perhaps came when one of the 8 month old pups turned up at our rehabilitation facility on his own. He didn’t hesitate to take the food we offered him, however he has so far evaded all our efforts to catch him, as we surely must, as an 8 month old painted dog can not survive on his own. If we can catch him, we will integrate him into our “rehab pack”, which is destined for release back into the wild later this year.
Peter Blinston
Photo
© PDC
A familiar roller coaster ride during the last few weeks has left us all rather bewildered. The dogs of course are the ones responsible.
We had hardly recovered from the loss of Beans when a report came in from a farm along the main road towards Victoria Falls; they had seen a dog looking in a terrible state, with only one leg and pitifully thin. Jealous responded and with Esters help they managed to recover the dog and get it to our rehabilitation facility. He was too far-gone with shocking wounds, a snare had amputated his leg, and he had also lost one eye, though long ago. He did not last the night.
Close behind this incident came news that 6 dogs, 4 of them collared had been seen on one of the farms to the east of us in the Gwayi Conservancy area. Jealous again followed up on this, he was sure it was the Pilansberg pack based on the number of dogs reported and the location, after several hours of tracking he homed in on the signal from one of the collars. He had been right of course, it was the Pilansberg pack, however to his surprise and pleasure he soon realised that the Mashambo alpha female and her daughter had joined the Pilansberg males. We had lost track of the females, fearing the worse, following the death of the Mashambo alpha male.
His pleasure soon dissolved when he noticed that one of the males was badly snared around the neck. He kept with the pack until they stopped hunting, waited with them for an hour to be sure that they were now resting for the day then he raced back to the office to collect me. We drove back quickly and found the dogs resting in shady teak woodland. It was a relatively easy operation to manoeuvre the landrover through the trees, Jealous smiled as he does, commenting on the fact that there were no acacia thorns. We have done this so many times together. Hardly a word needs to be exchanged between us, a subtle hand signal is enough, pointing the way as his eyes pick out the injured dog, guiding me into a position where I can dart it.
The injured dog stood up. The range finder told me he was 28 metres away, which is further than I would normally like to dart from because the dogs present such a small target area, however I knew he would not allow us to get any closer as injured dogs always increase their flight distance from any apparent threat. Jealous turned the engine off and I took careful aim as the dog turned slightly. He was now presenting himself side on, he turned his head to look at me as if asking to be darted. My aim was true and the dart hit perfectly in the muscle of his hindquarters. He jumped slightly then walked away. Five minutes later he was down and I walked over, picked him up and carried him back to the landrover. The snare wound was deep. Copper telephone wire had cut into the muscle of his neck on one side. The snare had been caught on his collar on the other side, which was probably why he was still alive. Without the collar he would have been decapitated or certainly had his windpipe cut, resulting in death. We worked quickly to cut the wire away, clean the wound and inject him with anti biotic. A quick decision was made to take him to our rehabilitation facility, we felt his best chance of making a speedy recovery would be at our facility, where he could rest and eat. I was happy that the rest of the pack would come and find him and perhaps it would help in keeping them closer to us, in an area patrolled more regularly by our APU. Failing that, I knew that Jealous would have no trouble finding the pack when the time came to reintroduce the injured dog.
Sikhosana lobbied the telephone company again in Dete. It was their phone line that was again being used for snares. We have repeatedly offered a tractor, trailer and the man power needed to recover all the phone lines that have fallen down, however the phone company have declined to accept this offer, saying that the lines will be repaired. We have pointed out that soon there will be no lines left to repair.
Peter Blinston
Photo
© PDC
The radio by my bedside crackled into life. “Peter, Peter, Jealous, do you copy”. “Peter this is Jealous, can you hear me”?
We don’t have the most formal of radio communications, anyone with a military background would probably shudder, however it works for us. Woken from my slumber, I fumbled around in the dark and grabbed the radio.
“Jealous this is Peter, what’s your message”?
“I am two kilometres past the turn off for Caterpillar pan, along the road to Makwa. There are three dogs and one has a bad snare wound around its neck”.
“Ok, I will be there are soon as I can”.
I swore out loud and gathered my senses, walking to my landrover in the dark. I
knew it had all the equipment in it that I would need. Jealous makes sure of
that. I drove at speed through the bush as the orange glow in the eastern sky
slowly replaced the cold night air with welcome warmth.
I drove up along side Jealous. One of the three dogs was collared and Jealous
sat listening to the signal from the collar. It was the young male from the
Umtchibi pack that I had collared on New Years Eve. Jealous confirmed that the
other two dogs had formerly been members of the Umtchibi pack, so were delighted
to know that they were in fact still alive, having lost contact with them some
months before when the Umtchibi pack fragmented, leaving just the alpha male and
female plus one other female.
This delight was of course diluted by the knowledge that one of these dogs was snared. Jealous showed me pictures he had taken. The wound looked horrific.
The dogs were still-hunting so we quickly set about following them, confident that we would be able to stay with them thanks to the collar. Despite the years of experience we have, our tracking ability and knowledge of the dogs was tested to the limit as the pack zigzagged through the bush. They crossed the railway line twice, which is easy on foot but it requires a 10 km detour in a landrover. We knew we could not lose the pack, the intensity of the challenge was one we have experienced many times, we enjoy it, however this time the pressure was acute as the very life of one of our beloved dogs depended on our abilities. Jealous moved into his trackers seat on the front of my landrover. He searched for the dogs spoor as I stubbornly kept within range of the signal emitted from the collar. Our knowledge of the roads in the area is complete, which also helped us stay in touch until the dogs rested. Their hunt had been unsuccessful. It had also been incredibly long and so they had expended much energy, typical for small packs, which always live on the edge in terms of energy budgets. We could only imagine the agonies suffered by the snared dog during such a chase.
But now the pack had come to a stop and we knew they would rest now during the heat of the day. This was our window of opportunity. The signal from the collar was strong; I estimated that they were some 500 metres away in the teak woodland. I looked at Jealous and he simply shrugged his shoulders then pointed the way. He knew we would have to steer the car through trees, risking punctures and more serious damage to the vehicle but the cost could not be compared to the life of a dog.
I shifted the landrover into low gear and moved slowly through the bush, at
least there were no thorns. We closed in on the signal from the collar, an
acquired skill, which enables us to home in on a collar from some two kilometres
away and pick it up if we have to. This time we just wanted to get close enough
to the dogs for me to be able to dart the injured one.
I manoeuvred the landrover through the bush until we came up to the resting
dogs. They were quite relaxed and I was able to get the landrover into a
position that would give me a shot at the injured dog. Its awkward to both
manoeuvre the landrover and concentrate on darting, however the dog in its
injured was reluctant to move, probably the long hunt contributing this as well.
Anyway, it gave me the opportunity I needed and from only 12 metres away I was
not going to miss. Five minutes later the dog was “down”. The snare removed and
the wound cleaned we took the injured dog to our rehabilitation facility, where
we hope he will recover quickly. His two pack mates are already moving towards
the rehab and we expect to be able to release him soon.
This incident comes on the back of several similar ones, which we have had to endure during the past weeks. It also serves to underline the significance of the long-term support we desperately need to secure. It is such support that allows us to be prepared, ready to deal with these incidents through our rehabilitation facility in particular. It means that Jealous, for example, is in the field every day, keeping a watchful eye on the various study packs. The APU are in the field everyday, offering the best protection they can give the wildlife against the tide of poaching. It’s the less glamorous aspects of project life that make this possible. The mechanic is able to keep the cars working and maintained, fuel is available to them and they have logistical plus administrative support, so that they can focus on their respective roles.
Peter Blinston
Photo
© PDC
Five dogs have just been released onto Starvation Island as the first step in their rehabilitation to a truly wild state.
In 2005 we released four dogs onto Starvation Island, which acted as a “half way house” between the captive state of our purpose built Rehabilitation Facility and the wild. This first operation was a success and after spending six months on the island, we recaptured the four and took them to the mainland of Matusadona National Park, confident that they had learnt to provide for them selves, having developed the necessary hunting skills.
The island is the ideal place for the dogs to learn to hunt. It “enjoys” an over abundance of game, impala in particular, this combined with the lack of any other predators, creates a unique opportunity for us to exploit on the dogs behalf.
Our Rehabilitation Facility in Hwange accepts injured, orphaned and general misfits from the painted dog world. It is our mission to get as many of these back into the wild as possible. We do not breed dogs at the facility, we go through an elaborate and complex process of “creating a pack” from all of the waif and strays that come our way. This latest “Pack” consists of three males. One orphaned due to an anthrax outbreak in the Lowvelt, another orphaned as a result of illegal smuggling of Zimbabwe’s dogs into South Africa and the third orphaned when his father was killed causing his pack to dissolve. This last one turned up alone at our Rehab looking for company. The “Pack” was originally completed by three females, which we had rescued from South Africa and an uncertain future. Tragically one of these females died. Thus we ended up with our “pack” of five and set out on the drive from our facility towards Starvation Island. We had a 371km drive to the nearest land point ahead of us and then a short 20-minute boat ride to the island. It was 4pm.
We drove in three landrovers. Jealous left first with one dog in his car, Ester left next with two dogs in her car and I followed, towing a trailer full of fuel, with the remaining two dogs in the back of my landrover. Each dog was in its own, purpose built, wooden crate. We had pre arranged meeting points and new the road ahead. Ester had driven the road 6 times already, as she had visited the island to carry out game and vegetation surveys ahead of the release. Jealous and I thought we had driven it 14 times, but decided it was probably more. The dogs travel well. They seem to except that there is nothing they can do and sleep, safely housed in their wooden crates.
The first 170km or so is on fairly good tar roads. The steep hills around the mining town of Kamativi pose a problem, but nothing too serious, so long as you have your wits about you. It’s the remaining 200km that defy belief. A treacherous mix of slippery, corrugated gravel, pot holes, more pots holes and rain eroded gullies, not to mention the exposed bed rock, which combine to test your concentration too the limits. In 2005 one of our landrovers rolled following a front tyre puncture on this road.
Ester’s landrover suffered the first puncture. Happily there was no drama and after twenty minutes or so she was on her way again. My landrover suffered the next puncture after I had to drive through the bush to get past around a truck that had jack-knifed on an incline. It was midnight. We had left Hwange at 4pm. I knew we had atleast another 3 hours ahead of us.
At 1.30am the centre pin on the right side of the rear axel of the trailer I was towing fell out. Three of the leaf springs fell off and the trailer dragged my landrover to a halt. I got out of the landrover to see why we had “stopped”. The rear axle was atleast 45 degrees out of line. It was pretty obvious. It was also immediately apparent that I had a serious problem to solve. I always carry a good set of spanners in my landrover; they were the first things Greg told me to buy when I volunteered to “help” him ten years ago!!! However, I am not a mechanic and it took me almost three hours to fix the problem. Taking off the spring, re-aligning the axle and then the springs so I could fit a new centre pin. I was very grateful for the help I received from Pieter Huisman, who was travelling with me to record the whole saga on film.
No sooner had Pieter and I resumed our journey than Jealous turned up. Worried beyond belief that something serious had happened to me. In typical style I cursed him for taking so long to come and find me and he laughed at how long it had taken me to fix a “simple” problem. It was 4.30 am. We still had two and a half hours to go. The last section of the drive is the worst. Steep inclines over exposed bedrock, with other sections of the “road” having been washed away completely. We crawled along, Pieter kept talking to me, filming and asking questions to make sure I was still awake. At 7am we rolled into Musango Safari Camp. Owner Steve Edwards had kindly offered us use of his camp and boats to get the dogs across to the island. Without any further delays, we loaded the dogs onto his big pontoon boat and went across.
Such translocations are carried out in conjunction with the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority. They have a station at Tashinga, which is near by Musango and we enjoy a very good working relationship with them. It’s an incredibly remote place and conditions are tough. Despite this, the Tashinga Wardens and staff are always willing to assist and they had responded as positively as ever to my requests. Poaching on the island is a constant threat. The near by fishing camps are busy places and unfortunately the fishermen do not always hunt for fish. I made a request that some of the Tashinga scouts be deployed on the island for several days to clear it of any snares and to illustrate that the island was now a place of intense activity. This was done and more. The Tashinga Warden went as far as visiting the camps to inform them that the island was now off limits and that anyone seen in the vicinity was likely to be arrested. I was delighted to see the scouts and the Wardens waiting for us as a reception committee when we arrived with the dogs.
The crates were unloaded and without any fuss we opened each one up to release the dogs onto their new home. They seemed equally delighted to be on the island, though I suspect it was more the relief of finally being out of the wooded crates.
They have settled down well, though we continue to monitor their progress on a daily basis. As I write this, Jealous is again camping on the island with two scouts from Tashinga, in an effort to make sure that all is well.
The busy month of August was not over. On Friday 31st, we opened the doors of our Interpretive Hall to the local community. Our Chairman, Jerry Gotora and Chief Nelukoba hosted the day, which was a great success. Our Guest of Honour was the Governor for Matabeleland, however the day belonged to the people. Our local staff who built the entire complex and the surrounding communities who derive the most benefit from it.
Peter Blinston
Photo
© PDC
The Five dogs we released onto Starvation Island are hunting successfully. Its an understatement to say that this has come as a great relief to us, as our concern was growing due to their apparent lack of interest let alone effort in trying to hunt. Jealous has made countless trips too the island, a punishing drive on notoriously bad roads to then spend a two or three days camping on the island to observe the dogs. Each time he would return to Hwange with sad tails of how “useless and lazy” the dogs are. Our partners at the National Parks station, Tashinga, have thankfully been providing meat for the dogs during this period, basically keeping them alive.
The region is remote and presents logistical problems to anyone wishing to operate there. Getting fuel there is a particular problem. I had to make a mad rush there in mid September when the Tashinga station informed me that they had no petrol for their boat and so they could not get across to the island to check on the dogs. It was 5pm and I loaded two drums of petrol into my Landrover and set of at 4am the next morning. September is the season of fire in Zimbabwe and as I drove through several bush fires, with the petrol leaking out of the drums, I decided that there must be a better way of doing this!!
The Ume Crocodile farm is one of the more successful operators in the area and so I paid them a visit. A deal was struck, allowing me to draw fuel from them and the show was back on the road, illustrating how the situation in Zimbabwe challenges you to constantly negotiate, make plans, adjustments and deals.
Jealous had to make the drive to Tashinga too often and we were losing a handle on our local packs so I recruited the former National Parks ecologist, Edward Muchuchuti to help us. Actually I dragged Edward out of retirement. He had been stationed at Tashinga, for over ten years and had helped us with the release of dogs onto the island in 2005. He retired in 2006 but I knew he was still fit and well enough to take over the monitoring of the dogs for us. The Chief Warden at Tashinga had no problems with Edward returning wearing a PDC hat and I was more than happy to have his help.
So, with a fuel supply secured, Edward in place with a detailed list of what he should do and when, I was happy.
It was Edward who sighted the first kill. He phoned me with great enthusiasm to say he had seen the dogs kill a young female waterbuck. Success at last. By now it was time for Jealous to make another visit to the island and replenish Edward with his food supplies, he had enjoyed a month in Hwange, tracking down our local packs. His visit to the island was full of adventure, two punctures on the way, the last almost causing him to crash was a timely reminder of just how bad the drive can be. On the island he enjoyed the remarkable spectacle of the dogs hunting 3 waterbuck in one afternoon. The first one they caught at the waters edge and killed, only to lose the carcass to a huge crocodile, which exploded from the water, grabbed the carcass and disappeared again just as quickly with it. Jealous laughed when he recalled what could only be described as the dogs startled expressions. He soon stopped laughing when I reminded him that the place was where we often land the boat and walk ashore through waist deep water!! After they recovered from the shock of losing their dinner the dogs set off and chased down another waterbuck, which again headed for the apparent safety of the water. This time it made it and the dogs clearly realised that crocodiles were not to be messed with as they watched their second chance of dinner disappear beneath the water!! Jealous recalled that this was a place that he had collected drinking water from in the morning!! The third waterbuck also made it to the water in what turned out to be a croc free zone as it survived. The dogs went hungry that day but Jealous will dine out on the stories for many years to come.
With all the excitement created by the dogs it is easy to overlook the other work going on. Our Visitors Centre opened on September 3rd. A steady flow of people has stopped by to witness the work we do and learn about the life of painted dogs. Our Children’s Bush camp re opened after the school holidays and we launched a new aspect of our programme, which aims to bring as many parents as we can possibly handle to our centre. The children arrive on a Tuesday. By Friday, their last day, they are completely “at home” and longing to stay. We collect the parents from their homes on the Friday morning and bring them to the Visitors centre for a guided tour, which end at the Bush Camp, where they enjoy lunch with the children then sit and watch the plays or songs the children have created to describe their stay at the camp. It’s a very emotional heart warming experience and is already having a hugely positive impact on the parents who now witness their children’s delight first hand. Lives are being changed, of that there is no doubt.
Peter Blinston
Photos © PDC
Jealous and I returned to Starvation Island again in November to check on the progress of the five dogs we released in August. This time we travelled by boat from the town of Binga, which is approximately 160 km by road from our base in Dete. The four hour boat trip was quite an adventure, the notorious Sengwa basin section of Lake Kariba living up to its reputation and “treating” us to some very stormy waters, leaving Jealous and I wondering if we shouldn’t have travelled via car along our usual and equally notorious road to Tashinga. Especially as he can’t swim!!
Our rough journey was rewarded however with the sight of the dogs feeding on a male impala. We stayed in the area for a couple of days, checking on the dogs and left feeling reasonably happy that they were coping. Though they were thinner than we would have liked to see them, we felt that the coming weeks would provide them with an easier food source as the impala give birth to their fawns in December.
Back in Hwange the news is more mixed. Jealous has searched every corner of Hwange National Park for any sign of the Umtchibi pack and drawn a blank. We are thus left to speculate on the fortunes on Mango, Pita, Crescent Moon, scribble and the rest. These four were all collared and seem to have moved out of our main area of operation. However we are getting encouraging sightings of a pack of ten near Main Camp, which we had been seeing fleeting glimpses of early in the year. There is a pack of eight further south and another pack of 6 to the east. So, all in all, the situation is reasonably positive. It’s the loss of familiar friends that is distressing, however we will soon get to know the new faces.
Poaching remains an ever-present threat to the dogs and all wildlife in the region and while we are able to keep some sort of control over it in the areas our APU patrol regularly I decided that we needed to step up our efforts. With this in mind, Boniface Manda, the former Officer in Charge of Dete Police Station has joined PDC. “Manda” brings with him years of experience in Personnel Management, training and deployment of units. He has an excellent reputation and we have enjoyed working with him over the years when he was Officer in Charge. He has always tackled the poaching issue aggressively. He organised “Operation Bush Buck” in January, which led to the arrest of 54 poachers in and around the township of Dete. We are delighted to have him on board as his presence will increase the effectiveness and professionalism of our APU and will allow us (funding permitting) to increase our anti poaching effort by adding one or two new units. Martin Stiemer is also back in the region and currently running a training programme for APU in the Gwayi Conservancy. It is our aim to have at least two more professional APU operating in the region early next year.
November was a busy month for Wilton and his Education Department team. The Bush Camp hosted four schools during the month. The new programme that brings the parents for a tour of the PDC facilities is proving to be a very effective vehicle for getting our conservation message across. In addition to this, Wilton hosted a workshop for the local tour operators and guides aimed at showing them how best to utilise the PDC facilities to derive the maximum benefit for their clients. Attendance was not as high as we had anticipated, despite plenty of notice having been given, however those who did attend were very excited at having such a facility at their disposal.
All in all, a very busy month as usual with many positive steps forward.
Peter Blinston
December was one of those months I will never forget. It was dominated by Starvation Island again, with Jealous and I spending two weeks on the Island with a film crew, who had come to document the progress being made by the five dogs we released in August. We named the dogs, the “Musango” pack. Musango translates as “in the bush”.
For a week or more we had been battling with horrendous, stormy weather, which transformed Lake Kariba from a proverbial millpond into a washing machine, within minutes. Not great fieldwork weather and even more difficult for filming. It seemed as if everything was wet, all the time. If it wasn’t from the rain then it was from sweat, because when the storms blew away, the sun came out and dried you up momentarily, but as the temperature raced into the 40’s you “cooked”.
We battled with boats - mainly because they kept breaking down or the people we were borrowing them from kept taking them back. The last issue wasn’t their fault. They had commercial operations to run and were trying to help us out as and when they could. Other people let them down and it became a chain, which we were at the end of. I made a mental note to add a boat to our fleet of vehicles, but that’s for the future.
Jealous and the film crew were on the drifting boat. I had gone back to camp to try and make arrangements for yet another boat because the Croc Farm needed theirs back, again. I failed to get a boat and resigned myself to the fact that we would have to camp on the island itself for the remaining days, which was something I had been avoiding as I felt it may influence the dogs hunting. Our own miserable comfort level would drop a peg or two as well. But we had to do it, not only because of the deteriorating boat situation but also because it was still not clear if the dogs were successfully providing for them selves. We had seen them kill a couple of baby impala and they looked healthy, but they weren’t hunting as we thought they would or should. There was no alternative, we would have to camp on the island and endure the stormy weather.
Then the radio message came in. It was delivered to me third hand. ‘Jealous has radioed and said that the boat ran aground and damaged its steering, now they are drifting down the lake towards Katete”. “And they don’t have any fuel left”.
Those of you who know me well can imagine the colour of the words I used at that moment. “I have only left them alone for a couple of hours and now this”, was the polite version after I regained my senses.
I gave instruction to get some fuel organised and we set out in the camps speedboat. The one that had been breaking down but was now “fixed”. The wind had been blowing hard all morning and so the lake was rough, too rough, under normal circumstances for such a small boat. We managed to get a few hundred metres out into the bay and it was obvious that the speedboat had not been fixed. A wave smashed us into one of the many dead trees that are a feature of Lake Kariba, “Fossil” trees that stand like tombstones to remind one of the forests that existed before the lake was created.
We turned back. The mechanic set to work “fixing” the speedboat again. I sent a car to the Croc Farm with a message that they must send out a rescue boat as well. The car returned two hours later. The message had been delivered and the Croc Farm was sending a boat. I relaxed, a bit and attempted one more phone call to a boat hire company. While doing this I looked out across the lake and saw the Croc Farm boat, the rescue boat, towing another Croc Farm boat back into its harbour!! No-one saw the look on my face then. I half expected someone to jump out from behind a tree and tell me “this was just a joke, there is a hidden camera filming you”. Just like those Candid Camera or Just For Laughs reality TV shows. No-one came forward. At that moment I would have paid anyone, any amount, for a reliable, fast boat. This was Jealous, who can’t swim and the film crew adrift on Lake Kariba. It was now 5pm, five hours after the initial radio message had come in. there was perhaps one and a half hours of daylight left. But this was Jealous and the film crew; I had to go and search for them.
I hurried a couple of guys from the camp onto their small fishing pontoon, which has a 9 hp engine. It’s slow, very slow. It’s meant for idling along the backwaters with a cooler box of beers by your side and a vague hope of catching some bream for dinner on your mind. It’s not a rescue boat. The guys told me to get of the boat, saying it wasn’t safe. They would go and search. I wouldn’t hear this.
“Jealous is missing and he can’t swim”. I told them. The film crew were also on my mind. I also recalled the day Greg crashed his plane and the search for him. I shivered, though it wasn’t cold.
So we set out into the rough water on the small pontoon, heading towards Katete. The night closed in quickly as we reached the search area. There was no sign of the drifting boat. I wondered if it had sunk and thought of Jealous not being able to swim. I also thought of the crocodiles in Lake kariba. Apparently there are a lot. For a while the moon helped us see our way, until the next storm blew in. Then we were engulfed in a world of darkness and fear. The guys lost their bearings and I thought I was going to lose my life. The lake chewed us up like a lost sock in a washing machine. We grabbed the rail of the pontoon as if our life depended on it. It did. I thought about my family and in particular Sam, my ten-month-old son.
The storm broke but the lake stayed rough and we attempted to get back to camp. The guys were lost but I was able to guide them in the right direction until they recognised where we were. Eventually we made back to camp. It was 2am. I thanked them for getting us back, for their bravery and asked them to wake me up at 5am. They asked me if I would like anything to eat!!
At 5am I was up. Astonished but delighted to hear that Jealous had managed to get another radio message through to say they were safe and actually not that far away. The original message, delivered third hand, had been “translated” incorrectly and in fact they had not drifted towards Katete. They could “see Katete”. But they had drifted into the bay of an island near Starvation Island and had spent the night quite safe and sound, unlike my two comrades and I.
The Croc Farm sent out a boat to tow them home and after a cup of tea plus a long talk we went back to Starvation Island and the dogs. Our reward was seeing the dogs hunt, chasing down impala like their life depended on it. Even the weather gave us a break and we enjoyed a few memorable days with the dogs on the island. Jealous and the assistant cameraman were charged by an elephant at one point but Jealous smiled as he does and walked back to pick up the equipment they had dropped when making their escape.
The main thing was that the dogs were doing ok. I drove back to Harare when the two weeks were over, my hand numb from two scorpion stings and held Sam in my arms for a long time. Jealous and I will be back on the island at the end of January.
Peter Blinston
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