Photo © PDC
Grants made to Painted Dog Conservation by Predator Conservation Trust
December 2005 August 2006 March 2007 July 2007 March 2008 May 2008
Archive page: February 2006 April 2006, May 2006, June 2006, October 2006 November 2006 December 2006
This page: January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September/October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 August 2008
One of the most endangered large carnivores is the Painted Dog, also known as the African Wild dog, and the Cape Hunting Dog. These beautiful animals have been ruthlessly persecuted by man to the point where they are extinct in most areas where they formerly lived and only a few small populations survive. The Painted Dog was generally regarded as vermin and was persecuted in farming areas under the auspices of protect livestock, and even in many national parks under the misguided intention of protecting antelope populations). Now however they are no longer persecuted in national parks, but they still face a difficult future for a number of reasons, one of which is their need for large areas of land to hunt in (the average home range for a wild dog has been reported as between 400 and 900km2). The largest populations of Painted Dogs are found in Tanzania, Botswana and Zimbabwe, with smaller numbers found in other countries such as Namibia, Zambia and South Africa.
The trustees of the Predator Conservation Trust are pleased to be able to help in the fight to conserve the Painted Dog by funding a grant to the Painted Dog Research Project (also known as Painted Dog Conservation) based in Zimbabwe.
The Painted Dog Research Project was founded by Greg Rasmussen in 1989 and is now a unique and thriving and successful conservation project. Based on the edge of the Hwange national park, the painted Dog Research Project works in a number of broad areas to conserve the wild dogs:
The Painted Dog Research Project has recently succeeded in getting the Zimbabwean government to give special protected status to the wild dogs - quite a feat given Zimbabwe’s current difficulties.
The Anti poaching teams patrol on a daily basis searching for snares left by
poachers which they then remove. It is estimated that 10% of snares will if not
removed eventually kill an animal, so when you consider the fact that the anti
poaching teams have removed over 10,000 snares in the last 4 years this shows
the incredible impact they are making. While poachers don't set snares for wild
dogs the snares don't discriminate in the animals that they kill and so dogs
have been killed by the wire snares.
Greg and his team have also started fitting the dogs with special radio collars
that have a steel plate attached to catch a snare and prevent it killing the
dog.
Like the Brown Hyena project, the Painted Dog project has had success in reducing the number of animals killed on the roads by getting special road signs erected.
Painted Dog Conservation opened their Iganyana Children's bush camp in 2004 to
teach the children from the local area about wildlife in general and the wild
dogs in particular, and this is already proving very popular with over 1200
children having visited the camp already.
For a conservation project to really succeed in the long term, it is important
that the local population feels part of it and that they see the benefits of
conserving the wildlife. Greg and his team have had great success in getting
the support of the local community, which has helped them avoid the worst of the
problems Zimbabwe has endured in recent years.
One of the successful community projects that is run is an arts and crafts centre where the old wire snares removed by the anti poaching teams are used to make wild sculptures which the local population then sell to Painted Dog Conservation who then export them and sell them abroad. This means the people who take part are able to earn money and thus see direct benefits to Painted Dog Conservation. A recent addition to the project was to allow the local children to attend when they are not at school (the local police requested that Greg do this to keep the children occupied and out of mischief). Rather than the children being paid for their sculptures, the project instead pays their school fees for them instead.
Painted Dog Conservation recently carried out a wild dog reintroduction. Painted dog puppies had been confiscated from wildlife traffickers trying to smuggle them out of the country to South Africa, and after being hand reared they were introduced to an island in lake Kariba which had a large quantity of game but which has had no predators for some decades. The game animals were unused to predators, so the wild dogs which were having to learn to hunt for the first time were on an even footing and hunted and fed themselves for several months before being darted and reintroduced to the wild in Matusadona national park.
To learn more about Painted Dog Conservation, click here to visit their website.
Painted Dog Conservation identified that their 13 year old dart gun was in urgent need of repair/refurbishment, a process that will lead to it being out of action for up to eight months while it is sent back to the manufacturers (the bureaucracy associated with shipping a dart gun which is classed alongside firearms is horrendous). Obviously the project could not function properly for that length of time without a dart gun, so they approached the Predator Conservation Trust for funds to purchase a new dart gun. This would allow the original to be refurbished without the project field work suffering and would result in them ending up with two dart guns - which as the project is going from strength to strength will be of enormous help and needed.
The trustees of the Predator Conservation Trust were extremely happy to be able to help Greg Rasmussen and his team by funding the full cost of the dart gun plus a number of low impact tranquiliser darts at a cost of around £1200.
Photo © PDC
In mid July we were approached by Greg Rasmussen of the Painted Dog Project in
Zimbabwe to see if we would be willing to help purchase a vehicle for
the projects anti poaching units. The trustees were all in favour of funding the
vehicle and quickly raised the additional funds needed to purchase the vehicle
in its entirety. We worked quickly to get the funds ready while Greg located a
suitable vehicle. Just 3 weeks from the initial approach a suitable
vehicle had been located, the funds transferred and the vehicle purchased.
On 6th August three of the PCT trustees, Bob Kimber, Simon Marsh and Anthony
May, travelled to Oxfordshire to meet Greg Rasmussen and formally hand over the
new vehicle - by now adorned with the logos of both Predator Conservation Trust
and the Painted Dog Project.
The Anti poaching teams patrol on a daily basis searching for snares left by
poachers which they then remove. It is estimated that 10% of snares will if not
removed eventually kill an animal, so the fact that the anti
poaching teams have removed over 10,000 snares in the last 4 years shows
the incredible impact they are making. While poachers don't set snares for wild
dogs the snares don't discriminate between the animals that they kill and so dogs
have been killed by the wire snares. The anti poaching teams operate 365
days a year and visit different areas at random to avoid a pattern that would
help the poachers avoid them. They rely on having a working vehicle to
carry out their work.
The total cost of the vehicle (including a spare engine which will be invaluable
in keeping the vehicle running in the harsh conditions in which it will be
operating) was £4100 (approx US $7800).
In August 2006, Predator Conservation Trust funded the purchase of a landrover and a spare engine for the Painted Dog Project in Zimbabwe. The spare engine required a thorough overhaul and some new parts to get it to the state where it is now a fully working spare engine. The work has been carried out in the UK while the Painted Dog Project team arranged for shipping of the landrover, the engine and a large quantity of other equipment from the UK to Zimbabwe. The landrover and spare engine are now en route to Zimbabwe where they will be invaluable in helping the Painted Dog Project's anti-poaching unit carry out their vital work. The Trustees of the Predator Conservation Trust have approved a grant of £300 towards the costs involved in getting the spare engine refurbished.
The landrover funded by the Predator Conservation Trust has been shipped from the UK to Zimbabwe along with the spare (and freshly refurbished) engine, and is now in active use with the Painted Dog Project's anti-poaching unit. Having a reliable vehicle plus a spare engine will be a great help for the anti poaching unit in carrying out their vital work.
In March 2008, the Trustees of the Predator Conservation Trust approved a grant of around £2000 (US $ 4000) to Painted Dog Conservation in two parts.
The first was for the purchase of eight remote camera traps. These can be placed and left alone. An infra-red beam is broken by any animals that pass through it and this triggers the camera to take a digital photograph. Some of the units will be used at suspected Painted Dog den sites to monitor them for any activity without disturbing the dogs that may be using them, and others will be used to develop fieldwork protocols for planned work in Cameroon.
The second is for the purchase of four GPS units which are designed to integrate with Google Earth (Super Tracksticks). These provide a continuously updated record of the exact route, stop times, speed and direction and other valuable information. The Super Trackstick even has its own built in temperature recorder to monitor and record its environment. These units can be used when doing survey work (e.g. population counts where transects need to be recorded accurately). They will also be used by the anti poaching units and will provide a detailed map of the areas covered by the teams and will be a great help in maximising the efficiency of the teams and planning where to deploy them.
The Predator Conservation Trust ran a successful fundraising campaign in conjunction with the Safaritalk website (www.safaritalk.net) from February to April 2008. The campaign was to purchase collars which are fitted with special plates made from aluminium which runs along the base of the collar with 3 rows of rivets, 17 in total, protruding from it. These stop the snare sliding across the collar and onto the dogs neck stopping it from cutting into the dogs neck, and the rivets also help the dog break the wire snare and escape.
Read about the appeal in our forum or on Safaritalk.
In the space of a few weeks the members of Safaritalk very generously donated enough funds to purchase three of these anti-snare collars at a cost of £510 (around US$1020). The funds have now been transferred to Painted Dog Conservation for them to purchase the collars. Updates on the collars will be posted when we receive them.
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
It’s been a while since I sent you all an update and I apologise for that. Its not that we haven’t been busy, quite the opposite in fact and I will try and bring you up to date.
In December 2007 I wrote about the adventures of Jealous and I on Starvation Island, more specifically our misadventures with boats. As promised in that report we did indeed return to Starvation Island in January to check on the dogs. The lake was pretty rough as usual but with the help of Lake Croc we managed to get across to the island and quickly found the dogs, which seemed to be doing quite well. They looked well fed and we concluded that they must have caught something. I was concerned that National Parks had not been to the island for some time and reiterated the need for regular anti poaching patrols to check for snares. With our planned trip to the USA and Europe coming up it was important to make sure that a series of regular inspection visits was in place. In order to facilitate this I deployed ex National Parks Ecologist, Edward Muchuchuti on the island to represent PDC. I felt confident that the dogs would be well monitored during our extended absence.
Back in Hwange the heavy rains were making fieldwork difficult at best and down right miserable most of the time. Jealous was following up on sightings of the dogs and on a number of occasions we were out together hot on their trail only to be thwarted by the heavy rain, which washes the spoor away or flooded roads.
The rain does not stop the other PDC programmes however and the Children’s Bush Camp began its fourth year of operation by welcoming the children and parents from Sianyanga Primary School. Wilton and his team, supported by the irrepressible Foggie are extremely competent and despite a long break over the Christmas holidays, the camp went smoothly. Back in their stride it was quickly followed by visits from Ndangababi, Dingani and Main Camp Schools. The Bush Camp programme is an overwhelming success and we are delighted that the knowledge of the children who have not yet attended the camp is significantly higher than it was four years ago. Indicating that the older children, who have attended the camp in previous years, are clearly imparting the lessons they leant to their younger brothers and sisters.
As February came to a close, Jealous and I embarked on our “World Tour”. So many of you contributed to the success of this trip, welcoming Jealous into your homes and going out of your way to ensure he enjoyed the best possible. He is still talking of course. I was delighted by the way he conducted himself, though expected nothing less of someone who typifies what PDC stands for in terms of commitment, dedication and determination. He is a role model to so many here, who have been eager to hear his stories since he returned. They have laughed at his new waistline and commented that that is how a Zimbabwean should look!!!! I must admit to thinking that most of them seem a little thinner and hungrier, such are the difficulties being experienced right now in Zimbabwe. I am not sure what I will remember most from his trip. His first comment when we left Gatwick airport of “where are all the old cars” or the sight of him catching elephant seals in California or his wonder at seeing so many new animal species while visiting our friends in Holland. Probably I will best remember the warmth of your hospitality.
While we were away Foggie ran the ship, with Wilton, Xmas et al pulling their weight to make sure that PDC does not falter. Of course there are always issues and difficult situations to deal with, which is part of the challenge. We arrived back in Zimbabwe amidst the “election fever”, which has of course turned into a real illness, which we only hope the country will one day recover from.
The dogs in Hwange are still difficult for us to find at the moment and Jealous and I will soon be with the dogs on Starvation Island again, delighted by the reports from Edward, of him seeing them hunting successfully.
Peter Blinston
Edward Muchuchuti spent 18 years at Tashinga, the National Parks base adjacent to Starvation Island, before he retired in 2006. With Jealous and I embarking on our “world tour”, I knew that Edward was the man I wanted to keep an eye on the dogs on Starvation Island, know one knows the area better than he does, so I felt confident that I had left that critical aspect of the project in good hands. He didn’t disappoint me. Visiting the island each week with a couple of National Park scouts to check on the welfare of the dogs, observe their behaviour and check the island for snares that may or may not have been set by local fisherman. Edward kept meticulous notes; a good habit learnt during his years with National Parks making it relatively easy for me to determine what was taking place during our absence.
He phoned me the day Jealous and I got back from our travels, eager to share the news that he had just seen the dogs hunting successfully. We were happy with the progress being made and talked enthusiastically about the forthcoming denning season, which is always our favourite time of the year.
Edwards next phone call, two weeks later, caused me to drop into my chair as if I had been punched in the stomach. Two dogs were missing. He had been on the island as usual, however due to National Parks deployment schedules he had been unable to stay. During the brief visit he had only seen three dogs and was making plans to get back on the island as soon as he could. I stressed the urgency of this and frustrated by the common sense advice to restrict ones own travel during the tense election period, I sat and waited. Edward phoned again four days later. There were only three dogs. Alpha male Ulaka and alpha female Notch, were missing. Edward had seen the three surviving dogs hunting a waterbuck only to lose it to a huge crocodile. The level of the lake was higher than it had been for some years and there were many crocodiles occupying the small bays on Starvation Island. They followed the dogs as they hunted and Edward was convinced that crocodiles had accounted for the missing dogs.
I didn’t doubt him. However I wanted to be sure, so sent Jealous to investigate further, while I drove to Harare and then to Kariba to organise a boat, unconcerned now about the advice against travelling. I discussed the situation with Greg, as I found it hard to believe that crocodiles would catch two of the dogs. However the other scenarios of the two having swum off the island or having denned early did not make sense either.
I met up with Jealous and Edward on the island. Jealous confirmed that there were only three dogs and that the crocodiles were a menace. He smiled as I insisted that we search the island one more time. He has worked with me for many years and knows that I am possessed with the same determination as Greg and won’t give up until I absolutely have to. In temperatures of over 40 degrees, we searched the island for any sign of the missing dogs. There was nothing. We then searched around the island on the boat, listening for the signal from Ulaka’s collar. Still nothing. It was time to report to National Parks so I instructed the boat captain to get us across to Tashinga and asked Jealous to continue to listen out for Ulaka’s collar. Half way across the lake, some 2km from Starvation Island, Jealous picked up the signal !! Though we circled around and around, we failed to detect the signal again. We were mystified. Had Ulaka swum of the island and drowned? Did crocodiles swim so far from the shoreline? Maybe poachers had killed the dogs and thrown the collars in the middle of the lake? So many questions. I needed more help to solve this and so called for a helicopter, knowing that I would definitely pick up the signal from the air. A helicopter is not cheap to hire and we don’t exactly have a budget for such things, however I needed answers.
The helicopter arrived two days later and we flew over the island, increasing the circumference of our search ever more. We flew up and down the mainland, checking the areas that I thought the dogs would end up at if they had swum. We flew over the area where Jealous had picked up the signal two days earlier. Nothing. I instructed the pilot to get us back to the island and as we flew in to land I picked up the signal. We circled the spot, hovering low over the water and only saw crocodiles. We landed and walked down to the bay, which was the same one where Edward had witnessed the crocodiles stealing the dogs kill some weeks before. There was no sign of the crocodiles, presumably scared away by the helicopter. There was no signal either! I got in a small boat and paddled around the bay, searching for the signal from the collar. Jealous can’t swim and doesn’t like the combination of small boats and big crocodiles, thus he stayed on dry land watching as I searched, perched perilously on the bow of the small rowing boat. I could not pick up the signal again and so concluded that the collar must be inside the crocodile, forcing me to accept that Ulaka was dead. The collar on alpha female Notch, had stopped working some time ago and so her fate remains a mystery, though she probably met the same fate as her mate, Ulaka. Being the alpha pair, they had perhaps, unwisely, tried to defend their kill from a crocodile and met what must have been a very violent and unpleasant end.
I now had to turn my attention onto the three survivors and consider if it was wise to leave them on the island. Edward had seen them make a kill, however I again wanted to see for my self that they could cope. Days went by with failed hunts until we finally saw them catch a young waterbuck. The crocodiles were close at hand, however this time the dogs fed well. After they had finished eating I dragged the remains up into the tree line, well away from the waiting crocodiles.
I did not want to remove the dogs from the island. I reasoned that we would not catch the survivors if lions had killed two of the pack and added to this was the likelihood that the female, Arrow, was probably pregnant. Immobilising her would almost certainly kill the unborn pups. So the three survivors remain on the island and we have stepped up the monitoring, with the help of the ever-wiling staff at Tashinga. I have been back to the island again and the three continue to do well, though the lake also continues to rise.
Peter Blinston
June saw Jealous and I making yet another trip to starvation island to check on the welfare of the three remaining dogs. Edward Muchuchuti is still the main representative in the field, however it was time for us to make another trip which for once went without any undue drama. With the support of the National Parks base at Tashinga, we camped on the island for a few days so that we could really assess the performance of the dogs as well as determine if Arrow was pregnant or not. Happily it was clear that the dogs were in good shape. The water level of the lake had risen since the last visit in May, however the dogs seemed to be coping and clearly managing to feed themselves. It was disappointing though to see that Arrow was not showing any sign of being pregnant. Early June is the "normal" denning time for dogs and so she should have looked very pregnant. It is possible that she did not come into season in March, due to the presence of the then alpha female, Notch. Now with Notch out of the equation, Arrow could come into season and have a late litter. Edward remained on the island and will report to me towards the end of the month on this.
Back in Hwange we have been very busy following up on an increased number of sightings. The pack sizes are small, generally the sightings are of only three dogs, however its encouraging to see them filling the void left by the demise of the Umtchibi pack. One pack are certainly denned on the edge of Hwange National Park and we will monitor their progress from a distance until the time is right to move in for a closer look. With this in mind we have been training up "new Jealous" - not that Jealous is going anywhere. It has become clear that he is having to cover so many different areas, it simply makes sense to have other guys trained who can work under his instruction and thus cover the areas that he can't.
With the election fever refusing to diminish, June has been a busy month for the Children's Bush Camp. Aware that schools would once again close early, we pushed through as many classes as we could so that the children we deal with would not miss their lifetime experience of attending our camp. The team led by Wilton worked overtime but with great success and we achieved our goals again. We will now wait to resume the schedule of visits in July before the the schools close again for their annual winter break.
Anti-Poaching work has continued its relentless struggle against the persistent threat that refuses to go away. With the Zimbabwe economy in complete free-fall the official inflation rate is over 150,000% while many say it is over one million percent, the poaching menace will at the very least remain if not increase. Our APU supervisor, Boniface Manda is a professional and continues with his strategic deployment of our two units plus Martin Stiemers All for AP unit. Many arrests were made in June and lobbying of the magistrates continues by many stakeholders in an effort to have the sentences for poaching increased.
We are well aware that simply arresting poachers is not good enough and that the issues driving the poaching need to be addressed. We certainly do our share of this , but the task is enormous. Other organisations are playing their part and we were delighted to play host to an old friend, Barty Pleydell-Bouverie and his colleagues who are undertaking a sponsored cycle ride from Namibia to Kenya. Despite the obvious issues prevailing in Zimbabwe, Barty felt that it was important for his team to visit PDC and illustrate how effective a conservation project can be, through our community based work in particular. Jealous and Manda acted as escorts, meeting up with the cyclists outside Bulawayo and bringing them safely through to PDC. We were honoured by the visit and enjoyed a few good days before seeing the team safely on their way.
July will almost certainly bring new challenges.
Peter Blinston
We made our camp knowing that the lions must have been close by.
We have camped in the bush many, many times but this was different, Jealous had looked at me in disbelief when I told him that we had to camp in the bush. We were on Starvation Island, following up on a report from Edward Muchuchuti that he had seen the spoor (footprints) of at least one lion. The local fishermen confirmed that a male and female lion had been seen on the island.
We were astonished. It is 1.5km in a straight line to the main land. The water in between is quite deep. What had motivated the lions to make such a swim??? We would never know. The fact is they were there.
The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZPWMA) had responded immediately to my request for permission to intervene. A letter authorizing me to dart and thus immobilize the lions then remove them from the island had been issued within minutes. Jealous and I drove to Tashinga and met up with Edward for a meeting with the Warden. He was positive and cooperative as he always is, immediately putting 12 ZPWMA scouts at my disposal.
Fresh lion spoor was all around us as we climbed out of the boat onto the island and carried our kit to the chosen area for our camp. Nervous laughter and a few jokes masked the tension. I prepared my darts.
With the camp quickly established, we set out in an extended line to search the thick bush for the lions. The plan, if you could call it that, was to get me close enough to be able to dart the lions. I would need to be 30 metres from them, on foot. We moved through the bush, following the fresh spoor, the lions were walking all over the island, maybe exploring or perhaps searching for the dogs? On the northeastern side of the island we found very fresh spoor and moved closer together. It was blistering hot and I was sweating hard, though my mouth was dry. Cautiously we moved forward, the bush getting thicker and thicker. A blur of movement to our right sent us all spinning around instantly. We stood motionless, trying to control our breathing. We moved forward again and came out on the other side of the thick bush into the open. No lions.
It was getting dark now so I called of the search. I could not dart the lions at night, it would not have been safe for the lions or us. Exhausted by the search and the tension we slept soundly that night.
Another search of the island the next day revealed little. The ZPWMA scouts suggested we hang some bait in a suitable tree and build a blind for me to sit in and wait for the lions to come. I agreed. A suitable tree was located and the bait was dragged around the island to create a sent trail while the rest of us were busy making the blind and preparing the area, clearing the long grass so that nothing could get in the way of the dart. I was careless and cut my leg while clearing the grass. The deep wound needed stitches but that would have to wait. Jealous joked that my blood would help attract the lions!
With the bait set I took up my place in the blind, which was constructed of leafy branches and grass, camouflaging me from the lions, just 26 metres from the bait. I sat in silence, two ZPWMA scouts sat behind me. I looked around at the construction of leaves and grass and doubted that it would stop a lions charge. I wondered if the nerves of my two scouts would hold out. Darkness fell and we abandoned the blind to trudge wearily back to our camp and the waiting search party. The next morning we checked the bait and found the three dogs sitting underneath it, there was no sign of any lions. Another exhaustive search of the island failed to reveal any presence of the lions and we were convinced that they had swum back to the mainland. The bait was cut down from the tree and the dogs enjoyed a feast.
Peter Blinston
© Predator Conservation Trust.
