Wild Dogs and other Assorted Wildlife

In the first few weeks we've been lucky enough to see some really cool stuff. The list of animal sightings is growing longer all the time, even when you don't expect it to. You get to see new stuff even when sitting at the table reading as you get the wildlife wandering the backyard, and a few things inhabiting the house as well. At dawn and duck you can sit on the front step and watch the bushbabies appear from their home in the roof and run across it and then leap into the trees. And then there are the frogs found all over the house, gerbils running around here and there, the lizards running up the walls and the odd snake or two around the place, plus the larger wildlife like the elephants, warthogs and antelope in the backyard.

Dung beetle

One of my best uncommon animall sightings has been seeing an aardvark, not so much because it was a fantastic view where the animal stayed around for a while, but because it's such a rare animal to get a glimpse of, and we got a pretty decent viewing of it. Plus it was also one of the animals I wanted to see when I came to Africa, although I didn't think it was that likely, so I was very pleased when JP started going 'Aardvark, Aardvark, Aardvark'.

Feeding giraffes

One of the focus animals here on the reserve is the Wild Dogs (Cape Hunting Dogs), which are one of the most threatened carnivores in Africa with less than 5000 individuals remaining in Africa. Many places are breeding the dogs in captivity, but the problem is where they can be released. On this reserve a captive bred female was bonded with two males, and released onto a relatively small reserve, and a reserve which also contains lions, which don't rate amongst the dogs best friends. The dogs have done well and have had a litter of pups that are now a year old, and seem to be moving in ways that minimize their contact with the lions. Wild Dogs have generally only been reintroduced into large reserves, but the success of this group opens the doors to other small, managed groups being reintroduced into some of the smaller reserves.

Giraffe

The Wild Dogs, being one of the focus species here, are followed twice a day until they settle for either the heat of the day, or for the night. Following them can prove to be challenging since they run quite randomly and often through the middle of the blocks, where there are no roads. To keep up with them you either have to go offroading (and they move an awful lot faster through the bush than a 4 wheel drive does), or keep to the roads and track them, trying to guess where they are heading. And when they find some prey, they're off after it, and they don't wait for you to catch up with them. I've seen them chasing a scrub hare, waterbuck and impala, none of which were successful, and have seen them with a freshly caught bushbuck, duiker and impala, as well as just after they've finished an impala and kudu meal but watching the whole process is not the easiest task. Sometimes you don't see them kill, or eat, but you know they have by their very full bellies and so record that information to gain an idea of what impact the presence of the Wild Dogs is having on the prey population. They're not always successful, like the other day the impala they were chasing went into the dam where it was snatched by a crocodile - but it didn't keep it for too long either as it was taken by a hippopotamus, but that's the way it works here, you win some you lose some.

Ostrich

In order to know where the Wild Dogs are, and the other animals being studied have been radio collared and so can be tracked using telemetry. This involves using an aerial that picks up pulses of a certain frequency that are emitted from the collars or implants. Each collar has a unique frequency, and you can tell which direction an animal is in, by which way the aerial is pointing to get the loudest pulse. The strength of these pulses also indicate how far away the animal is, and the further you can go off frequency and still detect them, the closer the animal is. With a bit of practice you can get an idea of whether the animal is moving or not and in what direction, and with a knowledge of the reserve layout and their habits, where they are likely to be, which speeds things up a bit.