Field journal in the Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe, by Stephen Long (Steve), naturalist with the DART association (Dete Animal Rescue Trust, Dete is a small market town north-east of the parc), in charge with census and monitoring of the black rhinoceros population in the Intensive Protection Zone (IPZ).
Sinamatella, March 29, 2010
It isn’t easy to say how much rain we had this rainy season because a hyena ate our rain gauge some time back in December, but with the end of the rains in sight I think we can say that it has been a good season. From the hill at Sinamatella we look down on the Sinamatella river flood plain, covered in grass and reeds that come up to the shoulders of some of the elephants when they come down to graze in the evening.
We are not yet seeing many animals on the flood plain – a few impala and kudu, the elephants and an occasional warthog but the buffalo haven’t been seen for months and zebra and giraffe are still mainly out in the forest. There are often lions to be heard – the “Tequila Boys” José and Patron are our resident males (José has a radio collar and is easy for us to track) and yesterday evening we heard a leopard calling at the foot of the hill. As for the rain gauge-eating hyaena, he/she hasn’t learnt a lesson from that and woke us in the early hours of yesterday morning eating a plastic watering can outside our bedroom window.
Behind the floodplain as we look across the Park, the grass is turning yellow but there is water in the river and Sinamatella pan is still full. We were out tracking rhino last week and found plenty of water in the Lukozi River and in the small pans out in the Mopane woodland. Mandavu and Masuma dams are full. A little rain now before the clouds leave us until November and we can be confident of a good winter ahead.
Certainly, the animals look in fine condition. We met a herd of male impala last week, far off the normal patrol routes, and they looked so good that while they stood trying to work out what on earth we were, we couldn’t resist photographing them in spite of their being our most common antelope. Sadly the photos are not as good as the impala – I’ll have to practise more with the new camera.
Here at the camp, February and March have been very busy for the rangers. There have been a number of poaching incursions and although there has been some success against the poachers with two being killed and a number captured there have also been some precious rhino killed – something our fragile population can not afford.
The rangers have been out over and again on extended patrols in some very wet weather, but morale is good and I heard a whistle blowing from up at the football field this afternoon so it isn’t all work and no play. Our rhino monitoring project is getting firm support from the Parks staff and we are now investigating some of the outlying areas of the Intensive Protection Zone with a strong team of trackers and researchers. Sadly the rhino don’t seem to recognize that we are on their side and try their hardest to keep out of our way. The only one we saw last week waited until we were close before charging out of the bush puffing and snorting angrily and crashing off through the trees. We were too busy keeping out of the way to get photos so we didn’t make a positive identification, but we wish her well all the same!
My apologies for being such a poor correspondent recently. You may know that the Lion Research Project have had their permit withdrawn so we are not able to send the Planete Urgence volunteers to work with them. That has left Sue and I looking after volunteers on a full-time basis with an occasional day to rest and recharge batteries (our own as well as for the equipment!) between missions and no time at all for anything else. I have been trying to catch up with a huge backlog of e mails this morning. Checking mail from you I can see two things you would like to know that Trevor hasn't answered.....1. flow rates and 2. distances between boreholes and pans. I won't be able to answer question 1 as both Bumboosie South and Baobab are without pumps. Baobab's broke down years ago and the one from Bumboosie South has just been moved to the more critical Masuma where the pump broke down and was rated as unrepairable. As for question 2, I'll get on to it as soon as possible. We have volunteers arriving this week but once they have left we have a four week break during the world cup and I can find time to breathe!!
Attached is a brief few words for the website for May. Please change it as much as you like or let me know if you would like more/less/something different from me. I won't be offended.
Please don't hesitate to remind me of anything else you need to know and I have missed.
Trevor is in South Africa ...... He's expecting to be back next week.
Thanks as always for all your hard work.
Regards,
Stephen.
With the start of the cool dry season the look of the Park is changing rapidly with the grass and trees changing from green to yellow or brown. The animals are more easily seen at this time of the year and elephants, large numbers of buffalo, zebra and giraffe are congregating on the Sinamatella floodplain on a daily basis. We have also seen a cheetah in the area – the first for some time and the lions are much in evidence as their prey species become concentrated around the water. The impala mating season has begun and we often hear their extraordinary roaring as we travel around the Park.
One of our most rare species, tourists, is showing a good population increase and we are expecting plenty more during the forthcoming football World Cup when a lot of South Africans are expected to travel to avoid the blanket football coverage in their country.
Sinamatella camp has been without piped water for the past two months but DART has donated a new pump and the situation is much improved – to the great relief of those of us that live at the camp!
Water situation:
- Masuma, good but heavy elephant pressure (327 on Friday night for example). Will need to pump v soon. - Mandavu, good. - Shumba, good and the natural pans (eg Big Shumba, Dwarf Goose) still have water so no immediate need of pumping. - Tshompani and Inyantue. We took pumps and attendants out yesterday and left the pumps running. Both dams were dry and water situation in the area was critical. FOH are supposed to be delivering more diesel tomorrow. - Bumboosie South and Baobab both dry and without functioning pumps. - Sinamatella river area. Springs still running. Situation good. General.. Not critical throughout. We should have no losses due to water stress this year. Parks have received a small amount of diesel for game water. I know very little about the other end of the Park except that it is apparently extremely variable (reflecting the patchiness of the rains this year). Some pans started pumping as long ago as February, some will perhaps last the dry season without any pumping at all. Animal populations: - Rhino. Population down (as it is throughout Southern Africa due to heavy poaching pressure). At least three new calves have been seen recently but replacement still not keeping up with losses. - Elephant. General perception is that there are a lot of elephant in the Sinamatella sector this year. Our Masuma counts reflect that. No idea why! - Buffalo. Normal v large winter herds being seen.Etc:
- 5 rhino poachers captured in Vic Falls last week. - Subsistence poachers found deep in the Park at Tshakabika. Unusual to find snares so far into the Park.August and September are amongst the best animal-viewing months in Hwange and this year there was an obvious increase in the number of visitors coming to enjoy the Park. Sinamatella was never exactly full but there were nights when there were three or four groups of visitors in camp and by the standards of recent years that is a lot.
The lions in the area seem to have tried their best to keep everyone entertained. Three lionesses have been seen on numerous occasions in front of camp, accompanied by up to 8 cubs and 3 lions. They have regularly tried, and just as regularly failed, to hunt buffalo on the Sinamatella floodplain during the day. The buffalos gather in a huge herd and easily chase away the lions but the story seems to be different at night and the sun sometimes rises to reveal the lions finishing off a buffalo kill.
In mid September Hwange hosted the annual Wildlife and Environment Zimbabwe (WEZ) animal count. A week or so before the count the whole Park was examined from the air to see how much water is available and the spotters reported the best water situation for some years. This was reflected in the count itself which showed good numbers of elephants at the water points that had a counting team but perhaps not the huge numbers of some previous years. Presumably the animals are evenly spread throughout the Park.
From mid August through to early September a major rhino dehorning exercise took place in the Park. This is a response to a new upsurge in poaching throughout Southern Africa. Dehorning is something that no-one likes but all agree that if it saves the rhino from poachers it is worth the enormous effort and expense. Most of the Black Rhino around Sinamatella were darted and dehorned during the exercise and we are continuing to try to locate others so that they too can be treated.
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October is the hottest month of the year. This year we had temperatures ranging from the mid 30s right up to the low 40s. On a trip to Main Camp one of the most obvious features was the way almost every animal we saw seemed to be resting wearily in the shade of a tree.
These Wild dog puppies were close to Guvalala Pan and woke up as we passed but sensibly stayed in their shady resting place.
Back in August, Masuma Dam held a group of 17 hippo but as the water has shrunk and the number of elephants drinking at the dam has grown, most of the hippo have moved away – presumably to the much larger Mandavu Dam. During one of our regular game counts at Masuma we saw a young male hippo being aggressively driven away by the resident dominant male. He was forced to lie out in the full sun until all the others were asleep and he could finally get into the water. He carries the scars of previous territorial fights and is obviously a determined character!
Some of the animals are now in poor condition as we wait for the rain. The herds of buffalo close to Sinamatella still look fat but in other places they are clearly in need of the green grass that will come when the rain falls.
In the Main Camp area the pumped boreholes are under great pressure with herds of elephants drinking, not just at night as they would usually, but even in the hottest part of the day. Competition for the freshest water as it comes out of the pipe is intense and at Guvalala the elephants have even pulled the pipes out of the ground, accidentally destroying their source of water for the few days it took the National Parks game water team to make repairs.
At Shumba the wind pump has been blown down by a strong wind but the diesel pump is still operating and the water supply for the animals is secure. Sadly, patrols in the Main Camp area have been finding small numbers of young elephants that have died, presumably from loss of condition as they travel long distances between food and water. This is a normal feature of natural selection in the Park at the end of the dry season. It is good news for the vultures and the hyenas but always sad to us and we are all now looking forward to good rainfall in the next few weeks.
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November is dominated by rain. The rainy season begins around the middle of the month so for the first week or two we still have high temperatures and dry, winter scenery.
Before the first rains fall there are days with beautiful clouds and distant lightning but after a few hours the clouds clear again and we wait under clear blue skies hoping that it will rain tomorrow.
The larger animals such as the elephants and buffalo are somehow aware if good rain has fallen far away and they move off to take advantage of the new grass they will find. Apart from 3 or 4 old bulls, our local elephants had all left us by mid November, presumably to travel deep into the Park.
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Eventually of course the day comes when the rain falls at last.
The plants and animals respond amazingly quickly. Within hours, the larger pools of rainwater are populated with bullfrogs which fight viciously for dominance and fill the evening air with the sound of their croaking.
On land hundreds of bright red Velvet Mites emerge. They are only seen for a few days at the start of every rainy season then they vanish underground until the next year.
And it takes only hours for the Mopane tree buds to break and their first leaves to come out
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Early in the month we had good rains. The water is great for the animals but can be a real problem for us. On one day we were stuck in mud on four different occasions – one was a case of driver error when I missed the ‘road’ and drove straight into a muddy patch but the others, such as this crossing of the Lukosi River, were unavoidable.
The Lukosi rarely carries a lot of surface water but its wet sand is very soft and makes a difficult road. Later in the year elephants take advantage of the water under the sand and dig deep holes to get a drink in otherwise dry country, but for now the elephants have still not returned to Sinamatella after their November dispersal.
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After a good start to the rains the month became surprisingly dry for us, considering that some parts of Southern Africa are experiencing heavy rain and even floods. We have seen a lot of clouds building up, only to disappear or just shower very gentle rain in small patches. It can be very beautiful from Sinamatella hill but is no good for the Park’s water situation.
With most of the larger animals hard to see amongst the thick bush or still away from the area in their summer feeding grounds, our attention turns to the smaller things such as birds.
Small, temporary water ‘pans’ are important to a wide range of migratory bird such as this unusual Dwarf Bittern we found close to the road on the way to Salt Spring.
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This male Paradise Flycatcher built his nest close to the Sinamatella ‘Operations Room’ which is fairly typical behaviour. Perhaps nesting close to people gives a certain amount of protection from predators.
There are other, less welcome visitors around buildings. We have been happy to host a lot of bats in our roof for the past year or more but early in December we heard a heavy snake moving around the roof space and the bats quickly disappeared. The snake sounded so big I thought it must be a python but I found out the truth after a day or two when, one evening, I found a very large Black Mamba coming down from the roof and into the house through an open window. Neither of us was happy with the situation and the snake quickly went back out. We kept the windows closed for the next few days !
The snake incident was too fast for me to get a photo but there was plenty of time to get a picture of this large baboon spider that came onto our veranda that same evening.
Unpleasant as they look, Baboon spiders are not dangerous to people but they must be formidable predators for anything small enough for them to eat.
Of course, December is an important month in human terms with Christmas and New Year celebrations. The Sinamatella Ranger-deployments are arranged so that anyone who is on patrol over Christmas will be off duty for New Year and vice versa. That is a great excuse to have two big parties at the camp! Morale is good as we go into 2011…..
Happy New Year to everyone.
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We measured up the borehole, the outlet pipe and so on and will start working on the necessary connections. 
The pan has quite a bit of water (see photos). There is very little sign that animals are using it but that is normal at this time of year when there is plenty of water in the area. Once everything else dries up by the middle of the dry season it will get busier. On the way out there we saw some giraffe and there was spoor of three lions heading in the direction of the pan so you can be sure there are animals around.
The trough will need a bit of clearing as you can see from the photo but it looks in good condition otherwise. 
This is a two-month round-up because Stephen and Sue were away from Sinamatella on leave for part of the time. While we were away Thor Thorsson, who is a hugely experienced African traveller and conservationist stood in for us so the project continued as usual. 
At that time of year this shot should have shown complete grass cover rather than bare soil but we had had several weeks of hot, dry weather in a row. That didn’t stop the Flame Lilies (Zimbabwe’s national flower) from flowering so the bush wasn’t completely dull. 
The photo was taken while we were collecting data for the country-wide Waterfowl count. We monitored water bird populations at the Shumba and Tshompani pans. There were not as many birds as we had expected and nothing unusual apart from a small flock of Whiskered Terns over some flooded grassland in the Shumba area. One or two of the smaller pans were quite well filled but Thsompani dam was almost dry, as were dwarf Goose Pan, Mopane Pan, Tshompani Pan and others. Not a good sign for the coming dry season. 
National Parks at Sinamatella only have one vehicle that is able to get out into the bush in wet weather but in early January it had a breakdown, making it unable to move on wet or bad roads. That meant that our Toyota Land Cruiser was the one ‘lifeline’ for getting Rangers out on patrol and for responding to poaching incidents. Deployments are a pleasure – it not only gets us out into the bush but the Rangers themselves are professional and determined and a lot of fun as well. 
Towards the end of February we finally got a date fixed for the arrival of the solar pump to go at Bumboosie South Pan so we went out to the Pan to check on the borehole. It is an area that is hardly visited in the rainy season as the road becomes almost impassable but we got there quite easily and were delighted to find plenty of water in the pan and the borehole fittings in good order.
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Dear Michel,
Field report:
2. The first customer. Sue was at the trough when we finally started pumping and she was amazed to find butterflies coming to drink within minutes of the first water arriving. This one is a ‘Guinea Fowl’ (Hamanumida daedalus) – one of our commonest butterflies.
3. The second customer. Mr Mafa testing the water. We all tried it. It had a slight metallic taste – presumably from the rusty pipes but Mr Mafa and one of the old rangers who was there say it changes through the winter as the best water is pumped out and more sulphur-tainted water replaces it. We’ll see.
Sujet: A scare...
Sujet: Re: flow meter This is the view looking across the pan (Bumboosie-South, NDLR) to the pump. As you can see, the pan was dry as the elephants had previously broken the pipe from the borehole. Of the 91 elephants we counted, about 75% were bulls. These are all bulls. There was water in the trough when the photo was taken and you can see the animals on the left reaching in to drink it.
We have since been out to the site and fixed the pipe properly as well as doing some further ‘elephant-proofing’. No doubt the animals are busy planning some further problem for us!
Sujet: Pump......
Date : Fri, 24 Jun 2011 09:13:44 +0200
De : Stephen Long - Dart
Répondre à : Stephen Long - Dart
Pour :
The pump works!!! We got back to Sinamatella on Friday evening after a long and frustrating wait in Bulawayo for the car to be repaired. Saturday and Sunday we helped deploy rangers and today we went out to Bumboosie
We followed the procedure you suggested and found that everything was good, with all the correct wires short circuited. Then we thought hard about what could be wrong and Sue came up with the idea that there should be some current in the sensor box, according to the background you gave us about how it works. I agreed and when we checked, there was nothing so now we guessed that if the inverter was OK and the sensor box was dead there must be something wrong with the connection. I checked the plug and it was tight but when I removed it and we looked at it closely we could see that it was faulty - one of the contacts was much shorter than the others and all of them were loose. All we had to do was pull out the short one as far as we could with tweezers and tighten up the gland for the others and when we plugged the sensor in again the warning light no longer showed. From there it was easy - put it all back together, plug in the pump, switch on......and we got water! Exchanging two of the wires to get the best flow rate was also simple and that was it. We have to go out again, with Mr Mafa to properly connect up the well head to the pipe leading to the pan and then it will be complete. We'll be sure to get some photos for you.
Thanks, as usual for all your back up on this. I don't think we would have figured it out without your input.
Regards,
Stephen
1. The rate of flow. Mr Mafa says this is similar to the flow from a BH30 mono pump running on diesel. In the past the pan would have had a BH30 or a BH50 so that’s very satisfactory.
Date : Fri, 5 Aug 2011 20:54:53 +0200
De : Stephen Long - Dart
Répondre à : Stephen Long - Dart
Pour :
Dear Michel,
I thought you might like to hear this story.....
Some rangers on patrol passed through Bumboosie South today and found the pump not running. They radioed Sinamatella to say a hyena had eaten the cable. As soon as the message reached me I arranged with Mr Mafa to go out there and see what we could do.
When we arrived there were 5 elephants at the pan, investigating the empty trough or drinking the muddy water left in the pan. We left them and went to the pump. A hyena had indeed eaten the cable - right next to the well-head where we had thought it was safe. The cable was completely parted, the red flexible covering ripped to pieces and the whole cable from the well-head to where it is fixed to the panel-frame had been pulled out of the ground. It didn't look good!
We got to work on joining the cable and as we worked we could hear the elephants at the pan because they were either sucking at the pipe in the trough or blowing down it. Whatever they were doing it made a lot of strange noises at our end of the pipe. Maybe they were asking us to hurry. We tried to work fast and eventually all was joined and I switched on. Nothing! The green 'OK' light was on but there was a red flashing warning light as well. We dismantled all our work and tried again. Same result. Mr Mafa and I sat there gloomily discussing how the pump must've shorted out when, along with the eerie elephant noises in the pipe, we heard the pump start up. What a relief.
It turned out that the delay was due to it being late afternoon so the sun was at a bad angle. The warning light was the battery light. It always flashes for a while, then stops, but I had forgotten.
After that we had a cup of tea to celebrate, fixed up a proper waterproof join, re-buried the cable and covered it with branches, covered the well-head with a steel plate, cursed all hyenas and headed for home. There were 16 thirsty elephants and a giraffe at the pan but they will have to wait for tomorrow when the sun comes up.
The rangers have been asked to patrol that way again tomorrow to check but I'm sure all is well. So, we've learnt yet another thing about solar pumps. We thought elephants would menace the panels and rats or porcupines might chew the cable. We never considered hyenas! I discussed a long term protective cover with Mr Mafa and until the next surprise we'll think we have all the problems solved.....
Regards,
Stephen
Date : Wed, 17 Aug 2011 14:10:32 +0200
De : Stephen Long - Dart
Répondre à : Stephen Long - Dart
Pour :
......
I presented a proposal to Hilary Madiri this morning for the possible donation of more pumps and a list of suggested places to put them (see attachment). He will discuss it with his colleagues and give us some ideas in the next few days. I hadn't done all this before because I thought it was important to have as much actual information as possible about the performance of the Bumboosie South pump and we needed to do a 24 hour count first.
That count was done last week at the August full moon. It wasn't ideal as we got there to find that elephants had dug up and broken the pipe from the borehole to the trough so no water was reaching the trough or the pan. I fixed the break and we had about three hours of pumping left for the day. This was monopolised by elephants at the trough and no water reached the pan. There are some details of the count in the first attachment. (On the night of 13 August we carried out a 24 hour animal count at Bumboosie South. Animals counted were: Elephant; 91, Warthog; 7, Hyena; 8, Impala; 1, Civet; 1, Baboons; approx 20. In addition at least 5 elephants drank where water had flooded out of the broken pipe at the borehole and 7 giraffe and 6 zebra were seen in the vicinity of the pan but they did not drink. Spoor around the pan includes kudu and impala, and impala were heard but not seen near the pan.)
The attached photo shows the scene late in the afternoon. 
Stephen
Sujet: Re: Phase II
Date : Sat, 15 Oct 2011 08:35:21 +0200
De : Stephen Long - Dart
Répondre à : Stephen Long - Dart
Pour :
Dear Michel,
A few updates.......
The 24 hour count at Tshompani was mainly elephants so not all that exciting. Sadly the borehole is running out of water and the pump was struggling to supply enough but the elephants were very patient and I don't think any went away thirsty. The wind pump is not working on the alternative borehole. A couple of pictures attached...
The people that counted at Bumboosie South counted over 160 elephants which is far more that I had expected. A week before the count we had some rain and all the elephants dispersed for around 5 days. In that time the pan at Bumboosie South filled up to higher than we have seen it so far this season and there was a lot of water available. I have seen photos and it looks wonderful.
John Brebner was here for the game count and after listening to the counters from Bumboosie South, and having seen the pump himself, he threw a new idea into the plans for the future. Shapi Pan has a good borehole but has never been popular with elephants so it is pumped with a wind pump. This year there was a lack of wind and a lot of elephants so the pan and trough went dry and John is wondering if we would think of a solar pump there to replace the wind pump (which could be re-used elsewhere). Shapi is in Main Camp sector. We have just a few hours break today between groups of volunteers. I'll have to do some careful planning and talk to a range of people about phase 2 when the next group leaves at the end of October. Exciting!
A Pan is an isolated pool of water, often in the middle of very dry ground. The one near Umtshibi (Makwa) is a good example. A vlei is a long drainage line that is swampy during the rainy season and has no trees, just grass as a result. As it dries up pans might remain for a while in places. Big vleis such as Dete Vlei are many kilometers in length. Your expression 'flood meadow' describes it well.
....
Regards,
Stephen
Our hope was to have the two boreholes, drilled at Sedina and Kennedy 2 pans this year, pumping good water by now, and this would have certainly helped a little, but unfortunately the Sedina hole was found to be pumping thick sand and the Kennedy 2 borehole is not yet complete due to pressure of work elsewhere in the Park.
Gary’s report received 2nd November, although depressing, will give you insight as to what is happening in Hwange National Park right now …………
All pans at the moment and for the last week, are pretty much bone dry and the animals are surviving on water being pumped out of the actual pipes. It is pretty chaotic and not at all good to witness animals in distress. I really do not have any ideas at the moment other than to keep checking that all boreholes are pumping. I did a complete check of the pans in the Main Camp area this weekend, firstly going to Guvalala pan, as there was a report that the pipes there had all been pulled up: they had been, but we found they were the pipes going to the platform, which pipes do not affect pumping into the pan. We then went on to Nyamandhlovu pan, and we found there that the engine had stopped: it had an air lock, which we sorted out promptly and then restarted the engine. I think that maybe a baboon or elephant was the culprit, moving the fuel pipe and causing the air lock! Next stop was Dopi pan, which was pumping, however, the elephants had bent the pipe right back towards the pump: I found the pump attendant sitting eating his meal, with 30 onlookers, elephant, 25 meters away and fighting to get a drink of water from the broken pipe: there is no plan to fix this until we get some rain and have a chance to do this. Caterpillar pan was next and the engine had stopped: we found the locking bolt for the camshaft gear had fallen out and the timing and fuel pump were not operational: we fixed this on site: there were roughly a hundred elephant in the immediate vicinity waiting for water. Makwa pan was pumping, but there is only mud in the pan now with very little usable water for the animals to drink. Sinanga pan was bone dry: I have never seen this before: the engine was working and there were about thirty elephant in the trough at the time: we went to check on the engine and some clever elephant had figured better to turn on the tap by the engine and drink out of there: I have sorted out the tap and hope now that the elephant don’t take it out on the pipes. Today I will be checking on Kennedy One to see what water is left there as this pan has been hard hit by elephant as well.
The only thing we can do right now is just to keep on pumping as best we can and hope for the rains: I will take pictures and send these, as words cannot really describe the desperate situation on the ground !
Fire: a big fire came in from the Botswana side and is burning down to Bumbumutsa (western side of the park): Dave Carson at Camp Hwange has been helping Parks with this.
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Animals: Many elephant have now died in and around the water holes: mainly young and the older animals: I don’t have an exact count, but it must be well around a hundred plus at the moment and this number will increase the longer the rain holds off! The elephant are all fighting for water and I don’t know what the others animals are getting to drink as the elephant are chasing everything else away at the pans.
Wish List: .... diesel and rain. With the rain, there has been no build up as yet: it is hot and dry here, with wind coming daily as well.
Hwange in Crisis: Reports coming out of Hwange National Park are fairly dismal right now. Teams, that took part in the recent annual game count, mostly reported pans in a desperate state with water being very short. Diesel supplies have been erratic, compounding the problem, with some pans running dry altogether and thus, putting untold pressure on the more reliable pans, which too, are now struggling to keep up with the demand. It would seem that the elephant herds this year returned to the Park rather earlier than normal and numbers seem to have escalated beyond the norm. The age of some of the pumps, engines and pipe-lines have also added to the mix and it is that time of the year when it is truly a mission to keep some of these ancient pieces of equipment running twenty four hours a day. The intense heat that has been experienced, not only in Hwange but country wide too, has not helped the situation, obviously adding to evaporation and animals becoming more dependent on what little water is being provided. Our fervent hope is that we don’t return to the crisis that prevailed in 2005. Every effort is being made to keep the water-points going 24/7. ..................
John Brebner (3.11.2011)
The panels on october Purge of well head Cleaning the panels A customer
Dear Michel,
I never seem to answer e mails on time or in full. Sorry!!
To keep you up to date with what we have been doing since the end of the volunteer 'season' - the implanting of transmitters into some of the rhino has radically changed our work. Previously we were just looking for any rhino and never really getting enough data to get a good picture of where they live and where they move as the seasons change. Now, we have been able to find the implanted animals more or less when we want and that has opened up whole new ideas for us. At the moment we have been concentrating on the anti-poaching implications because that is the most urgent. I have been out in the field a lot recently, often with the ecologist, Hilary Madiri and we have been investigating how easy it is to find specific rhino early in the day and then put an anti-poaching team in place to spend the day with that animal. We had a lot of success and we think we can protect the implanted females like that in the long term. As for the males, they seem to wander a bit more (we weren't aware of that in the past and will need a lot more experience to be certain of it now) so they are slightly more difficult but even so we have been able to find them pretty easily and put rangers in place so long as we have the vehicle available. From a static base on foot is harder.
Away from the rhino we have of course been concerned with the water situation. The Kalahari sand areas had problems with lack of water, here our problem was a lack of nutritious food. In both areas there were a lot of animal losses. We know of large numbers of elephants dying (over 70 carcases along the roads and at pans so probably many hundreds throughout the Park) and I'm sure other animals died as well. We have photos on camera traps of Impala that are little more than skin and bone and rangers report Impala dying but of course the carcase is soon eaten so its hard to put numbers on it. We have now received some rain and the elephants have dispersed. Where we were seeing large numbers we now see none and that has taken the pressure off the water points. Masuma is looking much better and we have stopped pumping at Inyantue and Tshompani. So far the rain has been patchy and not very heavy but if we get more, all will be well.
The pump repair team was at Bumboosie South last week (I was out rhino monitoring) to repair the trough, cut back some trees etc. They report that everything is OK but I haven't had a chance to go there for some time. Incidentally, is there anything to be gained in terms of extending the working life of the pump and panels by removing the pump and covering the panels for a few months - maybe to the end of February?
As to animal populations, here I'm afraid I've let you down. I'm sorry but I completely forgot to e mail the lion, wild dog and hyena projects for data. The figures you have are probably about right but I suspect the lion one is a little high. I did ask about White Rhino at Sinamatella. In 2004 six animals were released at the Sinamatella bomas.They stayed in the area for a year or two then vanished and have never been seen again. One is thought to have been killed by poachers at Bumbumutsa, the others presumably went somewhere with better habitat. These must be the animals that are included on the population figures you found.
The numbers given by the WEZ counts are raw data, not extrapolated to the Park as a whole
I thought carefully about what to call places with water. It's a tricky one. The word 'pan' is good locally but open to misunderstanding in Europe. 'Pond' and 'pool' don't work. A pond conjures up thoughts of a small water feature in a garden and pool tends to be standing water left in a river bed or by the sea as the tide goes out. In Britain most people would be familiar with the term 'water hole'. We don't use it much here but mention it to someone who watches wildlife documentaries and they would immediately get the right idea. 'Water point' would do as well but it has the suggestion of being artificial. Maybe that's good though?
While I've been out with Hilary we've had time to talk about solar pumps. Every time we do this the ideas are different so all I can say about priorities for pans is that pumps will be very welcome, Baobab is probably first priority, followed by Inyantue then Sinamatella bomas. After that it is a case of throwing names into the discussion. Kapula, Bumbumutsa, some Robins pans, Tshompani and Mopane all have their good points but no-one can make a decision until the pumps are more or less available.
....
This week I am likely to be at Sinamatella the whole time as the rangers are waiting to receive their pay so we can't organise any lengthy monitoring trips or the men who come with us will miss the transport to the bank when the money finally arrives. That means I am available to answer queries via e mail with less delay than usual.
Regards,
Steve.
The November tragedy
The elephants at Manga probably died from stress brought on by poor diet, having to walk a long way between water and food and competition at the water. Most of the deaths seemed to be young adults - not strong enough to fight for themselves at the water or know the best feeding places but too old to have a mother to rely on.
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