May 2009

This past month has been filled with the little stories and everyday goings-on that make life in the African bush what it is. I still love it here, though admittedly, I am starting to yearn for some of the creature comforts of home. Turning on the tube to see my Montreal Canadiens blow yet another lead, while Don Cherry tells me how he predicted this on the last Coach’s Corner, or coming home to be mauled by Chester and Dobson and making peanut butter and honey sandwiches in mum and dad’s kitchen. It is the simple things I miss.

A Long Lost Friend

In my first post I wrote briefly about the resident male Snouted (Egyptian) Cobra (which I wrongly labelled a bottle nose cobra) that lives on base with us. Well, shortly before I started here as a staff member, Chris (base manager) relocated the snake 4-5km south of the base. Yesterday, six weeks after relocation, it reappeared – amazing. It went right back into its hole where it’s always been. The snake is too large to handle (~ 2 m in length) with the snake stick, and due to its habituated nature around people, we will probably leave it for the time being (that is unless it starts going into the tents again). The snake doesn’t react to people as one would normally expect, it doesn’t stand up or make any aggressive movements, and it just slithers back into its home below ground. I will try to get a picture if I can. For now, here’s a photo from the web to give you an idea:

Call Ups and Dartings

Last week we had a vet staying near the reserve to help us dart and collar some new predator individuals on the reserve. The week started with the wild dog pack in the reserve being introduced to the two new males that were brought in last month (see April blog). The reserve dogs were tranquilized and put into the bomas. The Venetia reserve females were put in with the two new males, and Rory, the younger Venetian male (son of alpha female Fender) was separated into a neighbouring boma for protection. Since Rory has been ‘the Man’ around Venetia, he has started to take on the alpha male role, covering the female’s defecations with his own markings, etc. The concern was that if Rory was in the boma with the other four, the two new males, both bigger than Rory, would kill him. The dogs will all be released together next week, and we are all hoping that the pack accepts Rory. I am hopeful that Rory will be unharmed because the pack is small, and acceptance of an additional wild dog will only help their hunting success. Hopefully they see it the same way as I.

After the wild dogs, we attempted to dart and collar a brown hyena. Brown hyenas are relatively understudied and not a lot is known about their ecology. The previous brown hyena on the reserve, Thor, was killed earlier this year. We haven’t been able to ascertain how he died; we only found his collar torn to shreds in the grass. To collar a new brown hyena we observed a ‘call up’. The call up process starts by baiting a trap in the days prior to the call up. Chunks of meat are left out around the trap, and the trap door remains shut. A freshly killed, aromatic impala stomach is dragged behind a vehicle near the trap area to spread the smell of a kill around. In the days prior to the call up, brown hyena spoor (tracks and scat) was found in the area around the trap, so we knew it was working. On the evening of the call up, the sounds of a dying wildebeest calf was played over loud speakers, and the trap was baited and set. The intention was for the brown hyena to get trapped (humane trap, no leg hold traps or anything), darted by the vet and collared. Almost immediately after starting the call up, we got a glimpse of the brown hyena on the road, head down, sniffing along the trail of blood left. Everything was going to plan. It was going to be an early night. That is until an adult bull elephant decided to join the party. I am not sure of everyone’s fascination with elephants. To me they’re annoying, giant, baby-making, crapping machines. They eat and eat, love to knock down trees for apparently no reason, are curious about anything human related (which usually ends in them destroying something) and are just a plain nuisance. Anyway, so you probably know where this is going. Instead of calling up a brown hyena, the bull elephant trashed the trap, ate all the carefully cut Mopane branches around the trap, and then proceeded to charge our vehicles. What’s the old adage “ask and you shall receive”? We asked for a brown hyena and we got a bloody elephant.

The week ended on a high note though, as the vet was able to dart and collar a male cheetah. Again, the call up was actually intended for Blade (male lion) to change his collar into a GPS unit, but instead we got a cheetah. This is Venetia’s first collared cheetah, which is very exciting, and we have begun the habituation process. So far we only caught fleeting glances of him, as he and his brother (male coalition) are rather timid. It will take some time to get them adjusted to vehicles and people.

Weird Noises in the Night Explained

Little over a month back, I was on base with one of the volunteers Natasha, and we were waiting for the evening drive to return. It was pitch black outside, it was only her and I, and we were playing cards in the kitchen while looking after dinner. Mid-way through an intense game of speed, I heard noises from the river bed which I had never heard before. At first there was a loud scream, almost like a terrified child, then a low rumbling growl. I couldn’t place it. Most sounds I know, and when you know there is a sense of security. This time my heart stopped a little. Both Natasha looked at each other as to say “did you hear that?” She asked if I knew what it was, but I could only say it sounded big (some biologist eh?). We sat listening intently, and after a few minutes had passed it happened again, a very low growl, this time closer. Now I was properly scared, worse than Blade walking by the truck, or an ele charging full out, this had me unnerved. Immediately after the growl, the sandy soil by the kitchen tent crunched, the familiar sound of something walking by. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and I grabbed the rifle from the safe, and prayed I didn’t have to use it. It was absolutely the scariest thing to happen to me in Africa to date.

A couple weeks ago, Franco and I were cooking up a huge braai for twenty people. Beers in hand, the Canadian working the fire and veggies, the South African doing his bit on the meat, it was another fantastic evening. Right then, the low rumbling growl came back. The growl came from across the river bed and was identical to what I heard before. I looked at Franco and said “that was it man, that was the noise”. “That’s a male leopard Nick”. Both Franco and my eyes widened, followed by a bit bush language I won’t retype here, as I realized that night I heard the steps near the kitchen, a male leopard had probably walked right through camp. And the child like scream? One of the favourite food’s of a leopard is baboon, and he had probably just attempted an ambush on one (as we have many around).

Day to Day

The day to day life here is pretty fun. I get to be a nerd, and analyze data until I go cross eyed. The other day I and a volunteer here reverse calculated the prey density on Venetia by looking at the lions’ home ranges (which are mostly prey dependent). I can’t get enough of the analyses and sometimes I have to ask myself if what I am doing at that moment is really necessary for the research. It also seems like everyday I am tinkering with something, realigning the support axle in the Mahindra, fixing the world’s worst plumbing, or helping set up new solar power electrics. Franco and I exercise regularly with our series of tyres and steel that makes a pretty awesome home gym. Two days on, one day off has helped get back to the weight I should be. It is a little weird for me to think back on this time last year, when I was an underweight, stressed out guy, only weighing 175lbs. The other day I stepped on the scale and it came to 90kg (198lbs). I feel much healthier and I am much more relaxed.
Franco and I are also in a war with the baboons. They like to come into camp at night and defecate everywhere. Franco and I use the air rifle and sling shot to try to dissuade them. (For anyone who thinks this is cruel, you have no idea the flip side of a habituated baboon). The defecation from the baboons seems to have intensified around Franco’s and my tent, so we think they know we’re the ones shooting at them. On days when the base is abandoned, the baboons get brave and leave little presents on the chairs in the dining tent. These days it is not uncommon to see me running around in my underwear at 3AM with a spotlight and an air rifle, cursing at baboons; a sight I am sure.

Future Plans

Lots of work has been done by both Kathleen and I on two months of travel that will follow my departure from Venetia. I have set a plan for Southern Africa that will cover South Africa, Botswana, Victoria Falls, and Namibia. It will be 25 days of travel and camping in a fully decked Land Rover, across untamed and open savannah and desert. It will be challenging but very rewarding. I have included a map on the blog below where you can click to see where we will be when. The trip will include Kat and I, Sinead (fellow volunteer from Jan-Mar) and a close friend of hers.
After that Kat and I will be heading off to Europe to travel through France, Italy and Greece. We have tickets to U2 in Paris, which I am very excited about. Kat is working hard on the plan, and it looks as if we will be stopping through places such as Rome, Florence, Crete and Athens.

I am trying to live in the moment as much as possible, but it is hard not to get excited about these travels. The next blog I write will hopefully be from a breezy seaside Italian town, sandals and sunnies in full force.


I hope you are all well and enjoying the beautiful Canadian spring. Keep in touch.

April 2009

I have now been a staff member for a month, and the best way to describe it thus far, is as a learning experience. I am enjoying living and working out in the African bush very much and all the challenges that come with. What do I do?
What does a Science Intern do? Hopefully I can shed some light on exactly what keeps me occupied pretty much 12 hours a day 6 days a week (one day to recover from the hangover after party night) within a few brief but enlightening paragraphs.

My job here on base is to keep our little world from falling apart physically, as well as to write inspiring, truly magnificent works that will be cherished for generations. That’s what I would like to believe anyway. Truthfully, the “science” part of this job is very entertaining for me and possibly a select few. The “science” is called spatial population dynamics and feeding ecology. I know, us scientists are cliquey, and we like to use big words to demonstrate how much we know about very little. Anyway, spatial population dynamics is the where, when and what of an animal’s movement. Where are they? When are they there? What are they doing? From these questions we can understand where the animal considers home, and what resources it is utilizing in that area. Feeding ecology is simply what the animal eats, and how what it eats impacts the ecology of reserve. So what does this process all look like? The volunteers (to which I was one from Jan-Mar) collect the data in the field. This is accomplished by tracking down the focus animal’s (lion, leopard, etc) location using radio telemetry. Each “collared” animal has a leather collar on its neck that broadcasts a very specific radio frequency which is the honed in on using a telemetry aerial. Once the animal is found, their position is recorded with GPS, and observations are taken (kills, full rating, behaviour, etc). Volunteers then take pictures and get to sit with the lions/leopards/cheetahs/hyenas/elephants and observe their behaviour (best part of the job). The data that they have collected then comes to me and I enter it into a big Excel spreadsheet from which I and the Science Officer make home range maps using ArcView software, analyze what the animal is eating, and any interactions it is having with other animals (which includes such fantastic conversations on which analytical method best depicts the home range of an animal Kernel home range, minimum convex polygons or local convex hulls – I truly feel for those who listen in). From this we write fantastic reports and articles, which should be read by everyone and their dog, but will most likely end up on a shelf somewhere collecting dust (oh well, at least I find it interesting).
Why is this important? Why go to all the work of tracking these predators? Why not just leave the reserve to function naturally? Good questions Nick. Unfortunately, no reserve or park ever function “naturally”, and in all cases it is there is always one commonality: fences. Fences create boundaries that are impassable to most animals, and prevent the important process of dispersion. Dispersion allows an animal to move to a more favourable location, whether it is for predator avoidance, resources or mating. Fenced in areas can also favour top predators especially lions. Lions excel in fenced areas because their prey is within a limited area, and readily available. Populations of lions can quickly expand out of control, which can decimate prey populations and even cause local extinctions. Lions are also intolerable of other predators, and can cause problems for the conservation of other predator species. For example, the wild dog population on Venetia was reduced from a pack of over twenty to three within a short time frame, almost all due to lion kills. This is just a minor example of how small reserves need to be managed closely to function properly. It is vital that these reserves do function, as most of the conservation in Africa is not through the big parks, but small reserves. These reserves are the last hope for many African species, as humans have divided and fenced most of Africa, and humans, like lions, are also very intolerable of other predators.

“The simple life”
You give up all your worldly possessions, move to the African bush to get away from it all and live the simple life, and no one tells you that everything breaks all the time. Since becoming a staff member I am working on my junior plumbing, electrical and mechanic certificates, as well as become a local expert on rat control. Life here is very rewarding, but it comes with a lot of work. My current project is to figure out why the solar power isn’t charging the batteries enough to run the lights in the camp (I am pretty sure it’s an amperage problem now). From this I have learned some valuable lessons, such as: when connecting batteries in series, one only has to connect the batteries positive to negative ONCE not twice. Just so you know, you can create your own arc welder if you do it twice with the load bearing lines attached, and melt pretty much anything you want.
Since the dry season has set in, food for little rodents has started to decline out there in the wild. So what better for those little guys then come to a nice home with lots of messy humans with all sorts of goodies: toothpaste, gum, shampoo, backpacks, bar soap, socks, and all sorts of other tasty treats. So the “simple” solution is set rat traps, which are murderously effective, when they work. The traps work perfectly maybe 1 out of 10 times. Usually it’s a leg, broken back, or a stunned rat banging around with the trap and pretty much always at 2 in the morning. So the real solution is Nick or Franco waking up, loading the air rifle, and euthanizing the little buggers. This isn’t just our tent, we get the cordial call from next door in the girls tent: “Nick, our trap caught something”. But that’s the job here at Venetia for Franco and I: keep the volunteers happy. Usually this just requires lots of booze and inventive drinking games, or us driving all the volunteers and us to the pool at Mopane Camp, but sometimes it requires cleaning a rat trap.
Rodents also attract snakes. The other day Franco and I had a female boomslang sneak up on us while relaxing on our recently built hammocks. Boomslang are one the most venomous snakes in Africa. A single microlitre of their venom can kill a grown human, and in a most unfavourable way. Their venom is hemotoxic, and once in your bloodstream, prevents your blood from clotting. At first, old cuts and scrapes reopen and start to bleed, and the bite area will bleed without stopping. Then after a few days you begin to bleed from all of your orifices, eyes, ears, mouth, nose etc. After that, internal bleeding takes over, and eventually death. Sounds like fun, eh? Anyway, this little lady was better than a meter long, and once she had seen us, decided to “hide” in between the concrete base and canvas wall of our tent. Franco took the lead and was able to successful negotiate the snake with a snake stick and moved the boomslang into a garbage bin. Boomslang are actually very docile, and this one didn’t strike at us once. We released it across the river bed without harm. Both Franco and I were quite pleased with the result. In the past there have been knob heads here who would rather shoot the snake then try to move it.

Wild dogs
Venetia is a special reserve because of the wild dog research and conservation that occurs here (wild dogs are critically endangered). Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) also works on the reserve with us, and they focus primarily on the dogs. As I mentioned, the pack has been beaten down pretty badly by the lions, and only three remain, an alpha female (Fender), another adult female and young male named Rory. Fender is collared and tracked. To increase the pack, EWT brought in two new unrelated wild dog males, with a definite alpha male. The hope is to increase the wild dog population, and with a recent lion cull last year, there should be more room for the dogs to move.
The dogs were brought in a couple weeks ago and released into a 2 acre enclosed boma. I had the great experience of helping out first hand, and moving the transport crates into position and releasing the dogs. It went all to plan and the dogs left the boxes like a shot. John (wild dog guy) from EWT feeds them impala every two to three days which he has shot on the reserve. We have come down to watch the dogs eat every so often. For such a small body frame they have tremendous grip strength in their jaws, and it is simple awesome to watch them tear apart an impala hind end. They also ‘yip’ happily once they have ripped off a chunk of meat and run off into the bush each tugging at it. The ‘yip’ is nothing one would expect, it sounds much more like a bird, with high pitched short squeaks. I love coming to watch the dogs, and I really hope that their addition to the pack here goes well.

Time rolls on
Time seems to moving faster, the volunteers here are switching reserves in a week. It feels like they just got here. It has been really great to share the staff role with Franco. I can’t really imagine trying to tackle all this work alone, and Franco and I have become really good friends. We joke around here about everyone coming to Africa to “find themselves” and all of the Dr. Phil bs. But in all truth, I have really found a great balance in my life here, and feel the best I have mentally and physically in a long time.

Until next month.

March 2009

I am currently settling into my role as a staff intern at Venetia Reserve. I am happy to be back in familiar surroundings, it is very much a home away from home for me. The first week is and has been quite busy, getting the new volunteers settled and trained up. I am running some of the lectures, and otherwise helping around the camp to get things operational. This includes everything from fixing the Mahindras, to cooking and collecting firewood. They have hired two of us to fill staff intern positions here, and the Science Officer, Susan, is very excited about the opportunity to use my science background to her full advantage (as am I). This will entail writing reports, journal articles, and analyzing the data collected. They brought two interns in to specifically take advantage of my interest in the data and analyses. I am optimistic that this will be a great experience for me.

The last month has been chalk full of new experiences and sightings as well as excellent travels with mum and dad.

Karongwe Sightings

My time spent on Karongwe was nothing short of amazing. Everyday brought something new, whether it was a new animal or a new animal behaviour. It is difficult to sift through all the memories and days and pick out ones to write, they all come together in a blur. I will miss the people and the time spent at Karongwe.

One rainy afternoon…

I saw the lions play, saw them kill and eat, and saw them sleep without a care. However, I think the memory that will stick out the most for me was when I was on base duty one rainy day, and got a radio call from the research truck on drive that their battery had died and they needed a jump. However, this was no ordinary car jump, as the pride of lions were on location and Zero (pride male), was only 20 meters down the road and not interested in moving. Sandra (staff) and I hopped into the spare truck and drove along the tar roads to the stranded vehicle, all the while discussing what the location could look like. Maybe the lions were pacing around the vehicle like sharks circling, sensing the prey’s vulnerability.

When we came around the corner to see the vehicle, we noticed that the lions were not circling the truck, and Zero was lying in the road without a care. Nevertheless, Zero was not the worry. The two pride females Lisa and Maggie are the worry. We picked up a strong signal for Maggie’s collar (within 100m which she could cover in few seconds), so we had to be careful. We positioned the truck in order to block Zero’s approach, if he decided to take interest. We watched the shrub carefully for any movement. I noted how badly human’s sensory perception really is and how fragile our bodies are, once removed from the steel cage of a vehicle. We then successfully jumped the other vehicle and went home. Not overly dramatic I know; no stories of me fighting off two female lions with my bare hands, or even the close call when one sprang from the shrub for a meal. The story just ends with a successful jump on one rainy afternoon in Africa. It was just another day. And I think that’s why it sticks out.
Other sightings

Each day kept bringing something new. I had the opportunity to see cheetahs in full out chase of impala. When I say see, what I mean to say is, witness for a few brief seconds (though it plays longer in my mind). I think my thought process may have been something like: ‘man those impala are running fast, I have never seen impala move…Hunt! Something is hunting them! CHEETAHS! Holy crap’ and in that space of time it was over and done with. Still very impressive.

One day we came across hyenas on a warthog kill (I swear, I have seen more warthog get nicked than any other animal, I am not sure how they survive). This was a great sighting because it was in broad daylight at about 9AM. Hyenas are usually very secretive about their kills, and because they are nocturnal, usually kill in the dead of night. We watched as the one well known female, Giggles, stood over the kill wagging her tail. To me, hyenas seem to have personalities closer to dogs, with the way they organize their social structure and behavioural traits such a wagging their tail when excited. However, I am told, that genetically they are closer to felines. Anyway, very cool sighting and immediately after, a Tawny eagle swept down in front of us and nabbed an Egyptian goose gosling. Got to love Africa. Around base

It was tough to see the people that I had lived with for ten weeks go. They were all good people; relaxed and easy going. On the last night we had a Greek themed party, where we all dressed up as gods and heros. I was Achilles, and I had masterfully turned an old brown bed sheet into my war dress. I think the crowning achievement was getting a broom head affixed to the top of an old work helmet and then covering it with tin foil (the helmet not broom) for my war helmet. I even made cardboard armour for my forearms. I thought I may have gone overbroad with it, but everyone else, staff included, all put lots of time into it.

I will also miss Wilber. Wilber is a male warthog who was the closest thing to a wild pet anyone could have. He didn’t fear humans, came right up on the back lawn and ate grass. He had enough sense that you couldn’t touch him, but he was comfortable nonetheless. He was also the loudest eater. He would wrap his lips around the base of the grass and instead of snapping it off, run up the entire length of the grass, stripping it in a way. This would make a funny sqeeky sound which was followed closely by him smacking his lips loudly. He provided me with hours of entertainment.


Travels with Mum and Dad

The last two weeks in March were spent traveling the countryside with mum and dad. We started in Karongwe, where mum and dad were able to come on a research drive with me and walk in on some cheetahs. I know that it was one the best experiences that I had, and I hope mum and dad enjoyed it (they seemed to indicate so). After that we spent an afternoon in the Blyde River Canon where I was doing the biodiversity work, and we went to the “potholes” which are large, sculpted holes in the rock where the water has flown through.We also did a day in Kruger, where mum and dad had probably one of the best wildlife sightings I have ever seen. We were told about a leopard walking down the road further ahead, so we drove down and found it slinking through the grass. We stopped at a tree it was eyeing and waited (well, I was praying a little too). And there, 10m from the car, the leopard, in two graceful leaps, put herself into the tree for an afternoon nap. I think mum and dad understood how rare it was to see, especially from my repeated stammering “you don’t know how lucky you are”. In summary, over a combined three to four days of wildlife viewing in total, my parents saw 4 out of the Big 5, and close to 30 different mammal species (my mum can tell you exactly, she has the list at home).

The Garden Route that we took wasn’t overly impressive. We all felt the time was better spent in the parks and reserves watching the game that South Africa has to offer. The Garden Route is fairly commercialized throughout, and it gives that ubiquitous taste of “I know I have been in another country, but what did I see?”. In Port Elizabeth we stayed close to the Boardwalk Casino, which had the only eateries nearby, including “Oriental Village” and a Greek place that served sour cream as tsatski. It wasn’t all bad though. For the most part the accommodation was comfortable and food eatable. The highlights were the natural features. The large limestone caves near Outshoorn, the perfect rollers in Jefferies Bay, the penguins near Cape Town, Tabletop Mountain in Cape Town, the ele’s of Addo, and the endless soft sand beaches of the West Coast National Park.I really enjoyed the two weeks with mum and dad, and was very happy to help them see some of the Africa that I have grown to love. I think the lesson that we all carried forward from this trip was that if you decide to visit Africa, give plenty of time to see the wildlife.

Question Corner

Well the wildlife questions have dried up a little, but the one question that seems to repeat is:

Do you think that this type of work is something that you will pursue in the future?

Easy answer: absolutely. I have always been interested in population dynamics and the interplay between organisms in ecological systems (especially trophic cascades – NERD ALERT). The question now is on what and where do I want to focus my study. Opportunities have arisen here in Africa, including the possibility of working in a tiger rehabilitation project. I am still very interested in pursuing arctic ecology, which is the sensible option to be closer to home and to those I love.

Right now the most important factor is that I have an amazing girlfriend who supports me, and the choices I make. Maybe one day Kat and I will live in Africa while I study lions… or maybe not. All these choices will settle out in time. But yes, in essence, the Africa experience has focused my passion for conservation and ecology, and given me the indication of where I want to spend my professional time in my adult life. Plus, in this job, I always get the corner office with the best view.

PS

I have many photos, and I would love to post them, but we are on limited bandwidth here at the base. I try to put a bit of a mix on, but there are just so many. When I get home we will have to have a photo slide show and video night.

February 2009

It is hard to believe that it is the end of February, and that I have only a few weeks left on the current expedition. The expedition finishes on March 20, but I have recently found out that I will be staying for an internship back at Venetia Reserve which will carry me through until mid-June. I will be assisting with the writing of some scientific papers for publishing, as well as the everyday operations. Currently I am working at Karongwe Reserve, which is very close to Tzaneen (located on the map below).

Karongwe Wildlife Reserve

Karongwe is the polar opposite to Venetia. Karongwe is only 8,000 hectares and is set up and paid for by tourists staying in three luxury safari lodges. This means a lot more traffic on the roads, and less time to actually studying the animals. Morning drives are spent only locating predator positions on the reserve, noting any specifics, and then continuing on. Unlike Venetia, we do not get any time to sit with the animals for extended periods. We are also to try to stay unnoticed to the safari drives, in an attempt not to spoil the guest’s experience. In a way we are the unseen hand that monitors the reserve and keeps tabs on all the predators.

It is a little rich of me to actually complain though. In many ways, Karongwe is better for sightings than in Venetia. The predator monitoring program here is well established and we monitor lions, cheetahs, leopards, and hyenas. We also get to walk in on the cheetahs, and we can approach until we are only a few meters away. The other day the cheetahs were on a kill, and because the shrub was particularly thick we couldn’t get a very good visual. So instead of watching the kill, we spent twenty minutes taking data while listening to the cheetahs tear apart a warthog. Nothing quite matches the sounds of a cheetah ripping and tearing the flesh and hide, or its teeth gnashing against the bone intermixed with growls between mum and cubs.

Last week I had my first leopard sighting. Leopards, even collared ones, are very hard to spot, and it is rare to get a visual. One of the staff members has been here for 7 months and only seen the leopards twice, so I consider myself very lucky. Leopards are now my favorite animal, they are undeniably cool. Their movements are sleek and their posture is always low, almost in a permanent stalk. Seconds after moving into the bush, they simply disappear. It is astounding to watch such a large animal seemingly vanish in front of ones eyes. It is also a little scary how close one can be to such a dangerous cat and not know. My hope is to see a leopard with a kill in a tree, though I know the chances are low.

Blyde River Canyon Biodiversity Work

This past week I spent in the mountains high above the Blyde River Canyon. I spent five days working on a biodiversity study in starkly beautiful yet troubled region. The Blyde River Canyon is the world’s third largest canyon and the largest “green” canyon. The upperveld sits 2000 meters above sea level, and is top of the escarpment pictured in the blog header. Due to geographic isolation, this area has experienced high rates of speciation and has many animals endemic only to the canyon. Unfortunately, a misguided attempt at a forest industry by the Republic of South Africa (RSA) has brought in pine, which is invasive and beginning to take over the rainforest system. In order to bring attention to the area, GVI’s biodiversity study catalogues any new animals it comes across. There have already been four new species of rodents discovered since the study was started a few years ago.

Each day we set and check small mammal traps. The current study is looking at differentiation in biodiversity over altitude. We also spend time on the mountain top looking for reptiles such as lizards and skinks. We stay in a small cottage in the middle of the canyon, with no electricity, only lanterns and a wood fire. The fresh air was a welcome break from the hot, humid conditions lower down, I slept like a baby.

Days Off

We have time once a week to explore our surroundings on our own time. Karongwe is a little closer to interesting sites than Venetia was. I spent two nights in Kruger Park, which was capped by watching two female lions stalk baby hippos emerging from the water for evening graze. The lions smartly broke off the hunt though. On another day we went to a reptile rehabilitation centre where I got to hold a baboon spider (very rare and hairy), pick up a puff adder with a snake stick and feed lizards.

This past week we went Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre where we visited with the leopards, lions and cheetahs recovering from being caught in snare traps set by farmers. My favorite was when we were looking in on the leopard in his boma, and a baby rhino, only 18 weeks old and already 150 kg, came up behind me and gave me a little love tap (more like took out my knees). The staff tell us that we may think their cute now, but we wouldn’t want to be near when they get fed in the morning, as they have a habit of charging the staff. At the end of the tour we got feed some vultures. We put on the big leather bird sleeve and held out a piece of meat and proceeded to be mauled by 3 or 4 large vultures; pretty fun.

Question Corner

It has been awesome to receive all the email. I hope you understand that I can’t get back to all. Please keep sending the updates; it is so nice to hear about home. I have decided to add a question corner to get back to some of the questions that were asked.

What are the nights like there? Can you see a gazillion stars or does it not get dark enough?
The nights are pretty cool, though I wouldn’t actually say I see anymore stars than I would at camping at home. Orion is upside down, which leads to many arguments over his sword.

Are the people you are working with nice? Are you adjusting to the living conditions?
The people that I am working with are awesome. It is easy to get along with people who share the same passions, and it is nice to be nerdy about biology and not be self conscious about it. The project has been set up very well, and outside of the climate and group living, I have had to adjust to very little.

I think I may have been sent packing by an elephant stopping a few feet from the car... What's preventing them from full-out charging the truck? Are they just naturally non-violent animals, or..?
Depends on the ele’s mood whether or not they full out charge. For males, if they are in musth, they will full out charge the vehicle, and flip it if they feel necessary. It is actually the number one tourist risk in Kruger Park, as people underestimate the ele’s when in their car. One can tell if a male is in musth as their hind legs will be wet due their uncontrollable urge to pee (around 400 litres a day) and their general bad attitude. For females, they usually won’t charge unless you’ve done something really stupid and ended up in the middle of a breeding herd and between her and her young. For the encounters at Venetia they were almost always male ele’s, and they were mostly just “playing” with us.

I was watching a documentary one time and is it true that the male lion sleeps all day and the females do all the work like care for the cubs and hunt? I remember that because I thought how great of life that would be. lol.
It is true, and yes, a very good life indeed. However, the males role should not be underestimated, as without a male, prides quickly fall apart. Males also help defend the territory from rogue lions, including other females, which benefits the breeding success of the pride females.

January 2009

It is the end of the third week of my travels in South Africa, and I have been afforded the opportunity to see a lot of amazing sights already. I am currently working at Venetia Wildlife Reserve, and I will be here for another two weeks before moving to Karongwe Game Reserve for another five week stretch.

Venetia Wildlife Reserve
Venetia is located in the far north of South Africa only 30 km from the borders of Botswana and Zimbabwe. It is a 35,000 hectare (60 km x 60 km) private reserve owned by the DeBeers diamond company. To the south of the reserve DeBeers operates a large diamond mine, and in the initial phases of developing the mine DeBeers legally expropriated the land on which the wildlife reserve sits for the water rights. Throughout the reserve there are man-made dams and pumping stations to divert the water to the mine for its operations. Despite the changes the mine has afflicted to the ecology of the region by altering the hydrology, this reserve is unique to many other national parks and game reserves in South Africa: it is 100% private and closed off to the public. The only people occupying the reserve are those directly working on the management of its animals, or for the occasional mine tour. Unlike other game reserves, Venetia does not have to worry about guaranteeing sightings to paying customers, a process which usually results in other reserves stocking their game over their natural carry capacities. Venetia also does not suffer from a huge public spotlight like Kruger National Park, where the actions of the park are monitored, and usually subject to the pressures of an uninformed public. One such example in Kruger was the massive amount of pressure in the last ten years from environmental groups to prevent any harvesting or culls on the elephant populations within the park. The South African government abided to these pressures, and now Kruger is losing its grass land to desert and erosion, as large unchecked elephant populations have grazed and trampled large areas of the park. So despite the unfavourable environmental press mining will occasionally receive, Venetia reserve is truly trying to operate in a natural setting that I doubt would be here if DeBeers wasn’t.

Lion Behaviour Monitoring
The mainstay of the work that I am taking part in here at Venetia is lion tracking and behaviour monitoring. Lions are the apex predator at Venetia, and while there are cheetahs, leopards, wild dogs and other carnivores, none of them surpass the lions as top predator. Monitoring the movement and behaviour of the lions is very important to understanding the population dynamics of almost every other animal on the reserve (with perhaps the exception of the elephants). Currently the reserve has one main pride of lions and couple of solo females. The main pride is made up of Blade (adult male), Theika (adult female), Pikinin (adult female) and three cubs, names yet to be determined. The two solo adult females are Tsotsi and Sala. Blade, Theika and Tsotsi are all radio collared, and each day we head out on drive to find the lions, record their position, whether they have eaten recently, and behaviour while we sit with them. I have not had any close experiences with lions in my life prior to this, with the exception of the lions at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, but that hardly counts as an encounter (as I tend to remember a trainer was in the glass case attempting to get the lions to play with a ball for the rest of us gawking from the outside).

Lions are large. I know this probably sounds rather simple, and shouldn’t be the first thing I notice, or rather I should have already expected, but nothing quite prepared me for their real world strength and size. One morning we were out on drive, and we happened to find the main pride very quickly. Since it was still early and cool, the lions were active, the cubs were wrestling with each other and the adults hadn’t yet flaked out for the day. Shortly after we arrived at the site the cubs took an interest in us and all three surrounded our Mahindra. Now, a Mahindra is a common 4x4 used on reserves in South Africa, and consists of a two seat cab in the front and an open pick up box in the back with two benches for additional seating. Since I was on telemetry duty that day (locating the lions by honing in on their radio collars), I was sitting in the open back. Once the cubs surrounded the vehicle, mum and sister had to come by and make sure everything was alright. So mum decided to lay down right behind the vehicle, and with a low growling noise was discussing whether the humans in the back of Mahindra might make for good breakfast with her cubs. Ok, slight exaggeration, but still unnerving at the least. Mum and sister lost interest after a little while and moved on past the vehicle, while the cubs stayed, stalking and wrestling each other around us. The only one who hadn’t investigated the situation was papa, otherwise known as Blade. When Blade got up a walked towards us my heart sank a little and began beating out of my stomach. Blade is no house cat, and easily outweighs both me and Franco in the back seats of the Mahindra (did I mention ‘open top’?). Blade sauntered only feet away from the vehicle, while keeping a watchful eye on both Franco and I. Our driver Hank reassured us afterward that although the ignition was off, his hand was on the keys, ready to leave at a moments notice. Since I am alive to tell you this little tale, the ending isn’t overly dramatic (after a short stop to look at Franco and I a little closer Blade continued on), but the experience was still amazing. There is no doubt, lions are large.

Elephant Habituation
Another task that we take part in on the reserve is elephant habituation, where the goal is to get the elephants acclimatized to humans and vehicles so that they may go on with their normal behaviour in our presence, instead of responding to us. This involves us stopping and parking the Mahindra whenever we come across elephants on the drive. This may sound easy, but trust me it takes some steely nerves. The elephants here at Venetia are all orphaned elephants from Kruger National Park, where their mothers had been shot. To say the least, their interactions with humans has not been positive, and elephants are known for their long term memories.
When we encounter elephants their behaviour can be described in one of two ways: vigilant or aggressive. Aggressive bevaviour is when you need to be undaunted by size, as male elephants will usually mock charge our vehicles. I say mock charge, because they almost always (and lets hope it stays like that) stop only feet before the vehicles. In this situation we are stand our ground. Moving away is only a last option, as we don’t want to communicate to the elephants that their attempts are eliciting a response. When a 4 tonne elephant starts picking 15’ Mopane trees up, ripping them out of the ground and tossing them overhead, the vehicle doesn’t feel so safe anymore. We have had a couple close encounters so far, I am sure there will be more.

Vigilant behaviour can be funny. This where an elephant won’t approach you, but will change its behavior in your presence. This can be in the form of mock feeding, where an elephant is pretending to eat while watching you carefully. So carefully in fact, that most of the grass that the elephant is pretending to eat misses its mouth. Another form of vigilance is hiding. We have seen elephants cover their eyes with their trunk in a vain effort to hide, perhaps if it can’t see us then we can’t see them.


Chapter 58
I realize that this may be getting a little long winded, and I could type so much more, but I would like someone to read this at some point, so I will make an attempt to shorten by using the always wonderful bullet form:

• I actually get up at 4 AM for drives, maybe not happily, but I do do it. (It helps when we go to bed at 8 PM.)
• I am all about absorbing new cultural items, drinking the local brew, eating Kudu jerky, learning a little Afrikaans, but one thing I will refuse to do is the tradition of spitting giraffe dung (its chosen because of its missile shape and supposed cleanliness). Perhaps peer pressure will change my tune.
• Afrikaans music is horrific. Imagine non-stop Neil Diamond, but not Neil, much much worse
• A previous staffer built an outdoor gym using some pipe and a welding torch, and after afternoon naps I do dips and chinups. I am still working on the kick pad construction.
• Living in a cabin with all guys is a great and really bad idea all at the same time.
• I have read two books since arriving: my Christmas present the 47th Samurai, and the Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama. I highly recommend the latter if you’re interested in politics of any form, and well, the former will be added to the library here at Venetia.
• In the camp resides a 2 meter long bottle-nosed Cobra, as thick as my forearm; and I thought getting firewood at mum and dad’s in the snow was a challenge.
• Nickpilfold.com is the hottest website around.
  
  PS.
  As much fun as this is, I do miss everyone at home and I hope everything is going well in your respective lives. I will try to update this blog monthly, and while the email connection is weak here (running on a G3 cell card and antennae), emails are always welcome and will be read with joy.