Close call for our Volunteers

One hidden aspect of the economic slowdown is the adverse affect on wildlife. Of-course tourism and donations/sponsorship for wildlife projects have suffered. But more than that, unemployment has lead to more guys returning to the old ways.

Now for Honey Badgers -Oh, and Jennie turned up

No uploads from Jennie

It has been over seven days since we received an update from Jennies GPS tracking collar, which has the research team a little concerned. Of-course it isn't unusual to go for three or four days without an update, as the collar needs to be in a good cell phone reception area when the tracking system polls for Jennies signal. However it has been seven days and to add to our worries the last update had her wandering into bad lands, where there is at least one very leopard unfriendly farmer.

New direction for our Research Team

Being based in the valley of Leutla Conservancy is a whole difference experience compared to our time in Kudu Game Ranch. Most of our mornings are spent out walking the main roads looking for spoor, and so far we have been successful. Several lots of leopard spoor have been found in various places, some of which we know belong to the resident big male in the area. We are getting plenty of chances to practice our spoor casting skills, which it seems Mark has a bit of a talent for.

As well as leopard we have also found brown hyena, civet, genet, honey badger and jackal spoor, so lots of carnivore activity in the area.

In our first week in the valley we managed to catch a honey badger on our camera traps as well as our collared civet Simpson (named after wildlife capture expert Dairen Simpson). Simpson seems to be a local resident and we are looking forward to finding more about his movements and activities through monitoring him via the telemetry set.

The valley is a beautiful place to be based with stunning views to admire every single time you step out the door. There is a lot of wildlife around, and although not as frequently seen as it is at Kudu it’s still just as special.

It seems that last night according to the spoor we have found, we had a leopard walk right past our house, and only today I had a close call with a puff adder, nearly stepping on it as I walked down the road. Luckily I spotted it just in time, but that didn’t stop it attempting to strike and hissing when it realised we had gotten a little bit too close for comfort. Quite an exciting encounter!

The local baboons are having great fun with our water pipes, pulling them apart on a daily basis much to Mark and Alan’s frustration who end up having to fix them every time. But who can deny a thirsty baboon a drink of nice fresh clean water?!

Last week saw us make a return visit to Bosfontein Primary School to deliver some much needed blankets that had been kindly donated to the smallest children, and also to spend some time helping the teachers learn how to use computers.

I think it was extremely rewarding for all of us to be able to help and make a small difference to a school that needs all the support it can get. The teachers are eager to learn which makes it a pleasure to assist them in acquiring some much-needed new skills.

Mark was definitely the big hit with the kids, amusing them with his impersonations and teachings of farmyard animal noises. I am sure there will be more visits to the school in the future, which I very much look forward to.

Unfortunately this week though we have said a fond farewell to Mark. His time with the ILP has come to an end and along with his dedication and enthusiasm for the work he has been doing and his interesting sense of humour, I think the thing we are going to miss most is his amazing culinary skills!

But on the upside, as we say goodbye to Mark we get to welcome a new volunteer Steven, who is Alan’s brother. So the hard work and long days will continue with hopefully more rewarding results of finding spoor and capturing animals on our camera traps.

Written by Kirsty Lynas

Simpson

You may remember that we collared a Civet last month, while Dairen Simpson was working with us. Kirsty and the team have been monitoring 'Simpson' the Civet for the last few weeks and putting together some interesting data. You might ask why the ILP is studying Civets? Well there are several reasons. Of-course we have an obligation to monitor all animals in our study area and we had an opportunity to collar Simpson, but there is more than that. As with Leopards there has been little (in fact no) scientific research conducted on many of the other smaller predators in area's such as ours. The ILP needs to look at the whole eco structure, not just Leopards, so we find ourselves with another sub project. PHD Research volunteers should be continuing this research for the next two years in association with UK & SA universities.