It’s chilly! We are in the middle of the very best part of the year here weather wise – calm, sunny days with anice bite to the breeze, and nights when we can actually get under a blanket or two, and don’t need a fan! That’s us humans. However – it’s not quite so nice for the animals, as the bush dries out and graze and browse become scarcer and scarcer. A great boon here, however, for flora and fauna alike, is the narrow ribbon of grass that lines the shore of the Lake, dominated by Panicum repens, known as Torpedo Grass, which is very high in nutritional value. The lake is continuing to recede as there are no inflows from the rivers at the moment, compounded by the low rainfall received in the catchment areas (courtesy of El Nino), which is not great for the country’s’ hydroelectric power, but is fantastic for providing damp fertile conditions for the grass to thrive! For our elephants, maintaining their strength becomes a full-time job,given that they require between 170 and 230 kgs of food a day – when most of this is obtained from painstakingly scuffed up grass, you can imagine that there is little time left over for rest, or play.
These two little ellies, however, still partly dependent upon their mother’s milk, have lots or energy to expend!
Never ignore a good muddy patch!
And now to our lions – ah, the saga of the Bumi lions. It just seems that these magnificent animals cannot catch a break, and it all boils down to Human Wildlife Conflict. We have sad news, and glad news, so let’sget the sad news out of the way first.
A couple of weeks ago, our oldest lion in the coalition of three, Blackbeard, wandered into the adjacent hunting concession, where he was shot as part of a legal hunt. At almost exactly the same time, Blondie, our collared lion, and one of the remaining two of the coalition of three, was struck down with a devastatingmystery illness, one we feared that he would not recover from.
Blondie, as previously mentioned, has a collar, which we track by satellite. On the morning of the 23rd June, hot on the heels of the news about Blackbeard, we noticed that Blondie had not moved from one spot in over 14 hours. Whilst this is not unusual, and normally means that they are on a kill, we were nevertheless on high alert, quite naturally, regarding all things lions, and this was worrying. Late that afternoon, we wentout to check what was going on. I will let Mark, our Conservation Manager, take up the tale, as he was minutely involved in the process:
“Seeing no movement from Blondie, we had an inkling that something was not quite right. So, we immediately went to go and look for him. Judging by the satellite map, he was very close to a convenient bush track which crossed a dry river bed. Sure enough, we found him there, lying on his side in the sand. Atfirst glance he looked as though he was simply resting.
Blondie – seemingly ‘resting’
However, when we moved closer, we saw Blondie was struggling to rise – he couldn’t even get up on to hishaunches to growl at us. Something was definitely seriously wrong. But there were no signs of any apparent injury visible either.
Realising we had an issue on our hands, we immediately contacted African Parks/Parks and WildlifeAuthority at Tashinga, who in turn arranged permission for Blondie to be darted and his condition assessed.They arrived on site later that afternoon, bringing with them wildlife veterinarian Dr Panashe Mudandishe,from Ume Croc Farm, close to Bumi.
We then immobilised Blondie with capture drugs – he took much more of the normal dose than weanticipated – possibly because, due to his immobile condition, circulation was poor, and therefore the drugs weren’t absorbed as quickly as normal. Eventually however he succumbed and a thorough examination ofhim was carried out. Again, there were no obvious signs as to the cause of his condition. It was a mystery. Possibilities such as poisoning, rabies and or snakebite were considered, but nothing conclusive was forthcoming. So, after rehydrating him as best we could, and administering a big dose of anti-inflammatory drug, multi- vitamins and anti-biotics, we reluctantly left him, after reversing those drugs that could be, andmaking sure he was revived sufficiently enough to fend for himself, as best he could, under his present condition.
First thing the next day we returned, expecting the worse. However, he was awake, but STILL unable to rise – or even move anything except his legs feebly, where he had gouged furrows in the sand.
Furrows gouged in the sand where he tried to rise.
Blondie unable to rise.
He remained in this condition for a full 7 days – an extremely worrying time. At one stage we came close to suggesting that we humanely euthanise him, as by day he was lying in the full sun, and by night, he had to endure the cold winter temperatures, lying as he was in a low-lying riverbed. We alleviated his discomfort as much as we could – providing him with a space blanket (not many lions in Africa get this sort of VIP treatment!). This was not, however, without much snarling and growling, which was not really sporting of him!
Blondie voices his displeasure at our attempts to cover him with a space blanket!
Eventually he accepted that we were not giving up!
Reflective side up – deflecting the hot full sun as much as possible
He initially refused a carefully placed dog’s bowl of water placed nearby. However, knowing it was vital we kept himhydrated, we came up with a plan whereby we filled a 150 litre water drum with water, and carefully manoeuvred it into a position above where he was lying in the riverbed. We then slowly poured the water out, so it filtered down the embankment and into a muddy pool, which filled up nicely, very close to where he was lying, thus giving him a clean supply of water (see photo below).
By the morning day 8, our hopes were rapidly fading, and we were contemplating our next move – Blondie had not shown any marked signs of improvement, nor had he made any attempts to rise fully, so it was a very pleasant andjoyful surprise, when we found him sitting up and looking around at his surroundings with interest!
Blondie sitting up !
As he had not eaten anything for over a week, we were anxious to get some food into him
to keep his strength up. So, the only thing we had immediately available was some choice beef and pork cuts from our base’s kitchen! Our cook’s eyebrows shot up when we told him what we were looking for – but he willingly surrendered these when we told him the reason why! We later managed to secure some impala meat for him which helped enormously.
From then on, Blondie has not looked back. It has been quite amazing – and remarkable – to see how he has pulled back from an almost hopeless condition, to regaining his full mobility – nothing short of remarkable. It is alsofortunate that we don’t have a large hyena population in the area – they would have most certainly made short work of him, had they found him.
We are still no closer to establishing the cause of his affliction, but are most gratified he has pulled through – against all odds it seems. Even more so, after the loss of their colleague ‘Blackbeard’ to hunting. So, the two brothers remain – ‘Blondie’ and ‘Scarface’, and together, we hope they will be able to form the foundation for a new Bumi Pride – as hard as this will be due to the challenges they will face. The trio were well known for their forays into Matusadona National Park – wandering as far away as Fothergill and Spurwing, challenging the resident males thereand no doubt hoping to acquire some lionesses to bring back to their home ground. We hope, now being the twobrothers, that this will still be the case. So we say “Long live Blondie and Scarface!”
‘Blondie’ looking a little bit worse for wear after his ordeal, now recovering
Mark and his team deserve so many plaudits for the care of Blondie, without which he probably would have succumbed to dehydration – we pray that both he and his brother continue to thrive safely here at Bumi.
As you can see from our stats, the snaring scourge continues and we continue to do everything that we can to preventand stop this epidemic – as we have mentioned before, the scale of this snaring means that it is a crime of greed, notneed, and is part of the lucrative bushmeat trade, as opposed to an honest attempt to feed a family.
Our Rangers have been hard at work day in and day out mitigating the growing threat. As the effects of this drought start to take hold, incursions and attempts on our animals are at an all-time high, and the pressure onour bank account mounts – if you are in a position to be able to donate towards our work, we would be incredibly grateful – we can be contacted on cath@bumihillsfoundation.org
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