A very Good Day to you all, from our perch overlooking an extremely hazy and hot Lake Kariba!
At this time of the year, it’s a bit like living in a very large bubble – the haze in the atmosphere increases daily, until we reach the stage where can no longer even see the end of our harbour, only a kilometre or twoaway. The haze is largely caused by bushfires, which sweep across the tinder dry bush in every quarter of our country during September and October. Most, thankfully, are small and peter out quite quickly, but we do get the occasional blaze that lights up the night sky, and keeps rangers out at all hours, backburning and beating. It never ceases to amaze that, even before the rains, grass pricks through the ashy black residue from a fire, the luminous green shoots otherworldly in such a barren environment.
Haze envelopes the Bumi peninsula, whilst a fire map of Southern Africa shows where the haze originates.
Enough of the weather report – on to all important updates!
Kutwi, the young elephant with the terrible snare around her ear and tusk, whom we treated in June (see Q2 Newsletter), has made a remarkable recovery. We did not see her, or her family, for quite some time post treatment, and anxiety levels were high, as a wound such as she was carrying held a high risk of severeinfection. Thankfully, after about a month, she and her mother were spotted, but quite far away, soalthough we at least knew that she was still with us, and feeding, we were unable to get a good look at her ear. Fast forward to a week ago, when we had a very clear sighting of her – and were overjoyed to see thatnot only had her wound healed, but that she even had a bit of movement in her ear, something we did not think that she would ever regain. Plus, she has something to take her mind off her floppy ear – a brand newsibling, spotted tucked closely in between Kutwi, and her mother. This last bit of information explains whyher mother was so very protective of Kutwi when we were sedating her – not only was she looking after her 8-year- old, but was in the final stages of a 22-month pregnancy…
Kutwi and her mother – the healed ear can be clearly seen (apologies for the picture quality – they are actually stills from a video clip)
Our other update is on Tariro, the lioness, and her 5 cubs. The cubs are now 5 months old, and, against all odds, are thriving. Tariro remains extremely elusive and hard to spot – most of the sightings of her and herfamily have been after dark, and we try not to disturb her then when she is more than likely hunting – but we can confirm that they are all doing exceptionally well. We continue our efforts to sedate and collar her,but she is a wily and clever lioness, and has so far ignored all our attempts at baiting her, or calling her up(using prerecorded ‘buffalo in distress’ sounds). The best way, we have found in the past, with such cases, is not to force the process – when the right opportunity presents itself, all will go smoothly – rushing and over reacting often creates a far greater problem. So – in your own time, Tariro! Can you spot the cub keeping a close eye on us? (see below)
Tariro with one of her five curious cubs – thank you to Dylan van Deventer for the pictures
As can be seen by our stats for the third quarter of this year, we have seen a tremendous upsurge in illegal wire snaring. Mention the word ‘poaching’ and thoughts of firearms and axes probably spring to mind. Yetthere is another type of poaching, and it’s silent, cruel, cheaper and equally as deadly. We call them our own weapons of mass destruction.
Wire snares are easy to prepare and set and are usually for bushmeat. Any type of wire can be used, fromtelephone and other cables to barbed wire fencing. Once the snare is prepared all the poacher has to do is position his crude, cruel device and wait. Often a poacher will set snares at several sites, returning after a day or more to check his random trap; it’s estimated one poacher can set up to twenty snares a day. Any animal unlucky enough to have been snared may be exhausted and terribly injured from struggling to freeitself… or dead after suffering for hours. Up to ninety percent of snaring victims are left to rot in the bushbecause the poacher will not usually collect every single one of his snares’ victims. Every day rangers spend valuable time searching for, and removing snares. Frequently they will find new snares in place the dayafter a snare sweep. Removing snares before they trap an animal is a constant battle. Wire snares areindiscriminate, killing and maiming from the very small, to the very large. A classic example of snaredamage is Kutwi’s injury – although we completely understand the man who lays his snare and comes backto check it in the evening, hoping for food for his family, we do not understand nor sympathise with thecommercial bush meat poachers, who are responsible for the huge quantities of snares we find and destroy. They are committers of ‘crimes of greed’ as opposed to ‘crimes of need’.
an Impala caught in a snare
Finally, a word from our Conservation Manager, on the recent darting of a bushbuck on nearby Musango Island. Our thanks, as always, to ZimParks (ZPWLMA) and Musango island Safari Camp.
“Bushbuck can be a tricky species to capture, and is usually best done with nets, as they areoften wary of close approach on foot. However, Musango’s bushbuck are very acclimatised to humans, so off we set with all our darting kit and paraphernalia in tow.
Our first attempt (a week or so earlier) was viewed with great suspicion – this was not normal so she (the intended ‘victim’) was ultra-alert. Sure enough, upon approach, she ‘darted’ off, not to be seen again that afternoon.
So, Plan ‘B’ was put into effect when we were told she was back and quite relaxed, amongst the buildings of the staff accommodation at Musango. A revised strategy saw us with fewer people tagging along and a nonchalant, gradual approach, casually whistling to “In the Jungle, the Mighty Jungle, the Lion Sleeps Tonight”, which, despite the reference to an arch predator, seemed to work just fine…
She was successfully darted and after some minutes, she showed signs of the immobilising drug taking effect, by lying down under a shady tree. After another 3 – 4 minutes given forthe drug to take full effect, a careful approach was made. BUT she was having none of it, and as she was about to be restrained by hand, up she leaped and bounced off! A valiantattempt by the Conservation Manager to grab her by the back legs was thwarted when helost his grip and fell headlong into a spiky bush…
As there were ladies present, the language used was fairly restrained and polite, and fortunately the bushbuck tripped over a horizontal branch and was caught fairly shortly thereafter. This allowed her to be restrained properly and a blindfold and ear plugs applied, and after all that excitement, she succumbed quite nicely, allowing the troublesome plastic pipe to be removed from her foot.
Fortunately, the injury was not too serious, and after administering an anti-biotic, vitamin ‘B’ and topical dressing, she was reversed successfully, and wandered off, none the worse for wear.”
Robin Edwards, from Musango, keeps an eye on the bushbuck as she comes out of sedation.
That’s about it for this quarter – please have a look at our new and improved website, where you will find all our past newsletters, stats and some wonderful videos. Thank you all so much for your support and encouragement – it means a lot to us.