Two weeks in!

I’ve been out in the field now for just over two weeks and the reason I have taken so long to update the blog is well, because I have literally been lost for words. This place is more than I ever imagined it to be. I have seen and done so much in the last two weeks if feels like I have been here for years. I’m now based at Makhamisa in the far Southern or wilderness section of the reserve. This place is paradise, 20 000 hectares of nothing but wilderness, not a single road. Unfortunately even paradise is sometimes troubled. The day I arrived at Makhamisa out post I was met with a sad story of a white rhino that had been poached in the wilderness area. This is a sad reality in this part of the world, and make no mistake, rhino poaching is reality of everyday life and has to constantly be kept in check by the anti-poaching unit. due to the superb efforts of the APU this is the first rhino to be poached in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi this year, and hopefully the last.

Other than the poaching, I’ve had some great experiences such as darting and fitting a collar to a wild dog. There is a pack of 16 wild dogs known as the Veggie pack that have denned about 7km from where I stay and we have been constantly monitoring their movements to see what they are up to. Just to be on the safe side we decided to fit a collar to a second member of the pack. This was a great success and has allowed us to follow their whereabouts during this interesting denning season. Just yesterday I went out to try and find the pack and to my joy I didn’t even have to use the telemetry, I came over a rise in the road and found 14 dogs lying at cibilenyati pan. The two dogs that were missing was the alpha female and one of the other females that obviously stayed at the den with her. This is a sure sign that the alpha female has of is about to give birth to her litter, very exciting!

We have also been busy with some lion work as well. It is quite vague at the moment as to how many lions are actually in Hluhluwe-imfolozi game reserve so on a routine basis we do call-ups to see what’s happening on who’s moving in each section. We did our first call up two nights ago and managed to dart and brand a big male lion. The branding is for identification purposes and each lion has a unique brand with which field rangers and researchers can identify them with.

Ok. On the black rhino front, it has been equally great from the two weeks I have spent walking I have seen 32 black rhino already. I can’t quite believe it. It’s getting dry here so a lot of the rhino and other game are concentrating along the river. The day before yesterday I had one of the most if not the most amazing wildlife experience. From where I was sitting at cibilenyoni watching a black rhino, on the opposite bank of the river, I could see two elephant, a couple buffalo, 3 white rhino, 2 cheetah on a kill and I’m not done yet! As I glanced over to the right I spotted a leopardess with her 4 week old cub walking along the river. I know this I quiet hard to believe but believe me its true. Amazing things happen in paradise. And then there is the grand finale. I have now finally seen black rhino mating. This is something very rare and I have always wondered when I was going to get to see it. We were on an OP point called Qaqenilwempisi scanning an area looking for rhino when I spotted two rhino quite far in the distance. I looked away for a brief moment and when I looked back I almost fell off the rock I was sitting on. THEY MATING I shouted. We then made our way down to the two lovebirds that had now made there way to the reed bed skirting Nqizwini pan. The reeds were too tall and I had to climb a big acacia to get an ID on the two animals. All in all it was a great day. To date the most black rhino I have seen in one day is 8 and that within 5km of Makhamisa out post. This place really is a rhino Mecca and I’m really looking forward to the next 6 weeks. I will keep you posted. Spot you guys later.

JB

Heaven found

Wow, so yesterdays and this morning exploring around the reserve was pretty rewarding! Yesterday afternoon I headed into the town of Hluhluwe to get supplies to last me for the next two months. I was in quiet a hurry so was doing 40km as fast as I could go. I came round the bend near Memorial gate the Zulu guy I was taking to Hluhluwe suddenly shouted leopard leopard! I turned to look in the direction he was pointing and there he was, a beautiful big male just lying in the shade of a Schotia. After watching him for a while we headed on to town. Coming back from town I decided to come back into the reserve at Nyalazi gate and had some time to spare so I headed a few kilometers south towards the black imfolozi river. Just before I crossed the low water bridge I was stopped by a guide who said I must look carefully down river there are two bubezi lying there. On arrival at the bridge a took out my binos and scanned around, there they lay, two big lions most likely brothers. With light fading and my known impatience for sleeping lions I decided to call it a day and start heading back to HRC (Hluhluwe research centre).

27 May 2009

I woke up early and couldn't’t get back to sleep, so I lay and waited for it to get light enough so we could get out there. We left HRC at about 6:30am and headed slowly down to the Mansiya area where we had seen the wild dog spoor the day before. A bout a kilometer from the Mansiya turn off to my absolute joy, two wild dogs came galloping out the tall grass and ran down the road. The two dogs soon became eight as they were joined by the other pack members. The pack of four adults and fur sub adults then very cooperatively decided to take a rest right next to the road. This was one of the most amazing sightings I have ever had. We spent another half an hour with the dogs and then left them in peace. The rest of our morning was spent viewing a couple white rhino (which I must just say are EVERYWHERE here!) We then headed back to HRC for breakfast and to do some work things. This evening we just went for a short drive and spent some time with two herds of elephants while we watched the sun set. It really has been an amazing welcome to Hluhluwe-Imfolozi and I just cant wait to get to “work” on foot! Chat soon.

JB

Hi everyone,

So I have finally arrived in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi. I moved into my room yesterday and have been driving around the Hluhluwe section and getting more familiar with the area. Found the first set of black rhino tracks this morning, it was a single animal that appeared to be being followed by 3 wild dogs. Other than that the bush has been pretty quiet this morning. I'm heading over to Imfolozi this afternoon to go check things out there, I'm going to be based there in the Makhamisa wilderness section for two months starting on the 1st. I will obviously be away from most things remotely technical so will post updates in about two months to let you know what we found. But until then. Bye

Heading off

Hi guys,

As some of you might know I am heading up to Hluhluwe-Imfolozi on the 1st of June to monitor their black rhino population. I will be operating on foot in 96 000 hectares trying to figure out individual rhino home ranges, population demographics and create identikits for each rhino. I will keep you posted as to how things fair and what we find. Until then.....