Wildcast

Still no joy. I flew over an hour for Manyari this morning but couldn’t pick up anything and then my receiver batteries went flat. So I had no choice to leave it again until tomorrow.

I got reports of the wild dogs having made a kill on southern Khayeni and the pups were there too. This confirms that they’re probably not using a den anymore and going to be so much harder to find.
I hoping somewhere along the line we’ll be able to get a collar on the alpha male which will make this whole mission of finding them so much easier. That in turn will mean I can spend more time with them, which in turn will make them more habituated, which in turn will allow us access to inoculate them against rabies. Without them being habituated this task is nearly impossible.
Back on the ground I was hoping to find the elephant coming in to drink and swim at Lojaan dam, but there no sign of any elephant activity in the area.
Banyini open area was full of life with impala, zebra, giraffe, wildebeest, a small herd of Eland and a herd of Sable.

While passing down to Chekwa pan several large tusked bulls were trashing mopanie trees. At this time of year you don’t even have to have leaves and the elephant will trash you for your bark. You would think those mopanie trees wouldn’t have a chance but they’re survivors and stand strong all over the reserve.

(As I’m typing this now in the early hours of the morning, lions are roaring to the south east. Hopefully this is Manyari and I’ll pick her up when I fly in a few hours at dawn.)
Late afternoon I had reports of a herd of buffalo on Malilangwe dam. The light was stunning so I rushed down there, but my luck was out as the herd was already leaving the floodplain and heading into the hills.
But the dam was alive with birdlife, especially water birds. A flock of Spoonbill Storks were frantically feeding in the shallows. They were joined by African Jacana’s, Painted Snipe, Saddle-billed Stork, Grey Heron, Yellow-billed Storks and Woolly-necked Storks. White-breasted Cormorants were scattered in the dead trees sitting on their nests.

It’s always just the most wonderful place to spend any amount of time with all the activity going on. Maybe one day, when I’m big, I’ll make a film about the dam and all it’s inhabitants.