Tag Archive for 'bushveld'

Handling Fire: Video

Published

on September 25, 2009

. 6 Comments Tags:adventure, africa, animal-kingdom, blog, blogumentary, bush, bush-knowledge, bushfire, bushveld, cites, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, endangered-species, experience, film, filmmaker, fire, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, Impala, IUCN-Red-List, lions, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open-Content-Alliance, pamushana, peace-parks, photo, photos, podcasting, predators, teach, video, wild, wild dogs, wildcasting, wilderness, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, youtube, zimbabwe

The lions have been back.
I saw male lion tracks in the area of the wild dog den and on getting to the den, no sign of the dogs. This was in the afternoon as I’d spent the morning with Mark on the giraffe carcass with the hyaenas.
For the last couple of hours of light I searched the area, but picked up no sign of the dogs.

With an early start the next day I was back in the area searching, climbing all the highest koppies hoping to get a signal from Chevvy’s transmitter. In this mountainous country, using telemetry becomes rather hit and miss, but being up on the highest peaks usually produces success. By lunch time and with many conquered hills under my belt, I was still no closer to finding the dogs.

So I’d decided that I’d fly in the late afternoon. But just before heading to the airstrip, I climbed another mountain, this time close to home base, and sure enough I got a signal a long ways to the west.

The whole pack, including the pups had moved to another den having travelled about 5kms from the previous den. This is a long way for these 12 week old puppies, but they all seemed just fine.

They only spent a couple of days at this den and moved to another further south. This was far more user friendly to me than the last one.

But after being there only 2 days, disaster struck. Getting to the dogs at dawn, I only counted 10 puppies. One was missing and the pack had now moved away from the den. Searching the area there was no sign of foul play, until I got to the den and peering into the crevice I saw the curled up body of an African Rock Python. I could only see the one coil and then I saw the dead puppy. Shortly the python had disappeared. Not an easy feeling as I wondered which crevice it might appear from next. And then of course I went even more against the grain and wedged myself deep into the crevice to retrieve the puppy. Which I did and found its upper body covered in saliva. The python was already beginning to swallow the pup and my appearing on the scene must have disturbed it. I left the puppy there, but the python never returned.

The pack subsequently moved their den back to the previous one. Hopefully no more pythons up there!

Dove Mania: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on September 14, 2009

in videopost

. 6 Comments Tags:adventure, africa, animal-kingdom, blog, blogumentary, bush, bush-knowledge, bushveld, cites, conservation, documentary, dove, ecotraining, education, endangered-species, experience, film, filmmaker, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, IUCN-Red-List, kill, laughing, malilangwe, mania, mashable, narrowcasting, Open-Content-Alliance, pamushana, peace-parks, photo, photos, podcasting, predators, teach, video, waterhole, wild, wild dogs, wildcasting, wilderness, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, youtube, zimbabwe

The puppies of course are growing and their colours coming through nice and strong now. And unfortunately for me they’re still in the same den.

Having got back from a successful hunt yesterday and fed the pups, 4 of the adults headed back in the direction they came from, but just at a stroll. The pups followed across the valley and up the next hill. Somewhere along the way they got separated and half the pups headed home. Chevvy took the others up the hill and rested up at a cave. The pups checked it out but didn’t go in.

I thought the adults were possibly taking the pups back to their kill, but then having got to the cave, it seemed like they were trying to get them to move den. But that didn’t last and soon the adults were ushering the pups back to their old den.

It seems to have been a quiet week with the dogs. All doing their normal thing and hunting successfully.

Thankfully no more visits from lions and actually no sign of them in the area. A hyaena did pitch up near the den today but it didn’t even have time to smell the roses and the dogs sent it packing.

I’ve been flying my microlight again to help with some work on the reserve. Not having flown for 4months, my first flight ended up with engine failure. Thankfully I was near the airstrip and managed to glide in safely. With a complete carburettor overhaul the machine is purring again and I’ll be taking to the skies again tomorrow in search of some sable antelope.

Bon ‘up-a-Tree’: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on September 7, 2009

in videopost

. 9 Comments Tags:adventure, africa, animal-kingdom, blog, blogumentary, bush, bush-knowledge, bushveld, cites, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, elephants, endangered-species, experience, feed, film, filmmaker, flickr, flowers, giraffe, GLTP, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, hunting, IUCN-Red-List, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open-Content-Alliance, pamushana, peace-parks, photo, photos, podcasting, predators, spring, teach, tongue, video, wild, wild dogs, wildcasting, wilderness, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, youtube, zimbabwe

The wild dogs are still at the same den, which continues to frustrate me as the area is covered in long grass and the entrance to the den is obscured by bush. AND of course there’s hardly any sun reaching the area either.

And to add to that I can’t drive to the den. Which of course makes things not so easy for me as I have to carry everything up there, but I also really need the pups to get used to the vehicle.

The pups are now 10 weeks old and the brown/yellow colours are really coming out on them. One pup seems to have the beauty of her mother. She’s the one I named Domino.

The adults/yearlings are still hunting like demons and more than coping with feeding the pack. And Puzzles is enjoying the easy life staying at home most of the time. She very seldom goes hunting. But then I suppose somebody has to babysit.

Yesterday the pups followed the adults hunting for the first time. They ventured a good half a kilometre from the den with the adults repeatedly trying to send them back home, but they were all psyched up for an adventure. Eventually Puzzles came trotting past me to the pups, gave a whine and then trotted back past me to the den with all 11 little ones following hot on her heals.

It wasn’t 5mins and the little guys were back down the hill, this time on their own. Half way down they seemed a little, sort of ‘lost’, I suppose. For 15mins they milled around and then thought better of it and ran back home.
Even with all going on the frustrations grow, as I haven’t had the camera out the box all week! Bleak!
The only predictable shooting we’ve been doing is me in front of the camera for a change. Mark has been shooting me for material needed for the wild dog film. The beauty of this is, I’m getting around the reserve again. And always happy to bump into a bunch of elephant bulls!

Splash Master: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on August 31, 2009

in videopost

. 7 Comments Tags:adventure, africa, animal-kingdom, blod, blogumentary, bush, bush-knowledge, bushveld, cites, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, elephants, endangered-species, experience, film, filmmaker, flickr, fun, game, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, hunting, IUCN-Red-List, malilangwe, mashable, mud, narrowcasting, Open-Content-Alliance, pamushana, peace-parks, photo, photos, poacher, podcasting, predators, snare, teach, trunk, video, wild, wild dogs, wildcasting, wilderness, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, youtube, zimbabwe

The wild dog puppies are now 9weeks old!

All the dogs are still going strong. 8 adults and 11 puppies.

They’ve moved den twice in the last week and will probably be moving more often now as the pups become more adventurous and are moving further and further a field. They’re still too young to follow the adults on the hunt but in a few weeks they’ll probably be out there.

Puzzles is still suckling her pups but only a couple of times a day as her milk is now drying up.

The puppies are now true meat eaters and continue to walk around with oversized tummies from the successful hunting adventures of the rest of the pack.

It’s only about 1 in 10 days that puppies don’t get fed, but they sure make up for it on the other 9 days as their tummies are permanently swollen.

I can’t wait for the dogs to leave the hills and start their nomadic lives again. I feel I’ve been couped in up their for too long now.

The pups colours are now really beginning to change with the browns coming out of the blacks. And then it’s time to try and find ID features so I can name them all. Already we have a Domino, Dice and Delta. I’m still not sure of sexes of all the pups.

Thankfully the lions have stayed away from the dens although I have seen their tracks again on the track near the den.

All is well in the wild dog world and Puzzles continues to be single. Neither Chevvy nor Kodak are showing any signs of flirting with their mother. No doubt when she comes into oestrus next year things will change.

Cheers

Kim

Peering into trouble: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on August 17, 2009

in videopost

. 15 Comments Tags:adventure, africa, animal-kingdom, blog, blogumentary, bush, bush-knowledge, bushveld, cites, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, endangered-species, experience, film, filmmaker, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, hunting, IUCN-Red-List, kill, lions, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open-Content-Alliance, pamushana, peace-parks, photo, photos, podcasting, predators, puppy, teach, video, wild, wild dogs, wildcasting, wilderness, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, youtube, zimbabwe

It’s been an interesting week for the dogs and thankfully they’re all still going strong.
Zip and Kodak both have foot injuries but both recovering just fine.

The day after the lions killed the dogs, the rest of the pack were too nervous to go to the den. So for over 24hrs they didn’t feed the pups. It was only the next morning after a successful hunt that they slowly approached the den and called the pups out.

As was to be expected Puzzles wanted to move the pups to a new den. They often do this when hassled by lions. Several times she called the pups and they would follow her until the yearlings stepped in to feed them. They stopped the whole move. Eventually Puzzles gave up.

The next day Puzzles was on her own at the den and had already moved some of the pups to a new den close by when I got there at dawn. She then tried to move the rest but they wouldn’t jump down a ledge. She picked up the one and carried it off leaving the others milling around me. Eventually they moved back to the den. Puzzles then gave up calling them and carried them one at a time to the den. Now back at the 2nd den.

Puzzles is now out hunting with her yearlings, and nobody is left behind to look after the pups. But the den they’re in is really secure from lions and other predators, so long as the pups don’t go a wandering.
Lions were again at the den the one night and again the pack were nervous all day only getting to feed the pups late in the evening.
Puzzles now seems to have resigned herself to the fact that the pups are in a safe den, so why move them?

Hyaenas also came to within about 50m of the den. The dogs watched, ready to send them packing, but no need. They hyaenas seemed to know they better move off. They had come to check out the dead dogs of which there was hardly anything remaining.
We were also successful in implanting Chevvy with a transmitter. This goes in the stomach cavity and the animal doesn’t even know it’s there. So at least now I can again keep track of the dogs movements.

The dogs are all doing well and the yearlings hunting very successfully. There’s been no change in the status of the pack without Jiggy being there, but no doubt things will change when Puzzles comes into oestrus next year.

Art of drinking and ducking: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on August 10, 2009

in videopost

. 34 Comments Tags:adventure, africa, animal-kingdom, blog, blogumentary, bush, bush-knowledge, bushveld, cites, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, endangered-species, experience, film, filmmaker, flickr, giraffe, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, hunting, IUCN-Red-List, kill, lion, lions, malilangwe, mashable, murder, narrowcasting, Open-Content-Alliance, pamushana, peace-parks, photo, photos, podcasting, predators, teach, video, wild, wild dogs, wildcasting, wilderness, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, youtube, zimbabwe

Murderous again! Those wonderful animals we call the king of beasts. Why???
Last night lions killed Jiggy and Atom, and just left them.

On the way to the den this morning I noticed fresh lion tracks on the road. I’ve seen them along here several times before and they head over the mountain. But today they turned off on my small track that heads up to the den and then left the track.
On approaching the den just as it was getting light the pack were heading off on the hunt.

The den was quiet except for the odd whines and squeals as the pups muscle each other around inside. But something told me to scan around and I went walking all around the area of the den, up and down the mountain. After about half an hour I saw her lying in a patch of flattened grass. Atom. Her neck had been broken and there were lion tracks all around.

Searching the area I found more blood stains on the grass and following those brought me to Jiggy’s carcass. The lions had mangled him even more and broken his back. This must all have happened a few hours before I got there.

While still walking around and trying to gather myself Puzzles appeared high up on the rocks near the den and she was looking down towards where the dead dogs lay. She was nervous and restless. She kept moving around and interestingly she was extremely accommodating of me. So much so she repeatedly came to lie down no more than 6ft away from me. She really seemed to show no fear for me.
And so this went on all day, Puzzles would get up and look in the direction of her mate, hear her pups in the den, but never went there and would lie down next to me again.

She didn’t feed her pups all day. She seemed too scared to go to the den, possibly thinking the lions might be there.
Eventually as it was getting dark I left. There was nothing I could do and still the rest of the pack, now only sub-adults, hadn’t returned from their hunt. I’m sure they’ll be back tonight and hopefully give Puzzles the confidence to feed her pups.
I was expecting Puzzles to move the den today because of this disturbance, but still she hasn’t. My concern is she’ll move the pups tonight and without Jiggy’s collar I’m going to battle to find the pack.

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Tag Archive for 'bushveld'

Handling Fire: Video

Dove Mania: Video

Bon ‘up-a-Tree’: Video

Splash Master: Video

Peering into trouble: Video

Art of drinking and ducking: Video

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