Wildlife News

In this issue of Wildlife News Roundup, we find out about the effects rising carbon dioxide levels have on large marine life, the northward expansion of the range of European...

During the bison mating season, male bison produce loud, low-frequency bellows. These bellows are most often used when one male challenges another and may enable rival bulls to determine which...

Geckos (Family Gekkonidae) are a group of small lizards that possess a remarkable ability to climb smooth, vertical surfaces with speed and ease. This impressive talent hinges on their specially...

The new Clouds Mountain Gorilla Lodge is perched on a narrow ridge adjacent to the vast Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda. The lodge is the centerpiece – but not the only piece – of an array of business ventures recently developed by the Nkuringo community through the direction and support of AWF and International Gorilla Conservation Program (IGCP).

With its proximity to Bwindi, which is home to half of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas, Nkuringo faced the problem of gorillas leaving the park and feeding on their crops. Yet they had a unique opportunity as well: they could benefit from gorilla tourism and other conservation-related enterprises.

In 2004, AWF through IGCP helped the 30,000 member community form the Nkuringo Conservation Development Foundation (NCDF) to catalyze community development projects. In essence, NCDF has created a fair platform for community members to share benefits of the lodge and also form an association to create their own enterprises.

Chairman of the Nkuringo Conservaiton Development Foundation at the new Clouds ecolodge in Uganda.

Just down the road from Clouds lodge is the Nkuringo Women’s Handicraft Group, a small shop where women make and sell their traditional handcrafted baskets and decorations. Just next door is the shop for a youth wood carver’s group. Both groups have received training by AWF/IGCP to improve quality so that they can tap into international markets. Beekeepers and traditional healers are also active in the community under the umbrella of NCDF.

Me with a couple ladies from the Nkurungo Artisans group. Their baskets are amazing!

Me with a couple ladies from the Nkuringo Artisans group. Their baskets are amazing!

Some of these micro enterprises have been woven into the tourism experience. A visitor to the Clouds lodge can take the guided Community Walk and see the enterprises at work.

A portion of visitor fees at the Clouds lodge goes back to the community through NCDF. The money goes to community projects like education, roads, water supply, agricultural and health projects.

Where people and gorillas meet: the Nkuringo community borders Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

Where people and gorillas meet: the Nkuringo community borders Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

These smaller satellite enterprises help local entrepreneurs tap into the growing conservation-based tourism and diversify the opportunities for community members to generate income and play an active role in conservation.

I managed to capture another leopard last Wednesday, December 10th. On that morning I went out with the tracking team including Eckson Ndlovu, Johnson Mhlanga, Sipps Maswanganyi, and Glass Marimane. When we got to the first trap Eckson, Johnson and yours truly stepped out of the vehicle to go and check if the trap had caught anything.

We walked for less than ten steps and suddenly Eckson jumped up in front of me with his hands raised and pointing in the direction of the trap “Xhi khomile!” meaning “it caught!”

We stopped walking and looked at the cage that was roughly 30 metres away from us and saw an extremely beautiful male leopard pacing to and fro in the cage. There would be no running for me this time, I was not alone. Instead I kept my cool and pretended that I had done it a thousand times before. That was of course a lie because inside my heart was racing like an excited hamster and the little voice in my head was singing all sorts of happy songs.

Everybody around me was extremely excited. I could smell their energy in the air, it was beautiful. Imagine five grown men in a car, all of them smiling. That’s the perfect world I one day want to live in.

I then got hold of the vets to come and help us out. They said they would arrive in two hours. We then went back to do some tracking and check the other cages.

We managed to track the collared leopard and headed back to the lodge to find Dr Peter Buss waiting for us. We got all the equipment ready and headed for the trapped leopard. Getting there I realised that it was one of the leopards that I had captured on camera before. A big young male probably four or five years old with a pink nose still. He looked perfect and he finished all the meat in the cage. Surprisingly he was more leopard than the collared one.

Dormicum did not have a big effect on him. He looked like he was ready to bite someone’s head off. Peter, Jacques (Camera man) and I went up to the cage and asked every one to stay behind the bushes, out of sight. I had to create a diversion by walking past the leopard while Peter would dart him from the blind side. That didn’t take long and in a few minutes he was out.

When I walked past the leopard in the cage I saw something that made my heart sink with great sadness. It was like a dark cloud coming over me. The leopard had a big wound on the neck. The wound went all around and there was a wire deep inside the neck.

Treating the leopard's wound from the snare.

Treating the leopard’s wound from the snare.

It was a snare; the ugly head of snaring is haunting me. “Not again,” I thought. After we had lowered the leopard to the ground we all came to see how brutal snares are. According to Peter, had we not caught this animal in three to four weeks he would be dead. That’s because the snare would keep tightening until it got to the windpipe and that would deal the leopard a fatal blow. Finding the snare wound also meant another thing… there would be no collaring!

Sad as I was I drew comfort in the thought that we saved a leopard’s life that day.

After everyone had left I stayed with the leopard until he woke up. Due to Dormicum in the meat he slept for the whole day. The sun was blazing that day. I sat there with him and when he woke up I was there. He snarled at me and tried to get up but he failed and fell asleep again. When he woke up for the second time I was still there. He snarled again and gave a warning growl and tried to run away. He ended up at the next shade and passed out again.

Voices in my head:
1.    This is clearly not a morning leopard;
2.    The telepathic connection exercise will not work;
3.    He wants to eat you Nakedi, do you want to go pet him?*
4.    Or maybe play the game, “Poke the sleeping leopard and run”*;
5.    He looks like he feels offended; and most importantly
6.    What are you going to do about Mozambique

When he eventually woke up he snarled and growled one more time. I said: “Okay, Okay, grumpy! You’ve made your point,” He went up the mountain and went in to a cave. That is when I headed back to the lodge holding the last thought.

Removing the snare.

Removing the snare.

*Please note that of course I am not serious about these two points. A leopard is one of the most dangerous animals in the wild. It is equipped with all the equipment and technique to kill a fully grown man within seconds…. So please give respect where it is due!

I was browsing Flickr this morning and came across a bunch of wildlife photos that are just terrific. Among my favorites is a photo of pair of sally lightfoot crabs....

This is way overdue, but was eclipsed by numerous events that took place in between. I apologise for that. Following the Aspen Seminar that was held in Johannesburg and Singita Sabi Sand in October 2008, Babu (who is on the AWF’s board of trustees) and Mama visited the leopard project at Singita Kruger National Park (SKNP). Having spent four days with them I got to see and understand how insightful and young at heart they are. As a result I got to relax a little around those two…

Arriving in the Kruger Park, Jared was there waiting together with Sunday. After a brief introduction we took off to SKNP. The trip from the airstrip to SKNP is about 40 minutes, so we got an opportunity to go over the project and what I was doing at that time. We arrived at the lodge and they both decided they would like to rest before going to the field.

About two hours later we drove to the field to check the cameras. Prior to that I warned them that there would be some walking on rocky ridges in order to get to the cameras to which Babu responded “We are tough people, we don’t mind walking!” That was good to hear.

I was planning to take them to my favourite camera station in the south of the concession, a camera that I had high hopes for. The four of us, Jared included, headed for the bush. We checked the first camera, which was not far from the lodge. The camera had taken only nine images, the last image taken the day that I left (the day that I put in fully charged batteries!). I knew then that it would be downhill from there, I still had my hopes pinned on the special camera in the ridges though.

Checking the camera trap for leopard photos... without luck this time.

Checking the camera trap for leopard photos... without luck this time.

The second camera had five images. That’s when my head started spinning and disappointment and despair took over. “We’ll find something in the next camera”, I tried to put on a brave face. Somehow Mama and Babu could see beyond that.

We then moved on to the third camera, the one. For this one we had to walk for a good thirty minutes and along the way while Jared talked about a whole lot of things regarding nature, I didn’t hear a thing. My thoughts were on the next camera, the one that I thought would give results we would all like to see.

We arrived at the camera. It was in a drainage line that looked like a perfect leopard’s hangout spot. In front of it there was a nice rock that I thought would be a lovely place for a leopard to relax. I was so confident about this camera that I asked Babu to sit on the rock in front of the camera so the camera could capture him. We then opened the camera anticipating images with Babu’s image rounding it all up.

Results:
Number of images: 16 minus Babu
Leopard pictures: what leopard?
The look on my face: you don’t wanna know

The camera trap caught a bird... but that's about it.

The camera trap caught a bird... but that's about it.

I was very disappointed. How can this camera pull off something like this? One would think that if a camera can capture a bird in flight it should pick up a person walking.

I therefore stop here with the report on our camera trap checking exercise.

The evening on the other hand was very beautiful. We got an opportunity to view the sunset, which in my mind was spectacular. We then drove towards the border with Mozambique and in the middle of all that immense beauty the disappointing camera stunts were briefly forgotten.

We still had a good time. Here is "Babu" and me with a chameleon.

We still had a great time. Here is "Babu" and me with a chameleon.

I have to say the landscape here is quite lovely. Jared then drove us to the gorge where we spent some time discussing constellations; one of them, the teapot. That is when Babu and Jared started comparing their pointers while pointing at the “Teapot”. I didn’t have any, although I had the spotlight in my hand. The thought of joining the conversation and pointing out that the spotlight that I had would fit in as one of the tools crossed my mind, but I discarded the thought as being dull. After a while and a series of numerous other discussions we headed back to the lodge and discussed the project:

During dinner that night Babu and Mama said the following:
•    There seems to be a lot of inconsistencies with the cameras, i.e. some took only a few pictures and others a lot (I have to say this: the one camera had 1600 pictures, a different more expensive model)
•    What about the days in between capturing? Tough question…
•    You may want to consider going to communities and talking to kids and inform them about what you are doing. January 23rd 2009, I will spend time with children and teachers from Echo-Schools in the Limpopo Province.
•    Don’t give up!

Then it was time for the BIG lesson: The eighty twenty rule.
According to this rule - also called the Pareto Principle - 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. In other words, once the project is all set up, you put in 20% effort to get more than 80% of results. Now that’s what I call insight!

With this I would like to thank Babu and Mama for taking their time and resources to come and visit the leopard project and share in its development.

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