Busy Day

It was a particularly busy day today. The alarm went off at 0545 and whilst the rest of the camp was still asleep, even the birds were quiet. I headed up to the kitchen and got the water on before packing up the car with the equipment ready for our monthly road survey. Mphoeng and Ish soon join me and we enjoyed a cup of tea and some breakfast before heading out.

These monthly surveys not only include elephants but all the mammals and some of the more endangered birds that we find here in the study area. By monitoring the demographics of the mammals we can look out the interactions between certain species over time.

The first mammal we came across, was a troop of baboons. They were surprised to see us, as they were still in their nesting site at the top of some palm trees. They all began alarm calling and getting down as fast as they could. There was one youngster that a third of the way down the tree decided he didn’t like anymore and started alarm calling. Mum came back, but wasn’t prepared to go all the way back up the tree and waited for him partway. He eventually got his courage together and came down to Mum before the whole of the troop retreated to a nearby termite mound and peered at us as we carried on our way.

We managed to complete the road survey without getting stuck, which is quite an achievement at this time of year with the floodwaters being so high. As we head towards summer the waters are retreating somewhat, making our lives easier. We saw elephant, kudu, impala, two herds of buffalo, baboons, birds, squirrels and amongst the birds; saddled billed storks, wattled crane and some ground hornbills.

Having stopped to write down a couple of tree squirrels, we carried on our way and managed to surprise the young elephant Vishna who was feeding on the palm tree only a couple of metres away. Mphoeng and Ish thought I’d seen him that’s why they had not said anything, but I was completely oblivious to his presence, which is a little shocking considering I had spotted the squirrel! Vishna was hanging out with B571 or more affectionately called by Mphoeng, ‘The Grey One’ (and since renamed by Ish, Earl Grey) – they were busy making the most of the seasonal resource of the palm nuts.

B571 – Earl Grey

We got to act to camp out about 12:30 and I raced around getting stuff together to do aerial tracking for the collared elephants. The pilot and camp electrician, and solver of all things technical, Hal, was flying back to town, but we had been trying to find some of the collared individuals and needed the help of a plane. So off we went and tracked for Thando and Mthondo, two of the released male elephants that we have been following. Unfortunately we did not get a visual of Mthondo, despite flying around for about 10 minutes with a very loud signal. I was very disappointed with myself but figured Mthondo was hiding somewhere enjoying the palm nuts. Thando was alone on the edge of a wild palm island and looked in good health.

The Piper Cub we use to track the elephants

When we landed back at the airstrip, it was quite a busy time with two planes already there bringing in clients to the safari camps. One of the planes had also brought in Simon who had been in town trying to sort out the importation of our personnel vehicle. Having both missed lunch we were fairly peckish and after all the planes had taken off safely we headed to camp for a late lunch. It was now 15:30 and having been on the go since 0545 lunch was very much appreciated.

Today was a great day for data.