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Camera Traps… and Beyond!

08 Oct 2008
9:21 AM UTC
By Nakedi

Posted in:
Leopards


Comments:
5 Comments »

During the week of October 20th we’ll add the second aspect of the leopard research. The first two of the twelve leopards will be captured and collared. The other ten will subsequently be collared, depending on the rate of success with fund raising. The type of collar that we’ll use is the GSM or cell phone collar.

For starts, we will collar a male and a female. The use of collars will help us to

  1. Understand the land use patterns of the leopards relative to the other carnivores, namely lions and hyena;
  2. Get an insight in to how far in to Mozambique these animals go. Of interest will be the nearest communal land, Mapulanguene, which is about 10 km from the fence. We can finally follow up on the relationship between leopards and humans as it happens; and
  3. Document the type of prey that will be taken during that period; also relative to lions and hyenas.
Nakedi
Author: Nakedi
Nakedi W. Maputla has just finished a Master’s Degree on the systematics of pouched mice, Saccostomus campestris from southern Africa with the Department of Zoology and Entomology at the University of Pretoria. From February 2005 to September 2007 he worked at TuksSport Combined School in Pretoria where he was a Life Sciences, Natural Sciences, Technology and Physiology educator. He joined African Wildlife Foundation as a leopard researcher at the beginning of October 2007.

5 Responses to “Camera Traps… and Beyond!”

  1. massimo Says:
    October 9th, 2008 at 10:53 am

    Hi Nakedi

    do you think to capture only dominant territorial adults
    (both males and females) or sub-adults, too??

    thank you

  2. Nakedi Says:
    October 15th, 2008 at 4:32 pm

    Hi Massimo,

    Thank you very much for your question.

    Currently we are looking for adults (a male and a female) with established territories. Hopefully as the project progresses we can collar subadults to establish their dispersal patterns.

    Kind regards,

  3. Ellen Says:
    October 23rd, 2008 at 3:10 pm

    Nakedi,

    I remember that you need more cameras for your research and just came across this website:
    http://www.stuffyourrucksack.com/
    Might be useful to post a request there. Plenty of tourist coming to the Kruger park.

    Keep well,
    ellen

  4. Nakedi Says:
    October 27th, 2008 at 10:51 am

    Hi Ellen,
    Thank you very much for the tip. I’m on it.

    Kind regards,
    Nakedi

  5. shima Says:
    March 16th, 2009 at 6:49 am

    Sho warra

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