One hardly expects a lot out of life in the bush except endless persecutions and taunting by the residents. Still, there is a lot of joy that emanates from being out there and being part of this dynamic world where systems are continually changing; and being one of the people playing part in helping resolve conservation issues is surreal. Dr. Bergin’s visit was a very pleasant surprise and confidence booster for our work in the Kruger Park and made me forget about the un-accommodative dwellers of the low-veld.

I went to pick up Dr. Bergin from the Phalaborwa airstrip, and we immediately made our way back to the field. I was very excited that he would have a first-hand experience of life in the bush in this part of the world, but I also braced myself for an impending barrage of questions. His questions were direct and constructive. I immediately realised that I was talking to a very intelligent person.  This was good because it meant he could pick up loopholes in our approach for the project, thus giving us a chance to mend loose ends. We had constructive discussions about the project, and this helped me to realign my thinking to realistic levels.

The previous day, Kaizer and I had gone out to remove the cameras from the field as they had run their course, and we had found a really nice pair that was in an immaculate condition — they were both untouched and still working. I had then suggested that we reserve those for our day out with Dr. Bergin. On that day, after Dr. Bergin had checked in his bungalow, we went to pick up Kaizer and to retrieve some of the cameras — in particular, the working pair we had left the previous day. I was walking with a great deal of zeal and was particularly talkative on the way to the camera station. I think there may have been a fine line of cockiness and arrogance that I was flirting with. I pray that Dr. Bergin didn’t pick that up, but being the man that he is, he probably did.

We arrived at the cameras, and they were both there, but one of the cameras was not working. All that arrogance fizzled away like a balloon that had just had the tip of its mouth released. There was a resounding “NOOOOOOO” in my head as I stood there looking at the camera and then at Dr. Bergin. I quietly started loosening the cameras while attentively listening to Dr. Bergin’s questions. I realised then that while most of the time we try and pose for pictures with our best sides facing the camera, the other not-so-beautiful side is still there and is part of us.

After Dr. Bergin had left, he wrote a really good letter about his visit:

“I had a wonderful time being out of the office to join these purposeful walks through the bush.  It was just Nakedi, Kaiser, and me. There was bright sunshine, and the cool breeze of a Southern Hemisphere winter. On the way out to a trap, we tended to talk about the World Cup, African politics, or our families.  On the way back, we were each quiet, each with our own thoughts, and Nakedi doing arm lifts.  One of the benefits of Nakedi’s research methodology is that he has intentionally chosen to place his camera traps in diverse vegetation types – so each walk had a different character to it.  First, we walked through Mopani scrub-bush, and then through grasslands on sandy soils lined by palm trees.

The only destination that gave me slight pause was a cool, green, densely vegetated stream bank where we collected cameras at high noon.  It felt like a perfect place for a leopard, or a buffalo, to hole up from the mid-day heat.  Given the low visibility, we could have become an unpleasant surprise for each other.

After a long day of walking, I went back to a nice little bungalow in one of the South African National Park’s rest camps and put my feet up with a good book.  Nakedi, however, spent the evening downloading his images, untangling cords, and recharging battery packs on equipment until lights off at midnight.  When he is through collecting all of the cameras and data from the Shingwezi block, he will move slightly south and start the process all over again at Letaba block.

Nakedi’s work in the Kruger is significant at many different levels.  The ecology of Kruger Park has changed significantly over the last 40 years with major factors such as the provisioning, and then removal, of artificial water sites, greater encroachment of bush, suppression of fires, and greater human pressures.  A major concern in the southern end of the park is the prevalence of bovine tuberculosis (TB) among buffalo, and the transmission of TB to lions as they hunt and eat infected buffalo.  One hypothesis proposed is that lion numbers may be in decline due to TB, and that since lions and leopards compete to some extent, a decline in lions may give an advantage to leopards.  However, a paper recently published on lion numbers came to the tentative conclusion that their numbers have not changed significantly.  Nakedi’s findings will help complete the picture of how large carnivores are faring in Kruger at this time.”

In the end, I am very grateful and thankful for Dr. Bergin’s visit ,and I’m hopeful that our project will be a success and will be a reliable basis for generations to come.

In a nutshell, this was suggested by “C” who, in my view, is very passionate about conservation. This particular camera was selected because it captured images of almost all the large carnivores that live in the Kruger National Park, except the wild dogs (painted dogs). Click here to watch the slide show.

Thank you for your continued support. The next blog post will feature our CEO Dr. Patrick Bergin, who spent some time with Kaizer and me in the field.

-Aimee, via email

Thank you so very much for your compliments on our website, Aimee!

While we at AWF are so very glad that you found our website so informative, there really isn’t too much more about ‘what AWF does’ that we could send you that isn’t on our website.  I recommend checking out the range of links or using the search field on our site to discover as much information as you can. In particular, the section called About AWF has a sub-category called Resources and Documents with a wide variety of print materials available in easily downloadable formats.  Our newest Annual Report and current and past issues of our quarterly newsletter, African Wildlife News, are among additional materials that can be viewed and downloaded.

If you study primates, you can ‘work’ with species like the endangered bonobo:  Primatologist and AWF Congo Heartland Director, Jef Dupain, with a baby bonobo  (Photo Credit: African Wildlife Foundation ©)

Finally, I encourage you to sign up for AWF’s monthly e-newsletter – which you can do at www.awf.org – so you can stay on top of the latest news and information on AWF and African wildlife.

I hope this information will provide you additional insight into AWF’s work. As for what kind of career you might seek, well, there are a lot of possibilities out there and it all depends on what it is you would like to do. Do you like science? If so, maybe think about being a scientist or researcher.  If you really like meeting people, maybe think about fundraising.  Do you like making plans? Maybe think about going into the program side of conservation. Do you enjoy law? Perhaps think about fighting for wildlife in a different way by going into environmental law.

A great way to help guide you towards your dream job/career is to always stayed tuned to the Jobs section of our website. Here,  you can read about the requirements of different positions within AWF that may strike your interest, or scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the link for ‘A Career Guide For Conservation Biology In Africa.’

Good luck!

Did You Know…?

• Founded as the African Wildlife Leadership Foundation, Inc. (AWLF) in 1961, the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) did not become ‘AWF’ until 1983.
• In 1978, the AWLF established the Mountain Gorilla Project in Rwanda. In 1991, this program became the International Gorilla Conservation Program (IGCP), a partnership between AWF, Fauna and Flora International (FFI) and World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF).
• In 1989, AWF staff acted as consultants for the Academy Award © nominated film, Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey
• In 1996, the Charlotte Conservation Fellowship Program was created. Named after conservationist (and long-time AWF supporter) Charlotte Kidder Ramsay, the fellowship has helped more than 50 African Nationals obtain their full MSc or partial Ph.D. degrees.
• In the 2000’s, AWF: established  five new Heartlands (Four Corners [now Kazungula], Zambezi, Limpopo, Congo and Regional Parc W), created the Leopard Conservation Science Project and the Large Carnivore Research Project, helped to form both the Kenya and Tanzania Land Conservation Trusts, aided in establishing the Faunal Reserve of Lomako-Yokokala  in the Democratic Republic of Congo, launched the Easements for Education and Leasing Land for Conservation programs in Samburu and Kilimanjaro Heartlands, respectively, and much, much more!
• To learn more about AWF’s 50 years of conservation efforts, visit us on on our website here.

Here is an account of Christina’s visit:

During my recent visit to South Africa, I was fortunate to spend the day shadowing AWF’s leopard researcher, Mr. Nakedi Maputla, in Kruger National Park.  After four visits to Africa and countless hours tracking leopards, I had yet to see one in the wild and had myself convinced that this was it — my ace in the hole!  During my first hour of driving through the park and learning about Nakedi’s research project, I realized I should stop holding my breath.  Nakedi shared with me his research methodology and informed me that he himself rarely sees a leopard.  Leopards are nocturnal, solitary cats that prefer dense vegetation and primarily hunt at night – not ideal for a daytime safari drive.

​Nakedi’s primary view into the life of these elusive cats is through a lens. By transecting a block of land with motion-detecting camera ‘traps’, he is able to determine the leopard population within that particular area.  Strapped to trees, bushes, or trail markers, these cameras are set to take photographs when triggered by motion.  Unfortunately, there is no way to program the camera to take photos only of leopards, so Nakedi spends much of his time collecting these cameras and sifting through hundreds of images — in total, hundreds of thousands —  to determine if any leopards were captured within the photographs.  Much like our fingerprints, leopards have unique arrangements of spots — no two are alike. He is able to identify individual leopards simply by examining the orientation, size, and shape of their spots.  In approximately two weeks, Nakedi captures images of all leopards living within a study area, and then moves on to the next portion of the park.  Starting in the northern sector of Kruger, Nakedi is working his way south and by the end of 2010, will have transected the entire 7,500 square mile park (over 200 miles long, 25 miles wide in certain areas) and determined the total leopard population within the park boundaries.

​It has been over 30 years since a complete leopard count has been conducted in Kruger and many changes have taken place over that time.  Park boundaries have shifted, community land has expanded and the land surrounding Kruger is utilized for more intense agriculture and livestock grazing. To understand the conservation needs of these special cats, the first step is to determine its population relative to its prey animals and competing predators.

The growing concern over bovine tuberculosis (bTB) and its impacts on cat populations has created a greater need for population counts.  Bovine TB is transmitted to lions as they hunt and eat infected buffalo. While there is not enough evidence to conclude with confidence that the lion population decreases (based on published scientific literature), less competition for food may have a direct impact on the leopard population.

Leopards are thought to be unaffected by bTB, as buffalo are typically too large for a leopard to hunt. Nakedi’s findings, however, are refuting this belief as he has discovered several leopards displaying symptoms of the disease.  He is currently working with local veterinarians to determine if the leopards have in fact been infected with bTB.  Combined with other research projects in Kruger, the goal is to determine the drivers of leopard population dynamics among lions and spotted hyenas, discover the unique conservation needs of these majestic cats, and find a path to ensure they endure forever.

​It was a pleasure to spend time with one of South Africa’s young emerging conservationists.  Only through building the capacity of local Africans to conserve their own natural resources can we ensure a bright future for Africa’s wildlife and wild lands. Thank you to all of our supporters to ensure work like Nakedi’s continues.

-Eric, Altoona, PA, U.S.A.

First off, Eric, I’d like to commend you for encouraging your little niece’s interest in learning about wildlife.  Education is truly the gift that keeps on giving and we would be honored to help foster the education of the younger generations of up-and-coming conservationists.

Join the pack: gifts of membership to AWF support programs that help to conserve and protect African wildlife, like the highly endangered African wild dog (shown above; Photo Credit: Cardo Kleberg)

Obtaining a gift membership is as easy as 1-2-3 as there are, well, three ways in which a gift membership may be obtained:

Online: Visit us on our website , where you can make a donation to AWF to get the gift membership process rolling! We request a minimum donation of $25.00 USD as that is the introductory rate for an AWF membership. Once you hit ‘enter,’ your information will be sent to me, and I’ll personally send out a gift membership package to the gifted person (your niece).

Phone: You can also feel free to give me a call toll free at 1-888-494-5354, x3317 to make your donation over the phone.

Mail:  You can also send in a check or money order for $25.00 made out to AWF (along with the gifted person’s information [i.e. name and address]) and send to:

African Wildlife Foundation

ATTN: Membership Services

1400 16th Street, NW

Ste. 120

Washington, D.C. 20036-2249

An AWF membership lasts for one year.  Once the information for a gift membership has been received, a welcome package is sent, which includes: a letter of welcome, an AWF membership card, the latest issues of AWF’s quarterly newsletter, African Wildlife News, our current wall calendar, a general AWF brochure, an AWF wildlife decal and an official AWF fleece blanket (or any other gift you may choose).

Although the folks being gifted a membership do not have to pay an introductory fee, to maintain their membership they will have to pay membership renewal dues, which are *$35.00 per year (*Eric- as the gift giver, you can pay the renewal dues on behalf of your niece. We’ll attribute the donation to your niece, therefore allowing the gift membership to continue). With an honest-to-goodness AWF membership, Eric, not only will your niece be privy to all the great, up-to-date information AWF extends to our magnificent supporters, she’ll be also be the most wildlife-smart kid on the playground!

Wait! Before You Go…

Actually, gifting an AWF membership to someone you love (or at least kinda like), is as easy as 1-2-3…4! Another way to give a gift membership is to make an adoption of an animal or an acre (or more) of land via our Adopt African Animals and Adopt African Acres programs.  So feel free to stop on by our  adoption center and take a gander.

My name is Michael Gallagher, and I helped Nakedi put down camera traps around the Shangoni area recently. I had been in the bush before but always in very controlled areas…usually with no predators.  Here is what I learned:

I am a student from Ireland who hopes to continue into the conservation world, so I volunteered with Nakedi. On my first day there, we got up early and headed out into the bush hoping to put down a few good camera traps. On the way there, Nakedi told me that the first priority if we see anything big or dangerous is to stand perfectly still and not make any noise, even if they charge.  He said many animals mock charge and can stop just 1 metre before you. If this happens, he said the ranger would shoot it, but all I could think was if a lion started running at me, I don’t think I would have a choice of running or not. I would for sure be frozen to the ground. And then he continued to warn me of buffaloes and rhinos, who apparently don’t mock charge, and I should definitely run and climb a tree. Talk about baptism by fire! Anyway, we soon headed out into the bush, and at first, I was very cautious about walking with only one gun and many sorts of animals around, but I soon loosened up as Nakedi and Kaizer, the field guard, were very comfortable. We managed to put down a good few cameras that day but also saw a few stations that showed evidence of damage, mostly by elephants or hyenas. Luckily we didn’t see anything big that day, only a few duiker and steenbok. However, the next day while we were putting down a station in a dry riverbed, Kaizer suddenly stood up and whispered at me to do the same. When I looked downstream I saw a huge bull buffalo just looking at us. Thankfully we were too far away to be considered a threat to him and eventually he walked off into the bush, but all I could think was they are not called ‘black death’ for no reason!

When we drove down to Skukuza later that week, I met many of the scientists and vets that work there and learned a lot about the way conservation works and the many different paths one can take to get there. This was an amazing experience, and I am so glad that I got the opportunity to see what Nakedi’s work was like. It is incredible and an extremely noble cause. Save some of the interesting animals until I get on the scene!

What Mike forgot to mention about his time with us:

1. We had a heated debate about the best rugby team (country) in the world. He was for New Zealand’s All Blacks (where is Babu? We need your opinion here) and I was, of course, for South Africa’s Bokke….guess who had their facts right?  The debate still continues.

2.We had a little game of “spot an animal.” The one who spotted the most high profile animals won. The high rollers were: fat black mamba (2000 points, possibly game over); Leopard (1000 points); cheetah (500); lion (250); and the rest were lower (like little brown jobs of the birding world).

3. On the way to Skukuza, we stopped a group of tourists who stepped out of their vehicle and were walking towards the river (presumably) to pet a herd of hippos that were standing in the sun. When we stopped to warn them of the gravity of their situation, they looked at us, arrogantly shrugged their shoulders and said, “What?” I looked back and said, “Hippos will kill you, they are very dangerous animals,” and then drove off. We later saw them at the next camp and they were all there, and we were relieved.

My version:

It was great to have Mike with us, and I learned a lot from him. He is disciplined and from the look of things, very determined. Kaizer and I enjoyed having him around. I hope his visit brought us a lot of luck with the leopard captures. Many thanks Mike!

The leopards

Currently we are working in the Letaba section of the park. We have so far sampled in four study sites, and in the next two months, we will have done six sites. I am still going through the images, some of which we will place on youtube as soon as possible.

-Moses, Jackson, MS, U.S.A.

After doing research and consulting with AWF’s own ‘elephant gurus,’ I found that the ‘Elephant’s Graveyard’ is one of the best African ‘bush legends’ (the same as ‘urban legends’ but, set in the African bush) of all time. That being said, it’s a pretty good  ‘legend’ as far as legends go.

So, if the ‘elephant’s graveyard’ isn’t real, then how did this legend even get started? Well, like all legends, there’s a bit of fact mixed with fiction.

First, elephants require giant amounts of land to roam—foraging for food and water. Over the years, elephant researchers have found that the term ‘memory like an elephant’ is actually pretty accurate (*fun fact: ‘memory’ is another term for a group of elephants), as elephants do remember and rely on the same routes to food and watering holes over and over again, year after year.  As an elephant ages, it’s teeth will wear down (they go through six pairs in a lifetime) and although they remember where food and water are, inevitably they are unable to eat rigid grasses and leaves, forcing them to go to marshy areas where the grasses are softer. Eventually, an elephant’s teeth become so worn down that they are unable to eat any grasses, and they starve to death. Here, in these marshy lands, many older elephants die leading to higher concentrations of elephant skeletons than are found elsewhere.



Down by the ol’ waterin’ hole: a herd of elephants (Photo Credit: Gregg Mitchell)

Now, what does all of this have to do with the ‘elephant’s graveyard?’ Combine the precision of an elephant’s memory/instinct going to and fro to find food and water with the carcasses of some older elephants in marshy areas and bingo!— there’s your ‘elephant graveyard.’  So, in short, this ‘bush legend’ combines fact (an elephant’s memory regarding migratory routes, including more marshy areas with softer grasses) with fiction (an instinct of knowing a single place to die) and there’s your legend.

Wait! Before You Go…

Guess what? July is the official Wild About Wildlife Month! You can help AWF help the animals of Africa by making a donation to our programs here, giving an AWF gift membership to someone you love here, remembering someone you love here, or even giving an automatic monthly donation to AWF here.

From the time we go out to collect the cameras to the time we find our leopard photos, we have many mixed emotions:

1. Driving to the camera station

Emotion: Feels like going bungee jumping

Questions: Will we find the cameras where we left them? Are there dangerous animals at the camera station? What are we going to walk into today? Hmm…

2. Parking the car and walking to the camera station

Emotion: Feels like going to buy a lottery ticket

Questions: Will we find the cameras? Will we walk into a dangerous animal?

3. Arriving at the camera station

Emotion: Unwrapping a present

Questions: Are the cameras there? Are they still working? Are the battery cables still connected?

Scenario 1: Cameras are there and intact. Maputla: “Hurray!”

Scenario 2: One camera has been removed, but the other one is still there. Maputla: “Aarghhh! We’ll search the area and hopefully, we will find it.” (Most of the time we find the cameras thrown on the side of the path by vandals)

Scenario 3: Both cameras have been taken. Luckily this hasn’t happened yet, but if it does, I am going to yell “Aaaaaarrrrrrgggghhhhhh” and other bad words.

We then take the cameras back to the camp site to see what we have captured.

4. Scanning through the pictures for images

Emotion: Feels like opening my first report card in my first year of high school. I am tempted to close my eyes and slowly open the one eye to see if the card is working. After the one eye says it works, then I open my other eye.

5. Finding the leopard picture

Emotion: Hurray! No more questions to answer. If Kaizer is around, we’ll give each other high fives. If I’m alone, then I’ll put on a crocodile or hyena grin.

It takes us about seven days to remove all the cameras in each 400 square-kilometre study site. Walking is mostly fun. Kaizer and I talk about a whole lot of interesting stuff. The most interesting moment comes when we walk past an old site (approx. 2000 years old) where boys used to look after livestock. The place is really beautiful and the sandstone still has depressions where the boys played, and a water well is dug into the rock.

Kaizer says: “Does this mean we will find the Bushmen (the San people) here in the Park?” My answer: “No.” Then he looks really disappointed in my answer and says, “Well, but we will soon find them as we move south right?”  Maputla: “Sorry to break your heart, but there are no San anywhere in Kruger. If you want to see the San, you must go to Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in the Northern Cape Province”.

We discuss the Bushmen daily, until one day we come across a pile of rocks. I mention to him that a long time ago someone had accumulated a lot of gold and hid it somewhere in South Africa, but nobody knew where exactly. Now, in the middle of placing our cameras and collecting them, a pile of rocks appear.  Of course we know that the story is not true, but it doesn’t hurt to take a peek.

In the next blog, Michael Gallagher, a student from Ireland who came to visit the leopard project will write for us.

“A friend and I just saw the movie, Gorillas in the Mist, and I am now obsessed with mountain gorillas. I was reading up on them and briefly saw a mention of a gorilla naming ceremony. Is this true? Is there really a ceremony that names gorillas?”

-Tyler, Sandusky, OH, U.S.A.

Your eyes were not deceiving you. There is, indeed, a ceremony for naming mountain gorillas and it is called Kwita Izina.

The most recent Kwita Izina (which literally means ‘to give a name’ in Kinyarwanda, the mother tongue of Rwanda) was held in Kinigi, Musanze District, Northern Province, at the foot of the Virunga Mountains on June 5, 2010.  Interestingly, the ceremony is a centuries old tradition yet it was not made public until 2005 with the very conscious effort of bringing attention to the success of mountain gorilla conservation.  Inspired by the Rwandan tradition of naming babies, the ceremony’s main goal is to personalize mountain gorillas to the global public (names are selected via a lottery by the park wardens, as they know the characteristics of the ones being named best) and to better monitor and track the gorillas and their troops. The idea worked: since the ceremony has gone global, mountain gorilla poaching in Rwanda has decreased while the number of gorillas being born and surviving has increased.

A baby mountain gorilla (Photo Credit: Craig R. Sholley)

Over the past few years, the ceremony has become a major wildlife lover and tourist draw: thousands of people, both every day and famous (Academy Award © nominated actors Natalie Portman and Don Cheadle have attended), from all over the world come to Rwanda  to share in the excitement.  The ceremony is of great celebration in Rwanda, with the actual ceremony being proceeded by two weeks of national festivities (including a two day cycling event), that coincides with another great event: National Environment Week which leads up to World Environment Day (WED). This year, Rwanda was the proud first-time host of this internationally recognized day, coincidentally falling on the same day as the Kwita Izina ceremony. Double the fun!

For the past 16 years, the people of Rwanda have been dedicating a week leading up to WED – doing what they can to be active agents in protecting the environment. The week annually runs from May 31st through June 5th and is kicked off with the people of Rwanda doing community work, known as ‘Umuganda.’  People all over the country are encouraged to do environmental activities in conjunction with the year’s theme of WED. This year, the theme was ‘Many Species, One Planet, One Future.’

This year, 14 baby mountain gorillas were honored at Kwita Izina. Since the ceremony’s 2005 public debut, approximately 103 mountain gorillas have been named.

Did You Know…?

• Rwanda is known as ‘The Land of A Thousand Hills’
• Although Kinyarwanda is the ‘mother tongue,’ Rwanda also has two other official languages: French and English
• Although located close to the equator, much of Rwanda is relatively cool year long due to its high elevation.
• The Virunga Mountains and the nearby Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda are the only places in the world where mountain gorillas can be found.
• AWF’s own V.P. of Philanthropy (and official ‘gorilla guru’), Craig  Sholley, worked with Dian Fossey in Rwanda in the 1970’s and was a key figure directing the Mountain Gorilla Project in the late 1980s.  Thereafter, Craig worked as Scientific Advisor on the award-winning IMAX film, Mountain Gorilla.

Later that morning we met with the Pafuri section ranger, who said that most of her game rangers were already out in the field; as such Kaizer and I couldn’t get started with work. In addition they were busy with construction, meaning that accommodation was not possible for us. This was a bit of a challenge since I needed a place to charge batteries for the cameras as I had a few that still needed to be charged. We left the section ranger’s house to go and look for a place to stay and to charge the batteries. We found a camp site just outside Pafuri gate and we arranged that I would pitch my tent there while Kaizer would stay with one of the guards for a while. The camp site didn’t have any electricity…ouch, so we drove to the nearest village, Bennde Mutale (Bennde is Venda for Bend and Mutale is the name of the River that runs through the village). The village therefore is situated where the Mutale River bends. Our plan was to knock on the first house that we came across and since I can speak Venda, we would try and ask for help.

River gorge in Pafuri

We drove to one of the houses and found a young lady (Livhuwani), whom I asked if it was okay for us to charge the batteries. She said she didn’t mind but we had to wait for her mom to get permission. We said we would wait, but then I had to take Kaizer to a place where he would sleep and then I would come back and hopefully the lady of the house would be back. When I got back she was there and I was able to tell her about my problem. I said that I was willing to contribute towards the amount of electricity that the batteries were going to take. She said it was fine and so my problem was solved and the family charged all the batteries for me. I became good friends with the family and they were very friendly and took me as if I was one of them. Sometimes after work when I went to pick up charged batteries for the following day, they would share their meals with me. Sometimes we had maize meal and Mopane worms, which I gobbled greedily unaware that they were scraping the skin off my palate, and the one day we had locusts. Later when I had to leave and I went to bid the family fair well, the lady (Emily) said it was like one of her own children was leaving.

Hlongwane left and Kaizer right

Lesson learned: eat Mopane worms singly!

Out in the field work was fun. Kaizer and I took to the field with great enthusiasm and on that first day we went out with the corporal of the Pafuri section, Corporal Hlongwane. We went out and we were lucky to find leopard tracks where I had intended to be the first station. We later walked for about two kilometres to place another camera in the next block (according to the map). We decided to walk along the dry river bed. After 1 kilometre Kaizer instructed Hlongwane and I in an animated fashion to stop immediately. We both looked at him as if he were a mad man with question marks on our brows. He pointed in front of us. Right there, about 50 metres from us, sat the most beautiful animal I had ever seen while walking on foot. Yes you may say it….it just sat there facing the other direction and oblivious to our presence. There was tremendous amount of excitement in my heart; I wanted to scream with joy, but had to bottle all that inside. That was hard because I was on the verge of exploding. Inside I was having a good heart to heart talk with myself as I needed to explain and account to myself why I didn’t bring the camera. To this day I have no answers. Yes, I can proudly say I stood behind the king of stealth for a good five minutes without being detected (probably three in real time). We then decided to give the unsuspecting handsome fellow a wide berth and go around him. I wanted to sit there and watch him for as long as possible, but didn’t like the prospects of having to stay there alone without the protection of man pack; just in case I get detected. I therefore obliged, but with a heavy heart!

Lesson learned: Always carry the camera with you, no matter how heavy it is.

On our way back from placing the cameras we almost walked in to a breeding herd of ellies. That was a scary encounter because Corporal Hlongwane changed direction really fast pulling me by my shirt in the process and the intensity on his face was telling me that we were in a grave situation. I have never seen a man change direction that fast. We had to climb on to the nearest rocks as soon as possible or face the tuskers. Stupid me, I resisted because I wanted to see what was so scary that everyone had to move in a hurry. Coporal Hlongwane was not impressed and called me about five times before I looked at him. I reluctantly followed with my heart beating like jungle drums (yeah I could hear my heart pumping) and he told me that he had seen the ellies. The ellies were standing right in front of us and I didn’t even see them. It later occurred to me when we were away from that area that Corporal was once attacked by an elephant and was lucky to survive the assault, hence the respect.

Lesson learned: respect the wilderness always!

It took us about seven days and almost 1500 kilometres of driving to deploy 100 cameras. The walking was wonderful and sometimes we had to walk in the rain, but it was fun and a wonderful thing to have experienced. I hope that we will have plenty of leopard pictures, which will help us quantify leopard abundances in the Pafuri section of the Kruger National Park. Next week we will pace another 100 cameras in Punda Maria section and I hope that we will be successful in our plans. I have also attached a map of the park and our work plan for the year. If we stick to the dates, the survey will be finished by mid March 2011.

Figure 1. A map of the Kruger National Park showing areas where we intend to survey for leopards during 2010.

Table 1. Camera trap plan for the year 2010.