Green Light for Project, Leopard Scat, and Camera Traps!
After eight months of writing and re-writing the proposal, I am pleased to say that the study was finally given the green light by the South African National Parks (SANParks) Scientific Services (Prior to this I was allowed to use camera traps to do some monitoring while I waited for the verdict from the Scientific Services).
This means that once the Conservation Services have gone through the proposal, and given it a nod, we can sign a contract and the leopard project can now go full steam ahead. This will allow the project to go in to the next stage, which involves collaring (using GPS collars) twelve leopards, preferably six males and six females, to see and learn about their space use and what they eat in the process.
Ideally if a leopard spends more than a day in area, it would be possible that there is food there. In turn, we will get an opportunity to see how much time they spend outside the park, if they do that at all. Furthermore we can establish the level of leopard/human interaction.
Next will be the collection of scat to study what leopards eat. (Actually this had already begun six months ago and was done on an opportunistic manner when walking with the Singita tracking team and driving around the concession). Leopards tend to leave their droppings in the middle of the road or in high places so as to mark their territory. To make sure that I am not picking up cheetah scat, I consult with the very experienced trackers. Tracks also help if it is fresh scat. This will later help us establish the level of diet overlap with lions and hyenas. I will explain later what we do with the scat to determine the prey that had been eaten.
In addition, this effort might also help us determine the fate of jackals, the population of which is feared to be declining at an alarming rate. Fate here is suggested because it is well known that leopards have a catholic diet and would without a doubt prey on jackals. It is believed that leopards may be involved in the jackal population’s demise. However, other factors such as disease may not be ruled out. Finding or not finding jackal remains in leopard droppings will hopefully point us in the right direction.
I have been away from the study site for two weeks now. I’m heading there tomorrow and will be able to visit and inspect the cameras by Wednesday July 17th. Elephants can be quite aggressive with them sometimes.
Twice I found two cameras ripped from the ground, but still attached to the drop poles with signs of having been flung and kicked around until the intruder was satisfied. One camera was broken in the process and I’m busy trying to fix it. The other was still working when I found it and it took some interesting pictures of the world above from a worm’s eye view. I have now taken care to hide the cameras from these brutes and hopefully the cameras can last a long time.
Some naughty elephants pushed over one of my camera traps.
The felled camera took some unique – and entertaining – photos.
This is what a giraffe would look like from a worm’s view!
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July 17th, 2008 at 6:56 am
Good Morning
I am Massimo from Italy
from several years i cooperate with different zoological societies and organizations of my country studying leopard (panthera pardus), i have coordinated a research in Armenia on ecology and conservation on persian leopard, i am studying geographical leopard size difference in all leopard range and i am cooperating for a possible future survey in Morocco to study last leopards
i have seen your webiste and find it very nice and very useful to read updates of your research.
I have read your opinion about possible leopard predation on jackals………in other leopard diet studies, jackal was only a small part of the leopard diet, so according to me it’s not leopard predation the reason of the vanished jackals, i think that leopards in your area have a good ungulate density (above all impalas), or am i wrong???
medium size ungualtes will be the bulk of the leopard diet in your area
it can be that there is a single leopard specialzed on jackal hunting as it happen for other leoaprds specialize for thoer single prey……..
how is large yuor study area?? it will be very interesting to know the size of the leopard that yuo will capture in the future….let me know
best wishes
July 17th, 2008 at 7:30 am
Congratulations on getting official approval. Those camera trap shots are really cool – I’ve never seen a giraffe’s belly before. Is there any way to deter elephants from pushing over the traps? How much do camera traps cost? I’d like to donate for a new one.
July 22nd, 2008 at 2:07 am
Hi Massimo,
Thanks for your comment and input on leopard diet. What you said is definitely true. There are way too many ungulates in this are for leopards to be chasing after jackals. However, it is believed that leopard population in the Kruger Park has risen considerably in the last few years (a theory that still needs to be proven) because apparently lion population isnegatively affected by outbreaks of Bovine Tuberculosis (This is still a heavily debated issue and I wouldn’t like to dwell in it).
Jackals tend to bark at leopards if they come across each other. Leopard numbers have apparently increased. This means that leopard jackal encounters may have increased of late. As a result, although your reasoning makes more sense, I think it is worth finding out. I also don’t think leopards would actively hunt jackals.
At the moment the study area is 15 000 hectares, but now that the project has been approved, we will look at 2.5 million hectares. As soon as we start with collaring I will send you the measurements to compare with the rest of the leopards you have been working with.
Kind regards,
Nakedi
July 22nd, 2008 at 2:46 am
Hi Zack,
I really appreciate your offering to buy us another camera. The cameras cost $299.99 each and the make is CUDDEBACK Excite C2000 (http://www.cuddebackdigital.com).
The best way to protect cameras from elephants is to spray them with pepper spray. I only found that out three days ago. I will definitely have pepper spray for my next survey.
If you are keen, I would like to burn you a cd with photographs taken from the camera traps (not just leopards, but a whole lot of other animals) and mail it to you. Please let me know if you are interested. To send me your mailing address, you can e-mail me at: nakedi.m@singita.com or nmaputla@awfsa.org.
Thanks again for your interest in the progression of the project.
Regards,
Nakedi
July 25th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
Nakedi,
I missed reading your blogs for the past couple of weeks and have enjoyed learning about the leopard work and also reading the comments of the others. Congratulations on getting approval for your study. How many cameras will you deploy around your study area and how do you work out where the appropriate location is to place them. I enjoyed the amusing pics of the giraffe and hope to see more of the other animals that gets photographed as your blog continues.
July 27th, 2008 at 6:18 am
Hi Babu,
I will try and be more consistant with the blog and thank you for your comment.
To answer your questions, I will probably need about 50 traps, i.e. two traps placed opposite each other on a 5 X 5 grid with cameras placed at 2.5 kilometers apart. However this is unlikely as I would ideally like to put cameras where the chances of capturing leopards are high. The appropriate locations for leopard captures at my study site are 1) game paths on the ridge(Lebombo Mountains); 2) game paths on river banks; 3) drainage lines; 4) game paths towards water points other than the river; and 5) thickets with tall trees.
Thanks!
I’ll make a plan about the other pictures.
July 27th, 2008 at 6:21 am
Hi Babu,
I meant “consistent”, sorry!
Nakedi