Project updates door Peter Blinston

Project Update Nov 2010:
http://http://www.painteddog.org/news/38/53/Project-Update-November-2010//

Monitoring dogs in Mana Pools.

November was a pivotal month for Painted Dog Conservation. After many years of trying, we finally succeeded in our ambitions to begin monitoring the dogs in Mana Pools. “Mana” is a key national and regional population and as such, collecting data on pack numbers, individuals and their movements is considered vital.

To this end, I went to Mana Pools with long time dog friend and chairman of PDC Netherlands, Ron van der A. For me it was a real “bus man’s holiday” as we had a single focus. Apart from a cooling swim in the Zambezi River after we arrived at Vundu Camp, hot and bothered from our long drive, it was all about the dogs. Vundu camp is owned and run by Nick and Desiree Murray. It was purely by chance that we booked to stay at the camp, however it was soon clear that we had made the right choice as Nick is almost as fanatical about the dogs as we are and has years of experience operating in Mana Pools.

We set out at 4:00 AM the following morning, the sky heavy and threatening rain. The temperature quickly soared to impossibly uncomfortable degrees. Nick knows Mana Pools like the back of his hand and we dissected the place, hindered by the limited road network. By 10:00 AM we were extremely hot and frustrated, then Desiree called on the radio. The dogs, the Vundu pack, had been seen to the west the day before, on the Wilderness Safari Concession. Nick sought permission for us to drive onto their private concession, which was granted without any hesitation. Mana Pools is a remote place and the operators there work cooperatively with each other and we have a good relationship with Wilderness through our work in Hwange, however we were all delighted by their willingness to help. It got even better, as they had actually seen the dogs that morning, while on a game drive with their clients. One of the guides knew me from our work on Starvation Island and he took us to the spot where the dogs had been resting just an hour before. Nick and I walked into the thick bush, dodging elephant herds and hoping that the lion we had just seen was walking the other way! I was thinking that it would have been good to have Jealous with us to track them down but I need not have worried. Nick’s tracking was as good as any I have seen and we soon found the dogs resting in a dry river bed. It was 11:30 AM and really, really hot. It felt like my eyeballs were melting!! Far too hot to even think about darting dogs and so we watched them for a short while before they moved on into thicker bush.

We came back in the afternoon and Nick tracked them down again while guiding us around a large bull elephant. He lost the tracks on hard ground and we searched around a little, before looking at a distant tree line and simultaneously saying “they must be over there.” Sure enough they were. The tree line marked another dry riverbed but the dogs had found a last remaining puddle of water in a bend in the river. It was muddy and smelly but particularly inviting as a way to cool down and avoid the annoying flies. We sat quietly on the bank of the river above them, not much more than 20 metres away. Ron was with us this time and we counted over and over again but could not come up with the same number of individuals in the pack. I had never seen so many dogs in one pack. I gave up counting so I could just enjoy sitting with them, watching them play happily together.Elephants eventually disturbed the dogs and they reluctantly left their precious muddy puddle. We edged back to the vehicle as night fell, nervously avoiding the same elephant herds but so happy that we had found the pack.

At 4:00 AM the next day we set out again and in typical dog following tradition we could not find them. Completely frustrated we returned to camp at midday and did what we could to keep cool in the blistering heat. The offer of an afternoon on the river, swimming and generally taking it easy was so tempting but we stuck to our mission and went out again to bounce around in the Land Rover looking for mystical dogs. Nothing. But the rains finally came and relieved the oppressive heat.

4:00 AM again. Our last morning. We drove around with increased tension and saw impala running hard through the bush. Straining our eyes through binoculars we searched for the dogs but could not see anything and kept moving. Nick picked up what could have been the footprint of one dog. However because it was only one and not 20+ we moved on and turned down into the riverbed where they had been resting the two days prior. This time he stopped the car and leapt out quickly to confirm the footprints of at least 18 dogs walking through the deep sand. We raced around and finally caught up with them on an airstrip near to where we had seen the impala running. It was almost the perfect situation for darting dogs. Open ground, good shade trees nearby and water. However, the dogs were quite full. Normally we do not dart a dog when its stomach is full, however we were under some pressure and luckily we had a vet with us from the USA, who happened to be a guest at the camp. I decided it was worth the risk and we closed in on the alpha female.

The darting and collar fitting were all done quickly and efficiently and soon the alpha female, now named Tait, after Nick’s daughter, was back with her pack, wearing a GPS collar.

We waited with them for another couple of hours and finally agreed that there were 23 dogs in the pack. Mana Pools is quite inaccessible during the rainy season and so the GPS collar will give us vital data on the pack’s movements during this period. We drove back to Harare, tired but very pleased that this first “mission” had been so successful.

Despite what I now consider to be the usual difficulties, it had been another successful year for PDC. Wilton and his team supervised more schools than ever before through our Children’s Bush Camp programme, including one from Zambia. Our anti poaching units have worked well with National parks and we have been encouraged by the sightings of new packs of dogs in Hwange National Park.

It’s your support that continues to make this possible and we cannot thank you enough for that. We are of course looking forward to working with you again in 2011.

Project Update Aug 2009:

Needle sharp teeth bit down on my thumb, causing me to jerk my hand back quickly. This was more of an instinctive reaction rather than caused by any real pain and with Jealous behind me laughing, I crawled forward on my stomach again, reaching further inside the den.
We were back at the den site at Robins Camp. I was surprised but somewhat relieved to find that the pups were still using the same den. As we drove towards the site through a huge bush fire I was concerned that this would prove to be another serious threat to the pups survival unless they had been moved. Two weeks had passed since we had first seen them, my return delayed mainly by a death in my family. A bush fire or indeed the original incident with the lions would be more than enough of a reason for the pups to have been moved.
Luckily the fire had not actually reached the den site, though the fact that the pups were still in the same den served as another indication of the lack of any leadership within the pack. We have experience of alpha females or males immediately moving the pups to a new den following a serious incident with lions, most recently witnessed in 2006 with the Umtchibi pack.
We had borrowed a suitable cage trap from the Tikki Hywood Trust in Harare, however Jealous and Xmas felt that they could dig the pups out of the den given the relatively soft soil. This was a better option for us as we would be sure of catching all of the pups at one time, unlike with the cage trap, which had no such guarantees. After setting up a perimeter of capture nets, just in case the pups made a run for it, we started digging. Management from the near by National Parks base accompanied us, willing to lend a hand if it were required. Quickly but carefully we dug away until we could see the pups. Lying on my stomach in the trench created, I crawled forward and reached inside for the
nearest pup, which predictably sank its teeth into my thumb. I moved further forward and was able to gently but firmly get hold of one pup. After placing him in a transport crate I went back in for the next one and the next one until I had all five of them. It had only taken us a little over an hour from when we started digging to catching the last pup. Now we had a four-hour drive back to our rehabilitation facility and so arrived there just before nine in the evening.
Our concern now was helping the pups to settle down after what was obviously an ordeal for them. Our resident female, Angela, had shown surprisingly maternal instincts in the past, so we placed her in the enclosure next to the pups and left them for the night. We gave the pups some food as well. In the morning it was clear that the pups hadn’t eaten much, a sign of their stress, as they were certainly hungry and have an astonishingly high metabolism at that age. We placed fresh food in the enclosure for them and watched from a distance. Again they did not eat much, but they were keen to join Angela and she seemed equally enthusiastic to be with them.
As ever we brain stormed. We did not want to loose the pups now, having intervened, their lives were definitely in our hands. Allowing Angela access to them had an element of risk to it, but we had to take the chance. We need not have worried, she went to the pups and they ran to her. Though still a bit nervous about their new surroundings, they took comfort from her relaxed demeanour. Now we had to get her to feed them. In the past she has shown a particularly selfish nature when feeding with other dogs, not wishing to share at all. She was brilliant with the pups though. Eating and eating before then regurgitating to them and they ate hungrily. We were so relieved. This continued for a couple of days and we allowed them all access into an even bigger enclosure during the days, which was more stimulating for them. To complete the picture we needed to introduce Angela’s mate, Zenga. Again his track record gave us cause for concern, as he had proven to be a problem when introduced to other dogs, apart from Angela. We need not have worried, he was seen trying to feed the pups through the fence and when we opened the gate to let him in he fed them immediately. The pups had foster parents.
Our aim now is to provide them with as natural an up bringing as we can, preparing them for a release back into the wild next year.

Painted Dog Conservation
P. O. Box 72, Dete, Zimbabwe
Telephone: 00 263 (0) 18 710
Email: pdcoffice@painteddog.org
Website: www.painteddog.org
Painted Dog Conservation is a registered private voluntary organization in Zimbabwe P.V.O. 13/2005

Project Update July 2008:

We made our camp knowing that the lions must have been close by.

We have camped in the bush many, many times but this was different, Jealous had looked at me in disbelief when I told him that we had to camp in the bush. We were on Starvation Island, following up on a report from Edward Muchuchuti that he had seen the spoor (footprints) of at least one lion. The local fishermen confirmed that a male and female lion had been seen on the island.
We were astonished. It is 1.5km in a straight line to the main land. The water in between is quite deep. What had motivated the lions to make such a swim??? We would never know. The fact is they were there.



The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZPWMA) had responded immediately to my request for permission to intervene. A letter authorizing me to dart and thus immobilize the lions then remove them from the island had been issued within minutes.
Jealous and I drove to Tashinga and met up with Edward for a meeting with the Warden. He was positive and cooperative as he always is, immediately putting 12 ZPWMA scouts at my disposal.
Fresh lion spoor was all around us as we climbed out of the boat onto the island and carried our kit to the chosen area for our camp. Nervous laughter and a few jokes masked the tension. I prepared my darts.
With the camp quickly established, we set out in an extended line to search the thick bush for the lions. The plan, if you could call it that, was to get me close enough to be able to dart the lions. I would need to be 30 metres from them, on foot. We moved through the bush, following the fresh spoor, the lions were walking all over the island, maybe exploring or perhaps searching for the dogs? On the northeastern side of the island we found very fresh spoor and moved closer together.

It was blistering hot and I was sweating hard, though my mouth was dry. Cautiously we moved forward, the bush getting thicker and thicker. A blur of movement to our right sent us all spinning around instantly. We stood motionless, trying to control our breathing. We moved forward again and came out on the other side of the thick bush into the open. No lions.It was getting dark now so I called of the search. I could not dart the lions at night, it would not have been safe for the lions or us. Exhausted by the search and the tension we slept soundly that night.

Another search of the island the next day revealed little. The ZPWMA scouts suggested we hang some bait in a suitable tree and build a blind for me to sit in and wait for the lions to come. I agreed. A suitable tree was located and the bait was dragged around the island to create a sent trail while the rest of us were busy making the blind and preparing the area, clearing the long grass so that nothing could get in the way of the dart. I was careless and cut my leg while clearing the grass. The deep wound needed stitches but that would have to wait. Jealous joked that my blood would help attract the lions!
With the bait set I took up my place in the blind, which was constructed of leafy branches and grass, camouflaging me from the lions, just 26 metres from the bait. I sat in silence, two ZPWMA scouts sat behind me. I looked around at the construction of leaves and grass and doubted that it would stop a lions charge. I wondered if the nerves of my two scouts would hold out. Darkness fell and we abandoned the blind to trudge wearily back to our camp and the waiting search party. The next morning we checked the bait and found the three dogs sitting underneath it, there was no sign of any lions. Another exhaustive search of the island failed to reveal any presence of the lions and we were convinced that they had swum back to the mainland. The bait was cut down from the tree and the dogs enjoyed a feast.

Sichting Painted Dog Conservation © 2009