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Stuart Jennings and Martin Milton - Mashatu Research Shadowing Programme Newsletters » June/July 2007 » Africa volunteer profile VOLUNTEER NAME Stuart Jennings and Martin Milton COUNTRY United Kingdom PROJECT Mashatu Research Shadowing Programme, Botswana DATES AT PROJECT June 2006 A MONTH IN MASHATU: DIARY OF RESEARCH VOLUNTEERS Stuart Jennings and Martin Milton Well our fantastic month at Mashatu volunteering has drawn to a close and the time has flown by faster than we could ever have imagined.  It has been an amazing month working on two wonderful research projects – one with Elephants and one with Leopards. There have been some similarities between these very different projects – they both required us to be up VERY early in the morning most of the month, there are times when the work is on the computer or on paperwork rather than in the field and there are times when neither set of animals does what you want them to do and we spent days without seeing hide nor hair of them! There are also some very different tasks or activities too … here are a few of them and a sense of how we found them. Leopard Research Project Firstly, we spent a lot of time laying ‘camera traps’ - cameras where motion triggers a photograph. This was done as photographic evidence of leopards will allow the identification of individual leopards and give some detail as to their movements – it will also allow an estimation of leopard population density.  Secondly, we were lucky in that Villiers had been looking to re-capture Fundi – one of the collared leopards – so that he could remove the collar which had stopped transmitting data. We headed out to bait with the impala carcass – and this was perhaps one of the more challenging moments of the month!  We snipped the carcass in two, so we could bait two different sites. We removed the innards and Stuart took the impala stomach for ‘walkies’ at each site - down the river bank, across the river bed to the other side and back again to leave a scent trail to the tasty impala treats at our baiting sites. Martin kept a watch out for big and hairies (hyenas!) who might have got interested during this odd exercise. We then hoisted the impala halves at 2 different sites, secured them and brushed the soil beneath the trees so any fresh prints would be detected.  After set up we waited with baited breath (excuse the pun) for the following day. The following day, we visited the first site to see what visited during the night.  The carcass half remained intact and we have only hyena tracks in the soil who have obviously looked longingly at the inaccessible carcass up the tree.  At the second site, success !! – there were leopard tracks and the carcass was half munched! This was the trigger for setting up the cage at this site – because having visited once the leopard was likely to visit again for second helpings.  The cage was set at the foot of the tree with the remaining carcass placed inside at the back and the door was primed to slam shut should anything venture inside to explore.  We were all psyched with nervous energy and excitement.  After dinner we headed out late evening to see what we have attracted.  But there was nothing inside.  We went away disappointed but we knew that there are never any guarantees – animals are not in the business of simply doing as we want them too. We resolved to head out again at 5am the following morning. So we rose pre-dawn and headed off to check the site again.  Before arriving Villiers pulled out the radio receiver to check the signal.  Beep, beep, beep. It was transmitting!  Something was inside!!.  Stuart resolved not to get too excited – thinking it was probably a hyena or a jackal.   We arrived at the site in the dark – the door was indeed closed and inside was - A LEOPARD! And Yes – it was wearing a collar – it was Fundi – we could not believe our luck!   She was sitting waiting sedately in the cage. Villiers made up the dart as we watched intently.  He crept up behind the cage with the dart gun while Martin drove Villiers 4x4 vehicle towards the cage to distract her – and distracted she was – she put all her weight and ferociousness into charging at us in the cage. Despite the safety it was very unnerving. But it works, the darting was successful – it went straight in and within a few minutes Fundi drifted off and was immobile.  We carried her gently (as gently as is possible with a heavy leopard) to the vehicle and transported her to a site away from the cage.  Fundi is a truly magnificent beast in perfect condition – we couldn’t help feeling sorry for having to dart her in this way but know that the leopard research is vital.  Villiers retrieved the precious collar, while we also weighed her (a huge 40kg for a female leopard).  We then guarded her and waited for her to wake up – ready to defend her from any hyena that might have taken advantage of her dozy state.  Some three hours later, she pulled herself to her feet and paded off to find herself a shady spot to recover.  We were on such a high all day having witnessed and been part of what Villiers believes to be the smoothest capture and darting he has carried out. The magic of our leopard research experience ended with a look at downloads of the digital images from the 30 cameras we helped set up at the 15 sites.  After what seemed innumerable shots of spotted hairies, we saw some magical shots of leopards – including a female that had walked past one camera with her cub.  As well as leopard, the cameras also captured photos of rare aardvark, porcupine, civet and genet.  Elephant Research As with the leopard project, our month at Mashatu involved us in several different tasks that we hope will assist Jeanetta with her ongoing research into the elephant numbers, behaviours and the way they use their environment. One task was an update of the ID file. We were able to do this morning, noon or night and we spent our time reviewing cards, drawing up new data sheets and updating photos of the various elephants. We took advantage of our own accomodation, the Discovery Room and the Conference Centre to do this task – the air con was a blessing on some very hot days J We also became involved in identifying elephants out in the field … and this was a huge learning curve. Collecting data on elephants was so much more complicated than we had thought. Despite the fact that they are literally several metres tall, just as long and weigh in the realm of tons, these animals seemed to be able to melt away into the bush at will. So simply finding them is difficult enough … When we were lucky enough to find elephants, as well as counting them, we tried to decide the age of them; what relationships exist between them, and of course we had to do all this as the vehicle was moving or the wind was blowing our papers all over the place … there were also all the gadgets to contend with – the GPS, our camera and video camera etc. Once all of these were in action it was ‘simply’ a case of watching all 3, 5, 11 or 24 plus animals (and that’s just the groups we had seen – apparently there are times when entire populations converge with over 800 elephants together in one space!) and trying to get a sense of who was who before they moved off and disappeared behind bushes. It was apparent that this could be done though as some of the rangers and the researcher herself seemed to be able to identify a good few elephants on sight – and one morning we were delighted as we realized that a herd we had tracked previously were actually the combination of the first herd and another family traveling together. We realized this because of a young bull with a distinctively broken tuck and a rip in his ear … and a penchant for facing off against the truck J Although it is stretching it a bit, the closest thing I can compare this task to was trying to identify the contents of someone else’s laundry through the glass door on the washing machine – when it is mid-cycle. And doing it before someone whisks it all away!! But a LOT more exciting J Finally … All in all the whole experience has been such a fantastic time out from our lives in London.  We’ve seen the reality of leopard and elephant research on the ground and learnt an awful lot from cat-man Villiers and ele-lady Jeanetta during our time in the field.  We can’t wait to go back to Mashatu and see how the research projects are progressing and how all the leopards and elephants we have come to know are going about their lives !!  Viva Mashatu!! Please see our current special offer on National Geographic Camera manning at Mashatu waterhole ‘Pete’s Pond’ - volunteers are urgently needed for this and will be facilitationg the live-streaming of footage from this nature’s playground to the world! Other news this month... African Expeditions on Special Offer!! Update from David Youldon, the ALERT (African Lion Environment and Research Trust) Update from our Victoria Falls Lion Rehabilitatoin and Community Programme project managers VOLUNTEER PROFILE: Stuart Jennings and Martin Milton FEATURED PROJECT: Mozambique Community and Soccer Development News Snippets Subscribe to our free newsletter Africa volunteer opportunities       print this page | bookmark this page (CTRL-D) | send to a friend back to top