Another remarkable
year for Painted Dog Conservation has come to a close with the
successful collaring of two dogs from our embattled Umtchibi pack.
Despite the fact that our "local" Mashambo pack visit
our rehabilitation facility almost every day, I had been frustrated
in my efforts to collar at least one other dog in this pack, so
I turned my attention to the Umtchibi pack.
We had not received any sighting of the
Umtchibi pack for some days so I had no reference point to begin
the search. However, experience told me that at this time of year
the dogs tend to focus quite a bit of attention on the new born
impala foals and I knew of three places within the pack's home
range that had relatively high impala densities. Jealous was still
on his annual leave, so I didn't have anyone to discuss my theory
with but I headed for these locations anyway, knowing he probably
would have agreed with me!!
Luck
was on my side and I soon picked up the signal from the collar
on the alpha male, Pita. The pack were resting adjacent to the
air field at Hwange Main Camp, so not the most strenuous of searches.
I smiled to myself as I thought of the hours Jealous has put in
recently in an effort to keep track of the various study packs.
The dogs were resting under a thick bush making it hard for me
to get a good head count. My concern for the pack was already
raised, as I could not detect a signal from Beans, the other collared
dog in the pack. After a short time the dogs began to emerge from
the bush, characteristically stretching seemingly stiff limbs
and spines, yawning to reveal gleaming teeth, hunting clearly
on their minds. Alpha male Pita plus four yearlings followed by
alpha female Mango. Only six dogs!! No puppies!! Beans was missing,
as was Amber, the Beta female. All six looked very, very thin
and the impala herd only 300 metres away presented an immediate
focus for their hunting ambitions. I watched in disbelief as a
shamble of a hunt unfolded. Dogs running in all directions as
the impala "bomb shelled". Only Pita seemed to have
a real focus and he quickly caught a two month old foal. Hardly
enough for him, let alone six hungry dogs. As the light faded,
they made another half-hearted attempt to catch the now vigilant
impala and again failed miserably. Hardly the kind of hunting
that the dogs' formidable reputation is built upon! A herd of
zebra added insult to injury by chasing the dogs away from the
open grassland. I drove home, sure that the pack would not be
far away in the morning.
Project events overtook me in the morning,
as is often the case these days, and so it was late morning before
I was able to catch up with the pack, which had only moved past
the far end of the airfield. I drove up to them and was happy
to see that they had clearly fed well, keeping the species hunting
reputation intact, just!
I
loaded a dart into our new daninject rifle and edged closer to
the resting pack. I hoped to collar the alpha female, Mango, who
happily obliged by being the first to stand up. She walked a few
metres away then stopped, side onto the landrover, thus presenting
me with a relatively simple shot. She jumped slightly as the dart
went home, and then calmly walked away to lie down under another
bush. I loaded another dart while keeping an eye on her as the
drugs took effect. This opportunity was too good to miss and I
focussed my attention on one of the other males, who had a wound
on his shoulder. He also obliged by presenting me with a fairly
straightforward darting opportunity. I thought about how weird
this was without Jealous by my side, however both dogs were soon
under the influence of the anaesthetic and so needed all my attention.
I drove a few metres into the bush and stopped near Mango. Placing
a blanket on the ground under thick shade before gently picking
her up and placing her on it, I quickly checked her vital signs.
Happy that she was very stable, I walked over and picked up the
male, then carried him back and placed him on the same blanket
before checking his vital signs. All was well, so I proceeded
to fit a collar to each dog. I was able to relax once this was
done and I had taken the vital samples for Greg's DNA analysis
work. I sat in the shade with the dogs, checking their vital signs,
watching a herd of zebra, while waiting for a sign that the anaesthetic
was wearing off.
The welfare of the darted animal, usually
a dog in our case of course, is paramount. Greg's protocol is
very clear in that we only dart a dog, for the purpose of collaring,
in the morning, never in the evening. The main reason for this
is to allow for plenty of recovery time before the more powerful
nocturnal predators are at large and so the dogs need their wits
about them. Mango and the male started to wake up, so I gave both
of them the final reversal injection and moved back to my Landrover,
happy that there was still plenty of daylight hours left for them
to fully recover. Both soon started to stand on wobbly legs and
staggered a few metres away in typically "drunken" style,
still some time away from regaining full coordination.
The staggering dogs attracted the attention
of the grazing zebra, which moved closer. The dogs lay down again,
seemingly unaware of the approaching herd and I watched in amazement
as the zebra moved closer and closer. Now there was no doubt in
my mind that the zebra were intending to drive the dogs away as
they had done the evening before, only this time, these two dogs
at least were in no fit state to respond to the threat. Not much
in the darting protocol about this, I thought, as I climbed out
of the Landrover, expecting that my sudden appearance would halt
the zebra in their tracks. No such luck. The zebra completely
ignored me, their attention locked on the two dogs. I ran towards
the zebra waving a towel above my head!! Now they saw me and of
course stopped their "assault" on the dogs. I walked
quickly back to the Landrover, past the two dogs, who did not
even lift a head in concern. I now had time to drive the Landrover
around the expanse of broken ground, which was between the zebra
herd and me, and completed the job of "pushing" them
well away from the dogs. This done, I returned to the dogs and
waited for them to recover fully, reflecting on yet another less
than ordinary day.
Luck
was on my side and I soon picked up the signal from the collar
on the alpha male, Pita. The pack were resting adjacent to the
air field at Hwange Main Camp, so not the most strenuous of searches.
I smiled to myself as I thought of the hours Jealous has put in
recently in an effort to keep track of the various study packs.
The dogs were resting under a thick bush making it hard for me
to get a good head count. My concern for the pack was already
raised, as I could not detect a signal from Beans, the other collared
dog in the pack. After a short time the dogs began to emerge from
the bush, characteristically stretching seemingly stiff limbs
and spines, yawning to reveal gleaming teeth, hunting clearly
on their minds. Alpha male Pita plus four yearlings followed by
alpha female Mango. Only six dogs!! No puppies!! Beans was missing,
as was Amber, the Beta female. All six looked very, very thin
and the impala herd only 300 metres away presented an immediate
focus for their hunting ambitions. I watched in disbelief as a
shamble of a hunt unfolded. Dogs running in all directions as
the impala "bomb shelled". Only Pita seemed to have
a real focus and he quickly caught a two month old foal. Hardly
enough for him, let alone six hungry dogs. As the light faded,
they made another half-hearted attempt to catch the now vigilant
impala and again failed miserably. Hardly the kind of hunting
that the dogs' formidable reputation is built upon! A herd of
zebra added insult to injury by chasing the dogs away from the
open grassland. I drove home, sure that the pack would not be
far away in the morning.
I
loaded a dart into our new daninject rifle and edged closer to
the resting pack. I hoped to collar the alpha female, Mango, who
happily obliged by being the first to stand up. She walked a few
metres away then stopped, side onto the landrover, thus presenting
me with a relatively simple shot. She jumped slightly as the dart
went home, and then calmly walked away to lie down under another
bush. I loaded another dart while keeping an eye on her as the
drugs took effect. This opportunity was too good to miss and I
focussed my attention on one of the other males, who had a wound
on his shoulder. He also obliged by presenting me with a fairly
straightforward darting opportunity. I thought about how weird
this was without Jealous by my side, however both dogs were soon
under the influence of the anaesthetic and so needed all my attention.
I drove a few metres into the bush and stopped near Mango. Placing
a blanket on the ground under thick shade before gently picking
her up and placing her on it, I quickly checked her vital signs.
Happy that she was very stable, I walked over and picked up the
male, then carried him back and placed him on the same blanket
before checking his vital signs. All was well, so I proceeded
to fit a collar to each dog. I was able to relax once this was
done and I had taken the vital samples for Greg's DNA analysis
work. I sat in the shade with the dogs, checking their vital signs,
watching a herd of zebra, while waiting for a sign that the anaesthetic
was wearing off. 