After 4 weeks at N/a’an ku sê working as a wildlife volunteer on the farm, an opportunity arose to join the research team on the NamibRand Conservation Project. It is a scientific study on released wild carnivores, particularly cheetah and leopard, and how they affect the ecosystem within the reserve. I jumped at the chance to volunteer for the work after seeing the induction presentation. Thoughts were running thru my head: What do I need to know? What will I be doing? My expectations? Their expectation…. The unknown… Here’s my diary, by Scott…June 1
We left N/a’an ku sê early heading south to the Reserve on an uneventful 5-6 hours drive. We arrive around 3pm and meet some familiar faces; volunteers from N/a’an ku sê. It was great to see them since I’ll be the only volunteer here for the next 10 days.
June 2
MY BIRTHDAY!!! (Where is my cake???)
For as long as I can remember, I have spent this day on the sunny southern coast of California with my family. And now, 4000 miles away in open grassland, blue sky and mountain ranges as far as you can see, what can one expect for a birthday present?
A quick goodbye to the previous volunteers and we depart for the field for our tracking. With James (from CCF) and Flo (research coordinator from N/a’an ku sê), our first task is to track the movement of 5 cheetah males released by CFF; Kia, Ra, Mushara, Cadbury & Lindt. This will be so easy I think…. like looking for a needle in the hay stack!
How wrong I was; calm and unsuspicious, walking just 3m parallel to our car, are three of them. They casually lay down and groom themselves and with a brief glance at us they continue on with their business. Within distance, the other two males appear and in minutes, they leave to meet up with their brothers. Icing on the cake!!!Our next tracking mission is one of two females, Tisha. James had tracked and had sighting of Shanti. In this open grass land, we find Tisha’s signal and searched intensively for her. Unfortunately, only Tisha’s remains are found; evidently she had been taken down by a spotted hyena. We could tell she had put up a good fight due to the disturbances of the surrounding grass land. Mother Nature does have the final say.
June 6
GAME COUNT DAY!!! To an American: “Way cool, what is it???”
All stakeholders on the reserve participate in this annual event in which data are gathered on wildlife numbers and used to determine their growth ratios and distribution. Teams and routes in the NamibRand Nature Reserve are assigned. It’s N/a’an ku sê’s first year of participation and the NamibRand founder, Mr. Albi Brueckner, will be joining us on the Aandster route. The count is of all large game animals within 500 meters on both sides of the road. Distance is in consideration and has to be perpendicular to the car. My sense of the metric system is so precise that Flo has to correct it almost every time. Regarding the animals, I ask ‘what do you think that is beyond that tree’, a grin on his face and with a short reply: ‘A bush, buddy’.June 8
On an unexpected afternoon, NamibRand’s ranger Corris found an injured juvenile aardwolf in his yard. It is mangled up so bad that we can’t determine the sex and/or where the injury was, but evidently it was bleeding somewhere from its groin. A nickname was quickly given ‘Scruffy’. It only looks at us when we approach and get it in a capture cage. Often we can see Scruffy standing up and think: ‘It’s going to make it through’. Before sundown, we search for grasshoppers and anything else in their diet. Corris holds it in a blanket while Flo feeds it some warm milk with egg yolk through a syringe. Later, Scruffy seems comfortable settling down adjacent to the fire and falling asleep.
As I am looking out of the window the next morning, Flo and Corris are digging a hole across the yard. My heart sinks. The little aardwolf had lost too much blood already…
June 9
A slow start to the day for me, we don’t have water and I’m running late getting ready. Our plan is to meet James to track Shanti. Upon our arrival, we find that James is already in the field and has sighted a wild male leopard drinking from a waterhole. As we approach James’s vehicle, we spot it, calm and casually walking along the riverine. A beautiful dark reddish leopard. It’s so cool!!! A wild animal that is not in a zoo enclosure. He disappears briefly into the breezy grassland and within seconds reappears crossing the road in front of the car, probably searching for a spot to rest and avoiding the windy cold day. A slow start but what a great unexpected finish.
