JUNE 2020
NEWSLETTER
By Trevor Lane
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Botswana has reported over 400 elephants have died in the Okavango, the cause of death unknown and it is not certain if this is the final total or if it will be an ongoing problem. The government is dragging its feet badly on trying to find the cause of these mysterious deaths (anthrax has been ruled out) and has refused offers of help from the private sector! The Botswana authorities have also started dehorning rhino, but some of these have already been poached.
Some great news - Hunters and Guides and Dr Mark Bristow, who operate in the Deka Safari Area, have renewed their support for the Rhino Monitoring and Protection Unit, plus have increased their funding to cover a second unit. The first unit has proved very successful, and a second unit will allow one unit to concentrate on anti-poaching on the boundary of Sinamatella, while the second unit can concentrate on monitoring the rhino - a big thanks also to Marvellous Mbikiyana (the Sinamatella Area Manager) and his rangers for their support of the RMPU.
More good news - Shop to Shop in South Africa (part of the Gates Foundation) has availed 1000 ration packs for Parks rangers and other field units in the Sinamatella, Robins, Kazuma and Zambezi Parks This ties in with a great offer from Patrick Jacquemin to provide cash funding for rangers. This will allow us to provide the rangers each with a ration pack plus a cash bonus for the next four months, and will also do away with any ration shooting in these Parks over this period. On the downside though, if anyone says "Zimbabwe is open for business", and "ease of doing business" it simply is not true - to bring in these ration packs for Parks, after obtaining a duty free exemption from ZIMRA, has taken over two months - - we have so far secured 18 permits and still require another 10 permits!!! What a nightmare for basic food parcels!! Special thanks are due to Piet Erasmus for organising the parcels, and to Andrew Lane for all the frustrations of dealing with the permits and a dodgy South African transporter, plus thanks for the support of the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Mt Mdanganfufu. However the pain of dealing with Zimbabwean imports rules out ever repeating this procedure!!
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A big thanks to Ian Gloss who secured a Grundfos pump for us to replace the pump stolen from Thomsons (No 2 ) in May. We were using a temporary system while we waited for the new pump.
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Replacing a damaged panel at Thomsons Pan - the new pump is now in place and delivering over 50,000l per day
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All other waterpoints are working well, and Parks have maintained a good coverage against further thefts fo waterpoint kit, which has now all been secured
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Wild is Life graded the roads in Kazuma in June - a big thanks to Jos Dankwerts and his crew. It has opened up the area. Parks have been busy on the firebreaks.
Natural water is still holding out, and the pans are doing well, though we are struggling with the pump at Roan Pan due to the poor borehole.We will be installing a new solar system at Insiza next month as part of our water program.. The two pumps at Corner Pan are doing well and the pan is starting to get busy.
Nigel Thiesen and myself spent some time looking at old roads and potential new campsites in the area, with some interesting results
We supplied rations to the Kazuma staff again
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Area Manager Innocent Mupedzi has been transferred and we thank him for his support during his stay and wish him well in his new posting. We welcome Mrs Moyo as his replacement.
Otherwise all waterpoints are functioning well and Onias is busy mainly with deploying ranger patrols, assisting on fireguard burning, and generally helping Parks.
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Game water
Towards the middle of June I read a press article that revealed that we could expect cold weather over the next few weeks as this is winter and winter usually brings low temperatures. This startling revelation turned out to be more true than most weather forecasts and we not only had cold, but also many days with heavy cloud. The cold meant we could expect a reduced demand for water from our game water ‘customers’ out in the Park. Unfortunately, at the same time, the cloud slowed all our solar pumps so we also had reduced supply, and the game water situation at month end was probably no better and no worse than we would expect for this dry (and cold) time of year.
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Unseasonal clouds at Masuma
We were not exceptionally busy with game water work in June. A lot of the work we did have to do was in the Deka Safari Area. Early in June the team from Forster Irrigation installed a solar pump at the new Mbala Valley borehole. This will pump into a natural pool in the bed of the Mbala River. Two other of our Deka Safari Area pumps were less good news though; three solar panels were stolen at Noeleen’s Pan and at Gurangwenya, a yet to be explained problem is causing us a headache by reducing the water flow when demand from elephants is particularly high.
Annoying as the loss of the panels at Noeleen’s was, it luckily didn’t affect the water supply much because we were able to replace them almost immediately with some panels we had in store that happened to be compatible. I wish Gurangwenya was as simple. Explanations for the problem there varied from the cloudy days, to too many elephants, the water level in the borehole dropping or something going wrong with the pump. There was some evidence for each of those factors so by month end we were really none the wiser but simply monitoring closely until we can work out what to do. Very frustrating.
Our pumped water sources in the Park itself are all running, with the exception of Bumboosie South, where the motor has burnt out and we are waiting for a new one. Other work included finally getting out to Tshompani where we fitted more pipe and cable to the solar pump and lowered it to within a meter of the bottom of the borehole. I doubt that has made any difference to the yield right now but it will be important if the water level drops later in the season.
We hope, very soon, to drill a new borehole at Tshontanda so that we can replace the existing hole where the yield is poor. In the last week of June, Trevor visited and did a bit of forked-stick water divining, locating a good site reasonably close to the Pan. A few days later I was able to ‘borrow’ Mervyn Gumbo to give us a second opinion. He was at Tshakabika locating potential borehole sites with a rather more scientific-looking resistivity measuring device to detect underground water and we travelled out to Tshontanda with him to try our luck.
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No offence meant to either Trevor or the forked stick but I have to admit I expected the science-based approach to be far better. In fact both methods came up with the same result, the only difference being that Mervyn’s equipment was able to tell us how far down the water should be – a very deep (and therefore expensive) minimum of 90m.
Wildlife
Sue and I did the regular monthly 24-hour count at Masuma on the 4th/5th June. Early in the afternoon, a young waterbuck raced into view, closely pursued by a cheetah. The waterbuck ran to the dam and into the water, leaving the cheetah frustrated at the water’s edge, but it was very much a case of out of the frying pan into the fire because the dam’s six crocodiles attacked straight away, one of them took the buck by its neck and pulled it under and that should have been the end of the story. However, Masuma’s hippo are well-known for eating meat if they are given half a chance, and no sooner had the croc dragged the waterbuck down than the hippo charged in and there was chaos for a few minutes, ending with the hippo gruesomely tearing the waterbuck apart.
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Yes, that’s a waterbuck’s leg sticking out of the hippo’s mouth.
Meanwhile, the cheetah paused to get its breath back then took an interest in the young waterbuck’s family who had stopped and were staring at it from about fifty meters away.
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When the waterbuck family finally started to move away, the cheetah charged and, in a cloud of dust, a second young buck was gone. Not a great day for waterbuck but good for the cheetah, who stayed for many hours feasting on the carcass, good for the hippo and not bad for the crocs, the vultures and the jackals that picked up whatever scraps were available. A little waterbuck goes a long way.
For the 24-hour count we recorded 530 elephants and 255 impala. The elephant number is on the high side of normal but the impala numbers seem to increase every year. Why that should be, I don’t know.
June 21st was world giraffe day. I hinted strongly that we should celebrate with a large, giraffe-shaped cake but Sue didn’t take the hint (and my baking skills are not up to such a task) so instead we celebrated by going out to look for….giraffe. We went to Domboshuro area and found four, which we duly photographed and later identified and entered into our database. At the end of June, we had seen 199 different giraffe in the previous twelve months which is our equal highest ‘score’ since we started the project in 2017.
Miscellaneous
With the Park closed for the past few months, the Parks staff have been taking the opportunity to do some tidying up around the Tourist Office and at Mandavu Picnic Site. The gardens around the office have been cleared and re-planted under the guidance of the Wildlife Officer, the gates are repaired and newly painted and the Sabi Stars have come into flower just in time to welcome any visitors we might see when the lockdown ends. There are also plans to repair and fill the large pond opposite the office and we have supplied cement for the job.
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At Mandavu the fence has been re-built, largely thanks to Edward Moyo, one of the picnic site attendants, and some of the gardens have been tidied up. The work there continues and a gang of contract workers is busy right now cutting thatching grass at Domboshuro for use at Shumba, Masuma and Mandavu
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Mandavu Picnic Site
Towards the end of the month we heard from Antoinette van Wijk in Holland, that her fitness studio had run a 24-hour workout marathon as a fundraiser for us. We are very grateful indeed to everyone that took part. The funding means a lot to us, the thought and effort behind it means a lot too…..
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Finally, to return to the trip out to Tshontanda with Geophysicist Mervyn Gumbo. On our way to pick him up at Tshakabika, Sue and I had to change a flat tyre just after crossing the Lukosi which left us without a spare wheel. We carried on, hoping for the best but at Tshontanda, we got the worst….a second puncture. We have a small compressor in the car so when we’d finished the survey, we pumped up the tyre and started out for Tshakabika. Two or three pumpings later, we were about a kilometre short but running late and the Tshakabika Camp owner Bob Brown arrived, looking for us as he had to get Mervyn to the Park gate to collect his vehicle and head for Bulawayo as soon as possible. Sue and I continued but the tyres got worse until the point where neither would inflate so we resorted to plan B. Many years ago, in a similar situation, I drove a Land Rover from the Matobo Hills almost to Bulawayo on a tyre filled with sand. We didn’t quite make it home because the friction of the sand moving around created so much heat the tyre melted. Someone told us sand was a mistake and we should have used grass but until now we had never needed to try it.
We didn’t get far as the dry grass predictably and quickly turned to dust so we stopped, laboriously took the tyre off the rim again and I was on plan C (shovelling in sand) when good Samaritan Bob Brown turned up once more. He had a ‘Tyre Weld’ aerosol in the car. That didn’t work, but once we’d managed to remove it, his Hilux spare wheel just fitted our old Cruiser so we borrowed that and drove very slowly home.
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Many thanks to Bob, and apologies to Mervyn for an afternoon that was presumably memorable, but for the wrong reasons. Oh, and, if anyone ever needs a last-resort tyre fix, I can exclusively reveal that this one isn’t worth the effort …..
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RHINO MONITORING & PROTECTION UNIT
Report By Nick Long
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We started off the month doing a series of local patrols in the areas we have previously found snare poaching. Not much illegal activity was discovered except for a snare line of 20 snares close to number 3. We intended to ambush the snares but a reaction team from Umtshibi Reaction Unit turned up to sweep an area where an informer had said a rhino had been poached a couple of weeks before so we joined them
Two teams were formed comprising of ZIMPARKS rangers and ourselves, and we deployed for 5 days conducting a through sweep of the areas in question but no signs of rhino (dead or alive) where found anywhere in the area. Upon returning to camp we immediately went to ambush the snares we had found a week before, the team woke early and was in ambush by 6am and the poacher turned up at around 8.15am and a successful arrest was made (but not without a fight). While removing his snares we found he had caught a young Baboon the evening before. He was taken to ZRP Hwange and appeared in court the next morning where he was sentenced to 10 months in prison or ZWL $ 3000.00 with 2 months suspended for 5 years.
Next we went in search of rhino, unfortunately we seemed to be behind the rhino by 2 days all the time and we didn’t manage to have any sightings though we did find lots of sign (spoor, dung etc). A day before we were due to return to Camp a message came from the station asking us to assist a call-sign in ambushing a 131 active snares they had found. The snares were ambushed for 4 days but eventually we decided to remove them after a kudu was killed in one of the snares while we were on ambush. The team has since redeployed to the area to see if there is any other poaching taking place and a poacher’s base has been located close to the snare line which might explain why they never checked their snares, - they must have seen either us or the rangers who originally located the snares. We will continue to try to clear this poaching problem in July.
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The snares removed after an unsuccessful ambush!
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The Parks Investigations Unit arrested two felons in possession of two elephant tusks. Follow up continues.. They also recovered a live pangolin in another operation
Of interest, a 78 year old man was ordered by a magistrate to compensate Parks US$ 20,000 for killing a leopard. He claimed the leopard had killed a goat so he set a gin trap for it. When checking, the leopard had been caught in the trap, and attacked him causing injuries to his arms, head and face before he killed it with an axe. He was given a suspended sentence, plus the compensation claim!
There has been the expected marked increase in bush meat poaching, especially noted around Victoria Falls, where the Victoria Falls Anti-Poaching Unit (VFAPU) has been very active. Unfortunately the magistrate in the Falls has been very lenient - 2 poachers who killed two bushbuck were given community service and an RTGS 1500 fine - you can bet they were back poaching again the next day! Magistrates need to realise the seriousness of this poaching scourge! It is disappointing for all the effort and money that goes into controlling the poaching, to be let down at the last hurdle!
In the Falls, some out-of-work guides and hunters are assisting Parks and VFAPU with deployments and night patrols into the Zambezi Park - a fine effort with great cooperation between the Area Manager, Daniel Sithole, VFAPU and the boys!
A big thank you to Nicholas Duncan and the SAVE The African Rhino Foundation for paying for the repairs and servicing to the Parks Investigations vehicle, thus keeping them in the field.
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We have had an amazing period of support from all our friends, new and old, out there, and we really appreciate all this support.However, we have received some donations into our account with no record of who it came from and we would like to be notified so we can at least acknowledge the support! Our heartfelt thanks to (in no particular order):
Frank Zindell of the Educasa Foundation and a longtime supporter has made a very genrous donation, which is very much appreciated.Thanks to Stuart Danks of Simply Africa for facilitation
Dr Mark Bristow and Hunters and Guides for the financing of our Rhino Monitoring and Protection Unit. Mark came out and pledged assistance for a further three years!!! They have also just confirmed funding for a second RMPU unit.
Elka Lenherr-Toedtii for her generous donation towards a complete borehole/pump setup
Simon and Portia Rowlands for a very generous donation towards s complete borehole/pump unit
Frik Muller and team for donated piping
Ian Gloss of Victoria Falls Liquorama for his continued assistance
Tony Smith for this help in the field
Pieter and Anthea Erasmus for their continued support, and for the use of their vehicle
Michel Buenerd of Le Pic Vert, and Le Pal Nature Foundation, for funding their NINTH borehole and pump in Sinamatella, with their tenth coming up!
Wild is Life and Jos Dankwerts for their assistance in Kazuma Pan
Patrick Jacquemin has once again risen to the fore with a great donation to help our operational costs, and to put in a new borehole and pump, which will go in early this year
Mark Unwin and the Clarkson Family Trust, for yet another generous donation.
Deb Chusid of New York for a great personal effort to raise funds to assist us - she has held a fund raiser in New York.
Antoinette van Wijk of Holland for her stirling fund raising effort
Wildlife & Environmental Society of Zimbabwe (WEZ), Mat'land Branch.
Nicholas Duncan and the SAVE The African Rhino Foundation of Australia – a staunch supporter.
RAM Petroleum
Jim Goddard of JRG for monthly diesel donation
Ricky Forster and Forster Irrigation of Bulawayo
Dave Carson and Camp Hwange for helping fund our Sinamatella Rhino Monitoring Unit and game water supplies.
John Karasellos of Hisspan Motors for his continuing assistance and support.
Hwange Conservation Society (UK) - John Gillon
Christiane Aepfier for her donation
A big thanks to Ministry and Parks Staff :
The Director General - Mr Fulton Mangwanya
The Chief Conservator - Mt Arthur Musakwa
The Cluster Manager (Mat North) - Matabeleland - Mr Samson Chibaya,
Area Manager - Zambezi --Mr Daniel Sibanda
Area Manager, - Robins and Kazuma - Mr s Moyo
Area Manager - Sinamatella - Mr Marvellous Mbikbiyana
and all their guys on the ground for all their support and assistance.
To my wife Liz for her continual support in all my comings and goings!!
Apologies if we have inadvertently left anyone out!! Your help is much appreciated
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Bhejane Trust relies on donations to continue it’s operations, which includes our daily operating costs, as well as specific projects.
PLEASE HELP!!
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Donate to help us save our wildlife heritage - any donations would be gratefully accepted . Donations can be through our “PayNow” button on our website “bhejanetrust.org” or direct to our bank account:
Bank details :
Bhejane Trust,
FBC Bank,
Galleria Building, Parkway
Victoria Falls
Zimbabwe
Branch Code : 8512
Swift Code : FBCPZWHAX
Account No : 2245093780275
Bhejane Trust office address:
231 Sopers Crescent,
P.O.Box 210
Victoria Falls,
Zimbabwe
Note - we do not have postal codes in Zimbabwe (00)
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CONTACT DETAILS
Trevor Lane : trevor@bhejanetrust.org +263 777 057 024
Stephen Long : stephen@bhejanetrust.org
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