OCTOBER 2019
NEWSLETTER
By Trevor Lane
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It has been a very tough month, with relentless temperatures exceeding the forties everyday – the endless scorching hot, cloudless days, with hot winds blowing, and only slight relief at night. One thermometer left exposed in the sun on rocks recorded 54 degrees!
The stress on these conditions on the wildlife has been immense, especially the elephants – they hare visibly lost condition, with prominent spines and pelvic bones. At midday you see the animals, from elephant to tsessebe to reedbuck, crammed under any available shade to get out of the burning rays.
There have also been masses of immigrant elephant from Botswana, where, as Botswana has dried up, the elephant there have sought refuge in Zimbabwe. This is borne out by the preliminary game count figures from WEZ, where they normally record between 23,000 to 25,000 elephants a year, this year I believe the number is up into about the 43,000 figure.
The temperatures, the excess elephants plus our normal resident wildlife have all applied tremendous pressure on our waterpoints. The elephants have tended to monopolize the troughs especially, keeping other animals out. Our saving grace this year was that we had late heavy rains in April which filled up the pans and freshened the vegetation – this gave us an extra couple of months reprieve and the natural water only dried up completely in September. However, the Main Camp area did not get this rain, and they have suffered as a consequence.
To date we have lost very few elephant to the drought, but in the Main Camp area the situation is far worse. However, if this hot dry spell persists for much longer, our situation could turn quickly. One problem we do face is the elephant sometimes overcome our defenses and trash the pump heads – they obviously detect the well water and get frustrated, but it does not help! We are thus on continuous call out monitoring all the waterpoints and trying to keep the water flowing.
Once the rains come, the Botswana elephant will go home, the Park will green up and there will be a big sigh of relief all round!!
To further compound issues, we have had an anthrax outbreak in the hippo at Mandavu Dam and have lost several but we are monitoring the situation.
One little incident observed by one of our staff – a buffalo bull was patiently waiting at a trough for the solar water to start flowing when a bug male lion arrived – the buffalo chased the lion up an anthill. When the water started flowing the lion tried to come down, but he buffalo chased him up again, then went and drank his fill and wandered off, leaving the lion to come down and drink!
However, there will now be a period to regroup and assess the way forward. We were extremely fortunate with the late heavy rain in April, but we cannot rely on this again! Issues we need to address are that we need to increase water supply to some of the existing waterholes – we have already made moves on this, having drilled one new hole in Kazuma and about to drill a new one in the Chamabonda to supplement existing supplies – and we need to spread water as much as possible – one of our newly equipped boreholes Mahoboti in the very back area of Robins (and which had not been pumped for decades), had over 800 elephants drinking in 24 hours, and I know the pump only delivered 26,000l per day – just over 30 l a day per elephant ( I don’t think a drop of water hit the bottom of the trough)!, but this took 800 elephants away from the under pressure Masuma and Shumba Pans. We also need to make smaller and shallower troughs, so that water can escape downstream to pans for the smaller animals. And we need to reinforce our pump heads against the destructive elephant!
For all this we will need support – we have to date narrowly avoided a disaster, but lets prepare for the inevitable drought in the coming years now!
But for now, Bring on the rains!!
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Tsessebe and Elephant trying to keep out the withering sun!
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The Zambezi National Park has been spared the worst of the drought, although the river frontage has been a bit hammered. The Chamabonda Vlei has still got good water ( we have seven pumps here) plus still good grazing, the Terminalia has greened up, and the Kalahari forest has held up well. The elephant here are not nearly as thin as the Hwange elephant.
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Elephant coming to drink at No 3
The only problem experienced was elephant dug up and broke the pipeline to Thomson's Pan - this was more accidental as they were creating a dust bowl and dug too deep!
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Hyena with a duiker carcass, with an optimistic jackal looking on
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Roan Pan ( very poor producing borehole) dried up, and the pressure of the animals drinking at the Kazuma Pan has left the Park in a precarious water situation with only one functioning borehole pump. We thus got a drilling rig in and drilled two boreholes near Roan Pan - unfortunately they both failed as we hit a liquid sludge 30 odd meters down. However, we did successfully drill a second borehole at Kazuma Pan, which we are going to equip, and so secure this pan for the future
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The elephants enjoying our new pan, Eland Pan
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Onias had another busy month at Robins, checking constantly on water points, in between assisting Parks on deployments. The water points are all taking strain with this prolonged heat. and Deteema Dam has been reduced to a couple of large puddles - however they are all holding out. Elephants again trashed the pump head and pipeline at Njekwa, which has been repaired and the protection increased. At Deteema we found both pumps off, due frustratingly to persons unknown fiddling with things, but we got them both functioning again! The animals here generally look in good condition, though the elephant are a bit thin, with spine and hip bones showing.
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SINAMATELLA
Report by Stephen Long
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Water supply.
October was always going to be a busy month, given the usual high temperatures and the number of thirsty animals we are supplying this year – but I hadn’t expected it to be quite so busy. Actually it wouldn’t have been too bad if it wasn’t for just the one site – Mafa’s Pan. My diary for the month mentions Mafa’s Pan on twelve separate occasions, and only one of those in a positive way. Let’s deal with the positive first. Mafa’s Pan is a new water point, having been re-started this year on a new borehole after the borehole that was drilled in 2017 failed. We only started running the pump in July but it was an immediate success, attracting a range of species, some interesting birds and large numbers of elephants. I don’t know why this pan should be so popular, compared with, for example, Lukosi Pan which is about 7km away and is used by far fewer animals. I would guess it has more to do with the attraction of the surrounding vegetation rather than the water and the pan itself. Anyway, Mafa’s Pan appeared to be a huge success – and there lies the problem.
The borehole at Mafa’s is close to the water and early in the month the elephants found it and started to play with the well-head, the outlet pipe to the pan, the solar panels and the cables connecting the panels to the pump.
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The outlet pipe about to be broken – again.
It seemed that whatever we did, the elephants undid and we were having to go and repair damage every few days until, close to month end, the damage was so severe that we couldn’t repair it at all. The pump and motor are lost down the borehole, the cable is torn to pieces, the pan is bone dry – and still the elephants turn up, only to stand forlornly in the dry bed of the Pan wondering what happened to the water. I’ve tried to explain to them that they are to blame but they don’t seem to be interested.
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Elsewhere our problem has simply been that there are too many animals, but the pumps have mostly run throughout the month and though the pans and dams don’t look nice, nothing has died of thirst. Tshontanda Vlei has quickly become a favourite place for me since we started pumping water there this year. I love walking up to the rocks overlooking the water and watching the animals below…..
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Tshontanda when it still had water.
In mid-October we had a very lucky escape when an elephant broke the outlet pipe at the Tshontanda borehole, but it seems to have done so when dust-bathing at night, the solar pump was not running so there was no water to interest it and the damage was minor. We found the broken pipe a couple of days later but – more luck – when the pump turned on, the water had poured into a deep trench and disappeared underground, still without elephants noticing. I hurried out and repaired it next day. Sadly the water point dried up in the meanwhile but once the pipe was fixed, the elephants soon returned and all day long they stand at the outlet with the most dominant drinking straight from the pipe, the less dominant waiting their turn and the least dominant on the outskirts of the mob looking hot, tired, thin, miserable and thirsty.
Wildlife
Hot, tired, thin, miserable and thirsty…..there were a few occasions when that might have been a good description of myself, but for most of the month it certainly described a lot of our wildlife sightings. With the temperature in the high thirties or low forties and very little decent food available, many of the animals just conserved energy and spent a lot of the day standing in whatever shade they could find. Elephants, giraffe, buffalo, kudu, impala, warthogs and birds were all to be seen resting under shady trees…..
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Much sadder were the ones that were too weak even for that. We saw a small elephant at Masuma that either couldn’t or wouldn’t follow its family when they had finished drinking. It very slowly went a short distance from the dam, its family hung around waiting, they huddled together in distress , came back a little, moved away again, stopped and waited for a while then eventually slowly walked off into the distance, leaving the little one standing on its own – effectively waiting to die. Earlier as we drove past a young elephant that was close to the road, it started to walk away but its front legs gave way and it fell down. It still had the strength to get up again but I very much doubt that it is alive as I write this. Hwange is not short of elephants this year and I often complain about them but nobody likes to see the numbers reduced like that.
As always of course, the vultures have no qualms about seeing other animals die. We completed this year’s vulture nest monitoring by checking the Sinamatella River colony. We found five active nests, one more than last year. We saw many vultures as we travelled around and it seemed that there was simply too much food for them because we often saw groups of them resting near water but not far away there were carcasses that had no vultures in attendance. They must be one of the few animal species in Zimbabwe, Homo sapiens included, that has too much to eat.
Last month I wrote that we had an outbreak of anthrax at Mandavu dam and that hippo had died. We had expected that we would lose many hippo and that the disease would spread to other species but in fact, after the initial hippo deaths, nothing further happened. For that, we are very grateful!
Miscellaneous.
The annual WEZ mammal census took place in October. Unfortunately we had a little rain just a few days before the census and a lot of elephants immediately left our area. Pans that were full of elephant the day before were empty the next and there was very little elephant spoor on the roads for a few days. That might have affected the count at some of our pans but from what I hear of the count results, our elephants possibly didn’t travel very far at all and were probably counted elsewhere. Sue and I, with our friend Christiane, counted at Tshakabika. It would have been a great count for connoisseurs of impala but otherwise wasn’t exciting, though it’s always a pleasure to be out in the bush overnight……
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Tshakabika moonrise.
Our October group of volunteers set a benchmark that I doubt any future volunteers will reach. In our volunteer programme we always have time at Sinamatella, uploading the data that has been collected in the field. This time, two of the team, Jeff and Lea, preferred to spend some of that time working on our Land Rovers – and I don’t mean just polishing the windscreen or checking the oil and water, no, they fitted new springs to the ‘White Rhino’ and a handbrake cable to the Tdi and were disappointed that the engine for the Cruiser wasn’t available to be re-fitted.
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Later, Lea also surprised us when we were painting some road signs. She couldn’t be bothered with a brush for the fiddly bits but preferred finger painting – with gloss enamel paint – then scrubbed it off her finger with a rock!
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Finally, as last month, the closing ‘miscellaneous’ item is fire. We had just one, very small, to deal with in October. Since I was not involved in fire-fighting in September, I took this one. It was on a steep and rugged hillside, littered with fallen trees and the night was very dark. Luckily there was hardly any grass and the fire was mostly in leaves and twigs between rocks because, inevitably, I fell down at one point and equally inevitably, like the toast that always falls butter side down, I fell into the fire rather than away from it. No harm done apart from a slightly burnt hand, a bruised leg and a very bruised ego. The rangers who were with me kindly pretended not to notice and they (with minimal help from me) had the fire out within a couple of hours.
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RHINO MONITORING & PROTECTION UNIT
Sponsored by Mark Bristow
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Report by Nichola Long
The unit had another busy and successful month, despite the very hot conditions. The unit carried out a total of 17 foot patrols covering 179km, 13 vehicle patrols covering 453km. A total number of 4 rhino where seen, a mother and new female calf ( which we are very excited about, being a new born baby!) a young bull and our dominant bull " Forest" . Over the past few months we have managed to notice certain features on some of our clean animals which has made identification easier, for instance one of the young bulls has a tear at the bottom of his right ear. As the natural water has dried up the rhino have started to frequent certain water points and elephant paths so we took this chance to set some camera traps, we got pictures of several rhino but unfortunately most of the pictures aren’t useful for identification as the quality at night is greatly reduced. A lot of other animals are photographed as well such as Elephants, Lions, Leopard, Wild Dogs.
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We also joined the Painted Dog anti-poaching unit on several of their local patrols, during these patrols they managed to remove 56 wire snares and locate 2 poacher bases which weren’t active but it is useful to find these bases as they can be checked periodically for activity.
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Overall has been a quiet month for commercial poaching, which can be attributed mainly to two reasons - the drought which has dried up all non pumped water points, and taken away all tree cover, making it very difficult for the poachers to operate; and the success of the Parks Investigations Unit in locking up the principal felons!
However, the meat poaching has intensified, as animals get more concentrated around water, making snaring easier, plus the high degree of desperation of locals with no income and no food!
A Binga "Nyanga found with Pangolin skins and python skins got sentenced to four years in jail
One concern at the moment is that quite a few elephant are dying of the drought in rural areas, plus within the parks, and this might lead to an upsurge in illegal ivory traffic.
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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):
David Jackson and family from Family Tree Farms of California, for their generous donation
Matt Austen and Pariah State Restaurant for their support
Pieter and Anthea Erasmus for their continued support
Mark and Shelley Burden of Kwe Kwe got their assistance in drilling in the Chamabonda
Wilderness Wildlife Trust for their donation towards our water point program
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!!!
Michel Buenerd of Le Pic Vert, and Le Pal Nature Foundation, for funding what will be their NINTH borehole and pump in Sinamatella!
Wild is Life and Jos Dankwerts for their assistance in Kazuma Pan
Machaba Safaris for their assistance at Robins
Gareth Jocks and Cadac for their donation
Colin Gillies and DP Printers for their assistance
Glynn Burger for his help.
Machaba Safaris for their donation and field assistance
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.
Andre Cilliers and Charles Painter fo donated clothing
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.
Wildlife & Environmental Society of Zimbabwe (WEZ), Mat'land Branch. Thanks to Pete Kendall, Colin Gillies, and Stuart Johnson for their continuing support.
Nicholas Duncan and the SAVE The African Rhino Foundation of Australia – a staunch supporter.
RAM Petroleum
Ricky Forster and Forster Irrigation of Bulawayo
Makomo Mine – donation of diesel
JR Goddard - donation of diesel
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
Danie Schoeman for his donation
Richard Scripps for his donation
Kayt and John from the uS Embassy in Lusaka for their donation
Tiffany Casler for her donation
James Wessels for his 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 --Mrs Constance Gurure
Area Manager, - Robins and Sinamatella - Mr Innocent Mupedze
Area Manager - Sinamatella - Mr Marvellous Mbikiyana
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 : FBCPZWHA
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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