Copy
NOVEMBER 2021
NEWSLETTER
November was another month of very high temperatures, with some scattered storms ( which only served to increase the humidity). However, it all looks to be on track for a fairly normal rainy season - we wait and see!! The few storms have already turned the bush green overnight, which gives some relief to the wildlife which has undoubtedly suffered under the heat stress.

With the onset of the rains, and the end of year in sight, will be scaling down our operations from mid -December to mid-January so staff can take their well earned leave!! We will obviously maintain skeleton crews at vital stations 
There will be no newsletter next month
We have had a long and hard year, but I do think a very successful year! Our dedicated team that have worked tirelessly under difficult circumstances are ready for a well deserved Break.
PLEASE HELP SUPPORT US -  ALL DONATIONS ARE WELCOME AND WILL BE MUCH APPRECIATED BY THE TEAM!
You can donate using the PayNow button on the bottom of this newsletter
With the high temperatures and large numbers of animals drinking, our game water points have been under  a lot of pressure, but to date they have coped, and none have run dry - we are pumping over 1 million litres of water a day, from 48 pumps (of which 44 are solar - if we were still on diesel engines we would need over 25,000 l of diesel a month for the same results!!) At the height of the dry season we estimate we are pumping water for up to 20,000 elephants, several thousand buffalo plus thousands of other animals!
Our waterpoints in Sinamatella (18), Deka Safari Area (5) and Robins (11)
Our waterpoints (7)  along the Chamabonda Vlei
Kazuma - our waterpoints  (7)-  they are all towards or on the Depression as the Katsechete area has a permanent flowing stream

ZAMBEZI NATIONAL PARK

The hot, dry weather has seen our pans under a lot of pressure with large numbers of  elephant and buffalo drinking. However all the pumps coped well and thankfully without too many problems ( the odd pipe broken by ele's!!) 
Of interest we have been monitoring a hyena den in the vlei, which was originally shared by two hyena mothers with four youngsters. The one mother then moved off with two pups, and the remaining female then had two more pups - probably over four months difference in age. All the pups share the den quite happily, but interestingly, the female and the attendant male do not stay in the den during the day, but disappear off into the adjoining tree line, only re-appearing in the evening to interact with the pups when they pop out the den.
KAZUMA PAN NATIONAL PARK
With the advent of the rains we are winding down our operations here, as it is difficult to get around Kazuma once the black clay areas get soaked.
The good news is that Andrew Brown (of Ilala Lodge, Palm Lodge) has offered to donate a pre-fabricated game viewing hide for Kazuma, to go near Corner Pan - this will be a game changer for the local and self drive tourist market. It will go up after the rains when we get access again.
Roan Pan - filling up with the new borehole!!
ROBINS
Area Manager Numsa Moyo has taken the initiative at Deteema Picnic Site to split the current area into two sides - one side for campers and the other for day trippers. The issue of Deteema campers has been contentious for a while, where paid up campers would understandably claim sole access to the site, and frustrated day trippers would be excluded. Under the new plan, the area is being expanded and a dividing matepi fence put in to separate the two parties, though both will have access to the toilets.
AM Moyo has already put in thatch shelters on both sides, and is renovating the toilets and water system. The Trust has pledged to help and has provided toilet fittings and cement to upgrade the facility. Our man Onias is helping already, delivering thatch grass!
 
The new shelters going up at Deteema picnic/camp site
 Robins has greened up very quickly after the fires, and is looking good. Onias has been checking all the pumps and putting the last of the seasonal maintenance requirements in place, before the rains come! 
SINAMATELLA
Report by Stephen Long
Rainfall and game water
     The last eight days of November were very hot and humid, with no sign of rain, but prior to that we had a few days that were wetter and cooler and, at 62.5mm, rainfall in November was a little over average. The graphs for this early stage of the season are promising.
  I think we will be happy if the rest of the season follows the same trend.
  In last month’s newsletter I wrote that we had had no elephant damage this year - but I was immediately worried that I was tempting fate by saying it. Right at the start of November it looked as though fate had indeed been reading the newsletter because we received a report from Shumba that elephants had smashed some of the solar panels on one of the two pumps. New panels were quickly made available from Victoria Falls and when the game water team went out and installed them, they found that elephants weren’t guilty at all, a freak gust of wind had done the damage. Once the new panels were fitted the pump re-started and only a few days’ water was lost so the elephants still have a clean record – for this season at least.
   Other game water work in November was installing a new motor at Tshompani solar and a new well-head at Tshompani wind pump. Those were successful repairs but we also had a problem we couldn’t solve, where Masuma 2 borehole seems to be collapsing. The pump and motor were buried in the mud and were hard to extract but the team managed to get them out. Unfortunately the motor is ruined so for now the borehole is out of use. That shouldn’t matter – there are very few elephants drinking at the dam, the water level is still very high for the time of year,  the battery system on borehole 1 is pumping around 90,000 litres every day and more rain is coming soon (we hope).
    Wildlife
   On the 27th November, Sue and I took part in Birdlife Zimbabwe’s Big Birding Day. On that day birders are encouraged to list as many species as they can find in an area of either 5km radius or 50km radius. We have always done the larger area in the past, taking in a nice range of habitats including acacia at Mbala, grasslands at Shumba and water at Mandavu Dam but this year we decided to reduce our fuel use and cover just Mandavu, Sinamatella River and Sinamatella Camp, all of which fit into a 5km radius. We started early and got a couple of night birds then took a pre-breakfast walk around the Camp, coming home after an hour and a half with a good list of almost forty species.
Natal spurfowl
Our aim was a hundred species for the day but after that good start things slowed down until we got to Mandavu where the waterbirds soon got the list ticking over again. By the end of the day our total was a hundred and nine species with some quite ‘easy’ ones frustratingly missing but one or two less obvious ones included. Once the rains have started, Hwange might not be very exciting for game viewing but if you have any interest in birds, there’s still a lot going on.
Pearl-spotted owlet
    Every year, once the rains arrive, a lot of the mammal species vanish from view, spreading out into the Park and beyond, the trees come into leaf and flowers magically appear from the most barren-looking ground. In October this year we could regularly see elephants, zebra, buffalo, impala, warthogs, giraffe and others down on the plain below Sinamatella hill but after the rain in November most of those, as usual,  had gone and only impala and warthogs remained. Strangely though, elephants have stayed in reasonable numbers in the Deka Safari Area.  The trees have behaved normally and even the most bleak patches of Mopane scrub are now beautifully green. Flowers and grass, however have mostly been missing though on a trip to Main Camp we noticed a lot of Scadoxus multiflorus in flower and Sue photographed this group growing on a termite mound in the Camp itself.
Miscellaneous
   Sinamatella Primary School has been doing some upgrading and Bhejane Trust donated paint, cement and welding skills so that the old playground equipment could be moved and made safe and the floor of the ECD classroom could be repaired………
   One of the commonest entries in my diary for November says either ‘no electricity’ or ‘no water’ or (worst of all) ‘no electricity or water’. There wasn’t much we could do to restore the electricity supply but when it was necessary we collected the Electricity Authority technicians and brought them in to prop up fallen poles or replace burnt cables. We were a little more capable when it came to water. With no electricity to run the pumps the Camp would normally be supplied with water pumped by a diesel engine. On the several occasions when that broke down we got it working again and when the reservoirs were too low for the pump we set up siphons so there was no day when we had absolutely no water -  though it took a lot of work to achieve that. The overhead electricity line into Sinamatella is in poor condition so I fear I’ll be writing ‘no electricity’ in my diary quite a few more times before the rains end in April next year.
Finally, Christmas is approaching fast.  Sue has drawn a special Christmas card and we’d like to wish all our friends and supporters a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Bhejane Trust team at Sinamatella……..
RHINO MONITORING & PROTECTION UNIT

Report By Nick Long
During the month of November the team did a total of 22 patrols, 11 of these being Anti-poaching patrols with a total of 165 Km patrolled and the other 11 being Rhino monitoring patrols with a total of 351 Km patrolled.
Whilst on anti-poaching patrols (outside the Park) not much illegal activity was detected although right at the end of the month 2 new snares lines were found. There were no snares in place but the brush barrier had recently been redone.  We suspect the poachers are preparing to put snares in place during the rainy season as the area currently has cattle movement and they are careful not to snare cattle - the owners get annoyed and killing cattle is considered to be stock-theft, which has a higher jail term than poaching.  Also as I write this I have just received a report that the team captured a domestic dog which is suspected to have been used to do illegal hunting with torches at night.  After some investigation they managed to find out who the dog belongs to but unfortunately they were told by the station to destroy the dog and continue as usual.
On the rhino monitoring side, the team had 2 sightings this month and they located 10 other signs of rhino in the field. Unfortunately the bush has greened up after the first rains. This has made photography impossible and efforts to get a better view just end up in disturbing of the animals. We also removed half of the camera traps which had been set in October and after a quick look through the pictures we can see that we had a bit of success but we also had a few cameras disturbed by elephants and ended up with pictures of the sky or the leaves of the tree it was tied to. One of the cameras was completely destroyed by a Hyena trying to see what the camera tasted like………
.
That’s one less camera for us to use - but it won’t stop us next year when we reopen operations.
    I’ve put camera trap photos in the newsletter a few times recently so I won’t use any this month – apart from this one I particularly liked, of a nearby lightning strike……
Since we are at the end of the year, here a few figures from this year’s patrol effort-
Total number of  patrols done, 240.
Total of 5347 km patrolled
Rhino monitoring; - 3618 km patrolled
  • 2252 person field hours
  • 537 person days
Anti-poaching; - 1739 km patrolled
  • 172 person field hours
  • 274 person days
  • 9 people arrested
  • 64 snares removed
POACHING
Amos Gwema has had a busy month - he has completed an interview with a UK film production company on his work here in combating wildlife crime, and on his community work to enhance wildlife awareness. He also addressed a virtual KAZA Safety and Security Group workshop on combating wildlife crime in the KAZA region - lets hope the delegates paid attention!
Parks Investigations have been holding meetings with Public Prosecutors, magistrates and wildlife crime officials in order to raise awareness of the seriousness of wildlife crimes and poaching, so as to ensure professional prosecutions - too often we have seen offenders walk off with a slap on the wrist!! Lets hope we get positive results
Investigations arrested two persons with one set of tusks near Mlibizi - one was a Zambian and the other a local. A Honda Fitz was also recovered at the scene, and although the driver escaped ( and is being hunted down) the car will be forfeited to the state. The Zambian national was apparently trying to establish an ivory network in the area
3 persons were arrested at the Hwange bus terminal in possession of 6 pieces of ivory. The case is still pending
GRATEFUL THANKS

We have had an amazing period of support from all our friends, new and old, out there, and we really appreciate all this support. Our heartfelt thanks to (in no particular order):
Adrian Clayton and NorthStar for their support
Frank Zindel of the Bright Light Foundation and a longtime supporter has made a very generous donation, which is very much appreciated.Thanks to Stuart Danks of Simply Africa for facilitation
Friends of Hwange and Dave Dell for sponsoring the borehole and new battery system at Masuma
Patrick Jacquemin for his donation to help our operational costs.
Mark Unwin and the Clarkson Family Trust, for yet another generous donation.
Lion Recovery Fund and Rhino Recovery Fund  - a big thanks to Peter Lindsay and Markus Hofmeyr 
Morne and Michelle Muller of Surgical and Opthalmic Supplies for their pledge of support for this year
Piet Weller, through Lionel and Annelise Finaughty for the offer to sponsor a wateroint in Kazuma in memory of Wessels Weller
Larry Norton for his offer of a percentage of sales of certain prints to go to the trust.
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!!! 
Simon and Portia Rowlands  - donation to refurbish attendants accommodation at Shumba
SATIB and the Southern Africa Conservation Trust for their support on insurances - thanks to Brian Courtney
Ian Gloss of Victoria Falls Liquorama for his continued assistance
Pieter and Anthea Erasmus for their continued support, and for the donated equipment.
Michel Buenerd of Le Pic Vert, and Le Pal Nature Foundation, for funding their eleventh borehole and pump in Sinamatella/Robins area!
Antoinette van Wijk of Holland for her sterling fund raising effort
Nicholas Duncan and the SAVE The African Rhino Foundation of Australia – a staunch supporter.
RAM Petroleum
Ricky Forster and Forster Irrigation of Bulawayo for donated pumps and continued assistance
John Karasellos of Hisspan Motors for his continuing assistance and support.
Hwange Conservation Society (UK) - John Gillon - for their generous support
Inke Kreling-Boysen for her generous donation
Mike Karasellos for grading and mowing roads in the Chamabonda
Mark and Shelley Burden for their donation of borehole casing.
Craig Gobey and Zambezi Sands Drilling for theit assistance
Brendan Malloch-Brown - for his support with our new container office, refurbished by Brendon.
Michelle Sindall for her donation ( which finally reached us a month late!!)
Sandy Elsworthy for his donation
Machaba Safaris for their hospitality and assistance
Patrick Williamson for helping on updating maps
Gus le Breton for his flying time with Flying for Wildlife survey
Bob Brown for his help in repairing dam walls at Baobab Pan and Inyantue Dam
Jeff Weingarten - donation 
Richard Scripps - donation

Thanks to our Board of Trustees for all the hard work they are putting in - Ian Gloss, Dave Carson, Dan Jones, Stephen Long, Jerry Gotora and Trevor Lane
 
A big thanks to Ministry and Parks Staff :
 Minister of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality, the Hon. Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndhlovu
The Director General - Mr Fulton Mangwanya
The Chief Conservator - Mt Arthur Musakwa
Area Manager - Zambezi --Mr Marvellous Mbikbiyana
Area Manager, - Robins and Kazuma - Mrs N Moyo
Area Manager - Sinamatella - Mr Mutandwa
 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 

DONATIONS

Bhejane Trust relies on donations to continue it’s operations, which includes our daily operating costs, as well as specific projects. 

PLEASE HELP!! 

Donate to help us save our wildlife heritage - any donations would be gratefully accepted . Donations can be through our “PayNow” button (below) or direct to our bank account:

Bank details :

Bhejane Trust,
FBC Bank,
Sawanga Mall
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)

CONTACT DETAILS

Trevor Lane : trevor@bhejanetrust.org         +263 777 057 024
Stephen Long : stephen@bhejanetrust.org 

OUR PARTNERS

OUR SPONSORS
 
Copyright © Bhejane Trust, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:
trevor@bhejanetrust.org

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list
 






This email was sent to <<Email Address>>
why did I get this?    unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences
Bhejane Trust · 231 Sopers Crescent · Victoria Falls · Zimbabwe

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp