Thursday was our vehicle game count, and while the days are now quite hot, it was still freezing cold when we set out on the backs of the trucks pre-dawn. At briefing Thursday night, Ligeus and I learned of our nicknames: Ligeus= “eagle eye” because of his uncanny ability to spot scats from 300 metres away, and me (Alisa)= “egg eye” because, well, I keep spotting random ostrich eggs in the field. We now have six of them on the shelves at the bush camp waiting to be turned over to Christian.
Friday I honestly don’t remember, because of yesterday’s events. Saturday is usually our “day off”. Yet it was anything but, because the box trap team called in with a “tiny” leopard in the Bergposten “1” box trap (this is the first box trap that was set up at Bergposten this year, on the north side of the water hole). Imagine Nerys, Jeff and Volker’s surprise when they walked up to the trap expecting one of the usual by-catch species and they got growled at! Smart team, because they verified with binoculars that it was a leopard and then left the animal alone. They then called us. Being Saturday, Walter, the veterinarian had to finish a couple of appointments in Windhoek before driving out to Okambara.
We all arrived at Bergposten as the sun set, and the team helped the scientists set up the field hospital. Work was done in the dim glow of the truck lights, with every volunteer huddled around the scientists holding their torch/flashlight/headlamp on the animal and equipment so they could see to do their jobs. I only wish I could have had an aerial photo of that! Thanks Team 4 for being so helpful and flexible and being willing to stay out in the field until the immobilisation/collaring was complete, and for patiently waiting to eat your dinner at 22:00!
By the way, our “tiny” leopard was male, and he weighed in at 63 kg. Teams 1, 2 and 3, you may remember the leopard we kept seeing on the camera traps at Bergposten with the strange “poof” on the end of his tail…we caught him! It will be very interesting to see what this fellow is doing roaming around in the middle of another male leopard’s territory (that would be L052 from last year). Thanks to all of the teams so far now we are one step closer to finding out.
L075, welcome to the project!
From our working holiday volunteering with leopards, elephants and cheetahs in Namibia, Africa
Biosphere Expeditions: blogs from the frontline of wildlife conservation and the fight for a more sustainable planet 