Rhino Tracking

I may not have mentioned this in earlier posts, but CCF owns eight farms (covering about 50,000 hectares) here, with lots of wildlife including leopard, cheetah, and plenty of antelope of various species. We've also been reintroducing black rhinos, a species which was hunted out over the last 50 years.

We received our first two rhinos in November, and they've been hanging out deep in the bush near the Waterberg Plateau. I know this because we track them using radio signals. This past week we received two more males and two females, bringing us to six. They're still settling in, so I've been out every day tracking their movements. It's a nice gig, the country is beautiful and occasionally I see some cool stuff.

Our youngest male has recently escaped from our fenced in reserve (which protects them from poachers) so I've been out tracking/trying to push him back onto our property. Most of the time this has meant driving around in trucks, but I've also been close to him on foot. The area is very densely vegetated, so I haven't been too close (and I haven't been charged). I did find a black mamba skin, which was pretty awesome.

So far I haven't seen too much of the rhinos, with the exception of the releases when we let them out of their crates. I have seen our biggest male each of the last two days though, and I have some good pics that I'll pass along soon. It's been pretty exciting.

PS - The BBC and MSNBC will be filming here over the next two weeks, so yours truly might be shepherding film people around. Word on the street is Jeff Corwin will be here, too.

Seatbelts Save Lives

**NOTE: I don't want anyone to worry as they read, so I'm playing
spoiler. Everyone walked away from this accident. I'm still
amazed.**

I'm also sorry this has taken so long to post. Last week was very
busy, followed by a weekend in Swakopmund (the beach), and this week
we reintroduced some rhinos. One broke through several fences and I've
been out tracking him through the bush for a couple of days.
Anyway...

This past weekend (July 8-19) was our annual Gala fundraiser in
Windhoek, so yours truly and most of the CCF staff had been there to
mingle/work on raising money. We returned on Sunday afternoon. I had
ridden down in our Quantum (a minivan), but on the return trip I
hopped in one of our bakkies (a truck) to come back early. More
specifically, I was riding in a 2007 Toyota Hilux crew cab, which
looks like a Tundra. Our cheetah keepers, Matt and Kate, were up
front and Rob (our IT guy) and Leigh (Laurie Marker's assistant, among
other things) were in back with me.

About a half hour north of Windhoek we had finally gotten away from
most development and were driving the speed limit - 120km/h (~75 mph).
Leigh and I had drifted off so I didn't see much of what happened.
Suddenly Matt is yelling "Oh, SHIT!" and we're swerving right into the
opposite lane. We drive on the left side of the road here.

Apparently someone in a small truck had decided to pull off the
shoulder and into our lane about 50m ahead. I seriously doubt they
checked their mirrors. Kate swerved to avoid him, and honestly saved
our lives. We would have caught the truck broadside, and at the very
least Matt, Kate and Leigh (who was in the back but only had a lap
belt) would have been in serious trouble. The other driver would have
been killed on the spot.

As we started the swerve I glanced out the windshield and saw a ravine
and an 8 foot game fence straight ahead. Fortunately Kate turned us
back to the left. It was an overcorrection, but there was no way we
could have stayed on the road at this point. I'm glad we missed that
fence and ravine.

I doubt we slowed much when we dropped off the shoulder. I remember
the truck had spun almost 180 degrees by the time we did, and I was
staring out the windshield watching us tip. I don't remember any
noise until we landed on our side, then there was hammering all around
us. The change in kinetic energy (or at least my perception of it)
was the craziest thing. One second all I felt was sliding, then we
were spinning like mad. Dust was all over. I could see the daylight
out the windows spin around the truck three times before we stopped,
upside down.

A cattle fence had stopped us. We didn't know this at the time, but
about two and a quarter rolls in the roof of the truck hit a wire
fence. The tension of the wires acted a bit like a net. The best
analogy I've been able to come up with is the scene from 'Dumbo' where
the little elephant lands on the telephone wires and bends them almost
to the ground. Imagine that, only horizontal. We bent the metal
poles supporting the fence, but missed them both (luck?). The wires
actually bent the frame along the windshield down to the steering
wheel.

So there we were, inverted in a rolled truck. We checked we each
other...somehow all of us were OK. I wanted out to assess the
situation and had the absolutely brilliant idea of using both hands to
undo my belt. I dropped straight off the seat and landed on my head,
sustaining a bump/cut that was probably my worst injury of the
accident. I crawled out the window and helped get Leigh out. Rob and
Matt made it out on their own. Kate was shaken up but we got her out
as well.

The scene looked worse than it was. The fibreglass camper shell broke
apart and all of our gala stuff flew out. Leigh's purse was ejected
from the car, but when we found it the laptop still worked. Even the
picture frames (which were packed quite well) survived. All we lost
was one camera and a laptop.

I have so much more to say about this, but very little time. Perhaps
later. The important thing is that we all survived, even if it has
been a bit hard to drive. Hope you're all doing well. I'll update
soon, but now I need to grab some radio tracking gear and head back
out to herd a 3 year old black rhino back onto our property!

Cheetah Cubs!

The big news around CCF this weekend is the arrival of four orphan
cheetah cubs. A couple of our staff trapped them two nights ago about
100km south of our farms. Their mother was caught in a fence and
died. Fortunately for the cubs she was wearing a CCF satellite collar
and the farmer whose property she had been living on noticed she was
with cubs not long before her death.

The cubs (3 males, 1 female) are about 3 months old and weigh about
10-12lbs. They arrived this morning and I've spent most of the day
helping with their work-ups, which include vaccinations, blood work
and an IV drip to combat dehydration. They were out on their own for
5 days, but they still had plenty of fight left. An angry baby
cheetah is actually way more intimidating than any of our adult cats.
I've got some decent photos but I was also taking video for the CCF
website so I may need to post the link if any of my clips end up
online. I may also be writing the blog entries for this, I'll post
that as well. One of the males had a huge open laceration on his
chest, so we needed to clean and stitch him up as well. Lots of
not-so-cute pics of that, too.

In other news, I found out that the cubs' nursery is right next to my
desk, so expect plenty of baby pics when I get back! I know you're
excited...

NOTE: I've noticed my latest entries have had some weird
formatting...I'm assuming that's due to gmail. I'm not sure if I can
send it in a different format since I'm working with the most basic
version of email at the moment, but I'll try.

Tier the Jack Russell

I wanted to share a short story about a dog I met while working the
International Course on Integrated Livestock and Predator Management
in June. A husband and wife who lead safaris in the Okavango region
were course participants and they brought their terrier along. He is
four years old and has to be the toughest dog I've ever met. As a
puppy his right eye was ripped out by a bull mastiff. Not long after
he was run over by a truck, breaking his back legs. Once he could run
again he was stepped on by a zebra, and beat up in a fight with a
honey badger.

This should be the end for most dogs, but the story gets better. He
was riding in a Land Rover, saw a springbok next to the road and gave
chase. He fell out of the car and was run over...again. Finally (if
I'm remembering everything) he was mauled by a leopard a few months
ago. The cat grabbed him by the back of the neck, dislocating one of
his vertebrae but not severing the spinal cord before his owners saved
him. He now has a limp on his right side and apparently no feeling in
his right front paw (when you squeeze it nothing happens).

As his owner Chris says, "They build them smarter, but they don't
build them tougher." I have to agree. Chris, by the way, lost his
left arm and the biceps of his right arm to a crocodile in Kruger
National Park in 1994. It's funny how much dogs and their owners
resemble each other, I guess.

Anyway, Tier is also the father of five and he sings when you say the
name of the mother of his pups. It's a little too cute if you ask me.
So that's the story of the toughest dog I've ever met, if he lives to
be eight I'll be interested in seeing how many more scars he's got.

Fourth of July

Happy birthday, America!!

Namibia is like Nevada...with giraffes

Or maybe Arizona. When I first flew into Windhoek, the capital, the
only thing I could think about was how big and empty this country is.
From altitude it looks like the American Southwest -- huge, flat, dry,
with the occasional ridge or plateau rising up from the plains. On
the ground the only difference is that the tress are larger and
termite mounds are everywhere. Instead of junipers there are acacia
trees, but the shrubs look just like the sagebrush, rabbitbush and
bitter bush back in the Great Basin.

For those of you who don't know much about where in the world I am
right now, and I don't blame you if you don't, Namibia is located in
the southwest corner of Africa, along the Atlantic coast just north of
South Africa. It is a new country, just over 19 years old.
Originally the area was home to a number of groups, including the
Herrero, the Damara and the San bushmen. The last two groups include
clicks in their language (think of the film, "The Gods Must Be
Crazy"). In the late 1800s the Germans claimed ownership of the land,
a title they lost after the Great War when the British annexed it.
South Africa kept it as a colony after their independence and Namibia
was finally freed in 1990. Of course there are plenty of embarrassing
stories of colonial oppression as there are in the rest of Africa. If
you're interested in learning more I recommend the Namibia Wikipedia
page.

Present day Namibia is still very rural. The country is the size of
Texas and Louisiana and has 2.2 million people, most of whom live very
close to the Angola border in the north. I'm in central Namibia, and
there's hardly anyone around. Windhoek is the largest city by far
(and the capital) and its population does not surpass 300,000. The
coast is mostly sand dunes with some penguin and fur seal colonies and
holds the ominous title of the Skeleton Coast, due to the large number
of shipwrecks. The interior is mostly desert, with the exception of
the northeast, which is part of the Okavango watershed. Most of the
country is divided into farms for cattle and small stock, a subject I
hope to get into later.

I'm working on a series of eight large farms, totaling over 50,000
hectares in size. The CCF Centre where I live is located on the farm
Elandsvreugde, which is an Afrikaans word meaning "eland's joy".
Eland are the world's largest antelope. This farm has a 1500ha open
pasture that has been creatively named The Big Field. I drive safaris
out there to count game including eland, oryx, greater kudu, red
hartebeest, warthog and cheetah. Not a bad gig. I should also
mention that there are several leopards living within 100 yards of my
room, and a black mamba killed one of our goats today. Welcome to
Africa.

Our other farms are just about as interesting. Due to some scheduled
changes, I've lived on three farms so far, the other two being Boskop,
where we keep the donkeys and horses that feed our 46 captive
cheetahs, and Cheetah View, which also has leopards but few cheetahs.
The latter farm also only had power for a few hours each day and I had
to build a fire every morning for hot water. The showers were
outdoors and it is winter. I'm pretty glad I moved.

I won't mention much about the other farms except that two of them
recently received some black rhinos which I will be tracking using
radio transmitters, and another is our fenced in farm where our
giraffe and zebra live. I believe it's also where we do trophy hunts.
I've been on each of our properties setting up a camera trap study to
estimate cheetah population sizes...more on this in an upcoming post.

Anyway, that's a much delayed intro into where I am. Up next -- the
international course on integrated livestock/predator management that
I helped run at the beginning of June.