24/09/2011

We arrived back from Katavi at 9 pm last night after a very long day. We were up at 05:30 am to go into the park for 06:00am. For the reason that early morning is the best time to see the animals and see the animals we did!

I wont bore you with the list but I will talk you quickly through the highlight… We spotted a lone lioness in the middle of the dried up river, in the mud, but I’d over driven. I reversed the car back until we could see her again. From here it was obvious she was doing something but we couldn’t see what. On looking through the binoculars it was clear she was eating something, she had blood all over her face which was a shocking contrast to her otherwise golden fur. What was she eating though? Again after looking more closely we realized it was a young hippo! But wait as if this was not enough, this hippo was not dead….. Far from it. Every now and again it swung its head in agony bellowing its panic. All this while the lioness tucked in. The scene was horrendous. Fascinating but very disturbing and sad. We just wanted the hippo to die which it did not look in a hurry to do. 

Lioness eating a live hippo

It was hard to watch but difficult not to watch at the same time. I took some photos, one of which I’ve posted on here but I warn you that due to its graphic nature, it is not for the faint of heart..  In the end we left the hippo to its fate, my hopes were not high for its survival through the night. It should be mentioned that hippo hide is 4.5cm thick and tough as old boots, therefore it is very difficult to get through and the lioness was struggling. It was also not clear how bad the damage the lioness inflicted was. But there was a lot of blood…

Impala in the fore ground and Topi in the background

A Nile monitor lizard nestled in a tree (this individual is huge -about 1.5m long!)

A lilac chested roller

A full grown male lion

Elephants

Needless to say I was pretty tired when we got back as I’d driven for 15 hours! (safely I might add).

23/09/2011

So we returned to the office for 08:00. David talked with us and with the people who sold us the permits who said we could go for a night drive. Turns out their English was not as good as his so there was definitely a huge miscommunication. Cut a long story short – They wanted 50 USD fine for each person. After an hour and a half myself and Sam managed to argue them down to 50 USD for all four of us. So rather than a 50 USD fine, I only had to pay 12 USD! I am definitely putting that down as a win!ha Finally we were allowed back in the park. Saw lots of cool animals which made up for it. Here are a few pics.

Water buck

Elephant penis

3 years of zoology - i think this is giraffe

Two young brothers

Their sense of humour wasnt great

zebra

Banded mongoose

Cool shit

A blue headed tree Agama

 A lesser Galago bush baby

A 12 foot Rock Python (pic taken by Busoti - I sadly missed this)

Our kitchen spider

21/09/2011

We left camp at 07:00 am to make the journey to Mpanda. Got there about 11:00am. From there we sorted stuff out, had lunch etc. Alex and Fiona along with the guys all wanted to stay in Mpanda for the night. Myself, Simon, Sam and Betsy (Alex and Fiona’s helping hand) departed for the park alone at 430pm with the hope of a dusk and night drive and to stay the night in one of the “lodges” on the outskirts of the park. The lodge we chose was called Hippo Gardens. It turns out it is called that for a good reason as it is situated right next to a river with a local population of about a hundred or so hippos! Later that night we found that these hippos range freely around the lodge to get their graze on. A reassuring thought with the knowledge that they are Africas most dangerous mammal.

Sun set over Katavi plains

Anyway, when we got to the park we went straight to get our permits. Here we asked if it was ok to go into the park now, even though the sun is setting and if we could do a night drive. The guy we asked said this was fine. So into the park we went and enjoyed it spectacularly. The sun set about half an hour after we got into the park. On turning on the headlights the plains came alive with eye reflection. There were Hyenas, genets (a small carnivore that looks like a mix between a cat and a dog) and low and behold a group of 4 lions! Two young males and 2 females. We watched them for a good half an hour in the dark with our headlights focused on them when we noticed another cars headlights approaching…

The approaching car was infact a rangers vehicle and was a Toyota pick up truck. Inside were 8 rangers armed to the teeth with Automatic rifles. They pulled up their Truck violently infront of ours (blocking us) and proceeded to jump out of the truck and surround us. They ran to our open windows and started shouting at me aggressively. Luckily their English was good. They were evidently very upset with us. Gradually things calmed down a little (but not much) and the guy in charge told us we were not to be in the park after dark and that we needed to pay a fine. He was still very emotional and wasn’t having any of what we had to say. As the situation was not being resolved in any shape or form (also keeping in mind there was still a small pride of lions about 30 meters away) I told him that we would like for us to talk about it back at the Park Office and that we would follow them out. He reluctantly agreed but not without putting 2 of his men in our car first. The journey back to the office must have given every one a chance to calm down a bit because atmosphere was completely different. They called the chief warden (David) who came to talk to us. It was now past 10 at night. David was adamant that we were in the wrong but we should come back the next morning to sort the problem out…

A small group of Lions enjoying a smaller watering hole

20/09/2011

Tomorrow we are all going to Katavi national park which is about a 4 hour drive South of where we are here. The town nearest Katavi is called Mpanda and we are set to meet Alex and Fiona there before heading into the park together. It will be for 3 days in total (2 nights) and there will be 9 of us in the car! As none of the guys are on holiday and because we had to bring in a few extra guys, there was a good opportunity for a family photo!

Me and the extended family

18/09/2011

I was enjoying my dinner the other night (a luscious plate of rice and beans) when I heard Simon yelling something from his tent. After listening closer I realised he was shouting “SNAKE!!”. Sweeeet. I ran over to investigate and recognised it as a Tiger snake, very beautiful, small snakes but completely harmless. With this in mind I caught the little guy (in the name of science…) to further investigate and err get some good photos (again for scientific purposes offcourse).. He didn’t bite me for which I was thankful and I relocated him a little further away from camp to go about his business.

A contest of life and death! - me wrestling with a harmless Tiger snake (note the concentration)

15/09/2011

Big brother sees all - a chimp caught on trip cam (max plank EVA/UPP)

So I came up to the office this morning to find that my computer wasn’t charging. I guessed it was not plugged into the socket, but it was. I thought the extension cable wasn’t turned on, but it was. I thought the power had turned itself off, but it hadn’t. hmm, why wasn’t my charger working? On closer inspection in turns out my cable had been chewed through by our resident gerbils (showed in earlier photo). Extremely uncool. That’s ok though I’ll just pop over to the local Mac shop and get a new one. Oh that’s right, the closest one of those is 400 miles away… Luckily for me, Sam has a mac too so we are sharing her charger but she leaves at the end of October. Conundrum.

Our kitchen/eatery being tenderly cared to by Msigwa

Myself having proudly found the first of many Baboon fecals! (the smile did not last through the washing phase)

A few photos

south side of camp. 3 x 1,000 litre water tanks on the left and our cooks hut on the right!

A leopard caught on one of our camera traps! (Max plank EVA/UPP)

The pantry

 

left to right - Msigwa, Sheddrack, Me, Busoti

13/09/2011

So as you may or may not know, I am flatulent at the best of times. Nowadays, again as you may or may not know, my diet consists of roughly 1kg of beans a day. We all know the effects beans have on ones bowel movements. This multiplication effect has had devastating consequences, especially for the people around me. Seriously when I’m in the field, I’m worried ill scare the animals away before I see them! It’s a good thing there’s only one woman at camp and let me tell you, she aint a happy bunny.

On a different note, we have come in to our local village for supplies. The village is called Uvinza and its economic infrastructure owes itself to the existence of a salt mine there. This is the village where our research assistants hail from and it is about a 2 hour drive from here to our camp.

Today we are also supporting a woman who works for JGI (the Jane Goodall Institute). She has been introducing more sustainable cooking stoves around the country especially in places where people live alongside sensitive ecosystems. As a result less fire wood is needed and thus less forest is cut down. The Ugalla Primate Project (the project I’m employed by) has partly funded her coming to Uvinza and so I’ll be there to represent us. Hopefully ill get some pictures up at the end of the month.

Now if you don’t mind im going to enjoy my first cold, fizzy drink in 2 weeks!

Me, Grace (crouching) and the local Uvinzans who have enrolled in the programme

 

Poaching

Simon and Busoti came back today with the head and leg of a week old dead Roan antelope. The poor guy got caught in a trap. Trapping, it is becoming apparent to me, is a bit of a problem here. Each month we set aside 2/3 days to search far afield in areas less frequented by us to search for traps. It is not uncommon for these days to be concluded by the harvesting of 50 traps. Two weeks ago 70 traps were collected. They are constructed by a long wooden pole being inserted into the ground, bent and attached to the end is a noose with a trigger. When the animal steps in the noose, the trap is triggered causing the pole to straighten and the noose to tighten. I feel I am in no position to judge on the situation as I am not aware of the reasons why these people are hunting. Maybe they have hungry children?? There is a refugee camp less than 50 km away which is where the people that set the traps come from, we think. Regardless, any trap we come across, the pole is cut in half and the string/noose collected.

An example of what the traps do to the animal - this is an insha

This is the head of a young Roan antelope that was caught in a trap

10/08/11

So as of two weeks ago my incompetence with Swahili became more than I could bare. I have since found my self hitting the books for an hour every night. It has already made a huge difference. I feel I now understand the basics of the language (e.g. tenses, essential verbs etc) which is making subsequent learning all the easier and fluid. Believe it or not I quite enjoy learning the language. Never thought I’d say that!

On a very different note I saw two more red colobus the day before yesterday (likely to be the same pair as the first time). This time the experience was much better and lasted longer. We spotted them in open canopy from the dry river bed. I then followed them and managed to stand myself under the tree they were in. This however was not much to their liking and they proceeded to jump from tree to tree above my head. It was a fantastic display of agility and sent twigs and figs raining happily down on my head! After they had calmed down again I managed to find one of them before he’d seen me. As I was taking pictures he noticed something was not all as it should be and crouching, he looked in my direction, moving his head from left to right. I tell you, I thought I was fairly well hidden, these animals certainly have a sixth sense we could never understand. He finally decided that what he saw (or smelt..) was not of his liking and bounded gracefully away. In the mean time I got some half decent photos, this time of the full face profile.

male Red colobus trying to decide just how good looking I am

As I write this the sun is setting on the far side of the valley to the West, a sight plainly viewed from our perfectly located “office”!

05/08/11

Yesterday a common dieker of whom must have been a very confused individual decided to come and investigate me and Busoti. Originally we made a noise that sent him running, but then he returned as if to check to see if his suspicion was justified! We stayed very still and he ended up coming within 15 meters of us! This is unheard of. Needless to say it enabled a few good pics of an animal that usually offers no more than an arse disappearing into the thicket.

A very confused Insha

 Today was equally entertaining for me as I have at long last found myself a Boomslang! All be it was only a juvenile. These snakes are poisonous, their venom is capable of killing you in 2-5 days! Now that is badass. That being said they are very un aggressive and will always attempt to evade you (there have been only a small handful of bite incidents) plus their fangs are backward facing making it harder for them to bite a human arm or leg. Isn’t he beautiful though! Another much larger male boomslang was seen on the tree outside the office but a week ago. Sadly I was out in the field so I missed the occasion. Needless to say I was very disappointed and I spent a large portion of that evening studying the same tree and the surrounding trees in the hope of seeing it! (to no avail)

A boomslang!

I think I managed to fix my dongle in Kigoma (it only needed credit) so I hope to go to the tower to post this on the 7^th.

03/09/11

Some random children

Kigoma was a real experience. We were there for 2 nights in total. My main jobs were to do the food shopping for the next two weeks and to withdraw from the company account in the amount of over 6 million shillings! That’s right I am a multi millionaire.

The food shopping was all done in the local market which was actually really nice. The smells and colours were fantastic. I hope to take my camera next time. Food shopping out here however is not your average trip to Tesco. When you are still getting to grips with the language and you are white it is like being thrown into a wolves den wearing a sloppy suite of meat. This is the logistical side of the job. For example we needed 50kg of rice, 25kg of flour, 30 eggs, 10 litres of cooking oil, amples of fruit and veg, coffee, tea and much much more. This sounds simple no? in reality I found it to be far from it. The price for each item or amount/kilo needs to be haggled, the amount specified, then watched into its respective packaging to make sure the right amount was weighed. Then you need arrange someone to help carry it for you (which everyone wants to do), all in a different language?! Haha Often you are dealing with more than 3 people at once and the money your handing out needs to be kept track of/all your items!

And as if Daisy (The camps Toyota Landcruiser) was not laden full enough, we also needed 200 Litres of water (because our camp river has dried up completely). Then was the 4 hour journey back to camp on some seriously bumpy “roads”. This journey was yesterday and I’d like to say in advance that not every bump on the road can be avoided. Sadly yesterday was no exception and one of these criminal bumps caused one of the plastic water tanks (100L) to crack (right at the bottom!). None of us noticed until we were practically at camp and our feet were resting in 2 inches of sloshing water! BALLS. When we get back to camp – sure enough the tank is completely empty. On the upside, the fruit and veg got a good sprucing!

Some awesomely cool dude driving through Africa with a mario T-shirt

Me not posing infront of a sunset over lake Tanganika

Believe it or not i was dead chuffed with myself. (me and Agama)

Oh and today I finally managed to catch one of the Agamas (lizards)! (What do you want from me? Theres no television!).