Imfolozi dag 4: Mortality signal for CM12

Donderdag 22-11-2018

Imfolozi dag 4:        Mortality signal for CM12

Dieren vandaag gezien / Animals spotted:

·         Impala

·         Kudu

·         Giraffe

·         Warthog

·         Vervet monkey

·         Buffalo

·         Lion

·         Elephants

·         White rhino

·         Blue wildebeest.

·         Zebra

It was a cold morning. We left at 4 am again and started to scan for CF17. She wasn’t far from the road but we couldn’t wait for her. The next target were the Bhejie pack. We did triangulate them but didn’t get to see them. We waited for them to see if they were moving. This afternoon we are planning to dart Oman to contracept him. This is why they need to know where he is. To be able to do this we need a bait. We were get this from one of the rangers who brought us a buffalo leg. To get it we had to wait at Mphila. After we got it we drove back to camp

The weather turned out to be really nice. Not to warm, not to cold.

We left at 3.30 pm for our afternoon session. Our most important target was CM12. He hasn’t been seen for 1,5 weeks. While Dough was scanning he looked for CM12 and CM19. We drove such a long way and didn’t get signal. Just before we got to Mphila we had a signal. It wasn’t good, it was the mortality signal. Ryan got upset by this, what is understandable. We drove up to Mphila hill to see if we got another signal. This wasn’t the case. Douga had to scan for many different collars but he did well. During this Ryan was informing all the right people to let them know what is happening.

On our way back we did a triangulation. Tomorrow we will be back to see if it wasn’t just a faulty collar. Just before we arrived back at camp we bumped into some elephants, white rhino, wildebeest and the lions of the Sontuli pride. The elephant were walking across the road into the bush. This is where the lions were. We could hear the elephant discovering that there were lions around. They made a hell of a noise trying to scare the lions of. The lions left the bush and while they were all spread out they roared to each other. It was wonderful to watch and listen how the animals interacted. The lions called for each other and how the elephants respond to this. It was really impressive to hear this noises. Just incredible. Than back to camp were some of us (incl.me) prepared dinner. It was a good night but Ryan has been very down.