uMkhuze dag 6: MCM22’s escape and capture

Zaterdag 27-10-2018

uMkhuze dag 6:      MCM22’s escape and capture

Dieren vandaag gezien / Animals spotted:

·         Cheetah

·         Slender mongoose

·         Zebra

·         Baboons

·         Yellow-billed kite

·         Impala

·         Nyala

·         Leopard tortoise

·         Eastern striped skink

·         Lesser striped swallow

·         Malachite kingfisher (no photo)

·         Red-faced mousebird

·         Black-winged stilt

·         Hamerkop

·         Marsh terrapin

·         Red-billed oxpecker

·         ….. Sunbird

·         Lesser masked-weaver

·         Broad-billed roller

We left at 4 am this morning. On our way we picked up Eduard. Apparently MCM22 was out of the park again. During my scanning session it became clear that he wasn’t. We drove around the north part of the park. We picked up his signal the whole time but we couldn’t find him. Eduard hat to be home at 6.30 am so we were dropped off at a hide. This was close to where we heard MLM8 roar. It was a well looked after spot. We saw some impala, a slender mongoose, a hamerkop, march terrapins and some other birds. A lovely way to kill time.

When Teegan came back we started to scan again. After a while my signal was so strong for MCM22 what meant he was getting closer. And it was right not long after we got to the see him. He walked on the hill side going up to the gate. When we lost sight of him his signal seemed to be resting so we got back to the house. Around 12 there was a check up if he was still in the park. I joined Teegan and Megan and he was still there.

At 2 pm we were planning to leave again but it was just before that when the girls got a phone call to tell them MCM22 had gotten out of the gate again. We had to rush and everybody came along. When we arrived at the fence the cheetah had already killed a goat and was enjoying his meal. We were not allowed out of the car. The girls went with Eduard and we tiered to see what happened. Sadly the first dart missed him by an inch. He was spooked and ran off. After a while we saw him run back into the park. Teegan came to move the car into the reserve and then they had to find him by walking through the bushes. It was warm and after a while everybody got bored.

When Teegan came running up to the car and told us that is had worked we were happy. We were allowed to come and watch how he was prepared for transport. Emilie had the hours of helping them. Rubbing on spray to get rid of the ticks and helping him to lay on his other side.

When he was checked they moved him onto a stretcher and carried him to the car. Emilie and Megan drove with him in the back to the boma. We followed them. Here we were all allowed to help with carrying him into the boma. Get him of the stretcher and take a photo. We all left the boma because he was waking up a little. We all washed our hands because of weird disease you can get from just touching an animal. Than we sat in the lookout point to see if he was waking up the right way and not hurt himself. We’ve sat there for 1,5 hours but he wasn’t planning to get up. In the mean time the sun went down and we couldn’t see anything. We decided not to put on the electricity and leave.

We got back to the camp around 8.30 pm and had a very quick dinner. What a long day this has been.