BLOG #8 – 30TH AUGUST 2012

BLOG #8 – 30^TH AUGUST 2012

Elizabeth Winterton

EARLY MORNING WAKE-UP CALL

When I was preparing myself for coming out to Africa I started reading Anna's blog. One particular entry stuck in my mind and it was the account of the elephants roaming around camp early one morning, and ever since I’ve hoped to have this experience too.

If you've read any of my previous blogs you will know back in July I had the fortune of an elephant visiting me in camp during lunch-time. However, apart from the occasional rumble and snap near the tent in the middle of the night, I've never been fortunate enough to see them at camp early morning until last Saturday.

Planning on having an extra 15 minutes in bed before work I was awoken at 5.30 by a low rumble outside the tent. Ever curious I cautiously peeped my head outside to have a look, and 30m from me was a huge bull elephant happily munching on a monkey bread tree.

Typically that night I had put my camera battery on charge, so as there was no wind I crept to the dining room to grab my battery snapping a few photos and attempting to get some video footage on my way back to the safety of the tent.  Unfortunately the elephants didn't hang around for too long, but it was truly amazing to see them so relaxed & up close.

Elephant at camp early morning

CHANGING PLACES

Since the demise of Jojo there has definitely been some shifting of rank taking place within the Fibwe group with seemingly more aggression, some of which directed at us (I'm not sure whether to be flattered they think we're baboons, or slightly concerned!). Mr Cookies, the oldest and biggest male in the troop seems to have taken a fancy to fighting anyone, and is usually joined (either with or against) Otis and Short Tail. Whether this increased aggression has something to do with the rapidly increasing infant population I'm not sure.

Something else which has changed is the female-female relationships, with females seemingly becoming 'friends' because of their recent foray into motherhood. For example, Godiva who seemed pretty lonely before is now commanding the majority of female attention, and Janis who was the 2nd lowest ranking female only to be seen with L.P. is now friends with Ella and even tries to hang out with the likes of Clover who is much more highly ranked than her!

With Ella, Dolly and the high rankers of Patsy and Indigo still to give birth, I'm pretty sure there are more changes to come.

Dolly, Dylan, Aretha, Axel, Godiva and Guns

NOT A GOOD DAY TO BE A BLUE MONKEY

On the 27th August we were happily watching the baboon troop, when all of a sudden the troop started barking and going crazy. After originally thinking they had come into contact with the other troop of 100 which shares some of their home area, we were shocked to see Mr Cookies leading some of the males in hot pursuit of an adult male blue monkey seemingly trying to kill it!

After managing to grab it once, the blue monkey somehow managed to escape & flee without getting injured.

This is the first time I've seen the baboons chasing something so large, so it was pretty amazing!

Usually the kindas and blue monkeys appear to live in relative harmony, using the same sleeping sites, but after the previous day’s battle I was surprised to see the blue monkeys at the same mushitu as the baboons the following morning.

Blue Monkeys

BLOG # 7 – 21st August 2012

BLOG # 7 – 21^st August 2012

Elizabeth Winterton

MJ has a baby

On the 16^th August MJ gave birth to healthy white infant. We were fortunate to be there only a couple of hours after birth when the babies eyes hadn’t even opened fully yet. MJ spent the morning grooming her new infant surrounded by her other children, Madonna and Mowgli.  After ditching MJ for Clover when she had her infant, it will be interesting to see whether Mr Wizard will go back to MJ and help care for the infant which is suspected to be his. 

MJ with Mowgli, her new infant, and Madonna.

Conservation Club/ Summer School News

Throughout August, myself and staff at the conservation centre are giving lessons to Grade 8 and 9 students from Kafinda Basic School to help improve their understanding of certain topics. With big enthusiasm I travelled up to Mulaushi on Friday expecting to teach a class of 20 with the help of the girls from the Conservation Club. Unfortunately we were disappointed with only 1 student turning up. However we still went ahead with the lesson and the girls helped teach about plant cell structure, photosynthesis and transpiration. With a lesson packed full of experiments, Leah, the student from Kafinda, got to test a leaf for starch, watch stomata, and even use a microscope to view onion plant cells.

Charity, Agness and Victoria demonstrating the starch test

This lesson was followed up by the girl’s Conservation Club lesson. This week Jesse, the local Peace Corps volunteer, came to teach the girls about HIV and Aids. With around 20% of people in Zambia living with HIV the lesson was extremely valuable. I am hoping that in October we can travel to Kafinda and the girls can teach the Grade 8 and 9 students and raise awareness of how to prevent HIV.

Jesse teaching the girls about HIV & Aids

The Life of a Baboon Researcher: Part III

It’s not all baboons. A little bit of Africa…

My two favourite things about travelling to a new country are markets and food. Markets because you can buy local crafts & paintings (as well as food!), but most of all you can interact and chat with the charming locals as they try & sell you things at 3 times the actual price just because you're a Muzungu. If there's 1 rule I've learnt in Africa it’s this; everything is a multiple of 3. If you think something will take you 1hr, it will take you 3, if you're offered something to buy, divide the price by 3. There also appears to be no more than 3 degrees of separation. Everyone knows everyone, or at least the wife of the cousin of the brother etc. If someone says they have malaria, there’s a 30% chance they have malaria (although the clinic will disagree); it’s most likely a cold.

This rule of 3 (particularly the time rule) is pretty much a daily occurrence so one of the greatest things I’ve learnt over the last 8 months is patience. Something I haven’t yet learnt to cope with though is the bus station in Lusaka…

After doing the 3 month shop you struggle out of the taxi to be surrounded by men barraging you with “Where are you going?, Where are you going? How are you? Livingstone, you going to Livingstone? Kasama? Livingstone? Mama, why are you ignoring me, where are you going!!?” Even after firmly acknowledging you do not need help and know where you’re going the jostling doesn’t stop until you finally arrived in the bus queue. After the dodgy man comes round making you pay extra for your luggage (and then pocketing the money after taking half the passengers off the bus at Kapiri to avoid paying a fine for overloading), and the bus workers somehow managing to fit hundreds of bags neatly under the bus (surprisingly in some kind of logical order), you’re squished into your designated seat. You then promptly shut your eyes for the rollercoaster journey of speeding, harsh braking, overtaking on blind corners, horn honking and of course the obligatory preacher and gospel music. An experience not to be missed.

Something else not to be missed is the food. As I mentioned earlier, one of my favourite things is trying out new food, and coming to Africa I was pretty certain I would be treated to a fantastic variety. Unfortunately this is not the case in Zambia. Breakfast is either rice with sugar, or a porridge made from maize meal. Lunch and Dinner are comprised of nshima with relish (a gelatinous lump of maize meal accompanied by veg, very fishy fried fish, or a meat stew). It’s actually pretty tasty if you get a good relish, and extremely cheap. Other delights include fritters (similar to donughts with no jam), caterpillars, termites and cassava (I’m yet to try the latter 3). Fortunately, Desmond the camp attendant is a whiz in the kitchen and conjures up tasty meals of pasta, curry, lentils, pizza and tortillas. He’s also a great bread baker and I’m currently teaching him cakes and pastry. Luckily the copious walking helps stave off the weight gain!

Despite the transport issues and rule of 3, Zambia is a wonderful place to live. When camp gets a bit too peaceful you can escape to the hectic delights of Lusaka, and when all that gets too much (usually after 2 or 3 days!) you can come back, watch baboons all day, and sit under the stars.

The Arts and Crafts Market in Lusaka

BLOG # 6 – 9th August 2012

Trip to Shoebill

Evidently having erased the torturous memories of the bike race from my brain, I decided to get back on my bike again for another long-distance trip, this time to Shoebill Island in the Bangweulu wetlands.

Along with Jesse (the local Peace Corps volunteer) and our local ‘guide’ Mwape, we set off from Kasanka at 6.20am on the 2nd August. Being not quite sure how far away Shoebill was we decided to go with the general consensus of 80km, and optimistically decided we’d easily get to Shoebill by 3pm the same day.

The first 60+km were pretty comfortable cycling, starting with the 36km cycle to the Livingstone Memorial, followed by a boat trip across the … river, and the start of the plain crossing. Feeling we were doing pretty well with around 26km left by 1pm, our goal of reaching Shoebill by 3pm still seemed within reach.

Livingstone Memorial

River Crossing

Our next big landmark was a patch of forest the other side of the plain called Namushitu, which appeared to be around 20km from Shoebill. The terrain got a lot tougher with extremely sandy bike tracks; poor Mwape must have got sick of pulling my bike up off the floor whilst saying the obligatory ‘sorry sorry!’, and combined with the heat of the midday sun it felt like we were cycling backwards. However, the landscape truly made up for the lack of hard road, with beautiful uninterrupted views of the plain with its mini termite mounds, and rarely another person in sight. 

The Plain

After mostly walking down an even worse track which was virtually un-cycleable, home to millions of mosquitos (at this point we were convinced our guide hadn’t actually gone to shoebill before and had taken us down the wrong path) and Jesse starting to suffer from severe dehydration (his water had run out at 7.30am, and I was now on rations) we finally reached our destination at 5.15pm. 86km and 11 hours of cycling. 

Chikuni; harbour to Shoebill Island

After another 40 minute boat ride and a beautiful sunset we stepped onto Shoebill Island, our home for the next few days. 

Apart from saying we cycled to Shoebill, the main reason for going was obviously to see a Shoebill. Fortunately we were extremely lucky, and after navigating our way round a hippo and literally walking on water we were treated to a great view of a truly wild shoebill. 

A Shoebill!

View of the swamp

The Life of a Baboon Researcher: Part II

By: Elizabeth Winterton

If you don’t like getting up early, don’t be a baboon researcher…

In my last blog I talked about camp and what it’s like to live in a tent in the forest. This week it’s the turn of the baboons.

We currently have 1 fully habituated troop comprising 60 individuals; 21 adult females and 7 adult males. The troop travels around 6km per day throughout their 6km2 home range of miombo woodland, chipiya grassland, and the occasional plain.

Work starts at sunrise with the walk to the previous evenings sleeping site, accompanied by your very own armed scout. Fortunately, on the whole the baboons sleep at the mushitus within a 15 minute walk from camp so it’s not a very arduous journey. Usually greeted by grunts and the sleepy faces of infants, work then begins. This mainly consists of collecting behavioural data on the adult males and females. We also collect GPS data, and have the delightful task of collecting faecal samples, although with their current diet of pods it seems their digestive systems have stopped functioning completely!

The 10 day blocks of research pass quickly with a mixture of all-day follows and 8 hour days split into morning and afternoon research, with a generous lunch break in between which generally comprises of downloading data, checking emails and editing photos.

On a typical day, the baboons wake up around 6.30am, come down from the sleeping site at 8am, feed for the majority of the day, and then return to a sleeping site by 5.45pm with you concluding work around 6pm. Due to the nature of their habitat, once the baboons have left the mushitu it’s pretty rare if you see all of them at once. Usually we get to see a maximum of 15 at a time if we’re lucky. So this means you spend much of the day walking around with binoculars clamped to your face identifying who’s who. Unfortunately the dense habitat and the relatively large home range means the baboons can literally vanish into thin air (our baboons would make excellent magicians!) and sometimes cannot be found for days at a time; again this is why you have to like walking as you can walk anything up to 20km per day looking for them!!

Baboons crossing from the mushitu into the miombo woodland

However, when with the baboons it is truly amazing, especially as you get to learn about the different personalities and see relationships forming and strengthening. All the adult males seem to have their favourite females, for example, Mr Wizard is either with MJ or Clover, and Mr Cookies is with Loretta, Norah or Patsy, some females are intolerant of each other (Indigo seems to hate everyone!), whereas others appear to have a deep relationship. Infants in the process of being weaned are hilarious as they scream for their mothers to pick them up and let them ride on their backs, and the juveniles are just cheeky, stealing the young infants and play fighting with each other. 

It is a rather surreal experience being surrounded by a troop of baboons, and I frequently have to pinch myself, and remind myself that these are wild baboons (although a few in particular like to remind me of this themselves!).

In the plain surrounded by baboons and puku

Mr Cookies giving Loretta some T.L.C.

A screaming infant

BLOG –28th July 2012

By: Liz Winterton

Elephant Jigsaw

On 18th July I cycled to Mulaushi to teach the girls in the Science and Maths Club. Rather than focusing on Pure Science I decided to spend the afternoon discussing elephants and their conservation.

Surprisingly, the girls knew very little about the African elephant, and our discussions about what elephants liked to eat raised the topic of human-wildlife conflict; their first answers were unfortunately maize and pumpkin. Within the surrounding area of Kasanka elephant human-wildlife conflict is still prevalent despite efforts to combat it through the community development scheme of building chili fences; elephants dislike the smell of the chili/used car oil concoction and will stay away from the fields, therefore eliminating crop-raiding.

A chili fence

This conflict was clearly shown to me back in April when we found the fresh carcass of a sub-adult male elephant close to camp. Unfortunately, after examination by ZAWA they concluded that the young animal had been shot, presumably by angry villagers, and then wandered into the park to die. Although an extremely sad event, the death is proving an excellent tool in conservation education.

The elephant upon discovery

After carefully observing its decomposition over the last months, and getting camera-trap footage of visitors to the carcass (including many visits by elephants) we have now moved the bones to Mulaushi where I have been given the job of resurrecting it. 

So, this was the task last week; fit the bones back together again. We had fortunately managed to collect the majority of the bones before they were taken far from the carcass by scavengers such as the side-striped jackal, so we thought the reassemble would be a relatively easy task. This was unfortunately not quite the case even though we were working from a picture of a skeleton found through trusty Google! Eventually, we managed to reassemble in into the semblance of an African elephant. Now the next task is to somehow fix it all together; I think we will need professional help!

The completed skeleton

Sarah has a baby girl

As mentioned in my last posting, we were expecting Sarah to give birth in these coming weeks. Unfortunately not the twins I was hoping for, but on the 21st of July she gave birth to a healthy baby girl, mixed in colour with a black/grey head and white body. This now brings our total to 8 with 4 white, 1 grey, 1 black, and 2 mixed comprising of 6 girls and 2 boys.

Sarah with her infant at 5 days old

The Life of a Baboon Researcher: Part I

So, as we are now advertising for my replacement (unfortunately I have to leave in December) I thought it was an apt time to give a bit more of an insight into the daily life of a baboon researcher, and explain more about the immediate surroundings and beautiful ‘office’ that is Kasanka National Park. This week I’ll start with camp and Kasanka… 

Being my first time in Africa, I had little idea of what to expect of the country, but after living in Malaysian and Indonesian Borneo for 9 months I was pretty sure I could adapt to the culture and was looking forward to tasting the culinary delights I assumed would be plentiful.  Although daunted by the isolation factor of living in a national park I was looking forward to the challenge of ‘living in the bush’, and was unfazed knowing I would be living in a tent for the next year (whilst most of my friends and family were horrified!). 

Not one to thoroughly research a country before embarking on an adventure, I had imagined that Zambia, like the Africa you see on the television, would be a country full of savannah grasslands with the odd acacia tree thrown in. So I was extremely surprised when I got off the plane and saw lots of green trees! This theme continued when I reached Kasanka after a 7 hour car journey. The slight panic I felt realising that it wasn’t the 2 hours away I had imagined, and my nearest ‘town’, Serenje, was a full 1.5 hours away and didn’t even contain a supermarket, was completely forgotten about when we arrived and were quickly swallowed up by the beautiful miombo woodland. 

Kinda camp

Kinda Camp is situated 20km inside the park boundary, 8km from park headquarters and the stunning Lake Wasa. Currently, camp contains 3 nsakas (reed huts with thatched roofs) comprising a kitchen, dining room and lab, a large safari tent, a smaller tent for guests, 2 shower areas, and to my delight, a fully functional flush toilet! Although pretty much in the middle of nowhere it’s pretty luxurious, and definitely not the rough tent living I expected;  I even get running water and hot showers courtesy of our wonderful camp attendant, Desmond! And the piece de resistance is our very own private hide with spectacular views looking out over the Musola swamps, made even better by being a mobile network hotspot. We get electricity courtesy of our solar panel, and are currently enjoying the vegetable harvest our little garden has produced; nothing too exciting, but getting to eat lettuce after 7 months without it is pretty thrilling!

View from Kinda Hide

Arguably the best spot in the park (in my opinion anyway!) we are situated next to the famous Fibwe hide previously voted the best place in Africa to see the elusive Sitatunga, and through November to January we get to witness the biggest mammal migration in the World, when the fruit bats descend into the musuku forest a mere kilometre from camp. Also situated a short distance from the Kasanka river, it’s a beautiful place to go for a ‘sundowner’ with the other Kasanka expats and watch hippos, crocs, sitatungas and elephants on the river bank.

                                                    View along the Kasanka River

As well as having the baboons on our doorstep we are often visited by our ‘international clients’ as Desmond calls them, the local group of Vervet monkeys. I don’t think a day goes by when I don’t see a new animal or curious insect, but on a daily basis you’re pretty much guaranteed to see puku, bushbuck and a huge variety of bird species. 

                                                Vervet Monkey, Puku, Bushbuck

Basically it’s pretty idyllic, and a beautiful place to live.

BLOG – 17TH JULY 2012

By: Liz Winterton

NETBALL MATCH: CONSERVATION CLUB V’S KAFINDA: FRIDAY 1ST JUNE
On Friday 1st June the Girls’ Conservation Club travelled to Kafinda Basic School for a friendly Netball Match (or so I thought!)…

After introducing the two teams; us being an un-practiced group with myself masquerading as a relatively good netball player when in fact I hadn’t played for 8 years, and the Kafinda Girl’s 1st team made up of girls from Grades 8 and 9, play got underway. I had vaguely remembered the rules before the first whistle went, but it soon became apparent the way we were taught and played netball in England was not quite the same as in Zambia. After 5 minutes of frantically running up and down court wondering how they can run so fast I swiftly resigned myself to the sub’s bench and let the girls show me how it’s done; Zambia competitive style.

The level of competition was extremely fierce, quickly diminishing my idea of a nice relaxed friendly game, and after a few initial disputes of the 1m rule and a time-out to discuss and clarify the rules, the game once again picked up the pace. After 1hr of rigorous play and lots of the crazy Muzungu (myself) roaring ‘Come on, you can do it!!’ the final score was 20-14 to Kafinda.

The game was clearly enjoyed by all, particularly the 100-strong crowd we managed to create, and will definitely be repeated in the near future. Besides, we need to show Kafinda we can beat them!

The crowd gathering

Fierce competition

The Teams

SPECIAL VISITORS

On Wednesday 11th July, a few days after arriving back in Kasanka from holiday, I was treated to my first elephant herd sighting of the year. Bastiaan had spotted the elephants coming our way across the plain so we cycled down to watch the crossing from the safety of the bat hide. It was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen with the 19 strong herd coming within 40m of us crouched silently on the platform before heading into the Mushitu and the woodland beyond. With a mixture of fear and awe I snapped away with my camera thinking I would not get the opportunity to be so close to a wild elephant for a long time to come; I was wrong….

The matriarch leading the way

Calfs being herded away

Some of the herd followed by the HUGE bull

Shortly after getting back to camp I jumped in the shower, and to my surprise, when I got out there was a bull elephant feeding in the forest 30m from my tent! A short while later he made his way back to the rest of the herd, casually by-passing where I sit to eat lunch. 

Passing by Kinda Camp

R.I.P. JOJO?
Whilst I was on holiday, Anna informed me that one of our adult males, Jojo, had disappeared from the group. Although he was one of the oldest males in the troop he was still high-ranking and had a variety of mating partners. He was also suspected to be the father of Rhianna, Roseanne’s infant born back in April, so it seemed strange that he appeared to have emigrated from the troop, and questions were raised as to whether he had been killed by poachers.

Now the grass is burnt, the preferred method of poaching baboons is to use dogs, and despite the hard work of KTL scouts we still hear dogs barking relatively frequently within the home range covered by our study troop. 

Unfortunately, a few days ago whilst walking in the forest our study troop frequents every few weeks, we came across a skeleton of an adult male baboon. The skeleton appeared to be 2-3 weeks old, and whilst not wanting to jump to conclusions, the age of the skeleton fits with around the time Jojo disappeared. Fortunately we have managed to collect hair samples for genetic analysis so we will be able to confirm whether or not the baboon was Jojo. 

Although we frequently hear of poaching incidents, it was still a shock to have one of our study males killed. It is a sad reminder that despite the huge efforts by KTL to control poaching within Kasanka it still continues, and until funds are raised to provide more patrol groups, and villagers are educated on the cumulative effects of poaching, it will continue. 

Jojo

Adult male baboon skeleton

MORE BABIES: TOTAL NOW 7!

Over the last few weeks we’ve had 2 more babies born. Whitney has given birth to a white/grey infant, and Godiva has had a little girl with a black head and grey body. We were even fortunate enough to witness Godiva eating the umbilical cord of her newborn! At a few weeks old now, Whitney’s infant is becoming more mobile and starting to interact with the other infants and juveniles. At just over a week old, Godiva’s infant is still clinging to mum, but is becoming more aware of her surroundings and getting more tactile with the inquisitive infants and adult females. 

Godiva and Grace with Roseanne and Rhianna

Whitney and her new female infant (name undecided)

BLOG – 29th MAY 2012

By: Liz Winterton

ANOTHER NEW BABY!
In the early hours of May 24th, a black baby was born to …. This brings our grand total to 5 so far this year, with 3 white, 1 grey and 1 black. Although yet to all be named, all the babies seem to be healthy and are getting more adventurous every day, with some even starting to try and climb the smaller trees. The slightly older babies are now starting to ride on their mum’s backs, and Cash is even going for a ride with Mr Wizard.

Cash, Clover's Infant

Hope with her 1 day old infant Helen

Roseanne's baby Rhianna

Norah with her VERY white infant Nalu

CHANGING LANDSCAPES

As we are now well into the dry season poachers are starting to burn the forests to make poaching easier. In an effort to combat this, and minimise the devastating effects an out of control fire could have on the flora and fauna of Kasanka, we are currently undergoing a period termed ‘early burning’ whereby fire breaks are slashed and controlled fires started. 

Surprisingly, the baboons seem to be in their element, congregating along the freshly burnt patches scavenging for insects, and using the open view to socialise and relax. 

BIKE RACE

On Saturday 26th May Kasanka held their Annual MTB Challenge. This year we had over 80 entrants competing in 3 races; 3km, 22km and 53km. Rather foolishly I decided I should compete in the 53km race, so early on Saturday morning I was standing in the cold at the Conservation Centre ready to set off. 

After nearly 5 hours of cycling (I’m very slow!), walking through a swamp, crossing a tree bridge and walking to the top of ‘tough guy’s hill’, I finally finished, predictably, in last place! Although absolutely exhausting, it was a fantastic event and I definitely recommend it for all you budding cyclists next year. A big congratulations to the winner, Stephen Wells, who completed the course in an incredible 2 hours 10 minutes.