After the BirdLife Botswana Population Monitoring Transects, I looked into information known about the Broad-billed Roller's breeding activity, nesting and fledgling growth rates and success. There was not much to be found anywhere. After contacting a few experts, they suggested we monitor the nest and record whatever we could with regards to information not known. Having been away several days, we returned to the nest to take pictures and measure the size of the eggs. Unfortuantely, we discovered that the dead palm tree trunk had been pushed over by an elephant, and the eggs eaten by some creature. We could see no sign of the adults and no nearby trees with cavaties that looked suitable for them. Despite the disappointment we hope to find them again soon, as we now know that they are in fact in the area during summer. This event was just another reminder that things dont always go your way in the bush and external factors such as elephants pushing down trees can in fact ruin your plans.
August Newsletter - Dibatana Research and Monitoring Camp
Impala Research
Earlier this year, in May, the team at Dibatana, along with vets Louis and Anne-Lise Lignereux, took on the task of darting and collaring 10 impala with VHF collars. This project in conjunction with the University of Botswana, aims to look at the seasonal habitat and resource use of these herbivores, as well as their movements within the ecosystem. Impala are an essential prey animal to many predators, such as lion, leopard and hyena. Therefore, a look into the dynamics of this prey animal is an essential part of the ecosystem and how it functions. These antelope contribute greatly to ecosystem processes by maintaining short, high quality grassland and have an impact on tree growth rates and seedling establishment.
A collared male impala, A1 who lives near camp and is generally found in a bachelor herd with 3 other adult males.
Collaring these animals proved a more difficult task than expected, with hours of ‘stalking’ and planning by the team. The collars were spread over a wet-dry gradient, from the Gomoti River in a north-easterly direction along the Moremi cutline, to the main road at the South-gate entrance to Moremi Game Reserve. These animals are tracked every three days, their positions recorded, along with that of their habitat and group status (i.e breeding or bachelor herd).
Ten more impala remain to be collared, 5 GPS and 5 VHF collars. The team at Dibatana hope to be able to dart the remaining animals in September.
Louis, Anne-Lise and I collaring the final male of the 10 individuals.
The data collected from this project goes to Mr Kaelo Makati’s Masters Degree (University of Botswana), as well as revealing more information about a species that has not previously been well documented, despite its importance within the ecosystem. Thank you to Anne-Lise and Louis for coming out and volunteering your services to get this project up and running.
Wildlife Conservation Course
For two weeks Dibatana hosted a course entitled “Species Monitoring and Conservation: Large Carnivores, ungulates and grassland vegetation”. The course was designed and coordinated by Joe Kolowski from the Smithsoninan Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) in partnership with Andrew Stein, a wildlife scientist. The course was attended by 16 participants from Botswana, Zambia, Namibia, Swaziland, Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. All participants are involved with wildlife and conservation in their respective countries and were selected from a group of 30 applicants. This course was designed to increase the capacity of conservation professionals within SADC countries. In addition they hoped to teach participants to assess and monitor large carnivores, their prey, and the ecosystems on which they rely, and to apply these data to conservation and management decisions at both a local and national scale. During the course, the latest field techniques and analytical processes were taught, followed by practical field work in which the participants could apply what they had just learnt.
Course participants, coordinators and lecturers.
In addition to Joe and Andrew, visiting instructors were invited to teach particular topics. The lecturers were Richard Fynn, Petri Viljoen, Paul Funston and Frits Van Oudtshoorn with Samson Lenjirr and Kenneth Uiseb as guest speakers. This course hopes to be the first of a series of conservation-themed professional development training programs through SCBI. The funding for these courses come from the US State Department in conjunction with SCBI. Dibatana hosted the course, covering both transportation to the camp and accommodation. Thank you to all who were involved and helped in making this a successful and promising conservation initiative. Thank you to Joe Kolowski for the pictures.
The group surveys the plains in front of Dibatana Camp during a habitat classification exercise.
Wetland Bird Survey - BirdLife Botswana Population Monitoring Programme
An Egyptian Goose flying over the flood plains where we conducted the survey.
Dibatana is a supporter of Birdlife Botswana and their work. Having conducted the bi-annual census in February we also dedicated ourselves to supporting them by doing the wetland bird survey. With the water level at its highest, the flood plains were alive with birds making it difficult to count all of them. We were lucky to see endangered wattled crane, as well as the slaty egret, another endangered species virtually confined to the Okavango Delta. In addition to the huge variety and number of bird seen we also came across hundreds of buffalo, a small group of hyena and a number of letchwe. The most common species we saw were Spur-wing Geese, White-faced ducks, African Jacana’s and Yellow-billed egrets.
A fish eagle pair spotted by the river. Their two juveniles were seen further down the river.
