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News

August 2009

Education Program

Our education program entitled, Act Now for Tomorrow: Create a Sustainable Future for Botswana’s Wildlife, Agriculture & People, has finally begun. This program will teach farmers and herders concepts and methods of sustainable resource use. Ultimately, this will reduce their conflict with predators by reducing the factors that contribute to the problem, such as overgrazing and disease. It will also endeavor to increase their tolerance and perhaps even foster an appreciation for predators through benefits from tourism.

We have conducted introductory meetings at each of the cattle posts to allow them to share their problems and ideas with the steering board. With this information, we can be sure to engage their interests as we strive for a more balanced ecosystem in this area near the reserve. As it is important to consider also the social side of things and to assess how the farmers and herders are absorbing and applying what they have been taught. Doris Baruck will join us in September to look into some of these issues.

Research

We continue to track the collared female leopard, Ronja. We have seen her several times, including once in the company of a male in May. We will soon see if this results in any cubs. We try to check on her whenever she is close; however recently, she had a bit of a problem. The Government has responded to the conflict between predators, mainly lions, and livestock near the reserve by putting up a parallel game fence and cattle fence (with a cutline between) on the southern border of Khutse and the Central Kalahari Game Reserves. At the beginning of June, she decided to follow this fence for some reason. She left the park at the end of the fence at the time, which was around 25km west of her territory in the park. She spent the day outside, during which time the workers continued to put up the fence. Thus, she spent the next 3 ½ weeks in an area along the border just outside the reserve. We drove the fence line looking for her on several occasions and it seems she was walking up and down the fence. Unfortunately, she did not arrive at the gate, which is not yet closed. At the end of June, she finally found a shallow hole apparently dug by a jackal or hyena and squeezed under the fence. That night, she seems to have travelled 25km north and is wandering in a new area that only slightly overlaps with her previously recorded home range. We do not yet know if this is a seasonal change which is normal or if she permanently moved her territory. This new territory has very little road penetration and it will therefore be difficult to track her there. At least we are happy she managed to get back into the reserve rather than taking up livestock hunting outside.

At the end of last year and the beginning of this year several lions from Khutse and other areas were becoming ill, dying and subsequently being diagnosed with rabies. We have facilitated an arrangement between the Botswana National Veterinary Laboratory and Prof. Dr. Hans Lutz of Vetsuisse at the University of Zurich and Dr. Bourhy at the Pascal Institute. Samples from infected lions in Botswana will be tested for rabies again at the Pascal Institute and the virus will then be typed. Most concerning is that normally rabid animals do not become skinny and weak, suggesting that there is probably another disease involved as well. Several lions and antelope died mysteriously in Khutse in 2006 and now lions died again in 2008-2009. It is important that we identify the diseases involved so that we know whether it came from domestic animals or is endemic in the ecosystem and whether this is indeed a recurring disease. A naturally occurring disease requires no intervention since it is important for population control, maintaining antibodies in the population and removing weak individuals from the gene pool. A disease of domestic origin, for example canine rabies or distemper from domestic dogs, may require more intervention. In this case, the disease may kill more lions than is natural in this ecosystem and may create a repetitive public health hazard as the disease is transferred back and forth between wild and domestic animals. As the samples arrived in Zurich at the end of June, we are eagerly anticipating the results of the tests.

The lions which are now being seen in Khutse appear to be healthy. However, they seem to be in much smaller groups. We did see one group of 5 lions, but they were youngsters between the ages of 6 months and a year. We did not see any adults with them, even though they travelled 10km over night. We have not seen these lions again, though there is a report of 4 young lions that were trapped in between the game fence and cattle fence and are now killing livestock around one of the cattle posts that is involved in the education program. DWNP officials here at Khutse have told us they will relocate these lions into the reserve. They may be the same ones which have wandered outside the reserve, but they may also be different ones which were resident outside around the cattle posts.

We have continued our research on reducing the conflict between predators and livestock. Currently our main activities include recording locations of livestock killed by predators and testing our one-way kraal door. So far, this door has worked for a portion of the cows involved. Predictably, it seems to be the calves that learn to use the door first. The adults that learn have been mothers with calves which were already inside the kraal. Therefore, adolescent inquisitiveness and maternal instinct seem to be the driving forces behind learning how this door works.

Kristina Kesch has officially begun her study of the lions and the new fence. She will be studying changes in vegetation nutrition related to the exclusion of livestock from the reserve and hopes to conduct a disease study to follow up Sandra Ramsauer’s study, which will have direct application to the current disease situation in the reserve.

Two students, Dominik Bauer and Jonas Kuppler, will analyze the results of our game and spoor counts from 2007-2009. They will compare these counts to game counts conducted in 2000-2001. Jonas joined us in April-May to conduct the counts and help the project in other ways. Thanks Jonas! Dominik will join us for a period of 6 months from August 2009 to February 2010.

Kaudwane

We are planning new programs in Kaudwane settlement. These include a program to empower women to be more self-sustaining, a program to provide constructive activities for children after school and a program to address diseases and poor treatment of domestic animals. In one sense, this last program is an expansion of the Animal Husbandry Project, however it was further motivated by the suspected rabies infection in lions and the large number of dogs in the settlement which are poorly treated and cared for. The program will include vaccinations, medical care and castration for dogs and cats in the area.

Thank you

As always, we are sincerely grateful for all of the support we receive from so many of you. Financial support is hard to come by at the moment as the economic situation has affected everyone and we hope this will change again. We appreciate your interest in our project and the encouragement you give us. We wish you all the best in the second half of this year!

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