Pilot Study: Day 2 - Sunday 20 June 2010

It was the morning after we set the camera traps and every-one was very excited to see what was photographed last night.

So without any avail, here are some of the photos that were captured last night...

These are the photos we found on Camera A

Jip, that was just a scrub hare...

Then.....

Oh, this is much better, a Brown Hyena peeking around the scrub...


Look at the 'bright headlights' ☺


.... and check out the left ear!

  

Here is another shot of the same one, just a bit closer but still very cautious and suspicious...

Camera B, C, D  and E had  nothing so let's check Camera F:

... only Heystek who took an early evening drive.
... wonder whether he was speeding?













Camera Trap G....

Well, well who do we have here?

Jip, it is the same visitor, the Brown Hyena that was photographed on camera A...

How did we know that?

Check that left ear? Looks a bit 'floppy', doesn't it? 

Yea, we'll just name her Floppy Ear. ...and that is how she got her name!

She doesn't like these strange things, so off she sprints....☻



(these are photos from a camera with an infrared flash)









Camera H also had no photos...

At least we are able to to identify the Brown Hyena, by matching the recognisable floppy ear with an equally easy identifiable track of which we also made an imprint.

The rest of the day we walked the roads and bush trails looking for predator tracks and recording what we discovered.

This was it for today folks, read the next blog tomorrow!

Pilot Study: Day 1 - Saturday 19 June 2010 (the afternoon)

... we continue with Saturday 19 June, the afternoon.

We scouted the reserve until about 14h30 and by that time we identified the most appropriate locations where the camera traps have to be set.

The camera traps are devices that consist mainly of:

a) a digital camera,

b) a flash (incandescent/infrared),
c) a movement detector
d) battery pack

e) a memory card slot with a SD

f) in a compact box cover.

There a various makes and models, but all basically consist of these components.

←  One the camera traps mounted on a trap pole, after it was setup.

 

 Andrew, Victoria and Sarah, busy setting a camera trap next to a road.  →

The camera traps can be set at any location, but it is important to consider daytime traffic and human activities that will and can occur in the vicinity of traps.

Pilot Study: Day 1 - Saturday 19 June 2010 - (the Morning)

Friday evening after we all arrived at the chalet, we had dinner and then we discussed the strategy for the next day, which was Saturday 19 June.

The research team from Ingwe Leopard project brought all their equipment with them which included 9 camera traps, GPS devices, track printing materials etc.

The first thing that we planned to do early Saturday morning, was to be out in the veld as soon as there is enough sun light to recognise tracks and to focus on areas where leopards and other predators are the most likely to occur. While scouting the habitat, we also had to identify the locations where the camera traps could be deployed during the Saturday afternoon.

Early Saturday morning the team was up and ready, and by 06h00 we were out in the veld. That early in winter, the bushveld is still quite chilly, but every-one was very excited so the cold didn't really mattered.

Within 2 km we spotted the first predator tracks, red jackal or as they are locally known,  black backed jackal. This was great news, but about 1km further down the road we spotted nice fresh tracks and it looked like the ones we came to find, leopard tracks! Bingo! to find leopard tracks withing the first half an hour of the inception of such a study was really exiting. We couldn't believe our luck because no-one really expected to find fresh signs of leopard that soon. 

• 
  
  Now the tracks had to be recorded.
• First we took photos of the tracks.
• Then we measured the tracks.
• We also recorded the GPS data of the location where we found the tracks.
• If it is very good quality tracks, we may well decided to make track prints.

Andrew and Elandí busy measuring and photographing the tracks →

These were excellent tracks and it was decided to lift the tracks by making gypsum imprints.

These imprints are required to build a profile of the animal to ensure that we can accurately compare other tracks that we may find with this track and determine if it was the same animal's or a different individuals tracks.

← the actual leopard tracks that we found.

It takes a while to lift the tracks so we spend the next hour at this location.

Pilot Study took place from 19 to 25 June 2010

The first field work session called the Pilot Study took place from the 19th to the 25the of June 2010 and a team of 9 people were involved in this pilot study.

1. Objective of Pilot Study
The main objectives of the pilot study were:

• To determine whether leopards do occur in the Kamonande Nature Reserve
• To determine the number of individual leopards if any are found.
• To determine what other carnivores/predators are resident or occur on the reserve.

The research team consisted of the following people

(left to right):

Sarah White, Ben van den Berg, Elandí van den Berg, Elene van den Berg, Bernice van den Berg, Ester van Schalkwyk, Victoria Zedi, Anton van Logerenberg, Andrew Swartz.

The team stayed with van den Berg's at Chalet 17, and the pilot study covered the complete reserve.

2. The Strategy

2.1    Lay out transects through area (ground truth information gathered)

• Two transects based on habitat preference along either roads or game-paths, according to camera trapping protocol
• GPS points
• Pictures of habitat structure at each camera site
• Keep camera traps at same point for total span of time

2.2   Lay out a route to walk each morning for Carnivora track counts

• Lay out road transects that would take approximately 2 hours to walk and gather data. (working in teams)
• Walk each route at same time each day
• Gather data regarding tracks, scat, sightings etc. with GPS data to indicate locations.

2.3. Collate all the data and images gathered during the pilot study period.

2.4. Enter collected data into data base

2.5. Design and produce preliminary report for reserve use
 
3. The Results

The following outcomes are expected.

3.1 A data base with data collected in a scientific form for creating a scientific report of carnivora presence/absence.

• Of GPS’d camera trap pictures with ID of individual leopard (male/female etc.)
• Of GPS’d track data

3.2 A species list of Carnivora found
3.3 A preliminary pilot report based on scientific data gathered

3.4. A report for the use of data gathered for the reserve owners in a defined format

As can be imagined, a lot of information was gathered during this period and a lot was discovered. Therefore, this blog will be updated with one days information, photos, observations and remarks at a time. There will be a blog post for every day that the pilot project covered.
 
Keep your eye on this blog to read what we discovered and found.