Well last week was quite an exciting week at the center, so
although this is a bit delayed, figured I’d share a few pictures.
First, just wanted to do a compare and contrast of the
center during dry and wet season. It is amazing the difference that rain can
make!! Things are beginning to dry up as we start to head back into dry season again.... and winter!
 |
| October |
 |
| Febraury |
Last Monday Maria found this skin shed by our largest
Southern African Python – 3.75 meters long!! Very cool!
On Tuesday we got a call about a side-striped jackal that
was killed by a car and on the side of the road. After finding and retrieving testable
organs and parts, we decided to ‘recycle’ it and feed it to the python. Below,
she enjoys her tasty treat!
.JPG)
Pythons are constrictors, so after we put it in and shook it
a little bit to make her think it was alive she struck with lightning speed,
bit the mouth and wrapped around it. She sat there for a while ‘strangling it’
then proceeded to swallow it completely whole! Snakes are able to dislocate
their jaws in order to eat large prey. They are opportunistic eaters so if it
is available they will eat, but they can easily go up to a month without food!
Let’s just say this python shouldn’t need to eat for a while! She was quite
content afterwards to sit in her water pool and digest this huge meal! Sorry I
forgot to get an ‘after’ picture of what it looked like after it had eaten.
On Wednesday, Enviro911, a cooperation between some members
of the community and the wildlife department to monitor illegal environmental
issues, coordinated a ‘snare sweep’ through part of the bush to find and remove
snares set to trap and kill wildlife. Even though none of the people in my
group found any snares, we were still proud of ourselves for surviving the
potentially elephant, lion, and buffalo-infested forest! (I was, at least!
Probably spent more time watching for animals than snares!)
On our way back to the cars, Grant, the leader of Enviro911,
got a call from a friend saying that there were three wild dogs and a hyena
dead on the road to Lesoma. It is very weird for so many dogs to be killed at
once, and they were spread out along the road, not all in one spot hit by one
car. He suspected that they may have been poisoned, then disoriented and hit by
cars. So we took a trip out there to take a look. Maria was going as the vet,
but I just tagged along as the…. field assistant! When we got out there the
Wildlife Department had already been out and decided that they had all just
gotten hit by cars and they dragged them off the road into the tall grass. They
had also found one dead Yellow-Billed Kite and one that looked like it was
almost dead. We took the almost dead one and tried to help, but didn’t have the
right treatment for poisoning with us. Unfortunately he died later, after we
got back to the center.
So the Wildlife Department left and we went to find the
carcasses. They were a bit tough to find, but in the end, we found one really
mashed up, another fairly intact, and the hyena close to each other, then one
more wild dog down the road that Wildlife hadn’t gotten to. Four animals dead
in about a four km stretch of road? Very odd, indeed, if they were all just struck
by cars at different points on the road. It was quite sad to find four of an endangered
species (one more Wild Dog turned up dead the next day on the same stretch of
road) killed.
Taking into account the dogs and birds, we suspect that a
farmer poisoned a carcass and put it out for lions and other predators to feed
on. They do this to kill the animals that may attack their cattle and other
livestock. But, as we saw, you never know what animals will get ahold of this
meat, including birds and endangered species! Unfortunately there is not much
we can do about it. We were able to take samples from the dead animals and are
hoping to send them to a lab to be tested, but even if they turn up positive,
there is no way to tell who is responsible for the poisoning.
So, trouble in
paradise, and yet another lesson of the human-wildlife conflict that occurs
here and how people deal with it. Sad story, but it was a very neat experience
to be able to get so close and handle African Wild Dogs and a Spotted Hyena,
even if they were dead….
And just an extra picture of a beautiful sunrise!
P.S. - Home in 2 months!!
