African Wildlife and Environment Issue 65

FAUNA, FLORA & WILDLIFE

FAUNA, FLORA & WILDLIFE

between Lower Sabie and Crocodile Bridge. This was long before GPS units became available, so all the navigation was done using 1:50 000 maps and the stars, when it was not overcast. The tourist roads and management tracks bordered the vast wilderness blocks andwe were able to get a reference point when crossing or driving down these roads. All our trips were logged using a tape recorder. We not only gave directions on the recorder that could be transcribed onto a map back at the office, but the behaviour of the predators was also recorded and written up later in a scientific log on the computer. It was in these remote areas where the lions, spotted hyenas, leopards, cheetah and wild dogs were followed. The emphasis was on the big cats, so different lion prides were marked and key members of the pride would get VHF collars so that they could be tracked. Just as with the GPS units, this was long before satellite collars became available, so most of our work was done at night when the lions were most active. There were however, quarterly periods when continuous two-week tracking occurred and the pride was followed constantly, with three of us working in eight hour shifts. This meant that there was always someone with the pride to see what their activity was and what prey was being selected. It was during one of these night tracking events when I was following a pride of lions, that I saw them taking a very wide berth round a big termite mound. As I got nearer I realised that this massive termite mound was actually the side of a very big elephant that was lying down. I was not sure if it was dead or just asleep because it did not move a muscle. I drove around to get a better angle of the head and then realised that this was an elephant bull with enormous tusks. Even with the spotlight illuminating it in the darkness and the sound of the vehicle engine, it did not budge. I contemplated getting out and walking up to it to see if any wounds were visible, but fortunately I did not. Suddenly the elephant flung up its head and started rocking to get to its feet. The massive tusks were weighing the head down and then I saw that the elephant had been lying sleeping against a big termite mound and was using this as leverage to get to its feet. The front feet and massive head and tusks reached towards the stars first and then the hind legs followed. This massive elephant now turned directly to face me and I realised that this was Duke, one of the big tuskers that frequented the study area. He flapped his ears together and then made off into the night with his tail held high as well as his head, indignant at being woken up in the middle of his slumber. Suddenly there was an almighty trumpet and the sound of the lions scattering as the elephant ran straight through the pride that was also taking a rest break. With hindsight I was very glad that I did not get out and check, because at such close quarters I am not sure I would have been able to make as clean a getaway as the lions did.

I was in my prefab house in the Skukuza village next to the pump house where the attendant had woken to the big leopard chewing on his shoes he had left outside the door. No harm done, except that we were all now wide awake, and reminded that even though we had fences around the properties in the staff village, we were still open to the bush, and should never become complacent. Years later this same house, which was upgraded to a brick house, was the scene of another terrifying encounter with a leopard. Inside the Skukuza camp, a leopard had entered during the night and had made a kill. The first

impalas were really motoring. As they reached a spot opposite us, the other two cheetahs jumped up and singled out an impala ewe and gave chase. The impala turned ninety degrees and headed straight towards the parked cars. It all happened so fast, and just as Musk was closing in on the impala that was looking for a way of escape, it ran straight into the back door of a parked car, coming to a very abrupt halt. The cheetah was so close that it launched itself into the air and jumped right over the car, only leaving a single dusty cheetah footprint on the roof of the car. In the pandemonium, no other impala was caught, and left behind was the impala that had run into the car. It was struggling to get up and I quickly realised that both front legs were broken. The tourists were in a state of shock and I got out my vehicle and approached them asking them just to remain calm and not get out their cars. The man whose car had been hit, was sitting there open-mouthed and said: “I thought it was jumping into my car”. From his perspective the impala had run into his vehicle and then the cheetah literally flew over his car, inches above his head. There was a plea from the old couple to please help the impala, but unfortunately there was nothing that could be done, but put an end to its suffering. Suddenly everyone started shouting at me. The cheetahs had come back and were eying the now dead impala at my feet. I contacted Dr Gus Mills and asked him what I should do. He asked me, in my opinion, if the lions would have caught the impala if the tourist cars had not been there, and I said undoubtedly yes. Based on that assumption, I dragged the impala into the open area and after a while the Musketeers came and fed heartily on their well-earned meal. The driver of brand new vehicle, asked for my details as he was sure that his insurance company would be incredulous at the story of it got so badly dented. A sprinting, high jumping cheetah would certainly have been stretching the imagination by more than a bit. We are so privileged to witness these incredible scenes in nature and one often wonders what we must miss when we are not there. In time I will highlight many more such adventures in the African bushveld. We need to remind ourselves that there is a fine balance in nature and we need to do all we can not to upset this balance, but to keep our ecological footprint as small as possible. Keep the wind in your face, the sun on your back and biodiversity conservation values deep in your heart!

There was a coalition of three male cheetahs in the study area, and we had set up a cage trap in an attempt to capture one of them to fit a radio-tracking collar so that it could be followed. After trying with impala meat bait we ended up catching only a hyena, as the cheetahs were too wary to enter the cage. Ann Van Dyk from the De Wildt Cheetah Centre managed to get some urine from a female cheetah in oestrus, and we put a cloth, soaked in this potent scent, in the back of the cage. There was almost a stampede by the three cheetahs to get into the cage first. After one had been captured and immobilised, we put the radio collar on the cheetah and we were able to spend more time following this coalition to see what their home range and feeding habits were. They were named the ‘Musketeers’ and because each of the brothers had very distinct characteristics, we named themMusk, Cat and Tears. Talking of tears, one morning we found a very young cheetah cub had latched onto the group and was getting a severe beating every time it ventured too close. Somehow it had been separated from its mother and was trying to find solace with others of its kind. Because of its incessant chirping, sounding almost like a budgie singing opera, we named the two month old cub, Chirpy. For days the cub hung round and there was no sign of its mother or other siblings. Eventually the Musketeers moved off and we never saw Chirpy again. Although it was heart-breaking to watch, the first rule of wildlife research is not to interfere with your subjects, and we had to let nature take its course. The converse is also true, and weeks later I was parked next to the gravel tourist road monitoring the Musketeers when a tourist car pulled up with an old couple inside and asked if I had seen anything. I nonchalantly pointed across the road in the direction of the three beautiful cheetah males that were lying stretched out in the early morning sun with only their heads raised in typical cheetah fashion. The tourists were ecstatic about this fantastic sighting and it was not long before more tourist cars pulled up to view the cheetahs. Suddenly Tears got up and slunk away keeping low to the ground using all the available cover. Once his direction of travel was established I realised that there was a herd of about 30 impala that were moving slowly towards our position while grazing. Suddenly the other two cheetahs, Musk and Cat, were wide awake and hunkered down next to low bushes watching the impala intently. Tears had made a wide circle and then appeared behind the impala and made a big show of stretching so that they would see him. Immediately the snorting alarm calls of the impala could be heard as they alerted each other to the presence of this fastest of all predators. They were about 90 meters away and Tears ran towards them causing them to run in a blind panic straight at the other two cheetahs. At that moment I realised where the term ‘fast food’ comes from, because these

movements of tourists and staff in the early morning had elicited deep growls from the leopard that was feeding on the kill in a drainage furrow. The research staff and rangers were called in and they managed to keep the people away and darted the leopard as it lay half hidden in the drainage ditch. The small target that the leopard presented meant that the dart did not penetrate properly and the leopard took off like a scalded cat, running through the camp over the fence at the doctor’s rooms and then turned into the house where the front door was open. The commotion caused by the leopard running into the house with a whole group in pursuit meant that the lady of the house ran out of the kitchen and saw the leopard in the lounge. The leopard leapt at her but slipped on the smooth tiled floor and scratched her, without being able to get good purchase for a proper leap. Fortunately, she ran out the door and slammed it shut. The officials now had an angry leopard trapped in the house and as they walked around the house, peering gingerly through the windows, the leopard charged and broke through a window and ran past the people into the street where it was put down. The bulk of my work in my first year in the Kruger National Park consisted of following predators

Bryan Havemann General Manager Timbavati Private Nature Reserve bryan.havemann@gmail.com

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39 | African Wildlife & Environment | 65 (2017)