We have all our technical problems resolved now, although we are still trying to fill in a few holes in the data from mid-March. I've attached the current map, which takes us up to March 29th.
On March 28th, we added a new temptation for the boys, in the form of two new, younger, females; Tisha and Shanti. They are currently in the 2 ha pen, but will be moved in with Misty and rosy in the 50 ha pen in a couple of weeks time. Tisha has been fitted with a satellite collar, and Shanti with a simple radio collar. It is hoped that these two girls, currently about 2.5 yrs old, will be able to be released into NamibRand after approximately 2 months in the pens here. Currently they are very shy of people, and have also apparently not spent any time courting the boys, although they did watch them covertly this morning (April 1st) from the far corner of their enclosure.
Our boys are still spending most of their time either with Misty and Rosy, or lurking close to the fence and trying to attract them over. They have also started ranging Eastwards more often, although when we drove over there, they spotted us watching them (from about 1 km away) and strolled over for a look. On March 24th however, James made a very exciting discovery when he found the boys feeding from a pair of Hartebeest (a mother and calf). This means that for the first time, a second member of the group has made a kill! Up to now, all kills have been made by Kia. There is no way to know which of them brought down the second Hartebeest, but hopefully we'll be able to witness them in action again in the future and see who else is getting involved.
Either way, this was a substantial feast, and should keep them fed for many days.
Rob
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment