New Year has arrived and new beginnings for monitoring on the Okavango! This year our programme aims to finally get started with proceedings. The aim of this programme is to set up a comprehensive, yet realistic, monitoring programme for our local wildlife department (DWNP).
With active crocodile hunting and farming operations taking place in the system, we feel there is no better time to be setting this programme up and training the wildlife scouts to implement it. The basic objectives include monitoring population trends, nests, croc-human conflict and baseline contaminant levels with added studies in genetics and movement patterns.
The programme received a boost when University of Botswana's Harry Oppenheimer Okavango Research Centre (HOORC) expressed interest to test for the presence of heavy metals and pesticides in crocodile tissue. This is an exciting project and the first of its kind in the Okavango Delta!
Population numbers will continue to be monitored by the mark-recapture programme and an exciting opportunity for tests will become available when the local crocodile farm begin their first release programme on the Okavango Panhandle. These crocs will be marked and hopefully present some very interesting data on success, movement and growth rates when (hopefully) recaptured in the future!
The first extensive nesting surveys for science will be occuring in the Delta this year. Concessionaires have expressed interest to have surveys done in their areas and this is great news for our programme. Only four nests have ever been recorded in the Delta itself!! We hope to also be involved with the Problem Animal Control unit in order to provide them with advice on relocation of problem animals rather than destruction of these crocs.
The rains this summer have been big in Ngamiland!!! The river level is still very high and word from Angola is that the river levels are rising quickly, it should be a good flood this year!
3 comments:
been a long time there sven. hope all is well in africa. not sure if you remember me, but i was on the earthwatch trip with kevin, audrey, and karsten. sounds like you are keeping busy. congrats on the masters and phd. tried that dumb joke about the ant and the elephant over in the states and it failed miserably, but it was worth a shot. anyway, if you get the chance let me know how things are going. hope you still have all your fingers and toes. if you can't remember, our group consisted of an older guy and gal from out east back in the states, mike (loved snakes) from california, a guy from england, and a guy from australia. take care of yourself...
mike bradtke from chicago.
Hello Mike! I'm sorry for the delay with the reply. I've just come in from the bush where I'm currently doing a post-doc on leopard. I'm also (obviously) still working with Vince on the crocodiles in the Panhandle and we will be working together full-time in the long-term. We are setting up a research station at Nxamacere, north of Sepopa,as a base from which to work. How are things there?
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