First Pangolin

So, yes, I did see a Pangolin. Two days ago I was about to explain, that yes – while I do have a better chance than most of seeing a Pangolin (due to the radio tags), it is still incredibly unlikely that I would see one as they are very elusive animals; moving great distances each night and staying underground for most of the day. But I did see one. And I couldn’t finish my explanation because Paul arrived.

So yesterday morning, it was kind of a ‘hope to see one, but don’t say it aloud – knock on wood’. Any clues to a Pangolin’s whereabouts are better than none. Paul came along on our usual camera round up – we saw that both Muddy and Hooker were at the same waterhole within minutes of eachother, which is interesting as we had sign of a rhino fight in the area recently. We were still hoping to catch sight of leopard or a cheetah, and Graham had seen a group of 3 male cheetah at the plain earlier in the week; they must be drinking in the standing water in the bush behind the hills. We then went down to the bush camp and tried again to locate these dropping sites and were successful! Turns out Bruno’s GPS which I had been using has something wrong with it as it continually places us slightly NW of our real location. Paul’s GPS led us there, and we even found a 3^rd site. We collected all the dung and have laid them out on paper. One day, when we’re 100% sure its pangolin, well try and see if we can identify the ant remains inside (could maybe be Aardvark).

In the afternoon we went out at the northern boundary of the reserve onto a public road to try and check the Pangolin’s radio signals. There are 2 fitted with radio tags. One of these, Okolunu, was found on this road but released up at the house. Within days it had walked and found its way back to its territory. This is the Pangolin we found. There is a good chance we may not have found it if it weren’t for fate; the main car that was towed yesterday is still completely buggered (Grahams words), and the second land rover had some fuel problems and stalled about 100m out of the house. We had to be towed back by the tractor and waited for a while for them to patch up alright. After it was alright we could go on to the road and stopped at regular points along it. Tim would get up on the roof of the car to scan for signal with the Yagi antenna, which receives bleeps when pointed at the tag (within 2km). Amazingly a faint signal was heard about 2km away from the reserve gate, and we decided to risk trespassing and walk into the neighbouring farmland. Stopping every so often to check the ever increasing signal, Tim led us to a small sandy patch in thick bush where he told us it must be. There were a few holes, and I stuck my head down the biggest of them. Unable to see anything I shoved my camera in front of me and took a flash photo, hoping any snaked would bite the camera and not me. After Paul pulled me out I was amazed to see that there was a Pangolin curled up at the back of the hole, about 2m down, completely out of focus on my screen. Of course, now followed the frenzy of each of the three of us going down with torches to look at it, and I took many flash photos – this time in focus.

Marking the GPS point, we decided to head back as it was dark and we were here illegally. Back at the house Graham began calling neighbours, asking for permission to traverse their land and arranging meetings. Then we celebrated.

This morning we went to the farm across the road from where Okolunu was found and talked to the owner who happened to be there (he rarely is). Nikkie Nshandi was a diplomat, the ambassador to the soviet union and a member of parliament, and was gracious, friendly and interested. He agreed to let us traverse his land, and also would pass on our instructions to his workers should they ever find a Pangolin.

The 2^nd guy we visited, who owns the land on which Okolunu was found, was the opposite of this. I forget his name, but Graham heard rumours that he earned his money smuggling diamonds. He sat and listened but didn’t appear interested in the research side of the project at all, instead asking ‘if the radio tag is on my land, then who’s property is it?’, and he asked for the research permit. We returned later in the afternoon with the permit and more photos which he ignored. In the morning we had luckily taken one of his workers with us out on to his farm before he arrived and tried to refind okolunu. We weren’t able to. Then in the afternoon he told us that our escort must be paid 20N$ per hour and lied to us that that was the rate he paid them (the escort had told us earlier he earned about 7N$ per day). His entire body language was bad and he seemed to want to cause trouble, or he had some other motives – so we decided to leave it for now.

We wanted to plant cameras around its new den, so brought metal poles and a big hammer. We also had shovels, trowels, all kinds of tubes and bait to see what kinds of ants were around. Shame that it was all for no use.

A lot has happened so this update is not so detailed as previous ones. I know more things I want to write but cant fit them in organically. I do have a landline internet connection now.

One of the rhinos down by the plain.

The waterhole down by the plain. Hide to the left, camera on the tree

Looking for Pangolin poo in the area around the camp

The dog Zap, super hyper. They love coming into the bush with us, and run off far ahead. We usually find them wallowing in water, waiting for us.

The pangolin visible at the far end of the hole

The pangolin Okolunu sleeping down a hole

A big kudu bull caught by the camera at the house

A curious impala by the camp waterhole

A herd of eland by the plain. Yesterday we saw a huge herd of perhaps 100 here.

An Oryx or gemsbok demonstrating drinking from the knees

Roberta with her calf at the plain waterhole

Some unusual jackal behaviour weve seen a few times now - inexplicable.

And for completeness's sake; here is my update for the previous two days:

Aargh, I should have written a blog yesterday, because now the last two days have blurred together.

 Let me try and distinguish:

Yesterday, I know for sure that I drove myself around in the afternoon looking for that poo again. As it was Saturday, Graham and the others had the afternoon off so unless I wanted to pay Tim overtime I could take the landy and go off on my own (with a radio). I drove down to the bush camp, and then a few kilometres along the road in front of it, which is awful and filled with holes. Then I parked, took all my stuff and walked about 300m into the bush with the GPS. Once again I failed, taking over an hour to go in increasing circles around the GPS point and comparing photos to the scene in front of me; it was as if the landscape had changed drastically. I then drove down to the Hyena dam and parked in the shade to see if any animals would come, being rewarded by a small group of the rather rare Tsessebe, which would tolerate me driving right up to them. On the way back, a Giraffe was kind enough to pose in front of the Tafelberg.

In terms of cameras, I went out with Graham this morning to do the usual round, but we had to turn back quickly as the exhaust pipe had come loose. Tim and Tommy were woken from their Sunday slumber and had it fixed within an hour. Fortunately this morning, Hooker decided to turn up again at the camp waterhole, and Roberta showed us her calf nicely, thereby completing the tour of all 7 rhinos – mission complete.

This afternoon Graham went to town to pick up Paul, and I took the opportunity to do laundry and clean the house a bit. They arrived much later as multiple things on the car had broken down, forcing a tow to Otavi for repairs. Paul is very nice, and after moving a bed to the other room he had his dinner (I already had mine) and we talked. More details to follow.