Northern Zululand Honorary Officers

Leopard Project     

November 2009 Report

Objectives Achieved in November 2009:

• Continued Road Mapping Efforts in Somkhanda
• Continued Site Identification in Somkhanda
• Create and gave presentation at HO AGM meeting in Pietermaritzburg
• Obtained shape files for Somkhanda and C. Senekal’s properties

Photo: Stewart Nolan

• Donation obtained as a result of HO presentation
• Assisted C. Kelly from Wildlife Act in tracking escaped wild dogs outside Mkhuze Game Reserve
• Donation received from LEAP in the amount of R1000 as a result of two leopard adoptions from ZRR leopards. Created two leopard sponsorship kits to be sent to adoptees.
• Re-investigated leopard photographs and ids from Thanda survey to begin assembling identikit for Thanda. Approached Russel from Thanda to get all recent photos sent to me in an attempt to begin compiling an identikit for them.
• Updated ZRR leopard files by using camera trap and other photos taken in the game reserve.

Goals for December 2009:

• Initiate “trial phase” for Somkhanda survey
• Initial “Phase 1”
• Obtain research vehicle via purchase or sponsorship

Results Seen:

• The project continues to be impeded by the lack of a vehicle. With one more day’s effort all of the sites for Phase one of the survey should be identified. We can not, however, even begin the trial phase without a research vehicle. Once we have a vehicle, the project should run efficiently and smoothly in Somkhanda from then on out.
• C. Kelly has had two of his black rhino identification cameras stolen from Somkhanda. This is a great concern to us as the amount money the project has invested in equipment is very large. His cameras did not have protective cases, however. I am also strongly inclined to chain the cameras to trees wherever possible. This is possibly an issue we will want to bring up with the management of the reserve as this means we are taking a huge financial risk by surveying Somkhanda. 
• The presentation given at the Honorary Officer’s AGM was a huge success and it was indicated to Vic Meyer that Dr. Mkhize is interested in our results. We hope that this may be the beginning of working more closely with Ezemvelo on the issue of leopard hunting and destruction permits. 
• The following is the map we’ve been able to compile of Somkhanda. The yellow lines/dots indicate places we’ve driven. As is evident, there are many roads that we have driven that haven’t been mapped. This has made getting to know the reserve much more complicated. There is a map that contains most of these roads and the creators (a company in Durban) have sent me the shape files for all the “roads” but none of them include those roads. I am attempting to have them search for the files that they used to map these roads but so far have not had any success. The limited road network in certain areas of the reserve coupled with difficult terrain in those areas is going to make camera trapping those particular spots much more challenging.  
• ZRR has begun using their camera traps, but have placed only one in each site and have had a bit of difficulty with placement of cameras in the ability to get identifiable photos from them. They have photographed two leopards so far, one is from the back and at quite a distance and it is not possible to get an id from the photograph. The other is one side only. I suspect this individual is “Unknown 1” from the experimental period prior to the survey because of a kinked tail and incredibly small spots on its coat, but because my photo of this individual was taken with only one camera also, and both are of different sides of the body, this can not be confirmed. Most interestingly, a male was photographed in person by the managers of the reserve. This is a new male for the ZRR. It is indicated that he is from Thanda, although I can not find any photos of him in our records, supposedly C. Senekal has a photo from Thanda of this male. He has moved into the north of the reserve, exactly where we would expect a new male to take up residence. From the photos he appears to be a younger male. I have advised ZRR management in a trap set up strategy and offered to help with camera placement to help in getting identifiable photographs. I have not been taken up on this offer. I believe the management of the ZRR is very busy and have not had the time to do this.
• Site selection has been going very well. We have identified a large number of “priority” sites and have now to identify sites for “spread” (essentially those in areas that aren’t the best for leopard trapping but that we need to trap to fill in gaps in the survey). Below red stars indicate selected camera trap sites (all in good areas), purple centers indicate known areas where a trap must be placed, and green circles are in unknown areas to indicate approximate spread needed (in second phase of survey). This survey design replicates the spread in the ZRR survey and the surveys done by the Mun-ya-Wane project so that results will be comparable. The survey will cover approximately 19,000 hectares and we are aiming for a total of 30 sites (just over 2 per 1,400 hectares), with 15 sites (30 cameras) up and operating during each phase of the survey.