Elephant Discussions (4)

Kevin offers his support

We received a boost this week when large carnivore behaviour specialist Kevin Richardson agreed to work more closely with the ILP, offering his skills and expert knowledge to assist us with upcoming projects. As most of you will know, Kevin has been associated with the ILP for many years, since he presented In Search of a Legend - Black Leopard. After hearing of our busy schedule and need for more assistance, Kevin was quick to offer his support and expertise to the ILP team. He brings a unique insight into the behaviour of carnivores, which will dovetail well with our operations in 2010.
We face some huge challenges next year and need more support both from experts and research volunteers. Let me know if you can help.
Written by Will Fox

Badger Release

We finally managed to release our two Honey Badgers at Kudu Game Ranch. Until release they had been cared for by our friends at the Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre for over two months. This gave us time to arrange for the requisite permits and hopefully a sufficient gap to allow the badgers homing instincts to diminish. The delay also allowed us time to implant a radio tracker in one badger, such that we could monitor his progress via telemetry.
The second badger was sedated and given a VHF collar, not an easy task I can tell you. Catching and sedating him took four of us and resulted in one bitten shin and one badly chewed finger amongst the capture team. To be honest, our efforts were all in vain because no sooner had he recovered from sedation, than he managed to pull the collar off. We had expected him to shed the collar within a few days, and after we'd established his home range, but he was having none of it; and left the collar in the bottom of his transport cage. That leaves us with one badger to track, which is being monitored by volunteers from Kudu Game Ranch. Last night he wandered off the property and headed towards Lydenburg. Presumably to create havoc there. We'll do our best to follow him where ever he goes, but it won't now be easy as he's traversing a number of properties. This is new territory for us all, as we simply do not have data on Badger behaviour in these area's. What we do know is that badgers have a large home range and can trek for 25kms or more in one session. We just hope he takes an about turn and heads back to Kudu Ranch soon.
Written by Will Fox