Based on an October 2002 newsletter
Have you ever witnessed the social interplay between wild dog pups and their sitter? When the rest of the pack leaves the den to go hunting, it is usually the alpha female that is saddled with the unenviable task of puppy sitting. The pups appear to have inexhaustible energy and are also mischievous by nature. This, combined with their natural curiosity, causes them to constantly wander off and explore. It is at these times that they are extremely vulnerable to predation and I suspect that were it not for the puppy sitters, we would probably not see any wild dogs at all.
The task of running around constantly chasing these happy wanderers back to the safe perimeter of the den is not an easy one. The little reprobates are hell-bent on going where they shouldn’t. I often wonder if border collies are such fantastic sheep herders because they have the same coded-in desire to keep pups (and sheep) in the safety of a den? Not only do wild dog pups wander off endlessly, they bite playfully at the sitter’s hocks and being almost always hungry, jump up and nip painfully at her nose and mouth, demanding food. Those puppy teeth may be small, but they are as sharp as needles, just like a genet’s. I’m sure you will agree this can test even the strongest resolve.
Wild dog pups are not the only creatures that need herding for their own protection. The following shows that desperate times call for desperate measures.
Every year, from August to October, the natural order is stress. The last couple of months leading up to early November rains and hopefully the start of the rainy season, are always the most stressful for our animals and their custodians. As the grass gets denuded under the relentless mouths and hooves of the herbivore biomass, the bulk grazers, particularly buffalo, will wander great distances in search of food regardless and unaware of the dangers that moving off the reserve poses. This search for ‘greener grass’ exposes them to the dangers of poachers’ snares and unscrupulous hunters who concentrate their efforts in the area north of the river, a favourite winter feeding ground for our resident herd of buffalo.
Another scourge that threatens our wild buffalo herds and ultimately our responsibility to contain foot-and-mouth disease, are the fly-by-night buffalo breeding projects that have popped up all over the lowveld. A few of these projects illegally ‘recruit’ wild buffalo, absorbing them into their breeding programmes. The animals they can’t use, like adult bulls, are hunted by trophy hunters, and the younger bulls are used for meat. One such breeding project on our boundary was suspected of supplementing its numbers in this way. In one season, a herd of over 40 buffalo just disappeared. This herd had a particular cow with unique horns. She was subsequently seen and photographed on the other side of the fence inside this buffalo breeder’s property. This proved beyond doubt that this practice was not only rife, but that it was carried out with blatant and total disregard for veterinary law, let alone civil law, and was tantamount to rustling!
In another instance, a breeder to the north of our reserve laid his fence down and when 35 buffalo walked into his property, lifted the fence up again behind them, as simple as that. Thankfully, new laws and stricter control measures have since been implemented, all but eliminating the possibility of acquiring more buffalo than their project permit allows.
The urge to cross the river is hunger-driven, as are most migrations of game, and our buffalo are determined to go where they shouldn’t. So we take enormous risks trying to get them back when they cross. Watching the game guards running up and down the river bank, trying to chase the buffalo back when they behave just like naughty wild dog pups, trying to dodge around them and go where they know the grass is greener, reminds one of the situation the pup sitter often has to cope with. Unlike the pup sitter, however, which would have taken an unruly pup firmly by the scruff of the neck and deposited it safely back at the den, our guards cannot resort to scruff-of-the-neck treatment with the notoriously dangerous and uncooperative Cape buffalo.
To cut a long story short, all but two buffalo were safely encouraged back to the reserve and as a result of the good rains in the Blyde River catchment area, the Olifants River has risen sufficiently to discourage any buffalo from crossing back over again, so for the time being our buffalo sitters can take it easy. Well, until the river drops again, of course.
Later we found that there are buffalo that will swim a dangerously swollen river to get where they want to go.
The reality is that we did our best, but the other reality is that an animal driven by hunger is determined and our well-meaning efforts were ineffective, particularly as the season became progressively drier. Ultimately, we had to make an offer they couldn’t refuse! Prior to the removal of the Klaserie fence, we spent hundreds of thousands of rands on supplementary winter feed to discourage the buffalo from wandering off across the river. I’m pleased to say that the cost we incurred and the logistical difficulties we handled were well worth it. The excellent configuration of the buffalo herd today owes much to the commitment of Balule Nature Reserve generally and the shareholders of Olifants River Game Reserve specifically due to their initiation of this project.
In the next chapter, I deal in more detail with this issue and the events that led to a sustainable solution.