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 Organization: Brown Hyeana Research
Date: May, 2006
Participants: Gly Maude
Location: Makgadikgadi Pans, Botswana
Activities: Brown Hyeana tracking. We have worked with Glyn for several years. His study animal is the brown hyeana, a close cousin to the more common spotted hyeana, but vastly different in behavior. While the spotted hyeana is an accomplished hunter and scavenger, the browns rely solely on eating someone else’s kill to survive. They are strictly nocturnal spending their entire day underground. This makes tracking these animals quite difficult since night flying is impossible from remote unlighted bush airstrips. Tracking flights start just as the sun is coming up or just before sundown. Usually the time around sunrise and sunset permits about one hour of flying before they either head underground or a return to the airstrip is essential to be on the ground before the last glow of sunlight has disappeared. Glyn uses a data logging collar which collects GPS datapoints several times during the night. This data is stored in the collar, then transmitted to a receiver in the airplane. Once underground the signal is lost.
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 Organization: Tati Game Reserve
Date: May, 2005
Participants: Nicki Bosfield
Location: Francistown, Botswana
Activities: Aerial survey. Nicki is one of the African pioneers who migrated to Botswana from East Africa with her husband Jack decades ago. A dedicated conservationist she has been instrumental in obtaining 8000 hectares of land along the Tati river to establish a wildlife sanctuary. Because of its close proximity to Francistown she hopes to give the local residents a chance to see the animals that have made Botswana a crown jewel of ecotourism. She plans to introduce a variety of antelope species in addition to the few that still inhabit the area, plus Rhinos and other rare species. Since she is just beginning the long process an aerial survey becomes an invaluable tool in understanding the layout of the land, sources of available water and plant life, and developing a management plan.
 Organization: Flamingo Research
Date: May, 2006
Participants: Graham McCullouch, Anna
Location: SUA Pans -Botswana
Activities: Flamingo survey. Graham has been conducting research on flamingos in the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans for over ten years. In the latter part of the rainy season the flocks build their nests in areas such as Sua Pan to give birth to young. This over flight of the Sua pan allowed Graham to photograph the nests and see the concentration of chicks before the birds leave their nesting area and continue their migration before returning again next years. As the pans dry out following the rainy season the birds are forced to move on to escape from predators who can gain overland access to the nests and eat the chicks. In normal years the mortality rate is very high but due to the heavy rains and abundance of water it was obvious that this year provided for an unusually high survival rate.
 Organization: Linyanti Explorations Wildlife Trust
Date: June, 2006
Participants: Grant Nels, Andre
Location: Selinda Concession, Northern Botswana
Activities: General game survey. This is an area along the border between Botswana and the Caprivi Strip, a narrow strip of land owned by Namibia. This area contains several photographic safari camps. Linyanti Explorations has been conducting surveys four times a year for the past ten years. Although the survey only takes one day it provides valuable data on the number and diversity of animal species in their area, and assess any seasonal or yearly changes in habit and population concentration.
 Organization: Elephants Without Borders
Date: June, 2006
Participants: Mike Chase
Location: Chobe National Park, Kasane, Northern Botswana
Activities: Elephant tracking. Mike has numerous collars on elephants throughout Northern Botswana and the KAZA Transfrontier Conservation Area. This session concentrated on collared elephants along the Botswana - Zimbabwe border which did not have satellite tracking capability, or where the satellite component had failed and only the HF transmitter was still operating. Locating these animals by air allowed Mike to plan for a ground expedition to remove those collars would fail in the near future. This is vital since once the collar fails there is no way to locate the animal and remove the collar. If the collar is not removed the animal will be burdened until it falls off naturally or the elephant dies.
Organization: African Wildlife Foundation
Date: Aug, 2006
Participants: Simon Munthali, Dr M Stalmans, Harry van der Linde
Location: Banhine National Park, Mozambique
Activities: Aerial hydrology survey. After 25 years of civil war the Mozambique government is trying to rehabilitate a some of the national parks and game reserves that were overrun and destroyed during the conflict. Working with AWF they are starting from square one to assess the conditions of the parks and develop a management plan to restore the park to its former condition. Since most of the animals were either poached or driven out by the war the first step is to assess the viability of the habitat before reintroducing any species. This survey allowed hydrologists from the U.S. to determine the water system that feeds the park. Also, AWF must determine the extent of human habitation in the protected areas, and recommend a plan to restore the park without requiring mass relocations of the people who now live and raise crops and domestic animals in the area.
 Organization: African Wild Dog Research Zambia
Date: Aug, 2006
Participants: Kellie Leigh, Martyn Baker
Location: South Luangwa National Park, Zambia
Activities: Wild dog tracking. Kellie has been studying wild dogs in both the Lower Zambeze and South Luangwa National Park in Zambia. Studying wild dogs is almost impossible without tracking collars since these animals have a very large home range and move great distances in a single day. Although she has had some success in getting a few collars this was a golden opportunity to track another pack. When the alpha female gives birth to her pups the entire pack establishes a den site until the newborns are able to move with the pack... usually about 6 weeks. So this period when the dogs are stationary is an ideal time to locate the den, then track in by foot to dart one or more members. Our aerial flights enabled the team to get a precise fix on the den using radio tracking equipment, although we were unable to actually see the den or dogs from the air. Additionally, we conducted an over flight of most of the park to try and locate other collared dogs whose signals were either lost or intermittent.
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