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Final Report September 2009

Between 31 May and 5 June, nineteen people were trained by two officials from Save the Rhino Trust (SRT) to become Rhino Monitors. Of the group of trainees, 13 were from commercial Custodian land units and six from the Ministry of Environment & Tourism.

The course covered both the practical and theoretical, with topics such as rhino conservation background; uses of rhino horn; the cultural, spiritual and economic value of rhino; the classification of rhino sightings and importance of collecting good rhino information; how to conduct a rhino patrol and approach a rhino; recording sighting information; determining the age classes of calves, and sexing rhinos as well as scoring their condition.

Of the 19 trainees, 15 passed the examination with 80% or more.

Ideally, the course should be restructured and adjusted. Care must be taken to select people with similar levels of education to avoid faster learners becoming bored and slower learners becoming despondent. Furthermore, examination questions were not always clear and results were thus affected by an understanding of the questions.

Conclusion:
Although the course, as structured currently, was not ideal for this group of trainees, it brought to light logistical difficulties and indicated the way forward for further training of Rhino Monitors.  Also, it became evident the there is a strong need and willingness for people to be trained as it reinforces the feeling of being a partner in the Custodianship Programme.

Progress Report February 2009
During the past few years the Save the Rhino Trust (SRT) has played a pivotal role in training communal Conservancies who are part of the Black Rhinoceros Custodianship Programme of the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET). Currently, six communal Conservancies are part of the Programme, all of which have undergone training, with the most recent training having taken place during January 2009.

MET is currently dependent on the expertise of SRT in regard to training. Despite having a rhino monitoring team within MET who monitor the black rhinoceros population in Kaross, the rare species camp of Etosha National Park, no adequately trained personnel with the capacity of training others is available.

During late February and early March 2009 two more communal Conservancies and three freehold land units are being stocked with black rhinoceros populations. Both MET and SRT are involved in these translocations. As part of the translocations, eight rhinos will have to be boma trained for release on two free-hold land units in southern Namibia. The Black Rhino Custodian Manager will be committed to the boma training of these animals for the entire duration, starting early March to mid-April 2009.

Planning & Progress

The Custodians of the rhinos to be translocated during February and March 2009 will be present during the capture and boma care of the animals. They will receive on site training on how to identify the individual animals, as well as photographing them for identification purposes. Each animal will be fitted with a horn transmitter, and the Custodians will be trained on how to use telemetry systems in order to track the animals post release. SRT will assist with aerial post-release monitoring of the rhinos. 

During the capture period, MET and SRT personnel will plan the new training course and run the selection for the most suitable candidates for the initial training phase. Due to the intense boma training period, the formal training course will not be able to take place before May 2009.
 

The primary goal of the project is thus to provide scientific and holistic ecological data that can be used by ecosystem managers in long-term active management strategies and to produce an interpretive assessment of the potential environmental impacts of the Delta's principal conservation issues. The information provided by the project on the present population demographics, assembly patterns, preferred resources and habitats, movement patterns and spatial distribution patterns of medium-sized herbivores within the southern Okavango Delta will dramatically increase our understanding of what factors are of primary importance in regulating the system's herbivore population.

Through the study, population demographic data will allow us to identify herbivores with abnormal population structure, a good indication of population instability. By identifying the herbivores at most risk, more detailed research into causes and possible mitigation strategies can be initiated at an earlier stage and species specific management plans developed.

The information that this project will allow Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) and NGO ecosystem managers to understand what within habitat characteristics large-bodied herbivores are selecting for and how they move between these resources. Such understanding is critical to ensure that areas or habitats determined as of critical importance to the long-term stability of the system's herbivore population are protected. This information will also be used to create a fauna layer for a multi-disciplinary dynamic systems model that is being developed at the Harry Oppenheimer Okavango Research Centre (HOORC). The herbivore layer will allow us to model how populations vary with flooding and vegetation and will therefore be vital in enabling predictions to be made on how changing flood regimes, due to either natural or human consequences, will affect mammalian populations.

During the course of this study, a long-term population demographics monitoring programme will be developed. This will be used to complement the annual DWNP aerial surveys, allowing population trends to be accurately established.

Increasing understanding of the Okavango Delta ecosystem and how vulnerable it is to disturbance is an additional target of this project. Education is vital, with content and delivery method being modified according to the target audience. Formal presentations are made twice a year at the HOORC, which are open to the public and interested parties, including DWNP officials, academics from University of Botswana, employees of NGOs and other stakeholders are personally invited. Less formal workshops are also held twice a year for students attending the Botswana Wildlife Training Institute in Maun and are also held for groups of school and university students visiting from abroad. When requested, informal talks and workshops are also given to individuals working within the Delta ecosystem and to visitors to the area.

Project Findings (interim) - December 2008
Hattie Bartlam
I have now finished fieldwork for this particular project and am presently in the UK writing up the research for a thesis and publishing the results. The project was very successful and I feel we collected data that has greatly increased our understanding of herbivore distribution in this complex system (such as the critical resource species/characteristics for herbivore distribution, effect of spatial memory, impact of seasonal variation of home range location in general herbivore density) - however like most research projects I have also uncovered some other questions that need answering.

The most unexpected outcome of the work on zebra movement was the discovery of an intact zebra migration between the peripheral Delta (i.e. southern Moremi, Santawani) to the Makgadikgadi Pan grasslands. This migration was made by a significant number of my collared animals and at an approximately 580km round trip, it is the second longest zebra migration in existence. It is made even more exciting by the fact that the zebra have only recently been able to restart this migration due to the removal of the Nxai Pan veterinary fence - it therefore has implications for other ecosystems where wildlife corridors are being erected as it suggests that terrestrial mammals are capable of recommencing historical movements if routes are reopened.

I am presently publishing this data in an academic journal. However, we still have a lot more to find out about the migration - how many animals do it, does the route vary each year, is it a distinct population, the driving forces, and many more! In the immediate term I am looking to re-collar migratory individuals (and ideally increase the number of collared animals) later this year to ensure that we keep track of the movement through known individuals and to conduct a population estimate at the commencement of the movement next November.

Quarterly Report - May 2008
The last three months of the project have been successful, with field research undertaken in both the Self-drive Moremi and Mombo/Chief's Island study areas. Significant rain fell in January and February, initiating wet season vegetation growth and filling of seasonal pans across the study areas. Wet season data collection was completed by March.

As was expected, habitat usage by the zebra varied significantly once enough rain had fallen to fill seasonal pans and to initiate vegetation growth. In both areas, utilisation of grassland and open acacia habitats increased during the wet season. My first year results show that during the wet season the annual grass growth is maximal in these habitats; zebra may therefore have moved into these areas to select these nutrient-rich annual grasses.

Although both areas showed similar patterns, floodplain usage in Mombo remained significantly higher than in self-drive. Data collected in Year One demonstrated that the grass composition and quality differed significantly between the areas. On floodplains, the Mombo study area floodplains had higher amounts of C. dactylon and P. repens and higher ground cover. These floodplains were also flooded for more sustained periods of time and as such have greater re-growth when the flood resided. These factors may have explained to some extent the differing habitat usage between study areas.

The differing wet and dry season home range was especially distinct in the self-drive study area. Cross-over between seasonal home ranges was minimal; especially in terms of zebra visiting the core wet season home range in the dry season. As discussed before, this may be due to forage availability. However, studying the geography of the wet season home range the role of water availability also becomes obvious; when seasonal pans and water holes are dry zebra would have to walk many kilometres between foraging and drinking areas, making such areas poor energetic choices in the dry season.

Only two of the Mombo collared zebra (z3668 and z3685) showed distinct seasonal differences in home range area, although as discussed habitat utilisation did differ. These zebra moved further to the south during the wet season, utilising the more expansive open acacia woodland and grassland areas found to the south of Mombo Island and on Chief's Island. The remaining collared zebra (e.g. z3747) remained in the north of the study area, utilising much the same area as during the dry season. These differences may be due to differences in quality and quantity of preferred forage compared to the self-drive study area, meaning that zebra (and other grazers) can be supported here throughout the year.