Archive for the ‘Supporting Painted Dog Conservation’ Category

Apr
16

Making Progress at Painted Dog Conservation Zimbabwe By Lisa Marie Avendano, Veterinary Hospital and Animal Manager.

Posted by in Africa,community-based conservation,Conservation,Endangered Species,Field Research,Series,Staff assisting wildlife protection in the wild,Supporting Painted Dog Conservation,Travel

Lisa Marie Avendano, Houston Zoo Veterinary Hospital and Animal Nutrition Manager is in Zimbabwe assisting our wildlife conservation partners at Painted Dog Conservation. 

Day 3

As I reported in my last update, we did not have success in our first attempt to find parasites, so today we decided to head out in the project vehicles and track dogs early in the morning so we could potentially  find fresh samples.

Thanks to the expert tracking skills of PDC staff member, Jealous Mpofu, we were successful in locating the Kutanga painted dog pack. Unfortunately no fresh scat samples were to be found at that time, but it was my first sighting of a  painted dog pack in the wild and I will never forget it!

And just a short while later we came across very fresh lion scat. And there in the dirt near by were tracks belonging to a lioness and cubs!

Believe or not, the day got even better, when once again we came across the Katunga pack of painted dogs and this time we retrieved a fresh sample. That day in the lab, after processing both the lion and painted dog samples, we had positive results.

The students did an excellent job identifying the  parasites and they were thrilled with their accomplishment, knowing they were on their way to attaining news skills to aid painted dog conservation and research.

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Apr
15

Greetings from Painted Dog Country! By Lisa Marie Avendano, Veterinary Hospital and Animal Nutrition Manager.

Posted by in Africa,community-based conservation,Conservation,Endangered Species,Staff assisting wildlife protection in the wild,Supporting Painted Dog Conservation,Travel,Uncategorized

Lisa Marie Avendano, Veterinary Hospital and Animal Nutrition Manager is in Zimbabwe assisting our wildlife conservation partners at Painted Dog Conservation. 

Day 1

Arrived at Victoria Falls Airport after 1pm and then a two hour drive south to the Hwange National Park area and Painted Dog Conservation. After almost 3 days of travel I needed a good nights’ rest.

 Day 2

Right to work the next morning, after introductions to my new friends and students at the veterinary facility. Check out the solar panels!

The group I am training in the laboratory for parasite procedures is made up of  6 PDC staff members and 3 interns, all eager to learn.

The team has been practicing microscope techniques in anticipation of my arrival and they were ready to get started. We had a disappointing first attempt at finding parasites in a fixed painted dog scat sample but, I assured my pupils that they had nothing to worry about and soon enough we would have positive results as parasites are just a fact of life in wild populations. We spent the rest of the day on reviewing procedures and covering questions.

Even though we found no parasites, this day was still eventful. I visited the rehabilitation center and there, from a distance, I met Aurora a painted dog that will hopefully join a pack in the wild soon.

Looking forward to success on Day 3, so check for new updates soon!

 

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Dec
06

The Houston Zoo is educating Painted Dog Conservation about bats

Posted by in Africa,Bats,community-based conservation,Conservation,Rachel and Cullen in Africa,Supporting Painted Dog Conservation

Cullen with bat that lives in the roof of the guest housing at Painted Dog Conservation

Cullen Gieslman is a Houston Zoo conservation board member.  She has been studying bats for quite some time and volunteered to accompany Conservation Programs Manager, Rachel Rommel to Painted Dog Conservation in Zimbabwe to educate staff there about bats.  Painted Dog Conservation’s (PDC) education program for the local communities focuses on the eco-system.  PDC was very eager to have Rachel  and Cullen contribute an amphibian and bat component to this program.   Enjoy Cullen’s bat update from PDC in Zimbabwe.

Cullen weighing bat

This is a brief bat update and photos that Rachel took of me and the bats living in our house. It’s really the only batting we have done besides wandering around with bat detectors. We’ll try to get more photos with the camp kids when we show them the bats next week. The housing for visiting scientists at Painted Dog Conservation in Zimbabwe shelters a large colony of bats that we hear squeaking and moving about day and night. To find out what species we are cohabitating with, we devised a plan to capture a few.

Rachel, Cullen and Greg Mist-netting for bats

We taped a very short mist net (2.6 meters long and about 2.6 meters high) to some poles and, once it got dark, we observed the direction the bats were taking as they flew out of their roost. We quickly positioned the net right in their path and, after intercepting four, swung the net out of their way because we would only need a few to confirm species. I gingerly extracted each from the net and placed it in its own cloth holding bag. I could tell from the shape of the face and ears and presence of a free tail extending beyond the tail membrane more than one-third of its length that we had captured a species of free-tailed bat in the family Molossidae.

Cullen measuring bat

I then consulted Bats of Southern and Central Africa to determine the species based first on forearm measurement and then on description. Our cohabitants turn out to be Mops midas, or Midas free-tailed bat, a large species (forearm = 61 mm, mass = 45 g) associated with hot, low-lying savanna and woodlands in southern Africa. We captured two lactating females, one pregnant female, and one scrotal male suggesting that our house is being used as a maternity roost and that the noise we hear during the night are mothers coming back to feed their young.

Adults of this species eat insects, mainly beetles, which are very abundant in the area. After measuring and weighing our captives, we released them to go about their nightly forays.

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Dec
02

The Houston Zoo is Toad (and Bat) Tracking with Painted Dog Conservation

Posted by in Africa,amphibians,Carnivores,community-based conservation,Rachel and Cullen in Africa,Supporting Painted Dog Conservation

Houston Zoo Conservation Program Manager Rachel Rommel is in Zimbabwe with our partners at Painted Dog Conservation to bring the Houston Zoo’s Toad Trackers program to their evironmental education programing.

The Houston Zoos good friend, conservation board member and bat biologist, Cullen Geiselmen is also with me on this adventure with another colleague, and professional photographer from Austin, who will be photographing the kids in action during Toad Trackers. Cullen hopes to be able to mist net for bats so the kids will be able to learn about these creatures as well. She should have plenty of bats to choose from as there seems to be hundreds sleeping in the ceiling above our beds, sqeaking and chattering away. A little unnerving at first, but now quite peaceful when you are falling asleep. I wonder what they are saying to each other? Sounds important.

So first, things first, before the kids come, we need to do some reconaissance. The next several nights will be spent becoming aquainted with the local frogs, as I have never been here before! I have set up frog recording devices at local pans (ponds created by the wallowing of large animals). We are getting important data all day and night and will be able to identify many of the species from their calls. When the kids get here, they will go through this information as well and learn the frogs by sight and sound.

We have been out the last two evenings looking for amphibians and have been quite lucky thanks to the rains. Several unique and strikingly gorgeous species have been found. Whenever we go to the pans at night we go as a group and have a guard with us as well because of the likelihood of predators skulking about. Not something I generally have to worry about in Texas. Maybe thats why there doesnt seem to be too many herpetologists in this part of Africa…perhaps they were all eaten by lions?

Stay tuned for Amazing Amphibian photographs.  Here is one of our night guard who actually was a great frog spotter as well, he really got into it! Holding the Bocage’s tree frog that he found.

 

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Dec
01

The Houston Zoo shares Toad Trackers with Painted Dog Conservation

Posted by in Africa,amphibians,community-based conservation,Conservation,Rachel and Cullen in Africa,Supporting Painted Dog Conservation

Houston Zoo Conservation Program Manager, Rachel Rommel is in Zimbabwe with our partners at Painted Dog Conservation to bring the Houston Zoo’s Toad Trackers program to their childern’s environmental education programing.  Enjoy Rachel’s update from Zimbabwe.

“It’s my first visit to Africa and I am honored to be able to visit and work with such a beautiful, happy and warm people…the Zimbabweans. I am visiting our partners here at painted Dog Conservation just outside of Hwange National Park.

The crew here have been joking that we brought rain with us as they have been in a drought and the wet season is starting very late. They got the first good rain not two days before our arrival. This is good news for crops and water collection and also lucky me because that means lots of frogs, and alas, that is why we are here!

When the night falls in the Savannahs of Zimbabwe, and most of the large mammals have hunkered down for the evening, a whole other host of small creatures emerge from their hiding places, shake their groove things, and one group in particular puts on the most amazing live orchestra you have ever heard, natures radio (as one local gentlemen called it) the frogs and toads.

I am here visitng to trial the Houston Zoos conservation education program, called Toad Trackers, with the local kids who have been through the PDC bush camp. The Director of the project, Dr. Greg Rasmussen, is hoping to identify science based and hands on kids programs that will eventually be a part of their Kids for Science program. Students will be visiting us from a local village where they will be spending three days with me learning all about native amphibians and actually going out in the field with us at night. The PDC education staff will be with us at all times, as well as two other guests that have joined me on this trip. The kids and the education staff are very excited about this opportunity. Who knows, perhaps we have some budding biologists amongst these students?”

 

 

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Nov
30

The Houston Zoo Supporting Painted Dog Conservation with Social Media

Posted by in Africa,community-based conservation,Conservation,Endangered Species,Supporting Painted Dog Conservation

The Houston Zoo’s conservation department is always looking for practical ways to assist our wildlife conservation partners.  We strive to provide them with the tools they need to succeed in saving species. 

Painted Dog Conservation (PDC) is a very good community-based conservation project in Zimbabwe that hires over 60 locals to help run their various conservation programs.  Their efforts have had tremendous results, but they often struggled to promote and share the successes effectivley with their supporters.   To that end, last month we sent social media specialist Molly Feltner, communications officer for the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, to PDC to help them with their external communications. During her time she was able to record audio interviews with all the project’s management staff, which will be used to rewrite text for the website and produce a multimedia video. Staff were taught how to edit photos for the web and how to make the best use of social media through Facebook.

Molly documented aspects of the project in order to create a complete hi-res photo archive for PDC staff to use in publicity.  She photographed the children’s education program(the Bush Camp), conservation club classes, the community projects funded by PDC (such as bore holes, community gardens, and projects with the health clinics), the captive painted dogs housed at the rehabilitation center and the wild packs living around the center.  She got footage of the anti-poaching unit activity and the Iganyana art center and artisans that create the snare wire sculptures. She also helped redesign the newsletter that is sent out to the PDC’s supporters on a monthly basis. 

We will continue to assist PDC with this effort, but we are happy to report that many of PDC’s staff are better equipped to share the good news coming from Zimbabwe!

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Sep
21

Snares in Exchange for Infrastructure Support to the Communities Around Hwange National Park -By John Huston, Houston Zoo Agriculture Associate

Posted by in Africa,Carnivores,community-based conservation,Endangered Species,Painted Dog,Peter's African Adventure '11,Supporting Painted Dog Conservation

John Huston is helping the Houston Zoo’s conservation department implement better livestock management for the communities that our partner’s, Painted Dog Conservation work with in Zimbabwe.  He has had experience assisting rural people in Africa with their livestock practises in the past, so we are very grateful for his help.

John with cattle in Zimbabwe

When Zoo employee Brandon arrived he went straight to work at the livestock dip tank.  He seems to be a natural at working without regard for straight edges and right angles.  We did manage to get the poles anchored down to the block wall and even had the roof on in no time.

 

We have been moving a bunch of dirt and doing it the old fashioned way.  It is hard work, especially in this intense Zimbabwean sun.  Members of the community work in shifts throughout the day.  Each day we get over 40 different people.  The hole is nearly 3 meters deep now and we are going to 4.  When the tank is done it will hold nearly 50,000 liters of water and the community will be able to keep clean water in their dip tank. 

Cattle Dip

Why is this important?  The dip tank is where they treat cattle for ticks.  Cattle are very important to the community.  They provide food through milk and meat, the serve as a bank account, and they provide the much needed draft power for cultivating fields and transporting goods.  The people loose valuable resources when the cattle are not healthy.  By helping the community to improve the health of their livestock we are providing a tremendous service. 

In exchange for our infrastructure support to the community they then supply us with 1,000 snare wires from the national forest and surrounding areas.  From a practical sense, we need the snare wire to reinforce the concrete that will be used in constructing the tank.  From an idealistic perspective, wire that is removed from the community reduces the opportunity for animals to be poached.  Approximately one third of the painted dog deaths recorded in this part of Zimbabwe over the past 5 years is from dogs that are actively hunting wildlife and are caught in snare wire. 

We know that we will not likely see an end to poaching but by working with the community through education and infrastructure support we can see the illegal activity reduced.  And that is a step in the right direction.

Written by John Huston

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