NEWSFLASH: TURGWE HIPPOS
(a little bit of good news for a change!)
Over one week has passed since the incident with the armed poacher. During that period, we have been busy patrolling the area he snared and continuing to go into the place where he tried to ambush us.
We eventually found a further five wire snares. Upstream by the river the game scouts patrolled, finding a further 14 wires.
A total of 29 wires were removed from the area, saving the lives of 29 animals. Sadly, we found one poached wildebeest. All that remained of this young bull was its head. The poachers had killed it when it went down to the river to drink and butchered it in the vicinity of the water, leaving the grisly remains, possibly not realising we would find it the very next day.
Whether the man with his bow and arrow was responsible we do not know but, whatever, a lot more animals could have died if we had not found the wires so close to the hippos' home.
As it stands, most of the wildlife in our area that can move away has left our immediate vicinity. They have crossed over the Turgwe River to the opposite property, which has neither invaders nor poachers on it at present.
The invaders in our area all have dogs living with them and just the sight of these scrawny, underfed hunting dogs is enough to make the antelopes run away.
When one drives past the last remaining kudu or impala antelope left around our home, they do not panic.Yet on foot it is a different story. Animals that only a few months ago were not afraid of man on foot now totally panic and run when seeing Jean-Roger or myself. This is a sure sign of harassment by people on foot.
Also, the bush buck and waterbuck and kudus spend most of the daylight hours hiding in thickets in the riverine away from their normal browsing and grazing areas, coming out to eat only at dark. The animals are wise to the antics of man and hopefully will survive this onslaught of poaching and lawlessness.In the meantime, the very best news is what happened at dusk yesterday evening. Jean-Roger did the evening patrol for me so that I could sit for once with the hippos at their pool.
This last week has been so hectic with patrolling the area that time alone with the hippos has been minimal to say the least. I have a fantastic husband and he told me to just stay with the hippos whilst he went alone into the bad zone to check for further snares.
As I sat watching the antics of Bob and the family, suddenly, as dusk fell, two hippos began approaching the pool on the sand above the river. Then I noticed the third tiny, tiny member.
Cheeky had returned with her older son Mvura and behind her back legs came the latest addition to her family- a tiny calf about three-weeks-old. I had not seen Cheeky since the 11th January when she moved off downstream on her own. I was convinced she had left to have a calf, but after the previous years mistake of thinking she had had one, I was more cautious this year.
Mvura, who was her youngest calf, having been born in 1999, had been kicked away from his mother's side way back in December and had been living a sad solitary life in the bushes-occasionally coming back to the pool and joining his older brother Storm. Mvura now walked behind his new sibling and his Mum.
As always with calves that have been chased off to allow the new baby to bond with mother, poor Mvura was covered in new scratches and scars. Often the mother has to be quite forceful with her calf to wean it from her side, allowing the newborn to bond and drink without harassment from the previous brother or sister.
Cheeky saw me as I videoed her in the twilight. She was not quite sure of her approach to the pool as it is quite small and there were 16 of the hippos in it. Eventually all the young juveniles noticed Cheeky on the bank and they and the other calves all began leaving the water to investigate Cheeky's new baby. Since new mothers normally do not allow contact for the first six weeks of a calf's life, Cheeky backed into the bushes taking her baby with her and Mvura hung around in close proximity.
Cheeky roared the hippo angry call when two youngsters got too close and then it became too dark for me to continue watching so I came home. This morning she and her new calf and Mvura are not in the pool but I did not expect to find them there. She has a slight problem, as the water is very small in size so it will be difficult to keep the calf away from the others. I do not know if she will move in or not or perhaps wait for a couple more weeks. She was very dry looking though and obviously needs to get back into a decent depth of water for herself and for her new calf to learn what being a hippo is all about.
We cannot afford to do more of the pool with the sand pump yet as we still could have rain in March. We just have to hope that all will be okay until then.
Today, Surprise is not in the pool so she too, I believe, may have gone off to have a new baby. She has kept Climber, her calf born in 2000, well away from her in the last couple of weeks.Climber too has a few new scars from trying to return to her mother's side. So we now have 19 hippos in this area and I must be even more vigilant on their behalf.The rewards are many. The tiredness falls away when one see's these gorgeous animals relaxed and happy in their pool. The joy of a new calf is always superb, but in these trying times it makes up for so many other terrible sadnesses and deaths of other animals.
We live in hope.
Karen Paolillo, Hippo Haven, Save Valley Conservancy, Zimbabwe. February24th. 2002.