By Willem Nel | CEO
There has been a lot of new activity during the period by this report. Mitigation measures we have so far put in place continue to help the communities surrounding Chizarira National Park and prove to be very succesful and we have now expanded our focus areas from just the communities surrounding Chizarira National Park to Communities in Victoria Falls aswell.
The mobile livestock holding pens that we have deployed in various villages continue to be very successful in deterring spotted hyaena and lions from attacking cattle and goats kept in this facility. Where these structures are not in place, villages continue to suffer from livestock deaths by predators coming from the Park. Communities where we have depolyed these predator proof bomas to have gone onto their third year without any attacks on their livestock.
The holding pens are made of opaque plastic that wildlife cannot see through. The plastic sheeting is strung between poles and the livestock contained within. We have also deployed our first predator proof Boma in Victoria Falls.
Apart from our usual stratergies, we have deployed two new and effective stratergies, focusing on Victoria Falls, but soon implenting the same stratergies in Chizarira Communities.
One such statergy is using LED Flashing lights to deter predators from around areas where livestock is being kept. These lights are fixed to trees and posts around the livestock. One version of the lights constantly flash throughout the night and the flashing lights scare the animals away. Another verison of the light is motion sensored and turns on and off when movement is detected. This sudden light scares predators away. This has been very effective and has proven succesful to date.
Another very new initiative that we have dubbed the "iCow" initiative, is a process based off of detering markings on moths. Predator species always attack from behind, as that is the vulnerable part of an animal. Whenever a predatory species assumes it has been seen by its prey it often aborts the hunt. We have taken this and has painted eyes on the rumps of livestock.
Therefor when a predator approaches they get the impression that the animal has seen them and aborts the hunt. This is a new technique and is very cost effective for the communities. We have introduced this into two communities and have had a high success rate to date, with now livestock that have been painted being preyed upon.
We are able to keep human-wildlife conflict to a minimum through other work we are doing namely collaring lions and elephants. Whilst these projects are looking at various research and monitoring aspects, we are able to pre-warn villagers of elephants or lions approaching their villages (by monitoring the GPS locations given by the collars) thus giving the villagers time to put in place traditional mitigation measures such as fires around holding pens and crops, banging pots and drums, having dogs nearby etc.
By Dr Norman Monks | Director Research
By Dr Norman Monks | Director Research
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