Kasanka News May / June 2001

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  June has brought the usual cold winter weather to Kasanka! As the grasses dry out they are carefully being burnt off under controlled conditions, and the wildlife is coming into view once more. The solar eclipse on 21st June, which attracted so many visitors to Zambia, was only partial in Kasanka and our camps were empty that night, but we have received a lot of visitors to both Kasanka and Shoebill, touring the country before and after the event.

The Cessna 206 being refuelled in the evening ready for an early morning flight over the Bangweulu

 

From 6th to 8th June the Wildlife Resource Monitoring Unit from the Environmental Council of Zambia conducted an aerial survey of the Chikuni Game Management Area in which Shoebill Island lies. The survey was done by flying straight lines 1.7 Kilometers apart at 300 feet above the ground. Two ropes are fixed to a wing spar so as to trail backwards in flight and form two horizontal lines, creating a strip along the ground when observed through the aeroplane’s side window. An observer counts all the animals seen in the strip and records the number and species of each group. When the boundary of the survey area is reached, the plane turns back and follows another parallel line 1.7 kilometers from the last. The width of the strip should remain constant if the plane remains level and it’s height above the ground constant. The width of this strip is measured by flying over a line of markers at 10 meter spacings and the observer counts the number inside his strip. From the data recorded in these strips an estimate can be made for the numbers of animals in the whole survey area.

In the case of the Bangweulu area the job is made difficult by the huge dense herds of Tsessebe and Lechwe which pass under the wing too fast to count! To relieve this strain on the observer, a digital video camera was used to film inside the strip and then animals were counted at leisure using freeze frames on replay.

A video still captures a group of buffalo partially within the strip marked by streamers. A careful count revealed the whole herd to be 117 animals.

The results were estimates of 200-400 Buffalo, 5,500 Oribi, 7,500 Tsessebe, and 5,000 reedbuck. The Black Lechwe (unique to Bangweulu) proved too numerous to count in the time available, but are certainly in tens of thousands!

The main purpose of this survey was to check numbers of species we hope to translocate from Bangweulu to Kasanka later this year. These are Buffalo, Tsessebe and Oribi.

 

 

We are pleased to report that the bird species list for Kasanka is now available on this website on the habitats and wildlife page. Keen birders are invited to find new species during their visits as there are doubtless many more to be added to the 406 already listed!  We are now working on a mammal list as well as a bird list for Shoebill Island. There’s also a more detailed description of Kasanka’s many habitats on the same page.

I’d like to finish with a special word of thanks to our many supporters around the world, whose contributions make our conservation work here possible. In particular I should mention the Holly Hill Trust who have stuck by us over the last 2 years with support for all important core costs. Rainforest Concern, Luwawata Conservation and three individuals have generously donated the funding needed for the planned translocation of depleted species into Kasanka, whilst private donors and Deutch Bank have combined to provide funding for some new infrastructure. The Beit Trust gave us a grant for new tourist facilities and I am pleased to report that the new chalets are nearly finished at Luwombwa. Our Community project has been supported by many kind sponsors including a Dutch charity FIDES for school renovations and the German Government for the new clinic under construction at Chalilo. Many thanks to all of you and welcome on board for any who feel they can also help

Edmund Farmer 24/6/01

 

 

 
May

At the end of the wettest rainy season for at least 15 years, we had recorded over 1.5 meters of rain when the tap suddenly turned off in early April! Rivers had all burst their banks, and the lakes had more water than ever before. Many roads were reduced to the consistency of soup, and the pontoon across the Kasanka impassable for 3 months! Thus April saw a big road repair operation. This was also the best time of year for upgrading roads by digging in the wet soil from the edges to lift the roads up a little.

 

Plans to build a clinic at the nearby village of Chalilo received a welcome boost with confirmation from the German Embassy that they will be making a grant to purchase building materials. Added to the money remaining from the Guernsey grant, we now have enough to complete the main building. After a shaky start the community has shown a strong commitment to the project and has pledged to work on an unpaid self-help basis until the buildings are complete. This comes as welcome news to our Trust Chairman in Zambia, as the bulky clinic equipment is stored in his garage! We will still need to find funding for the construction of housing for the medical staff, but building the main building will be a great start.

Considerable progress was made towards signing a new management agreement with the Zambian Wildlife Authority (ZAWA). The text of the new agreement was finalised to the satisfaction of both parties, but at the time of writing we are still awaiting a signature as the ZAWA management is in a state of flux.

Work has continued on the new lodge chalets with the Luwombwa buildings nearing completion and two Wasa buildings with completed brickwork. It is hoped to have all the chalets and the new Wasa dining room/bar building finished before August. At the same time, work is underway to build a new dining room at Luwombwa as the old one was blown down in a storm!

Bush concrete mixer preparing material for foundations

Poaching activities were at a low level with the scouts reporting very few signs of intrusion. This sounds like great news, but probably has more to do with the impassable rivers and long grass! The poachers will doubtless be in more strength in the coming months.

Kasanka Trust has now formally taken over management of Shoebill Island camp in the Bangweulu swamps, so that it will be run in conjunction with the Kasanka camps. Shoebill Island is already an integral part of the Kasanka circuit and offers intrepid visitors some unique spectacles.

Plans are being made to capture some game animals and release them in Kasanka. These are all species that were historically common in Kasanka but were either wiped out or reduced to unviable numbers by the years of uncontrolled poaching. Zebra have been offered free of charge from a game farm within Zambia and the cost of their capture and transport has been donated by three supporters. Additionally Rainforest Concern, a UK Charity has donated $10,000 towards the cost of capturing Tsessebe, Oribi and Buffalo in Bangweulu and translating them to Kasanka. It is hoped to carry out the exercise in early September after first carrying out an aerial survey of Bangweulu to establish that adequate stocks exist.


Expansion of the project could be on the horizon after an invitation from ZAWA for Kasanka Trust to submit a proposal for the management of Lavushi Manda National Park. Lavushi Manda is a large wilderness area (approximately 4 times the size of Kasanka) only 30 kms North East of Kasanka. It has received very little attention since inception and has low stocks of wildlife. However it’s history as a large block of unsettled land and the proven tendency of large animals such as elephants to move between Kasanka and Lavushi, makes it’s protection an interesting prospect for us.

Work in Kasanka has been assisted by a volunteer from UK getting conservation experience before starting biology at university. A second volunteer is due to arrive in a few days.

Just in case you think conservation is all about fresh air and running around the bush, I shall leave you with a picture of the Kasanka Park Office. All the radios, lights and computer and email are solar powered!

If anyone has a surplus laptop computer they could spare it could be put to great use in the conservation battle here!

 

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Those of you in the Northern Hemisphere enjoy summer whilst we wrap up for cold winter nights!

Edmund Farmer, Park Manager, 20 May 2001

 

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