2014 GAME CENSUS FOR HWANGE NATIONAL PARK AND SURROUNDING AREAS Compiled and Produced by Wildlife & Environment Zimbabwe Matabeleland Branch WILDLIFE & ENVIRONMENT ZIMBABWE - For Environmental Awareness - P.O. Box 169, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe GENERAL OVERVIEW ON THE 2014 HWANGE GAME CENSUS This overview is a simple layman’s appraisal of what has taken place, extracted from the recorded sheets: the whys and wherefores we leave to the experts! This year’s 24-hour Census took place from 1200 hours on 7th October to 1159 hours on 8th October, 2014. We had 316 voluntary participants, representing 95 teams, which teams were deployed throughout the Park and Forestry/Safari Lodge areas: in comparison, we had 85 teams in 2013 and 77 teams in 2012. There were 41 teams in the Main Camp area, 23 in the Robins Camp area, 21 in the Sinamatella area and 10 in the Forestry/Safari Lodge area. Last year at Main Camp we had 41 teams and 38 in 2012; at Sinamatella we had 18 teams and 12 in 2012: at Robins we had 19 teams and 21 in 2012, and lastly in the Forestry/Safari lodge area we had 7 teams and 6 in 2012. Over the Census period, it was hot by day, with an extreme of 44.9C recorded at Mandavu Dam at 3 o’clock in the afternoon and in some spots, it was found to be quite cold at night, with the Manga 3 team recording 5C at midnight until 3 o’clock in the early hours: on the whole it was still, with an intermittent breeze, with some teams reporting gusts. On the 7th, the sun set at 1805 hours and moonrise was at 1614hours: the moon set morning of the 8th at 0342 hours and the sun came up at 0542 hours. Visibility was excellent during the whole of the Census period, with the moon light providing good viewing throughout the night. This year 42 species were observed, compared to the average of 45 for the past 5 years, having a high of 48 species in 2008. Amongst the rarer species recorded this year were: 2 Cheetah in the Main Camp Area 6 Civet in the Forestry, Sinamatella and Robins Areas 5 Brown Hyaena in the Main Camp Area (3 observed at Sinanga and 2 at Shapi) 2 Klipspringer in the Robins Area 4 Leopard in the Main Camp, Forestry and Robins Areas 7 Porcupine in the Main Camp, Forestry and Robins Areas 1 Serval in the Main Camp Area 2 Tsessebe in the Robins Area 15 Wild Dog in the Main Camp and Sinamatella Areas (6 at Tshompani Dam) Sadly, not recorded this year were our two Rhinoceros species, as well as Bushpig, Aardwolf, Antbear, Caracal (one last year), African wild cat, Bat-eared fox, Grysbok (3 last year), dassies, genets and the bush babies. Lion prides were recorded at Deteema Picnic Site in the Robins area, at Roan and Kashawe Viewing in the Sinamatella area and at Whitehills, Masumamalisa and Scotts in the Main Camp area and at Hwange Safari Lodge. The Presidential Elephant Herd always attracts interest with a total number of 916 being recorded within their home range, but taking the close proximity of the pans and the crossing over to drink, one would estimate that this herd is perhaps 5-600 individuals in strength. Buffalo herds were recorded at Deteema Dam Wall (Robins area - 984 individuals) and at Mandavu Dam (Sinamatella area - 901 individuals). In comparison with our previous years figures, not to get too excited, it would appear that our Giraffe have increased slightly in numbers, with a decline since 2002, 273 individuals were recorded this year, which is an encouraging. The Roan and Eland numbers have increased slightly too which is all to the good. Worryingly, the Sable, Tsessebe, Reedbuck and Bushbuck numbers are down on previous years. A fire which came in from Deka on the 29th/30 September, started we believe by a faulty ZESA cable, swept through a large part of the Robins area, making conditions difficult for our teams at Reedbuck Vlei through to Home Vlei. Apart from this, conditions in the Park were “dry”, resulting once again in a large number of animals being counted (see table): the total number of animals recorded this year for Hwange National Park, Safari Lodge and Forestry areas was 37,846, with Elephant highest on the list at 22,414 individuals. There was an abundance of surface water in the Park, as revealed by our pre-count fly-over, added to this, a considerable amount of surface water and Elephant in the southern portion of the park too, but due to the road network and actual teams willing to travel down from Mpisi, say to Limpandi in the southern end, we have not been able to cover this end: however, it is our wish for future counts, to work out a way to make this possible. As Foster Betts reported last year - in another way of comparing elephant numbers. the faction of the count, due to elephant, has generally been increasing over the years. It was around 20% to 30% in the mid 1980’s rising to a high of 61% in 2011. Elephant have become the predominant species in the park. In 2012 elephant dropped from 61% to 44% of the animals counted! One of the majn factors in this decline may have been poor availability of food. This year elephant were 59% of the total count, so 2012 still shows a major departure from usual conditions. It is interesting to note that between 1991 and 1994, that Elephant numbers represented no more than 40% of the actual count total and as mentioned, it is now 59%! Year % Elephant 2011 61% 2012 44% 2013 58% 2014 59% The number of other species counted were up on last year by approx.10%, representing approx. 1300 animals. Year “Other Species” 2011 14,882 2012 18,339 2013 14,159 2014 15,432 The years 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 have roughly similar weather conditions in being clear and dry. Data in the “Selected Species” table must be not be interpreted as proven trends. However, the increase in “other species” suggests that reduced Elephant congestion at many pans in 2012 offered increased opportunity for other species to drink. Game water conditions were generally good, with most pans holding water during the count. The condition and behaviour of the animals was reported on the whole as good and normal, with many enjoying the salt licks. However, animals at Salt Pan, Big Toms, Dandari and Dolilo, in the Robins area and Guinea Fowl and Tshompani in the Sinamatella area were skittish. Reported at the pans (see the “TEAM COMMENTS” section for details) was an elephant carcass at Guvalala and at Kennedy 2 and a lion kill of 2 buffalo at Masumamalisa. There were 10 snare injuries reported to Elephant trunks (8 missing the tip), 8 elephant had missing or partial tails, 7 had miscellaneous injuries and 2 were tuskless (Airstrip 2 and Nyamandhlovu). For the other species, there were injuries reported to 1/Kudu, 1/Hippo, 1/Zebra, 3/Buffalo, 2/Giraffe, 1/Warthog and 1/Sable: and a female baboon carrying it’s dead baby. There were 8 reports of collared animals: 1/Zebra (Wexcau), 1/Lioness (Robins), 1/Lion (Samavundhla), 1/Buffalo – collared and red ear tag (Kennedy 2), 3/Spotted Hyaena (Makwa, Sinanga and Makalolo) and 5/Elephant (Ivory and Khulu Lodges, Sinanga and Ngweshla). In this year’s report, the graphs of species numbers now cover the period 1991 to 2014, rather than the 20 year span of previous years. Trends for several species can now be seen graphically, as well as in the table on “Selected Species”(following the graphs in this report). Census numbers are substantially reduced by bad weather during the count period and by the presence of abundant surface water throughout the park, and the graphs will show large variations in these years. Two extreme years are 1997 and 2009. These results indicate that there are significant factors affecting the populations of a number of species, although only detailed analysis by wildlife scientists can properly interpret the data. As can be seen from the “Selected Species” table, there is some variation in the number of pans counted each year, which, although relatively small compared to the decreases in the count numbers must be taken into account. Other factors must be considered in using “pan count”data, but it’s use in the 2006 Ph.D. theses of Marion Valeix and Simon Chamaille-Jammes has demonstrated it’s overall scientific usefulness. We would like to thank the Management and Staff of the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority for their assistance to us and to our counters prior to and during the census. Thanks also to the private operators within and outside the Park for their interest, assistance and co-operation. Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to the staff of the Parks Game Water Supplies Division, including the pump attendants, who often risk their lives to ensure that faulty or broken engines are reported back to base and ensure an early response is made to restore water supplies. Without a conscientious team of workers looking after game water, there would be many animal casualties, particularly of the smaller species, who are unable to make the long distances necessary if water is not restored quickly. Finally we thank Karl Schmahl and his team for preparation of this report, and for continued advice and assistance. Special thanks also to Rob Whiley for producing and distributing a pdf file containing the entire contents of the printed report, making it possible to E-mail the report to everyone who is interested.