Field work gets its stripes

Field work for the wildlife habitat assessment project in the Baviaanskloof Nature Reserve supported by the Rufford Small Grants is now underway!

Last Wednesday, Living Lands staff Silvia and Joana Weel, Btec student Coco Teheux and the ecologist Brian Reeves (from the Eastern Cape Parks & Tourism Agency (ECPTA)) went to the Bergplaas area and finally had the privelage to encounter a group of endangered Cape Mountain Zebras.

The objective of the day was to start collecting data to determine area suitability for these equids. A herd of three animals was spotted in a fynbos field and afterward grass samples of the area they were occupying were collected in order to analyse what and how much they are eating. Dung was also sampled as ECPTA staff will further analyze the quantitative amount of nitrogen and phosphorus in it.

Challenges were all part of the day. Student Coco recalls: “After a couple of hours walking and looking through our binoculars, Silvia finally spotted a herd of three zebras. To get to spot where they where foraging we had to cross a little creek and climb the rocks on the other side. After a good hike, we were able to find the spot where they had been eating. We found out that some grass species looked very similar and were hard to distinguish. But I think we did a good job for our first time.”   It also shows that science can be a good adventure!

The high importance of this research comes as the reproductive rates of the Mountain Zebra in the Reserve are very low and lots of studies still need to be done to determine the reasons for that. This underlies the importance of parallel and collaborative work between the ECPTA and Living Lands.

From now on the amount of field data collection will be increased and a census will also be carried out for different species of mammals, with a particular focus on the Mountain Zebra, African Buffalo and Black Rhinoceros.