Nieuws MunYaWana Leopard Project

Download hier de MunYaWana nieuwsbrief van juli.

6 februari 2011:
Vandaag hebben we verschrikkelijk nieuws ontvangen. Timbo is in Swaziland per ongeluk in een strik van stropers terecht gekomen. Deze strik was eigenlijk bedoeld om Red Duikers (kleine hertjes) mee te vangen. Timbo is in de strik overleden. Er was al anderhalve maand geen signaal meer ontvangen van Timbo, maar in het gebied waar hij was is de ontvangst van het signaal ook moeilijk. Vorige week is Tristan met een vliegtuigje over het gebied gevlogen waar Timbo zou moeten zitten. Hij ving toen een mortality signal op, dat betekent dat de collar al 12 uur niet heeft bewogen. We hoopten dat Timbo zijn collar was kwijtgeraakt in een gevecht of dat hij bijv. was blijven hangen aan een hek. Afgelopen vrijdag is Tristan samen met de betrokken overheidsinstanties uit Swaziland gerichter gaan zoeken. Eerst vonden ze Timbo zijn schedel en daarna de collar en de rest van zijn botten, in de boom boven hem hing de strik. UIt het feit dat er niets van de overblijfselen van Timbo verdwenen is kunnen we opmaken dat het waarschijnlijk om een "vergeten" strik gaat.

Iedereen die betrokken is bij de stichting is verslagen, we wisten dat dit zou kunnen gebeuren, maar je rekent er niet op. We zijn blij dat Timbo zo veel belangrijke informatie heeft geleverd voor het MunYaWana project en we zullen het project des te meer ondersteunen. Hiermee was dit dus het laatste nieuws van Timbo.


* Klik twee maal op het filmpje voor groter beeld

De GPS halsband van Timbo werkte heel goed, 98% van de downloads waren bruikbaar en gaven een goed beeld van zijn bewegingen. Op het kaartje kun je de binnengekomen gegevens van Timbo's collar zien. Op de eerste foto zie je nog de antenne van zijn oude VHF(radio)-halsband. Het filmpje is uit mei, toen Timbo nog in Phinda Private Game Reserve was.
Timbo is ongeveer twee en een half jaar oud geworden, zijn moeder is waarschijnlijk Duzi of Kezi. (Kezi is het najaar van 2010 overleden) Hij had een leeftijd waarop sterke dominante mannetjes hem niet langer in hun territorium accepteren. Timbo was daarom inmiddels druk doende zijn eigen plek te zoeken. De laatste gegevens komen vanuit het berggebied in Swaziland net over de grens met Mozambique, zo'n 180 km weg van Phinda Het is voor het eerst dat dit territoriale gedrag van jonge mannetjes op deze wijze gevolgd kan worden. Voor de verspreiding van de genen van de luipaardpopulatie uit Phinda is dit een hele goede ontwikkeling. Helaas hebben de omzwervingen van Timbo waarschijnlijk niet voor nakomelingen gezorgd Er zijn op dit moment nog 2 van dit soort jonge mannetjes "dispersed" vanuit het studiegebied, ook zij worden op de voet gevolgd.

Artikelen:
Panthera nieuwsbrief december 2010: "Live stock depredation - Who's to blame?"
Panthera nieuwsbrief juli 2010: "Skinning the cat for fashion - part2".
Panthera nieuwsbrief juni 2010: "Skinning the cat for fashion".
African Geographic februari 2010: "Return of the leopard".
African Geographic mei 2005: "Counting Cats".
African Geographic februari 2004: "Trash or in trouble".
African Geographic juni 2001: "Tooth and claw".
African Geographic 1999: "The quintessential cat".

Bericht uit de nieuwsbrief van november 2010
Timbo was dispersing through Mozambique this month and had crossed the Swazi border recently. He is now located in the Lubombo Mountains in north east Swaziland. He traversed what looks like suitable leopard habitat on satellite imagery, but did not try to settle. Different reasons might explain such behaviour, such as prey depleted habitator, in the contrary, very suitable leopard habitat saturated with territorial males, which displace Timbo continously. The GPS data showed some cluster patterns over a period of one or two days which indicated that Timbo managed to hunt succesfully and fed on his kills. Timbo eventually reached a commercial farmlands area close to the Swazi border and headed west to Lubombo Mountains. Timbo is currently about 190 km as the crow flies from Phinda and merely 80 km from the southern boundary of the Kruger National Park. Timbo's dispersal already shows that a functional landscape seems to persist between Kruger and KwaZulu-Natal, which might enable gen flow if dispersing leopards eventually settle and breed far from their natal range.
Bericht uit de nieuwsbrief van oktober 2010
Timbo has dispersed further north towards Kosi Bay Lake system and is now within 30 km of the Mozambican border. The area that Timbo is using at the moment has limited cell phone signal, therefore updates are not coming through frequently. This gives a total a total displacement of more than 90 km as the crow flies from his previous home range. If he continues north along the dune forest he will become trapped between the Kosi Bay Lakes and the sea and will not be able to proceed north due to the open system of the lakes and the sea. He will then have to move south and west around the lakes before continuing north. It will be interesting to see how he sloves this geographical puzzle.

Bericht uit de nieuwsbrief van september 2010
Timbo has moved to the eastern side of the Marsh before being dispersed by Menzi to the north east into Ozabeni area all the way to the costal dune forests 25 km away. This gives a total displacement distance of 40 km as the crow flies from his previous home range. Timbo is searching for his own territory.

Bericht uit de nieuwsbrief van augustus 2010
For a few months Timbo's movements were localised around The Lomaro Dam and Bayete areas. Timbo had seemed to have found an area void of large males as he was able to utilise that patch for a couple of months without being displaced. However, this changed last month and Timbo dispersed 13 km north along Mkhuze-Phinda boundary to Pineaple. The locations from his GPS collar indicate that Timbo travelled all the way within a few hours at night. Since then Timbo hasmoved east towards the Marsh, through Bishoff's and into the eastern section of Makhasa. This area is in the territory of Menzi, who will not tolerate a young healthy sub-adult male. Both animals are monitored with GPS collars, and we might be able to get high spacial-temporal resolution data of their relative movements, as Menzi would attempt to displace Timbo.

Bericht uit de nieuwsbrief van juli 2010
Timbo was seen on several occasions this month between Lomaro Dam and Bayete. Timbo's movemenents are still localised around the Lomaro Dam and Bayete areas. He was located several times in the fenced of area around the historical Lomaro Store. As the leopard population in Phinda increases young leopards will find it increasingly difficult to find space in the system and will have to leave to find "vacant" areas to grow large enough to challenge for a territory. This dispersal forms an important part of our project as farmland and community areas have low leopard densities and therefore may draw in these young leopards. It is also of interest to know if dispersing animals are capable of linking Mkhuze-Phinda population with other neighbouring populations. Such a functional metapopulation would more likely be viable in the long term.

Bericht uit de nieuwsbrief van juni 2010
Timbo was recaptured and fitted with a GPS/GSM collar. This collar will send us the GPS location data via the cell phone network as soon as Timbo enters phone coverage. This will enable us to track his dispersal movements with a high spatio-temporal resolution even if he leaves Phinda in search for his own territory. Timbo was found localized in the Lomaro Dam and Bayete area. This month we localized one of his kills which was a sub-adult female Nyala

Bericht uit de nieuwsbrief van mei 2010
After he killed an Impala near Mountain Lodge at the end of April, Timbo was located on Zuka. He could then be located for two days and we thought he had dispersed far out of the reserve. Timbo was eventually found next to Lomaro Dam where he remained since. This localised movemenet after an excursion indicates to us that he ran into some trouble with a large male and is now "hiding out". He killed a young warthog and was seen on the remains of an aardvark.

Bericht uit de nieuwsbrief van april 2010
Timbo was seen by game-drivers several times in April around Nduzi Dam, Finfoot and 4-feet Area. He was also observed not far from a sub adult male Impala kill he made next to Main Road. Timbo is a relaxed leopard, especially at night and provides good sighting opportunities. However, it seems likely he will disperse in the upcoming months, if not weeks. In April Timbo ranged between the soithern tip of the Inkwazi Floodplain, Shoton and Mountain Lodge.

Bericht uit de nieuwsbrief van maart 2010
After his excursion in February he returned to his normal range before moving about 2 km north to the Worm Road area, which is where he stayed for the rest of February. In March Timbo extended his movements further south towards the open areas of Sanspit and Tambotie Roads. He's also been seen at Amonite Dam. These movements "out of his range" are possibly due to the dominant male in the area displacing him. It seems likely he will disperse in the upcoming months.

Bericht uit de nieuwsbrief van het MuYaWana Leopard Project van februari 2010
We captured Timbo in the MunYaWana Drainage Line during a random trapping session. He is a healthy sub-adult male, +/-18 months old. After following Timbo for just over a month now we are getting a better picture of his home range. He is favouring the MunYaWana Drainage Line from just inside Mziki to Narina Access. He seems to move up and down the drainage line and sometime ventures away to areas like Red Dam and Narina Access / Izwe Dam Road. For January and the beginning of February he stayed in his limited range but towards the end of February he showed the first signs of dispersal. On the 18th of February he was found in Lulubush which is the first recorded location of him outside of Phinda. The following night he was off Charcoal Gate Road near Corridor Road. This is about 4 km north of his normal range. After this excursion he returned to his normal range before moving about 2km north to the Worm Road area which is where he stayed for the rest of February. These "excursions out of his range are possibly due to the dominant male in the area displacing him. He is still too young to be extending his range therefore it seems likely he disperse in the upcoming months. On one of these excursions we had a great sighting of him in the Charcoal Gate Road area. We were out with Heleen and Menno (sponsors who have adopted Timbo) trying to see if we could catch a glimpse of Timbo. We waited, staring into a thicket for about an hour before leaving the immediate area to wait for dark. At sunset we tried again and he had moved into an open area where we managed to view him without spot lights. After 10 minute he moved off into an acacia thicket. We waited till it was completely dark and then moved in closer to find him fast asleep under an acacia tree. After about 20 minute we left him to finish his sleep. He was not at all nervous or vigilant which should be the case if he was worried about the dominant male tracking him down and chasing him further away.