Nathan’s Legacy

Written By: admin on May 9, 2011 No Comment

"Nathan"

The drive took us 10 hours, plenty of it through thick sand, pushing the packed-to-the-brim Landrover in second gear, ensuring to not get ourselves stuck. I was thankful that Mike was driving because if it was up to me, we would’ve been buried deep within the first few hours. Our goal was to get from Kasane to the Selinda Spillway in one day, avoiding to overnight en route. The distance was only approx. 230 kilometers, but with an average speed of 25 km, we were lucky to have made it before sundown. Dry, dusty and dirty we pitched up camp, as the sunset with a sudden gust of wind followed by a light shower. We could’ve used more rain. Not to say there isn’t plenty of water in the area. In fact, with the Savuti river flowing and the spillway full, we actually had to deter from our original plan to base ourselves near the Kwara airstrip, just on the northeast fringe of the Okavango Delta. Instead, we opted for and was granted permission to use the Selinda strip within the Selinda Reserve and hoped to collar an elephant within the Kwando concession, across the spillway.

Jen enjoyed the heli over the delta

The mission of this trip was unique, to collar an elephant bull within an area we found a gap in our elephant movement data. However, what really made it particularly special is that the funding for the event was donated by over 60 friends & family of Nathan Jamieson who collectively pitched in through the Nathan Jamieson Memorial Fund. http://www.elephantswithoutborders.org/Nathan_Jamieson_Memorial_Fund.php The collaring team was joined by Jennifer Conaghan who flew all the way from Australia to be with us for it. The elephant collared was to be named in honor of Nathan’s memory and provide a legacy for his passion and commitment towards elephant conservation.

It had been some time since we were in that area and being unsure of the water and elephants, we had arranged to have Mike Holding in his fixed-wing plane meet us in the field, so that we could assess the situation. Considering costs, we thought it ideal to track some of our other collared elephants in the neighboring Linyanti/Savuti river system, as well. This also gave us an opportunity to demonstrate to Jennifer how we track the elephants to get visuals of them from the air. We were met with success and were able to find both CH46 “Scout” and CH48 “Atticus” quite easily. Recently Atticus’s home range had diminished quite substantially and we wanted to find out why. However, when we found him he seemed content, browsing with 3 other bulls near a pan. Turning westward, we looked over the north side of the spillway in the Kwando concession, in hopes to find where elephants may have gathered. At first, it seemed bleak, but as we conducted transects across the spillway, we found the area we had hoped for and spotted many herds and bulls. And again, quite lucky for us, the elephants were only 20 km from our campsite. However, due to the vast amount of water we knew it would be impossible to reach them on the ground. It was time to switch vehicles. (EWB’s monitoring projects, click here)

We flew into Maun to meet up with Pete and the helicopter and to pick up wildlife vet, Larry Patterson. Our cameras were continually clicking at the beautiful spectacle of the Okavango Delta below us, en route back to camp. Everyone says it, but until you actually witness the beauty of the delta, one can never imagine or appreciate how special it truly is. Whenever we touch ground from such a flight, I’m in awe and disappointed that it had to end. The night was closing in so we enjoyed a sundowner, watching a breeding herd relish the tall grasses in the spillway’s cool waters. (watch how us fitting a satellite collar, click here)

We didn’t feel the need to hurry in the morning, as we knew we would have better luck finding the bull we wanted if we were to be patient and wait until the day heated up when the elephants would come out from the mopane woodlands to head towards the water. The long, thick stretches of mopane shrub are impossible to get through and the helicopter would have nowhere to land.

We went in on foot, while the heli landed

Getting anxious, we jumped in the helicopter around 11am and flew towards the area we gps’d the previous day. The day was already warming and we enjoyed watching the breeding herds moving towards the floodplains. Then, we spotted a magnificent, tall lone bull in the shrubs. With a quick conversation amongst the team, it was agreed, he would be the one. Pete dropped Mike and I off with the extra equipment, collar and our coolbox near a pan, to lighten the load, enabling the helicopter to have better maneuverability for darting.

After a few minutes Pete radioed to us that the dart was in. Ten minutes later, as the helicopter hovered, he directed us a path to move in on foot. We found the bull still standing in an open area near a pan, but the drug had already taken effect. He was fighting it.

Larry & Mike move in quickly

The helicopter landed and Larry walked over to the massive bull in front of him and clapped. The bull sat down and we rushed in to fit the collar as quickly as possible. His neck was the thickest of any bull we had to fit a collar on and managed to attach the counter weight onto the last possible loophole of the belt! Unfortunately, the position he was sitting in did not give us sufficient opportunity to make a proper measurement of his shoulder height. However, photo identification was very easy to attain. Larry administered the antidote, within 2 minutes his ears were flapping, and “Nathan” slowly rose to his feet. We were all very surprised and admired how tall he was. Luckily, puddles of water were in close vicinity and he was able to splash himself off to cool before he moved into the shade of trees, only 30 meters away from where we stood at the door of the helicopter. He watched us through the leaves, and slowly dozed off to sleep while standing. He didn’t move and we didn’t leave. The exercise had taken a slight toll on all of us, so we sat, enjoying his presence, while he rested for more than an hour. Then slowly and calmly, he walked away. We caught our last good look for the day at “Nathan” from the helicopter, giving us a nod and head shake, while moving towards the river.

We look forward to monitoring his movements and sharing his adventures and stories, while he is providing us with vital data to help conserve the largest contiguous elephant population and their habitat in Africa.

EWB team of Pete, Kelly, Mike & Larry

EWB would like to express our sincere appreciation to Jennifer and the Jamieson family for entrusting EWB with managing the Nathan Jamieson Memorial Fund and gratitude to all the supporters of this fund for your generosity. We are grateful for the continued support from Botswana’s Department of Wildlife and National Parks. And we would like to Thank the managers of both the Selinda Reserve and Kwando Safari concession areas for your kind support and permission to conduct this work in the area.

If you would like to support Elephants Without Borders conservation efforts: http://www.elephantswithoutborders.org/donate.php