Finally before we begin our story, some words of wisdom for living with a baby warthog. At times is can be frustrating, at others tiring, obviously you will worry and wonder what you’ve got yourself into! Be warned it’s a big undertaking and be sure you are willing to go ahead. Your house will never quite be the same again; but prepare yourself for a wonderful adventure and the rare treat that is sharing the joys and woes of life as a baby warthog. As they grow, so does their personality. They establish the most amazing character but be warned….also sharp teeth and tusks too! They will entertain you to the ends of the earth and you’ll never laugh so hard but one day they grow bigger and can even become problematic. Males especially can become aggressive and protective of you to the extent they may attack strangers with their tusks. They want to be one of the family and be with you all the time. If you leave them on their own they will scream and squeal, sounds you’ve never heard before. You may need to prepare yourself that this warthog will be a friend for life, digging up your garden and sleeping on your sofa! If all of this sounds ok then we wish you the best of luck with your warthog and may you enjoy many hours of warthog break dancing!

So firstly, how Kevin came to be with us! One day our fence patroller ‘Issac’ had stopped on our main access road. He was checking something on his bike when a piglet came running out the bushes and sat under his bike. Unsure of what to do Issac drove away but all that happened was the piglet followed. He drove to Askari (a kilometre away) to try and find us and ask what to do. Unfortunately we were in town that day so he continued his fence checks around the breeding camp perimeter. Another 1.5 km later and still with the warthog in tow, Issac drove to the reserve headquarters. This was another 2 km still and from there Issac called the reserve manager. Efforts to put him back in the bush failed as he simply stayed less than a metre away from whichever legs were trying to drop him off. It was at this stage we decided he was so committed to surviving that he deserved a second chance and the manager brought him to Askari on our return from town.

EQUIPMENT – So what equipment do you need to rear a baby warthog? The first thing is a bottle and teat. We just bought a standard babies bottle from the supermarket. The teat had a very small hole but this is fine at first otherwise the milk flows out as fast as it goes in! Next is some sterilising fluid as all bottles and teats must be sterilised at first. For this we used ‘Milton’ – also available at the supermarket. Next you’ll need some milk and for this we used regular soya milk. Although we have heard of people rearing piglets on cows milk, we were advised strictly NO DAIRY. Apparently Lactogen 1 human supplement also works but is much more expensive. You also don’t need the most expensive soya milk, spar’s home brand was the cheapest we found and worked wonders. Lastly you need to pick up some PROTEXIN from the local vet. This comes in powder form and must be added to the milk as soon as possible upon finding the piglet. The most common problem hand rearing piglets is that they pick up dihorrea; once they suffer from this it dehydrates them and it’s very hard to bring them back, try and avoid it at ALL costs.  The Protexin dosage is on the packet but we added 2 ml of the powder to his milk (split between a morning and afternoon feed) every day for the first 3-4 weeks. This not only helps their gut flora establish but can also help with dihorrea if they do get it. Finally you will need some sort of bed (any old cushion will do) and a blanket or towel or two.

FEEDING – The first job is to weigh your piglet. This will help you work out the feeding quantities as well as keep a check on its progress. Piglets should be fed between 10 and 20% of their body weight per day. 20% is an absolute maximum. Less is better than more at the start to avoid dihorrea as they adapt to the different milk. For around the first week ‘Kevin’ spent the majority of the day sleeping, only really waking up to feed. Feeds should be every 2-4 hours spread throughout daylight hours; they do not need feeding at night. So starting at 1.3 kg (we estimated already 4 weeks old), Kevin had 160 ml of milk a day, gradually increasing as his weight did.

You should see a gain in weight quite quickly. After about 10 days of having Kevin, his weight had reached a plateau and he stayed on 1.6kg. We realised (after probably a few too many days) that this wasn’t normal and suspected he was suffering from worms. This also coincided with continual squealing and extreme wining, no matter how recently he had drunk his milk. While warthog piglets will suffer from worms in the wild they have the strength and nutrition to deal with them. When without their mothers’ milk and in a stressful, unusual situation it gets on top of them and so they may need a helping hand to rid them. We happened to have some ‘Panacur’ de-wormer lying around so we put Kevin on this 5 day course. We saw instant results and his tummy started to plump out and the continual pestering for food stopped.

Once over this initial problem, he was gaining around 100g a day. Within 2 weeks he was taking his milk from a bowl on the floor (when not stepping in and knocking it over!). To encourage them to do this you can gently push their snout into the milk so they work out it’s there. I’m afraid to say that throughout rearing Kevin I’ve come to realise he’s not the most intelligent animal on the planet! Porridge can also be introduced to the diet at quite an early stage. Apparently pro-nutro works well but again is expensive and the cheaper Jungle breakfast energy cereal works just as well. This can be put in a bowl and they will take it themselves but beware it’s a messy business!

At this stage, Kevin was starting to nibble on grass as well. Each time he was taken out for the toilet he nipped a bit more off. If your piglet is very young and still not sure about the great outdoors, a square of lawn can be cut and put in a box. This worked well for me when I was working on the computer. Kevin would want to be continually at my feet but would also get bored so a box of turf meant he could not only learn how to graze but also feed himself! Rooting in the soil and mud is also important for your piglet so as they gradually start to do that it’s good news. It helps them gain extra minerals and nutrients that are present in the soil.

SLEEPING – Remember in the wild a piglet would have its mum and most likely a few siblings. They would huddle together in an underground burrow to sleep at night. And so when it comes to sleeping, it’s very important that your piglet needs to be warm. If at all possible, a companion is the ideal answer. If you happen to have a puppy or a tolerant dog and the two of them pair up then this is great. We have a Rhodesian ridgeback who not only didn’t like Kevin but was also scared of him! So no solution there, the piglet slept alone but inside the house for the first month. He had a bed and plenty of blankets, apparently a cuddly toy can work for them too and even better if it smells of you. Often when you try to put them to bed they will scream and squeal and it can last for more than an hour. Although it seems harsh they will settle eventually and then sleep the whole night through. If cold you must also provide hot water bottles as catching a chill is another thing to easily kill a young piglet. As soon as we thought he was old enough Kevin started sleeping outside. We have a small enclosure in which we placed an old dog kennel. With his cushion inside he even takes himself to bed now without so much as a squeal and he has weathered some huge thunder and lightening storms in there without even waking up.

A few weeks later still and we started giving him bread. Again this can be put in a bowl and covered with milk to soften it. By now he was also eating dry dog biscuits and loved rice krispies! Pap can also be fed. The more he takes grass, the better and you’ll see that the piglet should naturally know what to eat and what not to, you don’t have to do much teaching in this respect. Kevin seemed to be very keen on hunting insects (especially winged aliates) as they gathered around the light early evening.

WALLOWING – After a couple of months, we built Kevin a mud wallow. This just involved digging a small hole in the grass and filling it with water. This was a massive hit but beware again, it’s messy! Once covered in mud and slime Kevin likes to run in the house and rub it all over the furniture! Placing a few rocks or pieces of wood next to the wallow may provide an alternative location for this!

PLAYING – Don’t be surprised one day if your piglet begins to ‘break dance’. One day Kevin just woke up and seemed to have discovered ‘play’! Spinning in circles and running around like a mentalist will become common practice and is all part of the fun. They love a good tummy rub and if you hit the right spot they usually collapse on the floor to lap it up. I’m not sure what it is, but Kevin also loves to push things around the floor. He literally spends an hour at a time pushing an old bed sheet around the floor with his snout while down on his knees. This provides a good tool with which he can entertain himself and give you some peace for a while. If he’s not snouting the sheet then he’s snouting your leg so the sheet was a good discovery!

If you do live in the bush then walking with the piglet is great practice. Kevin regularly joins us out and about and enjoys rooting through the soil and roots to feed.

For now that is all I can give you. We have had Kevin for just over 2 months and he now weighs more than 5 kg. We plan to return him to the wild in another few months when he is weaned and big enough. Many more Kevin photos are posted on http://www.facebook.com/Askari.Wilderness.Conservation.Programme and videos can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/user/AskariWCP

Happy warthogging!

We would like Askari to be affordable to all, especially the many students enquiring recently wanting to take advantage of our opportunities for field work and hands on practical placements.

There are also considerable discounts for extended stays up to a maximum of 6 months. 

You don’t have to be a student to take advantage of these amazing prices; it’s one price for all. Enquire now to secure your 2012 place at Askari. Become part of the management and research team while making a real contribution to the conservation of African wilderness and its wildlife.

 As you have read in the newsletters, we had been preparing for this for months. We had put a stake in place at the feeding area so we could tie down the food and also placed a cage trap in the boma for the hyaenas to acclimatise to back in August. We had hoped we would dart at least 3 hyaenas off the carcass and that the trap would secure the more skittish individuals.

 Of course the day for darting was a stinker, peaked at 35 degrees! The vet arrived and we headed into the boma with the best laid plans, hoping to get Gismo, Smoothy and Jaggedy at least. We sat and sat and sat and time raced on. Just before dark we had only seen Gismo, most likely a result of the heat. The decision was taken to take what we could and Gismo was darted. It didn’t affect her much and within a few seconds she was back feeding on the carcass. She gradually fell asleep, all the while trying desperately to get back to her impala meal! We waited as long as we could to see if anyone else showed up. No joy so we collected Gismo in the stretcher and took her outside the gate to work on her. After we left the boma we placed the remaining bait in the trap and set it up.

 Outside the boma, the first job was to weigh Gismo and then blood samples were taken. We hope that these will establish relatedness between hyaena and also tell us whether she’s pregnant. You’ll notice all this time I’ve been calling Gismo a ‘she’ so obviously we took the opportunity to check genitals and sex the hyaena too. She was then fitted with her collar and injected with a microchip. Plenty of photos were taken and measurements made. These will all add to the baseline database for brown hyaena and help us age her etc.

 As we were working on Gismo, we heard a golden sound…it was the sound of the cage door shutting. We quickly went in to check and sure enough we had caught another hyaena. It was darted inside the cage and fell asleep within 5-10 minutes. We swapped the new hyaena for Gismo who went back into the boma to wake up. The same procedures were carried out and we were very happy to establish from our ID kits that this was in fact the elusive No. 5 that we had caught. Again, halfway through the procedures, the cage went again! This time we had caught Jaggedy and as we put No.5 back in the boma to recover, work started on Jaggedy.

 A few hours later we were finished and as we discussed what the options were for catching the last 2, the cage went again! We raced into the boma and were very happy to see we had trapped Smoothy. Not for long however as he thrashed and broke right out the cage, an opportunity missed!

 Fairly satisfied with our 3 however we called it a day and booked the vet the following week for another instalment. Luckily for us the 2^nd try went to plan. Both Smoothy and Spot arrived at the carcass just after dark and were darted consecutively. Although Smoothy fell asleep near the carcass, Spot had run away so we set off with torches to search for her in the dark. Darting and working with anaethetised animals in the dark was a new experience for the team but was made much easier by the pre-planning and preparation with our small generator and light to work under. Unfortunately Gismo had also sustained some damage to her collar so she was also darted again. Smoothy and Spot were fitted with their collars, blood sampled, micro-chipped, and weighed and had their measurements and photos taken. Gismo received some collar repairs! We suspect one of the hyaenas had been tugging on the collar and had managed to pull out one of the antennae. By a stroke of luck all collar functions were still working. All 3 hyaenas went back into the boma and we stayed with them until they woke up.

Project Impisi at Askari

 Working with wild animals is always a challenge and it was a great relief to have all hyaenas collared. 2 days later the boma gate was opened and the hyaenas were free to leave. While No. 5 left that night, all others stayed. Jaggedy left the following night but Smoothy, Gismo and Spot were still in the boma 3 days later. Here came the next problem….Gismo was no longer wearing her collar! Using the telemetry signal we were able to track the collar and where would we find it…but in the bottom of the dam! Again it appeared that one of the hyaenas had ripped it off and where we found it suggests they were playing in the dam and having a wrestle when the damage occurred. Muzzle wrestling and neck biting among young brown hyaenas is common and likely the time when the collar is damaged. We decided to give it one last try and so the following day Gismo was re-darted. The collar received some major re-enforcements and so far so good, it seems to have stayed on! Since then ‘Spot’ (the suspected culprit of Gismo’s collar damage) has also left the boma but Smoothy and Gismo remain. Regular updates will be posted of the hyaenas movements in the newsletter and on the facebook page.

As you can imagine, it’s a large scale operation to move elephants! But all went very smoothly with Makalali ecological advisor Audrey Delsink, Makalali warden Ross Kettles and the professional capture team running the show. Firstly, elephants were identified from the air and darted by the vet in the helicopter. The helicopter then herded the animals to fall as near to each other as possible and also close to a road. As the ground team, we were then called in and preparations began for hoisting the elephants onto the trucks. Ropes were tied around the elephants feet and then a crane, attached to the flat bed truck, was used to lift them up and onto the conveyor belt lying on the truck. Once in position they were laid on their side and their eye was covered with an ear. The elephants were then tied down using straps so they were secure on the vehicle. We were then each given our duties, some were time keeping so as to keep a track of drug top-ups for the vet. Others were keeping a check of the elephants breathing by monitoring their trunks.

We started off with a group of 5 on Tuesday morning, split between 2 trucks. When all the animals were in place and secure we made our way to the transport trucks which were waiting on the Makalali airstrip. Here each elephant was dragged, by the conveyer belt on which it was on, into the transport truck. Once inside, the animals were woken up with the reversal drug and encouraged to move through to the right compartment for travel. The team then carried on to collect a further 5 eles from the same herd and the procedure repeated.

The small breeding herd has been donated to the Dinokeng game reserve in the Gauteng province. Here they will be the first, free roaming elephants in this part of South Africa for more than a century. It’s an exciting step for the Greater Makalali conservancy elephant contraception programme too as they are the first ‘treated’ elephants to be relocated. They will continue to be an important part of the ongoing contraceptive research in their new home. A small number of bulls were also darted for relocation on Sunday, Thursday and Friday and have gone to new homes in the Limpopo and Kwa-Zulu-Natal provinces. It was really a spectacular sight to see and a great event to be involved with. These are in fact the only elephants being moved in South Africa this year and Askari was there to see it! All relocated elephants are reported to be settling in well to their new homes around the country.

I have been amazed by many of the sightings we have had and you never know what is going to happen next! All you know is what ever it is, you will be taking part as an active member of the team, be it chopping down trees that elephants have pushed into the road, or carrying a darted cheetah then standing on the back of a car which is the operating table! I would recommend this trip to anyone and have loved every minute of it.

Artificial nests have been donated by the EWT (Endangered Wildlife Trust) and the one  today was placed in the area of the most recent sightings of the birds. It is a single male that has been seen, likely broken off from an existing group and now looking for a mate to start a group of his own.  The big plastic barrel was hauled up into the tree and wire used to secure it to the branches. A small amount of leaf litter and grass was also put inside to imitate nesting material. We hope it may provide a potential spot for some Ground hornbills in the future.

• Interns are only selected from past Askari volunteers. Volunteers must be with Askari for a minimum of 4 weeks to be considered
• It takes a particular type of person to be an intern so no official application procedure is in place. Suitable candidates will simply be approached by the staff team towards the end of their stay and asked if they would be interested in returning as an intern in the future
• Internships do not necessarily continue directly on from your stay as a volunteer. An e mail is sent to the short list of potential interns, as the need for them arises, at various stages throughout the year. If you are available you can apply to intern for the time specified. All flights and insurance must still be covered by yourself
• Internships may be 1, 2 or 3 months long depending on availability
• Roles as an intern include all normal reserve & wildlife activities, menu planning & shopping assistance, data entry, report writing assistance, volunteer arrival preparations, running of tuck shop, marketing & bookings, stock takes, filing, duty weekends.

Independent students -  Askari offers you the following for your field placement

• Practical, hands on experience in conservation, reserve & wildlife management.
• On the job training for all projects, data collection & analysis, research techniques & tasks.
• Training in the use of all research equipment including GPS consoles & radio telemetry equipment for the tracking of research animals.
• Personal, interactive approach to all activities with a maximum group size of 10 and an emphasis on team work.
• Appropriately controlled safety procedures when working out on the reserve or while off base during Askari run excursions.
• The provision of ongoing supervision, training & assessment for students and the completion of references and placement feedback forms where required.
• Trained, experienced and passionate staff on site combining more than 10 years bush experience, research knowledge and BSc qualifications.
• Public liability insurance.

 All of this combined with stunning, world class wildlife viewing of species such as elephant, lion, rhino, cheetah, leopard, zebra, giraffe, wildebeest & warthog. 

If you are interested in this please mention it when e mailing us providing contact details for your course supervisor or institute. We will liaise with your study institute and supervisor and see if this can work for you.

Educational institutions -  

Askari caters for students following any environmental discipline & with a minimum of 6 persons, a faculty can secure exclusivity of Askari for field trips. Faculty leaders are encouraged to accompany students where possible & would be expected to provide leadership & motivation for their students as well as supervise internal student issues. With prior arrangement, projects can be tailored to suit the discipline of arriving students. Alternatively, the group can partake in all seasonally running Askari projects covering a broad spectrum of conservation & research areas. Certain times of year may be better suited to your faculty than others.  Please enquire.

Earlier on Tuesday, two larger male cheetahs had been spotted nearby but on the other side of the fence and it is believed that they may have been responsible as they had attacked and killed the Langa boys other brother some time ago. These particular males are known to us and we are aware that they have managed to cross fences in the past. However, the tracks around the scene were on poor ground for identification so we were unable to confirm exactly what animal had caused Xambilas fatal injuries.

We tracked Hwaqile  (the remaining brother) on Tuesday afternoon and found him unharmed but on our return the following morning we discovered that Hwaqile had been attacked overnight and the decision was made to call in the vets as his injuries were quite severe.

The vet sedated Hwaqile and carried out some repairs and cleaning of the wounds. For now Hwaqile will be left in a boma to recover and we are hopeful for his return to health. He has survived a previous attack and so if he survives again a decision will be made for where he can be released in the hope of reducing further conflict with these two particular cheetah.

Cheetahs are one of the worlds most endangered cats and so we will try to relocate Hwaqile to another area of the reserve. It’s not always easy to know what to do for the best when it comes to conservation as there is no hard and fast rule book, choosing whether or not to intervene is always difficult. We manage safe areas for wildlife  to some extent but appreciate and understand that we can never control what wild animals will do or how they will interact, nor is that our intention. We must consider however that endangered species sometimes need a helping hand as they have to exist in boundaries made by humans for their protection but along with that can come other problems too. It’s a tough balancing act but one that keeps on teaching us new things all the time.

We will keep you updated on Hwaqile’s progress but we are hopeful. He is already looking much more lively than when we found him on Wednesday, he even gave us a good snarl this afternoon as we dropped in on him at the boma and was quick to feed last night.

Every day here is an adventure as you never know what you’ll see! Thanks for such an amazing few weeks.

So far observations show that buffalo, elephant and rhino are those causing the most damage. Interestingly the buffalo have even been observed stripping and eating the poles outer layers! Other animals use them to scratch against as an aid to removing external parasites. As you can imagine however, when animals of that power choose to use the poles it doesn’t take much for them to cause considerable damage.  With the way of an ever developing world, conservation really requires initiatives such as this EWT/Eskom partnership. Hopefully such projects can limit interactions between humans and wildlife and find realistic and sustainable solutions so both can co-exist as peacefully as possible.

At Askari we’ll continue to do our bit by walking the powelines here and recording and reporting any fatalities of injured animals that we discover.

One of the snared animals was just a couple of days old and there were signs of a large predator having fed on it.  In the interests of research and however unfortunate the circumstance, we took the opportunity to set up a camera trap to discover exactly what was feeding on the carcass. On collection of the camera we found a fascinating collection of visitors, including;  leopard, civet, large-spotted genet, honey badgers, black-backed jackals and amazingly the rare Side-striped jackal! Here are just two of the pictures captured, firstly the ever elusive and spectacular leopard followed by the less known but equally as brilliant  honey badgers feeding alongside the rarely seen side-striped jackal.

Askari continues with its efforts against anti-poaching  in the hope that we can prevent any more animals falling victim to snares in the future.

A massive thank you to ‘The Regulators’ for their hard work which has been much appreciated and has produced a new home for Eddie firmly cemented in the landscape of the Askari house sunrise.

(If you missed the start of Eddies story with us then you can read about it in the post titled “Eddie the eagle” in the ’Recent events & flash news’ section)

Here’s a great shot that was captured on the camera trap yesterday morning and we’ll be sure to keep you posted on the progress as we discover more about Pidwas new arrivals!

 I wish the Askari team at Pidwa the very best for the future and hope that maybe one day that I can come and help them again.

I really enjoyed by time here and it made me realise how much I liked Africa. Thank you very much guys for making our stay so amazing!

If you feel there are no answers to the global environmental challenges then you need to travel to Pidwa and see what a team of people with like minds can accomplish. Take part in what Askari has to offer, it will change your lives. If you are skeptical you will leave optimistic, if you are negative you will leave positive and if you are already optimistic and positive you will leave with a sense of hope, inspiration and a great friendship with two classy people, Joe & Katie. Thanks for all your hard work and commitment to our team and the natural world.