Three Nights Waiting for a Pangolin
Sipho joins a research team in the Kalahari trying to fit a tag to one of the most trafficked and least understood mammals on Earth, and explains what the tag will tell them.
Collaring a Leopard Before the Heat
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Show notes
Two hours with a leopard
A GPS collar on a leopard gives researchers a year of movement data, but fitting it means darting a wild cat and working fast before the day warms. Sipho follows a Kruger operation from the baited tree at 4 am to the moment the animal walks off, and then explains what the collar data has shown about territory, roads and fences.
- Why collar data changed how we think about leopard territory
- The dart, the timing and the temperature rule
- What a vet checks in the first five minutes
- Weighing, measuring and the collar fit
- The first week of data
If you have questions about collars and animal welfare, send them in and Sipho will answer on the next episode.
Transcript
This is Notes From the Hide, I am Sipho Mthembu, and today we have two hours. That is the window a vet gives us to dart a leopard, fit a GPS collar, take measurements and get her back on her feet before the Kruger sun makes it unsafe. I recorded the whole morning, from the first alarm call of a francolin near the baited tree to the moment she stood up, shook her head and walked into the grass as if nothing had happened. Along the way I will explain why these collars changed everything we thought we knew about leopard territory, what the vet checks first, and what the first week of data told us about one road and one fence. You are listening on Witspeak Podcasts. It is 4 am and very cold.
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