before finishing my wildebeest transect I would get a call or text “we’ve found the lion/hyena. Keen?”. Which meant the researcher leading the lion and hyena capture and collar project (a project aiming to study the animals movement and determine how the species intersect) had found the next individual to be collared. I was on their speed dial. I had been asked in the lead up to this part of the project whether I would like to be involved, and I said yes. Actually I think it was more like “of course, when do we start”. At the time I thought I would go out once or twice and then take the next morning off from my project to try and get some sleep. But, by the time the project came around there had been interest from a production group that wanted footage of the process and couldn’t get any crew into Etosha in time. So the lead researcher had a dilemma, to miss the opportunity of the work being filmed or try and find someone who could come out and film multiple captures as practice and then film the “big one”; the Okondeka lion pride’s capture. The Okondeka pride, 16 adults in total, has been the centre of many a documentary and their capture was generating interest. Fortunately for me the researcher wanted the footage and I was first pick.

 

So, invariably the text would come through and I’d reply “Sure”. With about 10 minutes to get ready I would drive to camp, and then race around trying to get my equipment, pack an on-the-go dinner and grab enough water to survive the night, but not so much that I’d have to find a tree to hide behind while surrounded by lions and hyenas. One time I was given a minute to get ready, the car was actually moving as I jumped in. Result: crouching down amongst the spiniest grass I’ve ever felt for half an hour to film the process and scoring many splinters for my efforts as I didn’t have enough time to change out of my shorts. Grass 1: Rebecca 0.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Somehow I have an unnaturally relaxed demeanour around animals. The thought of roller coasters petrified me until I was 13. The prospect of learning to drive a car, and being responsible for that dangerous hunk of metal as it travels at 110km/hr, petrified the 17-year old me. And I was often described as the quiet kid happy to sit in the background. And yet, jumping out of a car with a just darted lion 10m away, surrounded by a pride of angry lions whose mate/friend/mother you just shot seemed completely natural and not at all stressful. The first successful capture that I was involved in was of a lioness in a pride of 16, including 10 cubs and 2 males. The lioness went down in the thickets where visibility didn’t go beyond a couple of metres. Fortunately we had 2 of the most capable staff with us whose eyes and ears beat anyone’s I know. When danger loomed their vehicles and headlights were used to fend off any advancing animals. That added to the comfort level I guess.

 

Once the lion or hyena is down, it’s time to hurry. The quicker you can get in, get everything done and give the animal the reversal drugs the better it is for the animal and of course, the less chance you have that he or she is going to wake up with you in swiping distance. For everyone else, not guarding or filming, once the animal is down its time to monitor him/her for any signs of distress or movement, measure its size, take photos of its teeth and whiskers and full body, take hair samples, blood samples and faecal samples (this is when I am pretty happy to be too busy filming) and then get the collar on. The whole process is so quick that it is a blur for an outsider to watch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The amazing thing with a project like this, or really any zoology project, is that every time you do something it is different. Whether the lion never shows up or avoids the dart, or the hyena outsmarts you, for the fourth time in a row or you get to collar a lion in daylight, as the sun sets with hundreds of metres of visibility. I was just lucky that the Okondeka lioness that we collared was in the last category. It was daylight, with the sun behind me, there were no trees obstructing the view and the ground was flat enough to use a jerry can as a make shift tripod, with a couple of rocks just to straighten it up perfectly. Oh and I wasn’t sitting amongst a bed of spiny grass. I have yet to see the footage, as it was not taken on my camera, but fingers are crossed that there is a little bit of footage worthy of something other than a home video.

 

All in all, this has taught me that I am enjoying my job. It is something that will have me running on less than 3 hours sleep a night just so that I can be part of different projects, without losing any wildebeest data collection time, and is something that I can do day after day. Although, I have learnt my lesson; if I am running on little sleep and feeling pretty good it is because of adrenaline and in no circumstance am I to have time off unless I plan on getting some sleep.  Otherwise it ends in a mind and body shutdown until sufficient sleep is achieved. Not good when you are going out again the next day…