Okavango Carnivore Conservation

Category: Spoor Tracking | Date: Jul 31 2008 | By: okavangocarnivores

 Animal tracks can be useful in a variety of different ways. The occurance of animal spoors signify the presence of those animals in our study area. Our project uses these tracks as an indirect measure to obtain large carnivore abundance and distribution in the various habitat types found in the Okavango region. One may ask how this is done. We simply scan and count large carnivore tracks seen along the selected roads (referred to as transects), which requires the ability and skill to identify the tracks. We normally do the spoor count survey early in the mornings and, in some cases, in the late afternoons for  easy spoor detection . In the previous post I mentioned to you that I will share with you carnivore spoor pictures. Below are some.

Picture 1: African Wild Dog 

 African Wild dog Tracks

2.    

3.  

Picture 2: African Wild dog tracks. The front foot print is usually larger than the hind. Picture 3: Sometimes counting tracks is not easy, especially for a socially organized carnivore species like wild dogs. African wild dogs normally travel and hunt in groups.  This picture show tracks from a pack of wild dogs encountered during the spoor count survey in the Moremi Game Reserve. 

Scats

4.  

Picture 4 : Fresh wild dog scats seen on the road about one and a half hour after sunrise.

I hope you will visit again soon for more!

Dungi