World Wildlife Fund

Robin Naidoo
© Greg Stuart-Hill, WWF-LIFE

Robin Naidoo, a conservation scientist in WWF's Conservation Science program, returned from two weeks in the wilderness of Namibia's Caprivi Strip - a long, narrow band of Namibia that runs east-west between Botswana, Angola and Zambia. Get a first-person account of what it takes to capture, collar and release large African mammals - including buffalo, sable and impala. Read about his near-misses, helicopter chases and other adventures in conservation science.

Part 7: Hippo Visitation

The kudu is one of the more abundant antelope species in the region.
© WWF / Robin Naidoo

After capturing another herd of impala this morning, we are once again in the air looking for buffalo. We fit a collar on a female buffalo in Mahango National Park.

By this time it's about 11am and quite hot, so the rest of the day we're at camp. I spend a few hours on the ground checking the radio signals from the buffalo that we captured, but radio tracking from the ground in this area is quite challenging since there are few high points from which to get a clear signal.

The generally elusive sable is not an uncommon sight in several of Caprivi's protected areas. © WWF / Robin Naidoo
© WWF / Robin Naidoo

I'll go up with Mark again tomorrow to look from the air. Before dinner we take a game drive through the park and see elephant and hippo, as well as three types of antelope: tssessebe, roan and sable.

We have a nice dinner and I fall asleep immediately. It must have been a deep sleep, since the next morning I was told that a hippo was sniffing my tent!