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 9: Improvisation

The team is preparing the tranquilizers and darts for a day's work.
© WWF / Robin Naidoo

Following a day of work at Mudumu National Park, our final site was Mamili National Park, in a remote area just north of the Chobe delta in Botswana. Because it's so difficult to access, Mamili is almost like a forgotten park and the infrastructure and tourist facilities are very basic. But because it's so secluded, there is relatively low human pressure on the park and Mamili harbors large buffalo populations. Dr. Jago says these are some of the biggest buffalo herds he's ever seen, and coming from someone who worked in the Serengeti for many years, this is quite a statement. In fact, several herds contain greater than 500 animals, and in the park there might be more than 2,000 individual buffalo.

Unlike the Asian water buffalo, African buffalos have not been domesticated.
© Buffalos

This late in the trip, we're running out of collars but still deploy three satellite GPS and a radio collar on what we think are three separate herds. The particular mix of drugs that Mark has used today does not seem to achieve very deep sedation of several of the juvenile animals. As a result, we must chase after the darted animals, bring them to the ground with rope, and then use sheer manpower to hold the animal steady while blood is drawn. Even a partially tranquilized juvenile buffalo is an extremely strong animal; it takes five or six of us to hold it steady! By the time they are full-grown, an adult male can weigh almost 2 tons - the weight of an average car.

A campground view of Namibia's landscapes.
© WWF / Robin Naidoo

The buffalo wrestling took much longer than the normal collaring we'd been doing. By the time we all got back to camp we were dirty, sore and ready for a good night's sleep.