As a result, human-wildlife conflict surged in the area, leaving many calves abandoned in the process.
This year offered up another challenging dry season for wildlife, causing many elephants to leave the boundaries of Tsavo National Park in search of food. Although it’s unclear why Pika Pika was orphaned, we might guess at the reason. We rescued the calf from an area dominated by an imposing rock face called Pika Pika, so that name felt apt. Everyone enjoys coddling her, although Mbegu is quite strict with who is granted that privilege! Already, she is right in the thick of things, browsing in the bush and splashing at the mud bath, sandwiched in between the many loving members of her new family. She faces fierce competition as the older girls at Voi go crazy over younger babies and they were ecstatic to find a new arrival in their midst. Mbegu, unsurprisingly, quickly lay claim over the calf. The layout at Voi is such that her 'taming' stockade is situated within a larger stockade where Mbegu and her little herd sleep, so she was soon ensconced in the comforting presence of elephants once more and responded instantly. This decision clearly suited her although she was visibly stressed by the day’s events, she immediately tucked into the freshly cut greens waiting for her in the freshly prepared stockade. We decided to bypass the Nursery stage and instead raise her at our Voi Reintegration Unit not terribly far from where she was rescued. The rest of the rescue was fairly straightforward the bulls ambled onwards making no attempt to intervene while we swaddled the calf in blankets and prepared her for transport. The calf cooperated and peeled off from the bulls and headed right towards the Keepers. For everyone’s safety, our helicopter gently shepherded the group to the nearest road, where our rescue team was waiting to intercept.
We knew that the calf’s chaperones, five wild bulls, would be a significant obstacle to contend with. After the photos confirmed her young age and the fact that she was indeed solely in the company of bulls, we mobilized a rescue. While we assembled a team from our Voi Reintegration Unit, which was the nearest stockade, our pilot flew to the scene to take high resolution photos of the calf. Given the circumstances, KWS management requested the calf be rescued.Īs soon as the authorities notified us about the situation, we put a plan in place. The nearest herd of elephants a long way away, and none of its lactating females appeared to be without their own calf.
#Mountain pika how to#
Download this hands-on guide to learn more about PikaNET and citizen science, such as how to explore your own science question and organize your monitoring effort. MSI has published a detailed report on the process for planning your project.During aerial patrols of the Tsavo ecosystem, it’s not unusual to see small groups of elephants traversing the open plains, however, while on a routine flight over Taita Ranch on the morning of 5th September, Wildlife Works pilot Keith Hellyer spotted something that made him pause: a young, milk-dependent calf walking in the company of five adult bulls. PikaNET: A Guide to Citizen Science Report:Ī Model for Public Participation in Scientific Research in the San Juan Mountains 2010-2011 Final Report. Chris and Liesl have both been crucial to to the development of compatible protocols and procedures. Candidate Liesl Peterson from the University of Colorado Boulder.
The monitoring effort is linked to the research being done by Dr. PikaNET is a collaborative effort between several organizations including the Mountain Studies Insititute, the Denver Zoo, Rocky Mountain Wild, Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at CSU, and the San Juan Public Lands Center. We expect to expand the geographic scope of the program in future years. The Denver Zoo will offer sister trainings in the Front Range of Northern Colorado.Ĭ serves as the portal for entering data and viewing the results of all submitted surveys. These workshops will be a combination of indoor and outdoor trainings.ĭata that participants collect will become part of a larger effort to monitor pika populations in Colorado and across the Southern Rockies. Annual trainings teach volunteers what species and indicators they are looking for, where to find them, how to collect data, and finally how to submit the data to a statewide online database. This high alpine creature is considered an indicator species of climate change due to its high vulnerability to warming global temperatures. PikaNet is a citizen science initiative to engage people in monitoring the American Pika.