31 March
Success! We now have 20 finished traps. I may be biased, but I’m sure these are the most beautiful pitfall traps I’ve ever seen. I’m really proud of the team – it was hard work, but we got there in the end.
We’ve covered the traps in strong material so that the hippos can used to walking on the trails again and over the traps before we move into the capture phase of the project. In order to attract the hippos, we’ve put some salt on part of the traps. Other mammals seem to like salt when it’s been used in previous trials so we thought we’d try it out on the hippos.
Over the next month, Alusine and Kenewa will check the traps for signs of pygmy hippo activity in the morning and late afternoon. I have to return to Kenema and my normal work in Gola, but the team here in Tiwai will keep me posted. I’ll be back in a couple of weeks to see how things are getting on.
15 April
I’m back on Tiwai and so far, so good. The team have been finding hippo signs on and around the traps, with four of the traps looking particularly popular. The salt seems to be working a treat!
Pygmy hippo footprint by Annika Hillers (RSPB)
The team have even found a couple of new areas that look really promising, so they’ve dug three more traps. Luckily for them, there’s been a lot of rain over the last couple of weeks so the traps were much easier to dig.
I don’t want to jinx anything, but I’ve got a really good feeling. We know the hippos are there and they’re coming to the traps, so surely we’ve got a good chance of catching one. Right?