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The start of my fieldwork – A blog post by Elisa Sandoval-Serés

Elisa Sandoval-Serés

The day I was travelling to Africa, 1^st of May 2021

Oxford, UK

I woke up early that day, and I could still not believe that I was travelling to Africa. It was finally happening, I had been waiting for this moment to arrive for the last 5 years. My DPhil fieldwork had been postponed for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but I had been wishing to come back to Africa since 2016, since I had last stepped into it, into this wonderful continent, full of wilderness.

I was excited and nervous, I had planned this trip since the start of my DPhil studies in 2019. I had packed two weeks in advance and I was ready to carry two big suitcases full of fieldwork equipment and travel for at least two days until arriving at my final destination. It had been a challenge to find enough funding for my first year of fieldwork, but it had even been more challenging to receive all the research permits from both Zimbabwe and Oxford to be able to travel during this global pandemic. All my supervisors, my colleagues from Painted Dog Conservation (PDC), an NGO in Zimbabwe dedicated to supporting wild dog conservation, and WILDCRU had been very helpful. This was going to be the first time that I visited the project and meet the PDC team, the first time that I was going to study African wild dogs, and the first time that I was going to step into Zimbabwe. But I was excited and ready to start this adventure! My family and friends from Mexico, Spain and Oxford were all sending me positive messages.

Photo: Some equipment for my fieldwork
(Satellite phone, GPS, GPS collar, flashlight, sun charger, camera trap, receiver).

The day I saw African wild dogs for the first time in my life, 12 of May 2021

Outside Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe

My research is about the competition of African wild dogs with lions and spotted hyaenas in a semi-arid ecosystem with artificial water provision. The African wild dog is an endangered species and the highest biological threat they have is the competition with larger carnivores. For my fieldwork, I need to follow wild dog packs to record their behaviours and movements in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe. This research will support the conservation of wild dogs and propose water management solutions to reduce their competition.

Studying African wild dogs in the wild can be very challenging. Several days or weeks can pass without seeing any sign of them, this is because they have big home ranges and can travel long distances, and hide in very dense vegetation. Thus, I was not expecting to see any wild dog soon when I first arrived.

The first day after my quarantine, I went tracking wild dogs with PDC staff, and within an hour we heard the “bip” with the antenna that indicated that radio-collared wild dogs were close by. Minutes later, we saw them! They were next to a waterhole drinking water! I just couldn’t believe it! This was not just a wild dog pack sighting but it was a sighting on a waterhole, which is exactly what my research is about (the role of waterholes on wild dogs competition with lions and hyaenas). Was it luck? Was it coincidence? Maybe, but it was definitely an amazing experience. We also saw hyaenas and lions footprints nearby.

We saw the wild dogs for only few minutes, and since then, we have not seen them as clearly as that day. This is when I realized and confirmed that my study was going to be a challenge and that I would have to buy GPS collars to study them. However, I’m sure that this challenge is completely worthwhile and I am in the right place with the right people to study them.

If you would like to know more about my research and you would like to support it, please visit: https://www.bio-mas.org/wilddogs.html.

Photo: My first sighting of African wild dogs in the wild