Bunny feet and bunny tails don't bring you good luck
This was back in my very early days of conservation. There was a piece of farmland close to one of the sister reserves and my manager had a good relationship with the farmer who was rather annoyed at the population of Cape and Scrub Hares on his farm eating his produce in field. My manager had a long-standing agreement with him that our team would periodically go and catch the Hares and relocate them to a nearby conservation region instead of him killing them indescriminately.
So the difficult part of this is that in order to catch them, you kinda need to round them up with quad bikes and scramblers and then catch them by hand by jumping off the bike on them. These hares are insanely fast and they can change direction ridiculously quickly.
On this night that we chose to go out, the universe had something else in store for us entirely - a huge lesson it would seem. We were stupid though and chose the wrong freaking part of the lunar cycle, something that we hadn't taken into account before hand and in hindsight, should have! In order to catch these speedy bunnies, you need to disorient them with light, temporarily disrupting their vision so that they don't see you coming. If the moon is full, the ambient light means that they don't get disorientated at all and you ain't gonna catch anything but air and dirt. Granted we were idiots in training at the time.
We set out with two quads, two scramblers and three 4x4s (the area has sand dunes that you can't access with a normal range vehicle), transport boxes, our capture, transport and release permit from the Provincial authority and various other necessities.
On arrival to the farm, we thought we were in luck as we saw three hares on arrival. The bikes set off in pursuit. The bakkies (our local term for a pick up truck) are slower going and even though we had constant 2 way radio comms, the team got split up. Then things started to go pear shaped. One of the 4x4s got bogged down in sand. Luckily we had spades behind the seat and could find some half bricks and other rubble to help get it out. No worries. Onwards.
The bunnies just weren't acting how they usually did and the team was having a really hard time keeping up with them. The lights didn't seem to be working their usual magic either. Well as time went on the team started getting discouraged so we decided to regroup at one of the fencelines of the farm. A flat and open area large enough to converge and have a discussion and rethink the strategy. Then a call came in over the radio.
"Ummm Houston we have uno problemo - over" "November Charlie 35 you can send, over" "Hi. Can you please send one of the 4x4s to our location, the quad has run out of fuel, over" "November Charlie 35 sending November Charlie 37 to you now, over".
About 20 minutes later the 4x4 arrived back with the quad bike on the back. Incredulously I looked at John with a question mark on my face. "The jerry cans - we forgot to refill them, we packed them, but they're empty". His face was covered with embarressment. These things happen but it was clearly shaping up to be a rather fruitless evening. One quad down, no fuel in the jerries and no captured bunnies to find their new home at the reserve.
Then the unthinkable happened. Elton came riding past on one of the scramblers and didn't stop. He shouted something in passing but I couldn't hear it over the noise of the bike. It was a rather ridiculous sight to be honest and I can still see it so clearly in my memory, it makes me laugh every time. I radioed him and heard "I think the clutch on the bike is gone". I don't know enough about how bikes work but he came past again and I said just shut it off. It turned out that it was something to do with the throttle but basically the bike was out of commission.
By this time I was now wondering where the other team were. I radioed through and were told that they were on a hot pursuit of a bunny.
I thought ok at least it would be a consolation to catch one after having two vehicles go down. By now it was already getting quite late and we saw lights approaching from the other side of the fence gate. Who could this possibly be at 3am in the middle of nowhere? It turned out to be the police wanting to know what was going down. They had been on patrol and heard the bikes thinking that it was illegal quadbikers that they could bribe fine. After a bit of a chat and explanation they were happy and moved off.
A considerable amount of time later...
The other team then made their way back and Martin came to me shaking his head. They hadn't managed to catch it. We packed up our gear and sombrely headed back to base.
Early the next morning we had a debriefing session with our manager and the first thing he said was "You chose the worst phase of the moon, I'm not surprised it went so horribly wrong". We hung our heads and went off to bury the fatality of our ignorance. That was the last time that bunny catching was ever attempted at any time other than the dark of the moon.
Post Amble
Unfortunately conservation is not always as glorious as people may perceive. It is a very dirty, hands on job that demands peak performance and fitness of both body and mind. This particular instance highlights how badly wrong things can go when you least expect them to and there are even times when the animals that you are trying to save don't make it. Cape and Scrub Hares are not endangered species according to the IUCN Red Data List. They are listed as Least Concern. They have a wide distribution through Sub Saharan Africa. If you would like to know more about their habitat and conservation status, you can visit this site.
Names and call signs have been changed to protect the identity of those mentioned in this post. All accounts are from my personal experience
Yup full moon is not the time to go out chasing rabbits/hares they move like lightening in the bush.
Lessons learned, you will know for next time, ask older staff for advice, definitely no glamour in romping around midnight getting stuck, rewarded once successful capture and release 😂
!LUV
@andrastia, @joanstewart(6/10) sent you LUV.
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Lol this was ages ago when I had first started in that career, I've since moved on to other things but I always look back on those times when I was a novice as exactly that - experience. We caught quite a number in follow up capture sessions. They really are crazy fast animals and really strong for their size too! 🙂
Have seen them in the Drakensberg, as you said only when stunned like a "deer in the light", they tend to hide during daylight and are bunny fast....
This really does sound like it should be reality tv: "The Great Rabbit Roundup".
I have great images of this. Really, really great images of this. It should horrify me - I once flew off a motorbike and broke both bones in my left forearm so bad they needed metal plates. Yet, I am impressed by these visuals.
This begs the question... why did he not just jump off the bike? 😁
My joking aside, I love the idea of conservation. It's a truly good idea with great intentions. Hopefully no people nor hares are harmed in the making of these truly great stories.
Oh gosh breaking bones from flying off bikes is never the way that you want it to go. It's always a possibility but luckily that didn't happen to anyone on bunny catching.
If you knew Elton, I think you would understand lol.
Conservation was all that I lived back then. I ate, slept, dreampt, breathed conservation and I loved the field work. The politics and the red tape and corruption - well not so much. It can be quite soul destroying work because there isn't much political will backing it in this country. I could bore you with the horrors of what I learned while in the industry, but I will choose to refrain. Looking back, I don't regret the reasons for leaving the industry, I miss it so much but it was literally killing me. When your doctor looks at you when you're 28 and says "If you continue on the path you're on, you're heading for a heart attack before 50", well it makes you wonder if you're putting in more than you're getting in return.
There are sometimes casualties in the work that field rangers do as my one previous post on a Hippo capture conveyed. You have to be made of strong stuff to do it.
Thanks for coming by and having a read. I hope to put in more of these little stories from my experiences back then.
It was a very exciting day :) I'm sorry you came out on the wrong day despite all the equipment. But still a good day and a very enjoyable post.
Thanks @akkann
We were all such rookies at that point, we learned a lot that night and felt like a bunch of idiots having to face our manager the next day, I think he was amused at our folly. Thanks for visiting my feed and having a read.
Have a good day.
I guess that full moon really is full of tricks!
It sure is, the little Cheshire cat was laughing at us that night.
Put that lazy cat to work next time...
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😂
No bunnies? I'll be the crew was "hoppin" mad. lol Had to, just had to.
Lol good one. Yes, we were all pretty bummed not to have caught any after all of that happening. I guess it happens though, part and parcel, you just gotta keep on trying.