Angola Field Group

Mercury has established himself as the Master Bull

Mercury has long attained a jet-black color. All photos, Pedro Vaz Pinto.

Instead of constantly following one female herd, he now spends most of his time alone marking and patrolling his territory, and only occasionally bursts calmly amidst a group of immediately-turned submissive females, to claim his bounty. His leadership is now naturally enforced and totally unchallenged. All young males, including the next-in-line Apollo, disappear or keep a safe distance his approach.

Young females are the future of Cangandala.

We have at least two good breeding herds, totalling about 30 animals and with a good number of young breeding females… in this regard the prospects in Cangandala are encouraging. On a sad note, many poaching incidents were reported … In Cangandala armed poachers were detected inside the sanctuary and shots were exchanged with the poachers, before they eventually escaped. Also yet another trap camera was stolen, highlighting the lack of security in the park. In Luando Reserve, although it wasn’t possible to access the area because of the rains, we were informed by the rangers that poaching is rampant and one of our trap cameras was destroyed by poachers.

Ending on a bright note, colouful Cangandala… 

Colorful grasshopper in the park.

A male Holub’s golden weaver.

Read biologist Pedro Vaz Pinto’s full First Trimester 2015 Report with photos from Angola’s Cangandala Park and Luando Reserve, in English and Portuguese on our Giant Sable page.