Wild Horizons Wildlife Trust is very excited to be involved in a mass wildlife collaring project in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe.  The project is being coordinated by Dr. Herve Fritz who is attached to Lyon University and the CNRS (Centre Nationale Recherche Scientifique). The main aim of this project is to look at the relationships between prey and predators and to see how the spatial distribution of the different animals depends on each other.  Mr. Roger Parry and Mrs. Jessica Dawson of the Wild Horizons Wildlife Trust will be taking in a team of pre-veterinary field assistants to participate with darting and collaring of the animals.

The project which is being overseen by Dr. Fritz is an effort from the different research teams in Hwange National Park to share information. The teams involved are the Hwange Environmental Research Development project, the Hwange Lion Research project and the Painted Dog Conservation project. The ultimate goal of sharing data will be to gather more information about the territories and distribution of prey and predators, which prey species are most hunted by which predators, competition between the different predators, as well as collecting data on the frequency at which certain terrain is being used.  The collars which have been specially designed by South African company: Africa Wildlife Tracking, will transmit data of the movement of the animal to special boxes placed at waterholes as well as communicate data onto collars of any of the other prey or predator species when they are within range.

Collaring and mass capture of the animals is set to begin in the winter season.  Dr. Fritz is a qualified ecologist, and will use the darting and capture assistance of Mr. Mike La Grange, Ms. Esther van der Meer, and Mr. Roger Parry.  Wild Horizons Wildlife Trust is looking forward to taking part in this project and working together with all of the other research teams to promote conservation.