I know all of our loyal readers (probably in the single
digits) out there are pining for some more tales of rat related adventure, but
this latest tidbit comes from the other side of the coin—a cat related adventure. I’m sure you all remember Cookies, our little
Tabby cat who was the first (and so far last) cat trapped here. We slapped a radio/GPS collar on him and set
him free, fingers crossed that we’d be able to recover the damn thing and see
what he’d been up to. Once the rats were
released the plan was to go find Cookies and get our collar back, thereby
eliminating a potential threat to our furry little comrades. We were never really sure how this might
happen, if a helicopter might be involved, if we would hike out by ourselves
and keel over from the heat, or if by some stroke of luck we could trap him
again.
The skies opened up soon after the release, as the ‘monsoon
trough’ of the wet season bore down upon Northern Australia. Rains came, rivers rose, and the temperatures
were surprisingly cool. It was unclear
whether or not a chopper might be here soon, since everything is so weather
dependent these days. Therefore, we took
it upon ourselves to try to find Cookies as long as there was a suitable break
in the weather. The plan was to track
him down after release, and this seemed like the best time to do it. That, and the managers were leaving on
holidays soon, meaning that we’d be here alone and wouldn’t have anyone to call
should one of us indeed keel over. It
was settled. We’d try to get his signal
from where we caught him, hike into the bush, find him, and retrieve our
collars. This wasn’t going to be an easy
task; cats don’t normally stay still if you’re trying to hunt them down. Luckily we had 2 new recruits on board in the
form of the managers’ dogs. We’d always
wondered about their tracking skills, as they seemed to sniff pretty well (see
previous post) and were excited to track down anything that ran.
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| Puj and Ginger, our noses and legs! |
We geared up for our trek; plenty of water, satellite phone,
GPS, gun, etc. One might think we were
leaving for some sort of guerilla mission with the way we packed. It was a grey day, and the humidity hung in the air long
enough to soak you in less than an hour.
We set out from the trap location, Tegan with a dog and the tracking
equipment and me with the gun. We hiked
for a few km’s into the bush, then followed a creek bed as we heard the signal
getting stronger. Hitting the base of
the range, we climbed up to get a better read on his position, always aware
that he might be in some canyon, causing the signal to bounce around
everywhere. The sun came out, the hills
continued. We crested another few hills,
soaked with sweat and precipitation, the dogs lagging behind. By now we’d come maybe 5km (about 3
miles). The signal was getting stronger,
and Tegan unleashed the pups to be able to track him. Alas, Cookies was on to us. He somehow eluded the dogs and his signal got
faint again as we started to think that maybe we did need that helicopter after
all. We kept walking, down out of the
hills and back into the valley another few km’s later. Crossing a small river, the signal got
stronger and off the dogs went, hot on the heels of our feline
perpetrator. I ran after, gun at the
ready in case it went up a tree, and stopped short. Silence.
I heard neither dog, cat, nor human, and was beginning to think that
once again we’d been out witted. This
could be the last push before we decided to head home, 8km of hard walking
under our belts and no results. All of a
sudden the silence was pierced by Tegan’s voice: ‘ETHAN! WE GOT HIM!
COME HERE! GOOD DOGS!!’. I raced up a rise and found Tegan patting the
dogs on the back, they had chased Cookies and had him pinned down,
exhausted. Sparing the details, he was
dispatched humanely and our collar was retrieved triumphantly. For those of you who don't know how capable they are as wild hunters, we found an entire adult frill-necked lizard in it's stomach (see pic). These things are big and fast, but are no match for a cat out in the bush unfortunately. I have to say, without the dogs we might
still be looking for that thing too. They
had the eyes and noses that we didn’t have, as well as the speed, even after
8km of hiking.
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| Frilly for lunch? |
After a good deal of celebration between all 4 of us, we
started on the long walk home. Suddenly
everything felt tired as the adrenaline of the chase began to wear off. The rain started coming down, but we didn’t
care. It was as if our guerilla mission
was a success, and we thwarted our enemies if only for a day or two. The long hike back to the car was made a bit
longer because the manager, who was going to give us a ride, had a
teleconference that ran longer than expected.
As a result, we walked an extra 4-5km (nearly 3 miles) back to our ute
and collapsed in the seats. A much
needed hot shower and cup of tea awaited, as well as the collar data that we
spent so much time and effort to get.
Without revealing too much due to intellectual property
rights and all that, Cookies stayed in an area of about 10 sq. km. He traveled
various places within his home range, and rarely seemed to cross the road. Its relatively limited data, but it’s
something considering no other cats have been collared here. If only they were more cooperative with
trapping. In the end, we thank you
Cookies for contributing to the science that is helping to figure out your
species and what they mean to Australian landscapes and wildlife.
