Culling of Quelea

I had a lifetime experience on the 2 February when I have learned how to cull Quelea's and the different methods of doing so. There are 2 different methods of culling Quelea's, the 1 is by fire and the other one is the one we used is poison. The reason we did not use the fire method is because it is in the bush veld and that could lead to veld fires.

OBJECTIVE; The objective is to terminate the Quelea's because they have become a problem for the farmers around the area. A Quelea colony can eat approximately 4 to 8 tons of grain per day. This causes the problem of food security. Management made an informed choice. Doing it on the most possible humane way is very important.

PLANNING; There is allot of planning going into a operation like this. Everyone got a general briefing. Everything was well organized and well thought out. The only negative thing about the planning is that us students wanted to be more involved. We also had to check for open water so that we don't contaminate the water and the animals that live there.

SITE VISIT; Learned more about the non-targeted species that were situated at the area where the quelea's were breeding.

DEMARCATE ; Before we went into the field we had first had a site briefing so that everyone knows what they should and should not do. We went into the field. The farmers started demarcating the area and we were informed more about quelea's and why they are such problem animals. Myself and the other students then started chasing all the non-targeted animals that we could find out of the marked area. The torches consist of a empty can with diesel and a cloth inside the can. That can is tied to a steel dropper that has been hit into the ground. The torches was lit up just before it became dark. The reason for the torches is so that the airplane can see which area he must spray with the poison so that he won't contaminate other places. There was also a bakkie showing the pilot where the power lines are so that he doesn't fly into them.

EVACUATION; We evacuated the demarcated area.We had to make shore that all precautions are in place. The fire trucks,first aid bags was on site. The power lines was indicated by a bakkie so that the plane does not fly into the power lines.

AEROPLANE; The aeroplane then came to spray the area. One of the guys on the ground spoke to the pilot over the radio to make shore he can see the marked area clearly. The poisons name is FALCOLAN. It brakes down your red blood sells. The antidote for this poison is ATROPINE. The dosage of the antidote that should be used for birds is, 1mg/kg. The pilot finished spraying half of the marked area then he had to go fill up with poison to spray the rest. When he finished the last part he let us know on the radio. We went home to go rest.

The next morning at 05:00 we and the farm workers were back in the field to start picking up the dead quelea's and looked for all the non-targeted animals that might be in the area. We found 1white faced owl that has died and one that we took to our wildlife centre to rehabilitate it. We also found a cattle egret and a puff adder the we took to the wild life centre for rehabilitation. We had to continue for a couple of days to make shore that the non-target animals that is infected can be saved.