The sequel to the adventures of Kapotwe and Bwalya
Kapotwe - Cover star of African Geographic and featured in several news articles around the world must be the most famous shoebill. Here we will inform you about how Kapotwe became famous and why she is an important ambassador for all her fellow shoebills.
Kapotwe as a young chick, about 5 to 6 weeks old, in the enclosure at Chikuni. Here she is gobbling down a catfish. She would need up to 5-6 fish a day just before she fledged, which were bought from the local fishermen.
Kapotwe hatched close to Gibson village in August 2011, a fishing camp in the Bangweulu Wetlands of Zambia. These wetlands give rise to the southernmost breeding population for this enigmatic bird with its prehistoric looks. Kapotwe was found in a fishing hut at a very young age, kept there to show to tourists or to become part of the illegal trade in shoebill chicks. She was found by the shoebill research team and taken to Chikuni, the research station. Read more about the Shoebill Conservation Programme.
At Chikuni we built a suitable shoebill enclosure and from then onwards Kapotwe was hand-reared by the researchers and their assistants. She grew into a big chick and when she was old enough to walk around, a pond was dug in the enclosure, into which live catfish were released in order for Kapotwe to start developing her hunting skills. Initially she was not very successful, and every now and then she had to rely on her caretakers for some extra fish. Even without any parent to show her how to catch fish, her instincts told her what to do and slowly she learned the technique of catching catfish. She was quite the clumsy hunter, either knocking herself out by striking into shallow waters or realising too late that she was in too deep waters and could go no further.
Once she was fully grown, we opted for the ‘soft release’ option; the door of the enclosure was opened and she could wander around freely and return to the enclosure at night if she wanted to. During the day she spent her time around the research station, but she would always return to her enclosure at night. She was still quite habituated to humans. Kapotwe tried to fish in the pond in front of the research station and on the flooded plain, but she was not very successful. She was losing weight and often had to be given some extra fish. The problem was that whenever the researchers or ZAWA (Zambia Wildlife Authority) scouts would be outside, or whenever people would arrive at Chikuni, she would approach them and start begging for food. Tourists cameras were attacked as if they were fish and one night the shoebill researcher had troubles drinking a glass of whisky in front of the house, as Kapotwe showed an interest in the glass as well. She was quite awkward in her movements, but did manage to catch a fish every now and then, albeit mainly small ones. At a certain point she found an easier way to catch fish; she ate the fish that were caught in the fishing nets that were set on the flooded plain. Once she had chased away all the fishermen from the plain, she needed to look for alternatives.
Kapotwe emptying the fish nets set by the local fishermen on the flooded plain. After a few days she chased away all the fishermen from the plain and she needed an alternative fishing method.
One day she decided to fly away and ended in Fibili fishing camp, about 700 meters from Chikuni. The locals first enjoyed her presence, even fed her some fish, but soon got concerned. Kapotwe was not afraid of humans, would approach fishermen when they were emptying their fishing nets and would snatch fish from their boats. After a few weeks the locals warned us that ‘something’ might happen to the bird, so we took her back to Chikuni and made a plan to release her at Kaleya, where another confiscated shoebill had been successfully released before. We hoped that she would stay away from fishing camps if she found the company of other shoebills. The two research assistants camped in the area where Kapotwe was released, but it was not a success. Initially the bird stayed around the assistants’ tents, but after a few days she moved to Bulanda fishing camp. The people there were informed about Kapotwe and asked not to feed her and to chase her away if she approached them too closely. After six days, Kapotwe had enough of all this and flew back to Chikuni.
After a few days at Chikuni, Kapotwe left again. First she returned to Fibili Camp, but she kept more distance this time and hunted for fish at the fish weirs close to the camp. After a few weeks she ventured to a fishing camp deeper within the swamps and lived for a few weeks in this area which was new to her. She then moved even further away from Chikuni and settled near Katundu, an area north of Shoebill Camp. We got reports that she was keeping more to herself and was managing to forage independently. All seemed to be fine.
One day we were visited by a fisherman, telling us that they had to capture Kapotwe after she swallowed a hooked fish. She obviously saw an easy meal, a catfish that was splashing in the same place for a while, and caught the fish. In the process her metal ring got tangled up with an empty hook and of course she could not swallow the fish. The two fishermen who saw this happen pulled out the fish and freed her leg. They kept Kapotwe in their hut and reported everything at Chikuni. Kapotwe was collected from the fishing camp and returned yet again to Chikuni. We checked her for wounds, but she was not bleeding and seemed to be okay. The hook had been deep inside the catfish when the fish was pulled out, so it did not cause any injury to Kapotwe. We fixed the metal ring and gave Kapotwe a meal. She looked healthy and after a few days, she took off again, disappearing north of Shoebill Camp, into the same area where she had been before.
For several weeks we did not hear anything from her, besides stories that she was doing fine and was foraging for herself. However, at the beginning of August 2012, two fishermen came to Chikuni and told us they had caught Kapotwe, as they thought she had escaped from her enclosure at Chikuni. The fishermen were hoping for a reward and we could then fetch the bird. We explained that Kapotwe was actually a free shoebill now and accompanied them to the site where they had her tied up. She was tied near a pool with a rubber string to her leg. We untied her and briefed and educated the fishermen about Kapotwe. We asked them to keep an eye on her, but not to tamper with the bird. Kapotwe slowly walked away from the scene, not impressed at all.
Since then Kapotwe has been independent, taking care of herself and she hasn’t gotten herself into any further trouble. She found herself a nice site with shallow waters where there seem to be plenty of catfish. She avoids humans, but she is still easy to approach. As she is quite close to Shoebill Camp, less than an hour’s walk away, many tourists have seen Kapotwe from up close. She must appear in thousands of pictures shown all over the world. We get regular updates from the people from Shoebill Camp and gather from that information that she is doing very well at the site where she is now. Hopefully she will turn into a semi-wild shoebill, that will avoid people more and more and might one day interact with other shoebills.
Bwalya was confiscated from Samfya in October 2011, where it was part of the illegal trade in shoebill chicks. Bwalya was quite a large chick and close to fledging. The bird only stayed a few weeks at Chikuni and when it was fed enough catfish to obtain a good body weight, the bird was released into the swamps. However, before we transferred the bird into the swamps, it was fitted with a GPS-transmitter. This device would send the GPS position of Bwalya every hour from 6 AM till 6 PM and would thus allow us to follow its movements.
The bird was released near Kaleya scout camp, about 3.5 km from Chikuni. The shoebill researcher camped at the release site for a few days to make sure the bird managed to forage and find shelter at night, but it seemed to be doing just fine. Initially Bwalya stayed close to the release site, but slowly it moved to the west and found an area with suitable habitat and plenty of catfish. The foraging site was quite close to Bulanda fishing camp and sometimes it would be foraging within 100 meters from humans. It foraged on top of the floating vegetation where it would hunt for catfish.
During the day, catfish hide underneath floating vegetation, but this is a very oxygen poor environment. Every now and then the catfish would come to the surface and snatch some air through a breathing hole. At these breathing holes Bwalya would stand for hours, waiting for catfish to surface. If a catfish would surface, the shoebill would strike with surprising speed and vigour. We observed Bwalya for many hours, more than 60, in order to determine its foraging success and on many occasions it managed to catch catfish or smaller prey species. In the same area as Bwalya, another shoebill, Zorro, was found foraging on an almost daily basis. Often the birds would end up on the same patch of floating vegetation and they did not seem to be bothered by each other. They even interacted on occasions and looked for each other’s company.
The bird was getting quite used to the research team doing observations on its behaviour. Even though the researchers always tried to keep distance, on some days Bwalya would actually approach the researchers to within 5 meters, not fussed by their presence. Tourists from Shoebill Camp could experience the same closeness to the bird, as Bwalya, but also Zorro, were quite relaxed when being approached, but only when they were together or not foraging.
After a fire destroyed the grasses and reeds of its foraging site, Bwalya moved away from the area, to settle about 300 m further into the swamps. Here it spent a few months before returning to its old foraging site. The most recent information we received from the GPS devices is that Bwalya moved to a complete different area, the Lukulu river east of Muwele village. Whether this will be a temporary visit or whether Bwalya will settle here for a longer time, we will find out once we get more data from the GPS-transmitter. For the moment, Bwalya is doing very well and does not seem to suffer from any ill effects of its experience with humans, nor from the GPS-transmitter.