Agatha (Herd AG)

Agatha is the matriarch of a herd consisting of approximately 10 individuals. While fixing her collar in August 2006 we determined that Agatha actually is a two tusked female, but must have broken her right tusk early in life. She was collared for the first time in November 2004 near Three Mashatu’s with a satellite collar. In August 2006 she was darted again and the satellite collar replaced with a cellular collar. This time just south of the Mashatu Main Camp. Myriad Momentum sponsored the collar and also participated in the collaring. Agatha currently has 3 calves, the youngest of which was born in October 2006. Agnes is another recognisable tuskless cow within the herd and can easily be identified by a triangular cut out of her right ear. Agatha’s herd is often seen to associate with the herds of Christina, Sonja and Charge.

Agatha’s Specifications:

• Shoulder Height: 2.70
• Age: 40 years
• Calves: 7 years old; 3 year old
  and a <1 year old
   

Movements:

This seems to be one of the more resident herds on the reserve. She has mainly three areas in which she concentrates at specific times of the year. For the most part Agatha and her family are often seem around the central Majale River area and Mashatu Main camp. During both 2005 and 2006 Agatha and her herd moved down towards the Shashe River during August. This happened earlier in August 2005 than in August 2006. For the whole of September and October 2005 the herd remained in a small area along the Shashe River near the confluence of the Limpopo and Shashe rivers. Over the same period in 2006 Agatha and her herd were seen to move regularly along the Limpopo River spending time in a much bigger area than the previous year over the same time period. Comparing the movement patterns over November for the three years (2004-2006) give very interesting results. During 2004 the herd already returned to the central area and most of the movement of this herd were in the central area of the reserve concentrating along the Majale River, during 2005 the herd first spend some time along the Limpopo riverine concentrating in the Acacia veld, before moving back to the central Majale river area late in the month. The movement pattern for 2006 during November follows a similar pattern to 2005 but the herd spend more time much higher up along the Shashe River than any of the previous years. Movement patterns for the December and January periods of the 3 years are very different with different areas in the reserve being used over the three years for the same months.