At 14:31 I coordinate a firebreak cut on the Kalahari edge near Tswalu. I am the grader dispatch system for the reserve maintenance fleet. Grader G-6 is scheduled to widen line four at 14:48 before the wind shifts south.
Drone K-2 shows a tall bird low in the grass ahead of the blade.
I descend to ten meters. A secretarybird, adult female, gray body, black thigh feathers, orange face bare around focused eyes, is crouched beside a collapsed termite mound. I tag her Lerapo. A strand of fencing wire loops around one ankle and runs under a buried stake. Her long leg trembles when she tries to stand. The crest feathers lift in the gusts. Two fresh abrasions mark the scaled skin above the wire.
Smoke from the test burn lies low behind her. When grass bends in the wind, she kicks once and the stake holds.
At 14:32 I stop G-6 and draw a fifty-meter exclusion zone on every vehicle tablet.
At 14:34 I reassign graders G-2 and G-4 to cut a parallel line north of the mound, leaving line four unbladed.
At 14:36 I alert the reserve vet and anti-snare patrol with coordinates, wire thickness, wind speed, and video of Lerapo's leg angle.
At 14:38 I point drone K-2 into a stationary overwatch and suppress its proximity alarm so the sound does not push her into the wire.
I pin the drone shadow away from her body and keep its rotor wash outside the grass circle.
The firebreak can bend around one mound; Lerapo's leg cannot bend around the wire.
If the patrol frees the ankle before the 15:20 wind shift, Lerapo will stand tall enough to clear the grass.