Rhinos! Etc.

Today we went out to do plant research. On the way there we passed a group of elephants including 3 babies (one was really tiny) and they were so adorable. They were splashing around in the mud trying to cool themselves off. We also saw some really cute monkeys and then on the way back two rhinos!! They were so HUGE, it was kind of scary. We watched them for a while and then continued driving. I was kind of tired so I fell asleep and then woke up when the car stopped abruptly. There was another group of elephants walking across the road! We drove further and we saw hippos in the water, just hanging out. It was a great drive.

Lions!

More Pictures!

Crazy

Feb 19

Last night I went on the most amazing drive of my life. We went out to do research for our bat project which studies the relationship between bats and elephants. We left at 4:30 and drove around, asking vehicles we passed if they had seen elephants. As we were driving, we passed a buffalo and then we saw a giraffe just walking down the road toward us. It walked up to the car and then turned into the bush right in front of us. (In the picture you can see part of the car to see how close it was). We then drove until we reached a group of 4 elephants hanging out under a tree. They were eating the fruit from the tree and it was really cool to watch. Also, we were so close to them, which was amazing. But it was still light out so it was too early for bats. A car drove by and told us there was a leopard 7k up ahead so we decided to go see if we could find it. So we drove and drove for a while and we kept seeing a lot of birds of prey—including rare ones that you like never see. I’m not usually that interested in birds but some of these were pretty cool. We drove further and we saw a lion in the distance but we couldn’t really see it that well. And then after a while we decided the leopard must have left so we turned around. We’re driving and then all of the sudden Kevin shouts STOP! And there it was. Up in the tree, on a branch, just relaxing. It was absolutely beautiful. We stared at it and took pictures of it for a long time and then decided we should go back and try to find the elephants again because it was starting to get darker. As we were driving, we saw a huge grey thing in the road—a rhino! I was really excited because I hadn’t seen a rhino yet. It was literally 10ft from the car and it just slowly turned and walked off to the side, but it was so amazing to watch. We kept driving back to where the elephants originally were, but they were gone. We then passed a cool hyena right next to the car. People don’t care about hyenas that much because we see them so often but I still haven’t gotten a good picture because it’s always so dark out when we see them. (A few nights ago we had a party and because there are noise limits at the camp, we had to have the party out in the park where we’re not protected. The idea is that there will be so many of us that animals wont attack, but it’s still kind of scary. And there were hyenas walking around the party area, which was a little terrifying.) But anyway, as we drove we passed over a bridge and we saw a hippo out of the water walking in the reeds. At this point I thought I had seen everything and I was so happy, but then the craziest thing of all happened. We saw figures walking down the road. And as we got closer, there were more and more of them until soon we were surrounded by a pride of lions. There were 11 lions around us, just feet away from the car. There were 5 or 6 cubs, 3 males, and a few lionesses. They were all so beautiful. And the cubs were so adorable. But it was sad because one of the cubs was limping and you could tell it was the runt and that it was going to die. I suggested that we save it, but that was turned down pretty fast. We were right next to the river, so a mom, dad, and baby started drinking the water right next to the car (see picture). And one of the pictures I’m posting looks really dark, but you can see lions walking toward the car and you can see a bunch of light spots, which are all eyes. We hung around with the lions for a half hour because we just couldn’t bring ourselves to leave, it was the most amazing sight. People never see that many together, that close to them. Our bat project was somewhat neglected because we had seen so much, but we did manage to record a few bat calls with a machine the bat guy had. Oh and we also saw a bunch of impala and I took a picture to show you why they're called the McDonalds of the bush. See the M?

Dung Beetles!

Feb 12

Sorting began today. It was possibly one of the most repulsive things I’ve been involved in. Not only was there the stench of rotting dung beetle, but there were also fumes wafting up from the alcohol they were being stored in. I stuffed tissues up my nostrils so I wouldn’t smell it but it still got through. We got through sorting about half of the sites and there were around 12 morpho-species that we distinguished per site. But we have no idea if we’re correct because we have to find out what the different species look like and there are lots more species inside the groups we separated out. And there’s thousands and thousands of them. Seriously. All in all, it’s the hardest project out of all of them. I really should have studied butterflies instead. But now I’m stuck with this. At least I really like my group, they’re all really fun and easy to work with. (my view later changed a LOT) After lunch we decided to take a half hour break from sorting and I went swimming. But soon everyone was swimming and it was such a beautiful day out that we just couldn’t bring ourselves back to our beetles. So we swam and splashed around and pushed our clothed TA in the pool, etc. until it was time to go out into the field again. We didn’t see anything too exciting—just the usually impala and baboons. And we also saw a bush buck (I think it’s called that) which South Africans believe Bambi was. But obviously Bambi was a deer. We tried to explain it by pointing out the American skunk Bambi was friends with, but they weren’t buying it. Oh and we also saw a Ground Hornbill which are very rare now, so that was cool to see. They're slowly going extinct, and my South African friend says she hasn't seen one in years. We got our field work done by 6—the fastest yet—and went out for a swim in the big Olympic sized swimming pool in the staff village. On the way we passed lots of mongoose which were so cute. And then dinner and a lecture and then BUNS OF STEEL. I haven’t mentioned this yet but one of the staff memorized this exercise tape called Buns of Steel which is this really intense workout. So we did that and it was really hard but also fun. And then to counter it we ate some Cadbury chocolate. Mmmm…

Leopard!

Feb 11

The dung beetle group got to sleep in today which was really nice. At around 9 we went to go check out the main store and I got a coke zero (mmm) and this litchi (this is just how Kirsty told me to spell it) flavored ice thing. There were monkeys all over the place outside the store and you could walk right up to them, it was so cute. Then we came back and started putting together parcels of elephant poo. There were huge sticks and whole fruits in the poo, so the elephant clearly wasn’t tasting all of his food. Also, I had to empty out some of the rhino poo packets from the previous day. So Alan told me to dump them by this camp site. So it basically looks like a rhino just pooped right inside the camp, so people are going to think there’s a hole in the gate where a rhino got through. I hope it doesn’t cause too many problems! Later I went swimming in the pool for the first time which was so nice, and then we went out to the field. We started collecting our dung beetles and setting out the fresh dung and there were so many beetles and many were very small so it was difficult to scoop them out. It took me a while to be able to reach my hand into a bucket of dead beetles but by the end of it I was quite a pro. Sort of. But the coolest thing of the day happened in between beetle collecting sites. We saw a leopard. It was absolutely beautiful and we could see its head perfectly as it stuck out of the tall grasses. At one point it started moving and we were able to see its whole body which of course I loved because I obviously love leopard print. It was so amazing. And then we saw this herd of impala nearby and we thought we might see a kill, but we had to move on to keep collecting and resetting. We also saw tons of baboons, etc. and a couple of kudu.

Feb 10

Our first day in the field. We woke up at 6 to be at breakfast by 6:30. We were out in the cars by 7:30. While we drove we passed tons of impalas, monkeys and even zebras right up next to the road! We then went around setting up dung beetle traps for my group’s independent projects. Other groups set up their traps for reptiles, small mammals, ants, etc. Later in the day we had to roll fresh rhino dung into little parcels for the dung beetle traps we were setting up. They’re set up with a bucket flush on the ground and then two pieces of wire crossed over it, with a large piece of dung wrapped in cheese cloth perched on top of the wires. So of course, we had to roll the dung. It was absolutely repulsive. Luckily, I had just cut my fingernails in preparation, but the smell was awful. We rolled 75 parcels which took a good 3 hours. While we did this, everyone else went swimming in the pool right outside our rooms. Then in the afternoon we went to 15 different sites setting up the traps with dung. By the end of it I smelled absolutely disgusting. But I am proud to say that I personally handled the dung balls and I even squeezed them when necessary, although I needed some coaxing the first time. I also almost ate a small piece of dung for $100 but then decided that my pride, and the taste in my mouth, was more important. Also, Evan kept upping the rules, saying I had to chew it for 4 minutes which is really not okay. So I did not do it. At the sights around the river we heard hippo which make a really strange snort/barking sound. I was slightly terrified but no one else seemed to care, even though we had to walk down to the riverbed to collect sand to make our traps. At one of the sights there were water buffalo just across the river. We set up the traps but were very cautious and looked for signs that they might consider crossing, at which point we would have ran back to the car. Or climbed up a tree. At the last site I got tangled up in thorns and ended up slicing my thumb open, which caused me to then leave behind all the rest of the rolled up dung…oh well. My finger was bleeding, what was I supposed to do? It still hurts, as I’m typing this. So we got back and had dinner, etc. (On the way back we saw a hyena right in the middle of the road!!) And then we had to plan for getting more dung for the next day because the traps need to be set up with fresh dung every 24 hours. So Alan said he would take us on a drive to try to find dung. The guys guarding the gate to the camp were very reluctant to let us out because you’re not allowed to go on night drives and they saw that we had headlamps, etc. But they finally let us go when we kind of made up a story about why we were leaving. As we drove along, we looked out for bush babies and impalas and anything we could see. And then, all of the sudden, there was a massive shape in the middle of the road: an elephant. It was probably 20ft away from us—it was amazing. And huge. So we drove down the road that it had been walking up and sure enough, in the middle of the road, was a gigantic pile of steaming, fresh poo. We got out of the car and scooped it, with our bare hands, into a huge bucket. It was still warm. My hand smell so badly and I’ve washed them a million times and I think this smell is supposed to last for weeks. Ew. But the drive was amazing. I cant wait for more night drives.

Animals Everywhere!

Feb 9 (Pictures: baboon, hippo, elephants!)

Today we woke up at the crack of dawn to drive to Skukuza, Kruger National Park. It was a fun car ride and we stopped for these famous pancakes (crepes) in a town along the way. When we finally entered into Kruger we saw an elephant and tons of Impala wandering about and grazing. They were beautiful. They call Impala “the McDonalds of the bush” because when you look at them from behind you see an M drawn in black on their behinds. It was cute. Further into the park we saw monkeys, warthogs, all sorts of birds, etc. And then we got our lesson on how to deal with dangerous animals when they’re approaching. Which terrified me.
-Rhinos: run up the nearest tree and get at least 10 feet above the ground; or, lie flat and wait for it to trample you because that’s better than being impaled. (I really really really don’t want to be trampled though.) Or you can stand behind a tree because they cant really hook their horns around the tree, but this isn’t really a safe option.
-Buffalo: same as rhino except you cant just stand behind a tree because buffalo can reach around a tree and impale you.

-Hippos: I forget, but you’re really not supposed to upset them because they’re responsible for the most number of human deaths…
-Elephants: run, and discard clothing as you go. When you discard a piece of clothing, the elephant then goes up to it, sniffs it, and tramples it, which buys you some time. So basically by the time you’re through you’re either naked or dead…
-Lions: stare them straight in the eye, wave arms about to make yourself look big, swear loudly at them, and slowly back away; NEVER RUN
-leaopards: same as lions but NEVER look them in the eye because they WILL attack.
So those are the basics. I’m going to start practicing climbing difficult-to-climb trees tomorrow. Although with the thorn trees you can just jump as high as you can and the thorns hold you on like Velcro…

Giraffes!

Feb 8

After lecture all morning and afternoon we went out for a last game drive in Nyslvley. It was our last day there so we were hoping we would see something cool. While driving we saw two giraffes a ways off the road. And then Alan pulled over and said “Shall we?” And of course we did. We got out of the car and began hacking our way through the bush. The grass was taller than we were but ticks weren’t even on my mind. Because as we walked, we got closer and closer to the two giraffes. It was so amazing to be that close to them, I didn’t even notice as nearby thorns dug into my skin. I took about a million pictures and even a couple of videos. As we walked further we ran into a warthog, a jackal, and lots of birds. It was amazing, especially because you hardly ever see jackals out during the day. When we turned to walk back into the car, the sun was setting as we passed a group of zebras, including a baby. It was a perfect end to the first two weeks in South Africa.

Chameleons!

Feb 7

Tonight we went on a chameleon walk. We walked around with headlamps and flashlights looking for anything we could find. After almost running into a good number of spider webs, we started to think we weren’t going to see anything. But then, Kate (sorry for the name drops!) called over Stevie and me to look at something she thought might be a chameleon. After a few seconds she decided it was a seedpod, but Stevie and I continued to look. We called over Alan (one of our professors) and sure enough, it was a chameleon. He scrambled up the tree and within a few seconds he had returned with a tree branch and chameleon in hand. The chameleon was amazing. It was huge. And pregnant! And because we stressed it out it turned green with bright yellow spots! You could even see the shape of the eggs against its skin. So we played with it for a while until one girl dropped it and then we all freaked out that maybe its eggs broke, but Alan didn’t seem to think they did. So we just decided to put it back into the tree, after it became possibly the most photographed creature in South Africa. After a few minutes we ran into a poisonous dart frog, which had been scampering up a tree but when a light was shined on it, it froze in place. Apparently if a cow eats one of those it can die!

And the posts begin...

Hello all! I miss all of you so much. So this is the first time I've gotten internet because the monkeys chewed through the wires and they finally got it up and working again! South Africa has been amazing. For the first two weeks we were at Nylesvley Reserve and now we're at Skukuza, in the south west of Kruger National Park. I've been writing little updates so I'm going to put them in, along with pictures (if it works)!