After helping out with the Caracal research in the Winterberg, I spent a good three days traveling by bus to get to my next destination, northern Botswana. I had been in contact with a safari company in the Okavango Delta that has an environmental division which conducts a number of research projects in the Delta, and I finally had the opportunity to come up and volunteer with them. The bus ride was grueling, but the thought of working in the Delta was too good to pass up. After about three bus transfers and 30 hours of cruising, things were going pretty smooth, but it was really that last 10 hour stretch from Gabarone to Maun (southern to northern Botswana) that were killer. The temperature rose immensely from a cool 28 degrees C to a blazing 42 degrees C as we crossed through the Kalahari desert on a bus packed with twice as many people as it was certified to carry. Not only that, but farmers in this region regularly graze their cattle, sheep, and donkeys on the side of highways thus making the journey take twice as long as it should because we constantly stopped for the lazy animals that would take their mid-day siesta in the middle of the road. Despite the heat and slow going, it was a very interesting experience for me. First of all, it was the first time I felt that I was in 'real' Africa. Despite being a third world country, South Africa is very modern and industrialized while Botswana is still very much what I would consider a true third world country. People still live in mud-huts, water is very scarce so the populations are very low, and overall there is little in the way of industrialization in the country. I was amazed and pleased, however, to discover that everyone is extremely friendly around here and that Botswana is actually one of the safest African countries. It was also fascinating to see the landscape in Botswana, which is much drier and hotter than in South Africa. In fact, we passed through one region where tornado-like cyclones are absolutely everywhere and stretch up to 500 feet in the air. It was fascinating to see five or ten of these giant dust cyclones off in the distance, and a few times our bus even drove through them! It was amazing when we hit them, the entire bus shook violently and it was almost like smashing into a wall of water for a brief second as we rattled and jangled around. Admittedly my heart was racing pretty fast as we passed through these, but others around me were pretty nonchalant about the whole situation, obviously having travelled this road before...
So far I have had a great experience here and am really looking forward to spending more time in this amazing country. I just arrived so unfortunately I don't have any terribly exciting news as of now, but I will make sure to provide updates as often as I can.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
Tracking Caracal in the Winterberg
I felt the bones in my hand being crushed as I reached out and introduced myself as Max. The farmer, with his vice-grip handshake, told me his name was Roan and showed Emma and myself into his house. As he walked through the door, I quickly shook my hand out of view as if the pain would magically go away. We followed him to the sun-room, the only corner in 150 year-old farmhouse with enough windows to provide natural lighting, and any sort of warmth for that matter. At 1,500 meters elevation and tucked away in the mountains of the Winterberg, the cement walls surrounding us have little effect in keeping out the cold so we bask in the sunlight in this beautifully old room. Ceramic plates and bowls from the first settlers are scattered on ancient wooden tables and cupboards, tools from the early days are hung up on the walls, and pictures of relatives stare back at you from their displays as I stepped into the past.
Entering the Winterberg
After a cup of tea and a quick chat with the farmer, Emma and I set out to check the traps that had been set a few days earlier. Caracal run freely around these hills, and our task for the next two weeks is to catch them and fit them with radio-collars. The cages are baited with Caracal urine, a known attractant for the cats, and are scattered around the rocky canyons that make up the farm. With only a few hours of daylight left after the four hour drive and meeting with the farmer, we decided to check six of the twelve cages on the farm. These animals are extremely difficult to catch, and over the last three months of trapping, Emma has only been able to collar one individual. Knowing the chances would be slim that there were any Caracal in the cages, we remained hopeful as we scrambled over the loose terrain for several kilometers to check each cage. As we expected, nothing was waiting for us in the cages, but the next morning when we went back out we found a large-spotted genet in one of the cages – a rare find and definitely an exciting one for me. Still no caracal though, so after the morning of checking the remainder of traps on this farm, we visited another nearby farm where another six traps are set.
Caracal country
Baiting the traps - using urine covered fur as an attractant
The trap once it's baited and covered
Large-spotted genet jumping to freedom!
Amazingly, the nearby farm has drastically different landscape despite being less than 30 kilometers down the road. The land changes from rolling, grassy hills to tall rocky cliffs with plenty of nearby trees. The elevation must be slightly different as well because this farm is nearly always covered in a cloud of mist while the other farm is often sunny. Despite another set of empty traps, it was neat to see a change in scenery as we toured around this other farm. And we also stumbled upon some bush-man paintings on a nearby cliff when we were walking to the traps. These drawings are about 350 years old, what a neat find!
350 year-old bushman paintings
The weather up here in the Winterberg nothing like the rest of South Africa. It rains constantly, and is much cooler for most of the year than the lowlands. In fact, the entire time I spent on the farms I was bundled up in my down jacket and still chilly because of the icy wind that blows through the hills. Nearly half the time we spent in the mountains was under heavy clouds or rain, and one night in particular we were struck by an incredible thunder storm. The farmers had invited Emma and I over to their main house where they cooked mutton for dinner (delicious!) and during the meal we heard intense rainfall starting to pick up as it hammered on the roof. After dinner, however, the real storm picked up. I remember lying in my bed and watching as my room would light up for seconds as a time as massive lightning bolts lit up the sky. Twice that night lightning struck within a few hundred meters of the farmhouse, the freightening blast shaking the ancient farmhouse and even knocking over some furniture. For a few minutes there I was wondering just how safe it was to stay in these buildings with their metal roofs, but I guess I was slightly comforted by the fact that they have been around for a hundred years, so must have endured worse in their time.
The rain smashed against the roof with all its might with brief bouts of hail to add to the commotion, successfully keeping me awake for the majority of the night, but nevertheless it was one of those exciting experiences I won’t forget – what a night it was! The next day we carried on with baiting and checking traps, still with no success. We would spend the chilly evenings huddled around the fire, gossip about the other strange farmers we ran into (one guy practically had a petting zoo at his farmhouse – seven dogs, a meerkat, parrots, pigeons, other strange birds, a piglet, cats any practically anything else you could image) and basically living the farm life.
One day the farmer took me up to his upper ranch while Emma checked the traps in the morning. The upper ranch is another farm he owns where he keeps a number of his cattle, but it is about 75 kilometers up the road on the peak of one of the nearby mountains. There is one tiny farmhouse where one of his workers lives year round to keep an eye on the cattle – a small 10 foot by 10 foot square brick house with no electricity and no running water – yes this place is in the boonies! The temperature is significantly colder up here with daily rain or snow coming around noon, and a constant wind that makes the crisp, cool air practically unbearable. We spent a few hours up there ear-tagging some of the cattle, and that’s all it took for me to freeze and look forward to the drive back down to the main farmhouse where a warm fire awaited. I couldn’t believe somebody lived up there in those conditions year round though, and apparently it’s not uncommon for snow to pile up to five feet in the winter! Yikes, that sounds like rough living. And to think that this worker is alone up there is even more incredible… I don’t know how he does it.
The workers house in the upper farm, tiny! Can you imagine spending about 15 hours each day in this tiny one-room house? Surviving winters with 5+ feet of snow and temperatures below freezing, or summers when it gets to 115 degrees? Not sure I would make it...
Well, despite the lack of Caracal, it was still a very interesting trip. I learned a lot about the research Emma is conducting and the methods/procedures she uses for collecting her data, and I also learned a lot about the farm life up here in the mountains. What a beautiful place to do field work - I made sure to emphasize this to Emma as I reminded her how many people spend their days in the lab while she is out here in these stunningly beautiful mountains catching Caracal. What a neat trip it was, one that I would love to do again sometime. But I must move on, life’s short and so I’ve got to keep the ball rolling. Next stop: Botswana!
A caracal peers through the bushes.
Looking out the back window of the farmhouse
Panoramic shot of the farmers land
Entering the WinterbergAfter a cup of tea and a quick chat with the farmer, Emma and I set out to check the traps that had been set a few days earlier. Caracal run freely around these hills, and our task for the next two weeks is to catch them and fit them with radio-collars. The cages are baited with Caracal urine, a known attractant for the cats, and are scattered around the rocky canyons that make up the farm. With only a few hours of daylight left after the four hour drive and meeting with the farmer, we decided to check six of the twelve cages on the farm. These animals are extremely difficult to catch, and over the last three months of trapping, Emma has only been able to collar one individual. Knowing the chances would be slim that there were any Caracal in the cages, we remained hopeful as we scrambled over the loose terrain for several kilometers to check each cage. As we expected, nothing was waiting for us in the cages, but the next morning when we went back out we found a large-spotted genet in one of the cages – a rare find and definitely an exciting one for me. Still no caracal though, so after the morning of checking the remainder of traps on this farm, we visited another nearby farm where another six traps are set.
Caracal country
Baiting the traps - using urine covered fur as an attractant
The trap once it's baited and covered
Large-spotted genet jumping to freedom!Amazingly, the nearby farm has drastically different landscape despite being less than 30 kilometers down the road. The land changes from rolling, grassy hills to tall rocky cliffs with plenty of nearby trees. The elevation must be slightly different as well because this farm is nearly always covered in a cloud of mist while the other farm is often sunny. Despite another set of empty traps, it was neat to see a change in scenery as we toured around this other farm. And we also stumbled upon some bush-man paintings on a nearby cliff when we were walking to the traps. These drawings are about 350 years old, what a neat find!
350 year-old bushman paintingsThe weather up here in the Winterberg nothing like the rest of South Africa. It rains constantly, and is much cooler for most of the year than the lowlands. In fact, the entire time I spent on the farms I was bundled up in my down jacket and still chilly because of the icy wind that blows through the hills. Nearly half the time we spent in the mountains was under heavy clouds or rain, and one night in particular we were struck by an incredible thunder storm. The farmers had invited Emma and I over to their main house where they cooked mutton for dinner (delicious!) and during the meal we heard intense rainfall starting to pick up as it hammered on the roof. After dinner, however, the real storm picked up. I remember lying in my bed and watching as my room would light up for seconds as a time as massive lightning bolts lit up the sky. Twice that night lightning struck within a few hundred meters of the farmhouse, the freightening blast shaking the ancient farmhouse and even knocking over some furniture. For a few minutes there I was wondering just how safe it was to stay in these buildings with their metal roofs, but I guess I was slightly comforted by the fact that they have been around for a hundred years, so must have endured worse in their time.
The rain smashed against the roof with all its might with brief bouts of hail to add to the commotion, successfully keeping me awake for the majority of the night, but nevertheless it was one of those exciting experiences I won’t forget – what a night it was! The next day we carried on with baiting and checking traps, still with no success. We would spend the chilly evenings huddled around the fire, gossip about the other strange farmers we ran into (one guy practically had a petting zoo at his farmhouse – seven dogs, a meerkat, parrots, pigeons, other strange birds, a piglet, cats any practically anything else you could image) and basically living the farm life.
One day the farmer took me up to his upper ranch while Emma checked the traps in the morning. The upper ranch is another farm he owns where he keeps a number of his cattle, but it is about 75 kilometers up the road on the peak of one of the nearby mountains. There is one tiny farmhouse where one of his workers lives year round to keep an eye on the cattle – a small 10 foot by 10 foot square brick house with no electricity and no running water – yes this place is in the boonies! The temperature is significantly colder up here with daily rain or snow coming around noon, and a constant wind that makes the crisp, cool air practically unbearable. We spent a few hours up there ear-tagging some of the cattle, and that’s all it took for me to freeze and look forward to the drive back down to the main farmhouse where a warm fire awaited. I couldn’t believe somebody lived up there in those conditions year round though, and apparently it’s not uncommon for snow to pile up to five feet in the winter! Yikes, that sounds like rough living. And to think that this worker is alone up there is even more incredible… I don’t know how he does it.
The workers house in the upper farm, tiny! Can you imagine spending about 15 hours each day in this tiny one-room house? Surviving winters with 5+ feet of snow and temperatures below freezing, or summers when it gets to 115 degrees? Not sure I would make it...Well, despite the lack of Caracal, it was still a very interesting trip. I learned a lot about the research Emma is conducting and the methods/procedures she uses for collecting her data, and I also learned a lot about the farm life up here in the mountains. What a beautiful place to do field work - I made sure to emphasize this to Emma as I reminded her how many people spend their days in the lab while she is out here in these stunningly beautiful mountains catching Caracal. What a neat trip it was, one that I would love to do again sometime. But I must move on, life’s short and so I’ve got to keep the ball rolling. Next stop: Botswana!
A caracal peers through the bushes.
Looking out the back window of the farmhouse
Panoramic shot of the farmers landThursday, October 7, 2010
Monkeyland!
With a three week gap in my schedule between arriving in Cape Town by boat and heading out to radio-collar Caracal in the Eastern Cape, I decided to volunteer at Monkeyland. What a great experience it has been working here and meeting people from all over the world. Not only are the tourists who visit very diverse, but the staff also represent some 10 African countries. Getting to know my fellow colleagues has been a real treat – listening to stories about their lives back home is fascinating. But the best part of working here, as you may have guessed, is working with all kinds of monkeys! What enthralling little buggers, I could easily spend an entire day watching one monkey and remain entertained the entire time. It’s amazing how intelligent these little guys are, and I think it is the humanness (which is actually a word) in them that make them so alluring. Almost like watching another person, or a child, these animals are capable of doing amazing feats. They will steal your keys and open locks, snatch something from your pocket without you ever knowing, and even grab cell phones that are lying around and put them to their ear, mimicking a human. But it is not only their intelligence that makes them such characters; it is the way they move, the way they look at you, the way you can almost understand what they are thinking…all very humanlike traits and that is why I can sit there and stare at one monkey for hours on end, studying it as if I were studying a fellow human. Unlike a cat or dog, monkeys also show a range of human-like facial expressions. It is easy to connect with them because they show emotions – you know when they are happy, sad, hungry, angry etc. simply because they behave the same way a human would.
These are things I’ve picked up over the past few weeks here, something I could never have really learned in a zoo where the animals are practically lifeless in boredom with the lives given to them. In our forest here the monkeys are all free roaming, so I often find myself wandering lost through the forest looking for one of the rare species, or simply following a group of individuals that have caught my eye. It’s quite an experience to see how these animals behave in the wild, and I am grateful for the time I have spent here to learn more about such fascinating creatures.
The entrance to Monkeyland
Black and white lemur, one of our laziest primates
Ring-tailed Lemur - the star of Madagascar
Posing for the camera, Capuchin monkey in front of a Gibbon
Nearby Monkeyland is another attraction called Birds of Eden, which is basically a giant aviary 12 hectares in size with over 300 species of birds inside, most of which were donated pets. Both companies are run by the same owners, so I have also been fortunate enough to spend a lot of time helping out with the birds. Watching parrots that have been caged up their entire lives fly free is very gratifying, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know many of the different personalities of the different birds. For example, whenever Eric, one of the workers, goes in, one particular bird will always land on his shoulder. This bird will not land on anybody else, just Eric. Another parrot will sit on a branch above you and say ‘hello,’ then fly down to your shoulder where it says ‘what are you doing?’ Obviously something it learned from its previous owners. Another bird that is found in South Africa called a Dickop (translates to dumb-head) was trained to follow its owner around before coming to Birds of Eden. His name is Douglass and now that we have him, he simply follows anyone and everyone around the aviary. It’s quite funny to see this big, strange looking bird walk behind somebody the entire time they are inside…
Scarlet Ibis
Anyways, all in all it has been a great experience working at Monkeyland and Birds of Eden. I have learned a lot about the species we have, and have met a lot of great people along the way. So if anybody out there is ever in South Africa, I suggest you head down to Pletternberg bay where you can watch monkeys all day and see hundreds of species of cool birds!
There is also a cat rehabilitation center a few kilometers down the road from Monkeyland, so on my day off I walked down to have a look. They have about six different species of African cats, so it was neat to see all these amazing animals. And apparently cheetahs are as tame as house cats if raised from birth, and because I had worked with black-footed cats earlier, the keepers let me in to the cheetahs’ enclosure. It was a very humbling experience standing next to a 120 pound cat that could easily take my life, especially considering the number of times my cat at home ‘playfully’ scratches and bites me. Not only that, but I used to think my housecat would keep me up at night with its loud purr, but boy does listening to the purring of a cheetah put things into perspective. It’s almost like the dull muttering of a chainsaw, it’s incredibly loud! Fascinating….
My new buddy
These are things I’ve picked up over the past few weeks here, something I could never have really learned in a zoo where the animals are practically lifeless in boredom with the lives given to them. In our forest here the monkeys are all free roaming, so I often find myself wandering lost through the forest looking for one of the rare species, or simply following a group of individuals that have caught my eye. It’s quite an experience to see how these animals behave in the wild, and I am grateful for the time I have spent here to learn more about such fascinating creatures.
Feeding the squirrel monkeys in the forest
The entrance to Monkeyland
Black and white lemur, one of our laziest primates 
Ring-tailed Lemur - the star of Madagascar
Posing for the camera, Capuchin monkey in front of a GibbonNearby Monkeyland is another attraction called Birds of Eden, which is basically a giant aviary 12 hectares in size with over 300 species of birds inside, most of which were donated pets. Both companies are run by the same owners, so I have also been fortunate enough to spend a lot of time helping out with the birds. Watching parrots that have been caged up their entire lives fly free is very gratifying, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know many of the different personalities of the different birds. For example, whenever Eric, one of the workers, goes in, one particular bird will always land on his shoulder. This bird will not land on anybody else, just Eric. Another parrot will sit on a branch above you and say ‘hello,’ then fly down to your shoulder where it says ‘what are you doing?’ Obviously something it learned from its previous owners. Another bird that is found in South Africa called a Dickop (translates to dumb-head) was trained to follow its owner around before coming to Birds of Eden. His name is Douglass and now that we have him, he simply follows anyone and everyone around the aviary. It’s quite funny to see this big, strange looking bird walk behind somebody the entire time they are inside…
Scarlet IbisAnyways, all in all it has been a great experience working at Monkeyland and Birds of Eden. I have learned a lot about the species we have, and have met a lot of great people along the way. So if anybody out there is ever in South Africa, I suggest you head down to Pletternberg bay where you can watch monkeys all day and see hundreds of species of cool birds!
There is also a cat rehabilitation center a few kilometers down the road from Monkeyland, so on my day off I walked down to have a look. They have about six different species of African cats, so it was neat to see all these amazing animals. And apparently cheetahs are as tame as house cats if raised from birth, and because I had worked with black-footed cats earlier, the keepers let me in to the cheetahs’ enclosure. It was a very humbling experience standing next to a 120 pound cat that could easily take my life, especially considering the number of times my cat at home ‘playfully’ scratches and bites me. Not only that, but I used to think my housecat would keep me up at night with its loud purr, but boy does listening to the purring of a cheetah put things into perspective. It’s almost like the dull muttering of a chainsaw, it’s incredibly loud! Fascinating….
My new buddyA small corner of Birds of Eden just after putting out their morning breakfast
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