Wow! Week 2 in Zimbabwe has been just awesome! I've had the greatest week - it's been so exciting! Where to start...?

Attacking a Hornbill nest. Think it's an African Harrier Hawk!

Our view during sunset drinks

Playing dot-to-dot with hyena spot patterns!

Hyenas! First thing to say is I've finally seen one! We were supposed to have 2 sessions of hyena tracking, but only managed 1. We walked through the bushes for a good half an hour, but never saw the hyenas or even any signs of them. We were gutted to lose the second session - the collared hyena GPS signal had come from the same place for the past 3 days, so we were hoping to find them on a kill, but no luck. We may not have seen them during tracking, but we did manage to see them this week! As soon as I arrived, I was given a job to do: write a protocol for doing hyena research at night. It took me a while to do, and I had to have a long discussion with my supervisor here, having never done day research on hyenas, or night research on anything! However, I came up with a whole protocol (which is still being adapted as we learn more), I came up with all the research that we would be looking into (are they moving upwind or downwind, towards town or away from town, and is there any evidence of snares?), wrote the data sheets, and finally went out on a nighttime research drive on Wednesday night! We had a really great drive, saw 5 hyaenas and while my photos didn't work, the photos taken by our photography volunteer did. I then spent Thursday inventing a spreadsheet that would work for data input, and then using my elephant ID skills to work on hyena identification. As well as separating them into the different individuals that we saw, I was also indicating on each side where the areas of interest were for the identification. It's like playing dot-to-dot, or spotting star constellations! I think possibly the most awesome part though, was the feeling that I got when I was on the truck - it suddenly hit me that I could do this. One day soon it won't be me doing research for other people, but it will be mine. I really could be an ecology researcher! 

Giraffe during our Giraffe ID session

Wasn't just ID sessions for hyenas that I've done this week. I've started doing giraffe IDs while I'm here, and they've taken quite a lot of sorting out! Giraffes are great fun to do. We head out into the park and photograph any giraffes that we see, very similar to how we used to do elephants! And talking of elephants, my new project (because I don't have enough on my plate already!) is entirely setting up the elephant project on this side of the border! We've only seen 1 herd so far, and there were only 5 (3 adult females and 2 juveniles) but that's me all set and ready to go! Loving life here, and so excited about all this! Not to mention, the researcher on the other side is going to come over, so we'll be able to discuss it and hopefully set up some kind of online system so we can compare databases as we go, rather than every few weeks comparing all the new ones that we've added in. I've got a lot of ID sessions on my time!

Baby impala! Little boy!

Lila... or Lala... I'm not sure...! I get confused!

Lala enjoying a very comfy looking spot!

Saturday was fun too, though took much less brain power! We were supposed to be doing enclosure maintenance (painting the poles on the fence), and then picking up litter in the park. However, thanks to the rainy season throwing itself at us there was no point trying that, and instead we had a language lesson then took the lion cubs out for a walk. For those people who are not familiar with the ALERT aims, the lion walks are a way to help the cubs learn how to survive in the bush, how to hunt, what all the different smells mean, how to climb trees, and so on. This is very different to most places that offer lion walks - these places walk lions until they are too old, and then sell them for canned hunting to game reserves where people can go to pay a lot of money to shoot them. PLEASE if you are ever considering a lion walk or similar activity then find out what the final aims of the project are, and make sure that the lions are being properly cared for. This lion walk was particularly fun, as Lala climbed up a tree, and hung out up there for ages! The lions were not quite so bouncy as last time for most of it, but when one of the handlers tied a bundle of grass onto the end of a stick, they just turned into massive kittens, leaping all over the place for it! So much fun to watch! The language lesson was quite fun, though slightly odd - we were taught all the letters of the alphabet so that now I can read and pronounce the different words, but I can't say I know what it means! It's quite fun to try and pronounce them though - Ndebele is a click language! Most of the letters are fairly similar, but C, Q and X are all clicky! Meaning that "Frog" is a very difficult word in Ndebele since it's spelled ixoxo! I can just about manage the Q and X, but that C? No chance!

Pawprints!

Walking lion cubs!

Playing chase with a grass bundle!

Hooded Vulture

The last thing to talk about, happened on Monday lunchtime. We headed to a local hotel where they feed the vultures each day. They only get a small amount of meat each day, but it's meat that can be guaranteed to be safe. Vultures are becoming more and more endangered by poisoning and poaching. Poachers poison the waterholes where animals go to drink, killing all the animals that go there. When the vultures then find the carcass, they are also poisoned. The vultures are also killed directly by poachers who are trying to hide their activity - by circling carcasses, they advertise where the poachers are to the Wildlife Authorities, so to prevent detection the poachers kill the vultures too. Vultures and other scavengers are a critical part of the ecosystem, as they clean up the carcasses of sick animals. Vultures are fairly immune to most diseases, and so by eating the carcasses they prevent the spread of sickness. It was a really good view that we got of them eating, and we got a great talk about vulture conservation. Another thing to branch into maybe?! Oops, no free time...!! 

Baby Warthog we found at the Vulture place

Marabou Stork that came with the vultures