RE A LEBOGA (many thanks)...

Thakadu Bush Camp

Our wonderful base camp and source of many a fine meal of fresh game- thanks to Chris and Jeanette for their hospitality, Riana for keeping our classroom going, and Sylvie and Kassie for putting up with us on football nights 

Safari Life Africa

For running our base camps and keeping us well fed in Ghanzi and in Maun- thanks Clinton, Haley, Bonnie, and Comic

Okavango River Lodge

Our base camp once out of the deep bush, and host of our amazing July 4th braai (BBQ)-- special thanks to Neil, Marie, all the ORL staff, and lastly Leo for the language lessons

Kitso Safaris

Our fabulous safari guides for CKGR, Khwai, and a wonderful and musically filled Sunday river excursion... many thanks to Colin and Daryl Dandridge and their superb staff

Services for Geoinformation

For all the behind the scenes local preparation, support, data, and logistics

UT Study Abroad

For months of planning, advertising, and generally supporting an environmental program in Africa- with special thanks to our coordinator Melissa Sassi

UT Geography & the Environment

Lastly, thanks to the UT Department of Geography & the Environment for providing a home base for faculty, students, and staff who believe in a global backyard

Bush Olympics, July 4th Braai & Happy Trails

Dr. K delivers the course wrap-up and also talks with students about the culture shock associated with re-entry into the US.

Team 2 finishing the GPS location event of the Bush Olympics, designed to assess and reinforce the theory and practice of the last six weeks.

Instructor Thoralf Meyer admiring Team 3's fighting spirit.

Team 3 busily identifying species and taking structural measurements while being timed- lots of pressure!

A typical researcher's pile... notebook, identification guide, backpack, measuring sticks, and of course sunglasses.

Team 1 busy working on the timed Plot 1 while visiting colleague Dr. Jennifer Miller of UT Geography & the Environment looks on.

Team 4 works on ground cover estimation.

 The "just for fun" portion of the Bush Olympics- Bocci Ball! Here Sam gives her best shot while Thoralf, Dr. Miller, and Jaclyn look on.

Thoralf announcing the rules of the Bocci Ball showdown the next night, along with each team's selected Bocci competitor: from left to right, Courtney, Jaclyn, Emilie, and Hank.

Hank turned out to be a consummate Bocci Ball player, and won that particular event for his team... the Bush Olympics were close indeed, with each team winning at least one event. The overall winners... Team 3. Congrats to Courtney, Kelsey, and Amiee!

A last group photo before heading out, caught in front of the Maun International Aiport. Roughly half our folks are headed straight back to Texas for more school, work, or family time, and the other half are exploring Durban, visiting and volunteering in Cape Town, or seeing friends in The Netherlands. Safe travels to all and thanks to our extended friend and family network who have been keeping up with us on our blog. Go siame! (Stay well!) 

Over and out- Team Botswana

Last Days in Maun

Students participating in a basket weaving class at the Women’s Cooperative. The Co-op has over 400 participants who gather the veld products for dying and weaving the baskets, a cultural symbol of Botswana.

 Studiously attending to their weaving are our UT Program Coordinator from Study Abroad, Melissa Sassi on the left (during her site visit to our program) and Tori on the right.

 A close-up of Melissa’s basket-in-progress.

 At the far right is the head of the Women’s Work cooperative, Thitanya Kushonya, who has exhibited her baskets internationally including at the Atlanta Olympics. She is also a recent winner of the Sub-Saharan Africa basket weaving competition.

 A relaxing Sunday boat cruise, with one of safari leaders, Colin Dandridge, at the helm and his brother and co-safari leader Daryl Dandridge pictured next to one of the Okavango River Lodge camp dogs.

The roof provided plenty of protection from the African afternoon sun, though many of us are already sporting quite nice “farmer’s tans”.

 Termites are a critical component of ecosystem processes. Here, a large termite mound is placed along the Boro River, over 4 meters tall.

On Safari !!!

“Safari” is the Swahili word for “journey”, and what a journey we have had! We traveled from Thakadu in Ghanzi to Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), the second largest contiguous terrestrial reserve in the world. After being there for four nights, we went back to Maun for laundry and resupply, then headed to Khwai Community Trust campground. Khwai borders Moremi Game Reserve (MGR), with the largest difference being that MGR is run by the government whereas Khwai is run by the local community that was relocated to create the reserve. The Delta’s waters bring abundant wildlife, and many sightings of critters large and small were frequent. We’re now back in Maun finishing up lectures and other activities, but here are some examples of what we saw on our own Botswana Journey.

Typical open-air safari vehicle... and perfectly safe as animals perceive the vehicle as one large unit and, when approached with experience, and remaining relaxed. Our most frequent travails were on dirt tracks.

A Kalahari sunset in a valley near our campground; sunset provides panoramic vistas as well as a change from diurnal to nocturnal animals.

Checking out two young male springboks fighting in the distance.

The class TA’s favorite antelope species, the gemsbok (also known as oryx).

 Breakfast time in the mess tent at Khwai. That’s our supply truck driver, Phil, in the background.

 A very relaxed elephant in Khwai River. Botswana has the world’s largest elephant population.

 A commonly seen Nile crocodile sunning. We nicknamed him Elvis, and he is on the Moremi Game Reserve side of the river. The sign reads “Game Reserve Boundary-- No Entry, No Hunting.” We would suggest no swimming as well.

 Though leopard sightings are considered uncommon, we were extremely fortunate to have multiple, high-quality leopard sightings. Here, a male leopard rests nearby an impala kill. The carcass was partially buried in sand to hide it from other predators and scavengers. Later that evening we saw the kill taken away by a spotted hyena.

 A martial eagle we watched hunt a group of banded mongoose, albeit unsuccessfully.

 A baby elephant and various trees silhouetted by the setting African sun. 

Back from CKGR

Hi Everyone! Just a quick note to say our trip to Central Kalahari Game Reserve went well, and all are back safely in Maun for one more day of laundry and enjoying views of the Delta. We head out to Khwai tomorrow morning for four nights in the Okavango Delta. As a reminder, we'll have the satellite phone on from 7-8pm each night (12-1pm Texas time) for emergencies only, as the cell phones won't be in range. We should be back the night of the 28th, and the students will be in Maun for the remainder of the course. We'll post photos from the safaris once back, so check back around the 30th! Cheers, Team Botswana

Leaving Thakadu

We have finished our field work at Thakadu Bush Camp and are heading to Central Kalahari Game Reserve tomorrow morning for a four-day safari. We will be in Maun on the night of the 22nd and will then head to Khwai for another four-day safari on the 24th - returning to Maun on the night of the 28th.

We will not have cell phone coverage while on safari, but we will continue to have our satellite phone turned on each night from 7-8 PM (that's 12-1 PM CST).

We will try to post on the blog after our safari in Central Kalahari Game Reserve - so on the 23rd.

The Euro Cup & a major cold snap!

 We continue to work on a variety of field tasks ranging this week from soil sampling to surveying in a new game viewing route for Thakadu. Meanwhile, the Euro Cup for football (Americans- read soccer) is on! Two of our three instructor staff are European citizens and, it turns out, we have quite a few soccer fans.

Shown here are all 12 students watching the Italy-Spain game Sunday night.

With the Cup came a cold snap... last night we hit - 4 c (27.8 F). We've learned to sleep in many layers and fill our water bottles at night before they freeze. 

The secret is out!! Visit to Modisa Wildlife Project

So those two Saturdays we couldn't tell you about had half of our students each time visiting Modisa Wildlife Project, located a very chilly two hours away (try an open-air vehicle at 8am in the winter!). Modisa trains volunteers to work in the various components of wildlife reclamation and preservation. In conjunction with Grassland Safaris, they have taken "trouble" [read: livestock-eating] lions to reduce wildlife-human conflicts and leverage them into an educational opportunity that ultimately will help protect and maintain a viable and wild predator population.

Here, co-owner and manager Val Gruener engages the students in debating potential conflicts and solutions when wildlife and cattle ranching (the third largest industry in Botswana) clash. If it sounds similar to US- and Texas-based issues... it is!

A barely 2kg female cub was rescued and hand-fed by Modisa staff; she is by necessity now partially habituated to humans, having been hand-raised. She is shown here on a supervised walk with a small group of students.

Each student had the change to sit - supervised and very still - with Val and the lion cub; here, Jaclyn and Val watch the wanderings of this small but soon-to-be large lioness.

Lions are great climbers, but it doesn't come naturally; here "Dad" shows her the ropes.

Here Emily gently touches the cub's still soft coat while Val distracts her with a favorite toy: a Grewia flava branchlet! 

Modisa's princess: Sirga stretches out in the sun

Don't try this at home!!! Val raised Sirga from a very young age, providing 24-hour a day care. He has worked with big cats for many years, and those of us dropping in should never forget a big cat is never really tame, and always a wild force with which to be reckoned (especially as they mature and grow in size). 

Cats aren't the only predator at Modisa... leopard and cheetah are also found on the property and, here, the second group of students walks into the wild dog enclosure.

Wild dog, also known as a "painted wolf" are incredibly social creatures and some of the most effective predators in the region. Their small size is offset by highly coordinated group hunting and incredible stamina. They are extremely rare, and the chance to see them (with four pups- rare for captivity) was a real treat -- it is estimated fewer than 200 exist in all of Botswana, which has the largest, connected population in southern Africa.

On the way out of Modisa, students went past the Big Boys- the beautiful black-maned male Kalahari lions. Prides are kept intact with one dominant male and other males kept in separate enclosures to control genetic crossings and social structure upheavals.

Onsite San Bushman Walk & Dance

Wednesday brought a departure from our normal activities with Thakadu setting up an afternoon and evening with locals representing San traditions in both vegetation utilization and traditional dancing.

Explanation of San history and landscape uses.

Out for the afternoon bush walk to learn the traditional uses of plants previously walked by unnoticed.

San bushman and his son in traditional clothing, still worn today in some communities, particularly during rituals such as marriage.

San female with collected firewood and digging stick.

Here, students practice drilling holes in ostrich eggshells for ornamental purposes and, later, used a similar technique to make fire in the traditional manner.

The evening brought a large fire and traditional dancing, complete with both dancers and "clappers", who clap loudly to keep the rhythm. Here Courtney and Matt join the festivities.

San females adorned in ostrich eggshell-embellished skins tend to their children while on a break from dancing and clapping.

[Very] Destructive Sampling

Vegetation measuring continues this week; this coming Thursday is our last "veg" day. In addition to structural measurements, we've spent several days of "destructive sampling", used to more accurately gauge biomass. This type of work is considered more accurate than structural measurements alone, but obviously is a bit of an eyesore when it is complete. We're lucky that the Thakadu owners are avid supporters of research and willing to allow us to perform this type of work.

Axes, pangas (similar to a machete) and clippers all are part of the destructive sampler's repertoire.

Sometimes no tool is needed: just brute force!

The slightly tedious side of this work is that every stem, no matter how large or small, must be measured and weighed in the field. Carrying the table out to the plots is an added fun task.

For all the efforts in the field there are equally important behind-the-scenes tasks; here, the team focuses on data entry (unanimously the least favorite task thus far).