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).

Friday's San Cultural Center Visit

Friday brought the opportunity for the students to visit the Kuru Development Trust's San Cultural Center in D'kar, about 30km outside of Ghanzi. The center includes an artists' workshop, a printing workshop, a small shop, an administrative center responsible for instruction in language teaching methods, a translation and language training / literacy center, and a church.

A prototypical Acacia tortilis at the center of the art workshops at the trust.

Pondering the interpretation of a San oil painting. The San artists' work, shown in the background, focuses on 2-D depictions of elements of natural life as well as daily customs.

Part of the shop's work is in taking the artists' oil paintings and creating relief molds for printing, sometimes a challenge with the complex patterns used in the art.

One of the students' favorites - note the giraffe in the middle (and we had to promise not to sell forged copies of these original pieces in order to be allowed to take photos.

Students walking into the sun towards the language training center and church.