As you will have noticed from my last post, I took part in some research of the wildlife in the national parks of Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe with a company called 'African Impact'. Typically, in the day it was elephant and giraffe research and at night, hyena research. As well as this, full game counts of wildlife above the size of a warthog, and bird surveys were completed. I'll start by talking about elephant research! Elephant research in Victoria Falls is completed so that the population size and herd structures can be found. So, as a photography volunteer, I needed to take ID shots of the elephants. This was required so that each elephant could be identified as they all have unique ear 'notches'. Photos from each side of the elephant, as well as a 'jazz ears' photo were preferably needed of each elephant but this proved rather difficult as they usually walked across in front of you in only one direction. Photos were also useful in identifying the gender and age of the elephants if unable to see these with the naked eye. Other factors such as the GPS, distance and angle were also recorded. It was on my final day in Victoria Falls that I experienced my favourite moment whilst out on elephant research. We were just crossing a road from one national park to another and we noticed a few elephants on one side of the road. We stopped at the opposite side and waited for them to emerge. What happened was such an incredible sight as over 80 elephants, of all ages, crossed in front of us! Whilst we were all rapidly trying to record all of the data and take photos of each of these, I don't think the smile on any of our faces faded.
Giraffe research was similar to elephants and for these, a full body photo from each side, head photo from each side and front-facing head photos were needed. As you have probably guessed, it is the 'spot' pattern that makes each one unique from one another. ID portfolios can then be built up from this. Game counts were similar but ID shots were not required for this. Instead, this was 'what it says on the tin' in that the number of each species were simply counted when seen on a game drive. For bird surveys, you would typically stop at a certain location (e.g. we did one overlooking a waterhole) and every species of bird within an hour period would be recorded. Night drives were done 1 or 2 times a week (usually a Tuesday and Thursday) and had the main purpose of trying to find spotted hyenas (which also have unique spot patterns). ALERT (African Lion and Environmental Research Trust) has 3 collared hyena in Victoria Falls so when one was sighted, it would make for quite an exciting night drive! The hyenas are collared so that their movements can be tracked so that more can be learnt about the population living here. The only downfall to the night drives - a lot of layers and at least 2 blankets were needed to even keep slightly warm!!
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A slightly early blog post but I am away in Majorca on a field trip with uni for the next 2 weeks so won't be able to post when I'm there! I will definitely have loads to write about when I get back and am especially excited about finding trapdoor spiders, which I never thought I'd say about a spider! After the saddening death of the last male northern white rhino, it has come to light again that giraffes too might be on a rapid decline as part of a 'silent extinction'. It might surprise you to hear but there are in fact 4 species of giraffe with a total of 9 subspecies. They are; Southern giraffe and it's 2 subspecies Angolan and South African giraffe; Northern giraffe with 3 subspecies Nubian, Kordofan and West African giraffe; Reticulated giraffe and Masai giraffe. Of these subspecies, 5 have decreased, 1 is stable and 3 are increasing shown from surveys over the last 30 years. The overall results are a 36-40% decline and shockingly for the Nubian giraffe, numbers have decreased by 95%. It is shocking how rapidly the numbers of giraffes are declining yet they are a species that many people are unaware of as being listed, 'vulnerable' on IUCN red list of threatened species. It is again because of human activity - notably poaching, war and habitat disturbance. The killing of Kordofan giraffes for a part of their tail in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is used for dowry as a gift from a man to his bride's father when asking to marry her. They may also be used as a sign of good luck. Illegal trade of the marrow of giraffes that is thought to cure AIDs is also a major issue, as is the killing of them for their meat due to the shear amount that one kill would provide.
A solution? Of course there is a solution, but this is difficult to establish due to these ongoing traditions and the need to make money by growing crops; reducing their habitat, or by the shooting and selling of giraffe parts. Habitat management in African, and major conservation efforts by zoos all over the world are in place to help prevent the extinction of this species. Previously in Niger in 1996, the West African giraffe had only 50 left in this country so strict poaching regulations, education about the species and an introduction of a 'micro loan' that allow them to put money towards business were put in place and by 2009, there had been a 400% increase in the population - absolutely incredible considering how close this subspecies came to extinction! This provides so much hope for their future and hopefully all African countries that have giraffes present can take this example and use in their own efforts for conservation. © |
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