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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