By Annie Foxen (Carleton College)
Dumela from Botswana!
Another day in Africa, can’t complain. After waking up at 5:30am, we got to watch another brilliant orange sun rise over our breakfast of oatmeal and rooibos tea, looking forward to another day’s adventure. At 6am we loaded the cars with our binoculars, GPSs, compasses, rangefinders and biscuits for our herbivore transects. The data we are collecting has been requested by the local Tswana communities to help aid in population monitoring to facilitate a long-term, sustainable ecosystem that will benefit both the land and the people for years to come.
Before we even reached the start of the transect, we saw a honey badger crossing the road right in front of us, just outside of camp! Fun fact: at just one foot tall, this black and white furry animal is one of the most feared among African animals, even lions. Its defense mechanism is to slash its attacker’s genitals with its sharp claws, often causing it’s attacker to bleed to death. To find food they follow the honey guide bird to honey bee nests.
The versatility of the Okavango Delta’s landscape is incredible. One minute we are immersed in what appears to be a desert wasteland of dead acacia trees and mopane trees half bulldozed over by elephant herds, the ground littered with elephant and giraffe skulls, but the next minute we arrive at the river, and the land is brought to life. The floodplains on the riverbanks consist of warm greens and golds, where large herds of red lechwe and waterbuck graze in the abundant grasslands, hippos wallow in the water, and an even wider variety of birds forage for food.
It was along this river that we spotted a small female leopard slinking low in the grasses, stalking three slow red lechwe that had straggled behind the herd. The leopard was still in her observatory phase of the hunt, trying to discern the weakest red lechwe to pick off.
Back at the campsite, we spent the heat of the day reading, participating in discussions, entering data from our transects, and looking through the results of our first surveys from our independent project on tourist and indigenous values of wildlife and natural resources. We ended the day with a friendly game of soccer with the escort-guides, some stretching and yoga led by a fellow student, stories, laughter, and smiles all around.
Sala Sentle!