By Fenwick Bowen (Colby College)
It’s hard to believe we have already been a week here in Botswana, but it has, and my, does time fly by when you’re just having so much fun. It is amazing. We’ve already gotten to see and do so much in just a week’s time. We arrived in Maun last Tuesday, and after clearing customs, we were immediately greeted by our fabulous crew here: Kaggie, Ben, Vehi, and Sixteen (fun fact: Kaggie is a Colby alum! Go Mules.).
We spent the first few days getting our bearings, camping at a lodge called Island Safari Lodge right outside of Maun. We got to know our instructors and each other, and also got a crash course on the community here and what kind of work we will be doing in Botswana.
So here’s where I give you all a quick rundown on what we’ve been able to accomplish in just a week. We started off with a quick crash course on what the research we’re doing will look like, along with the dos and don’ts of surviving in the bush. After that we received our first lesson on Botswana culture, and had a quick intro lesson to Setswana (one of the local languages). After that we went through our first real lesson, covering the first topic in our Applied Conservation Biology course.
Next we moved on to Khwai, a wildlife concession in the outer Okavango Delta, and the first stop in our field research travels. Khwai is beautiful. We’ve started the research by waking up at 5:30am in order to go out on our wildlife transects by 6:15am. We’re basically going out and doing surveys of what herbivores we see, so we can do comparative analyses later. We’ve continued with our Setswana lessons and classroom lessons, diving into more topics in Conservation Biology, and starting with Natural History and Humans and the Environment.
Now the more exciting things (just kidding everything we’re doing is super cool). We’ve seen so many different species and taken so many pictures, that all of you will have to deal with us talking about this for weeks after we get back. In fact, we might constantly bring up this trip at random intervals throughout the rest of our lives. Because it’s that awesome being here. We’re doing research that has a real impact on conservation in Botswana and the policies that are enacted on a national and local level here. And we get to see some of the coolest wildlife you’ll ever see anywhere.
And now for pictures: 3 of the “Big Five!”
And for those of you who are interested, here’s a list of every species we’ve seen so far and can now identify:
Birds
African Jacana
African Fish Eagle
Pygmy Goose
Little Egret
Grey Egret
Pied Kingfisher
White Faced Whistling Duck
Reed Cormorant
Open-billed Stork
Blacksmith Plover
Lilac Breasted Roller
Cattle Egret
Sacred Ibis
Long-tailed Starling
Black Crake
Red Billed Hornbill
Grey Billed Hornbill
Red Billed Spur Fowl
Magpie Shrike
Green backed Heron
Egyptian Geese
Knob Billed Duck
Squacco Heron
Hammerkop
Ground Hornbill (endangered)
Tawny Eagle
Golden Weaver
Little Bee-eater
Khori Bustard
Yellow-billed Hornbill
Southern Carmine Bee-eater
Yellow-billed Kite
Goliath Heron
Coppery Tailed Coucal
Helmeted Guinea Fowl
Meyer’s Parrot
Cape Turtle Dove
Swainson’s Spurfowl
Green backed wood-hoopoe
African Hoopoe
White backed Vulture
Emerald Spotted wood dove
Spur-winged Goose
Bataleur
Slaty Egret
Swamp BouBou
Aeromark Babbler
Black backed Puff Back
Mammals
Spotted Hyena
Vervet Monkey
Impala
Elephant
Giraffe
Dwarf Mongoose
Leopard
Hippo
Zebra
Warthog
Tsessebe
Steenbok
Waterbuck
Giraffe
Kudu
Slender Mongoose
Roan antelope
Red Lechwe
Reedbuck
Plants
Kalahari Star
Camel Thorn Acacia
Rain Tree
Mopane
Feverberry