The Coolest Job in the World!

Well, after 4 weeks here in Mozambique, Kathleen finally said it was my turn to contribute to our weekly blog entries, so I’m afraid you all will be forced to endure some lower-quality writing this time around. Hopefully, though, what my post here lacks in quality of writing will be made up for by quality of pictures. After nearly two years of planning and preparation, the time finally came this month for me to begin the field work for my post-doctoral research in southern Africa. And, for the past 10 days or so, that’s meant capturing and working with a variety of animals here, which has been a really incredible experience. I didn’t keep a daily journal like Kathleen often does, so rather than provide a day-by-day summary I’m just going to share my overall experiences during the past week and half, which hopefully will be at least somewhat interesting!

First off, let me share just a little bit about the purpose of my work here. The overall objective of my research at Gorongosa is to better understand relationships among resource distribution and quality, behavior, body size, and nutritional condition of browsing antelope (i.e., species that primarily eat woody plants and forbs, rather than grasses) in the park.  Both body size and nutritional condition of an animal have some important implications for what constitutes an “optimal” behavioral strategy with respect to resource use, predator avoidance, etc.  So, my goal here is to better understand how browsing antelope of different sizes and nutritional states utilize resources at Gorongosa, and how those behavioral strategies might influence growth of the populations as they continue to recover from the civil war that ended in 1994.  To do that, I’m working with three different species of antelope: kudu, nyala, and bushbuck. These three species are all in the same genus (meaning they’re very closely related), they’re all browsers during the dry season (i.e., the austral winter), and they span a non-overlapping range of body sizes: nyala are about twice as big as bushbuck, and kudu are about twice as big as nyala. There’s actually nowhere else in the world besides Africa that this combination of factors even exists for three different species of large herbivores, so this really is an amazing opportunity to address these sorts of questions.

As is often the case with the type of research I do, the field work is one of the best parts, and this project has certainly been no exception. In fact, this has been some of the most exciting and enjoyable field work I’ve ever done! The first step, obviously, involved capturing the animals themselves: 10 bushbuck, 10 nyala, and 10 kudu, all females. The capture team consisted of myself, Rui Branco (the park veterinarian), Louis Van Wyk (a game capture specialist from South Africa), and Kevin Monteith (a close friend and colleague from the University of Wyoming). This was an amazing group, and it was a huge privilege to be able to work with them on a capture like this. As the park veterinarian, Rui’s main role was to oversee everything and ensure the well-being of the animals. Louis was here mainly to help out, and help out he did, in some pretty major ways (more on that later). Kevin was here for the specific purpose of quantifying nutritional condition of the animals using a portable ultrasound (one of his areas of expertise), and to train me to do the same in his absence. Finally, as the lead researcher, I did a bit of everything.

For this project we captured all of our study animals by darting them, which can be both exciting and extremely frustrating. Because of their larger size we were able to dart the kudu from a helicopter, whereas the bushbuck and nyala had to be darted from the ground. Rui and I split the helicopter darting between the two of us, and although it was definitely challenging (hitting an antelope that’s running evasively at full speed from a moving helicopter that’s also busy dodging trees and brush isn’t always easy), it went really well. We finished the kudu in two days, and only missed four shots between the two of us. All of the animals handled the anesthesia well, and are now running around quite happily with nice new GPS collars around their necks! The ground darting for bushbuck and nyala was much more challenging (and frustrating) for several reasons. First, although these animals are somewhat used to vehicles, they will not tolerate people approaching on foot, so darting them requires driving to within 30 yards and then accurately placing a dart in the hindquarter. I can’t tell you how many times we’d make it to within 35-40 yards only to have the animal bolt just before the opportunity we needed would present itself. This was especially true of the nyala, which are an extremely skittish species. The second major frustration was the equipment. Because these animals live in thickly forested habitat, and they have a tendency to take off and run a ways after you dart them (it takes about 5-6 minutes for the anesthesia to take effect), and because we can’t monitor them visually from a helicopter, we had to use transmitter darts. That essentially means that each dart is fitted with a tiny little radio-transmitter that emits a signal that we can track in order to find the animal. A barb on the needle of the dart is designed to keep it in the animal until it goes down. So, in theory, that should work great. Unfortunately, though, there are a lot of things that can go wrong with these darts. First off, the transmitters are relatively heavy, which throws off the ballistics of the dart and makes the flight a bit unpredictable; sometimes they do what they’re supposed to, and sometimes they don’t. Secondly, the transmitters require two tiny little watch batteries, which can (and sometimes do) die unexpectedly. Third, because the dart is so heavy, the barb sometimes isn’t enough to keep the dart in the animal when it runs off, and if it comes out, then that leaves you searching for a sleeping animal that could have run for hundreds of yards in any direction through the thick African bush; it’s kind of like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack, and it’s not a good thing when it happens.

During the past couple of weeks, we experienced a little bit of everything while darting from the ground; success, missed shots, and failed equipment. The latter two of these is where Louis really made his mark. The first thing he did is come up with a way to combine two of the different types of darts we had into a totally novel design that was smaller and lighter than either of the originals, but still included the transmitter. Those darts flew a lot better, and saved our butts on several occasions. Next, about mid-way through the capture, the transmitter stopped working shortly after I darted a bushbuck. The four of us searched for over an hour with no luck. So, rather than keep looking, Louis backed off a bit and looked to the sky instead. Shortly thereafter he noticed an eagle circling overhead, and its behavior led him right to our sleeping bushbuck, quite a ways from where we'd been looking. It was amazing to watch, and we never would have found her without Louis’ skills. In any case, despite the ups and downs, as I write this we’ve managed to collar all 10 bushbuck and 4 of the 10 nyala. So hopefully we’ll be wrapping things up soon!

After all of the planets align and we do successfully dart and recover an animal, then the processing begins, which involves a number of things. First, I fit the animal with a GPS collar that will record its location every hour for the next 10 months or so. Then, Kevin and I do the ultrasonography together (so that he can train me), which involves measuring the depth of the fat layer (as a measure of nutritional condition) and also checking for pregnancy. Next I take a variety of physical measurements (chest girth, body length, things like that) and obtain a fecal sample for diet analysis. Finally, for the bushbuck and nyala, we put them in a big canvas bag and weigh them; the kudu are about the same size as an elk, to we can’t really weigh them in the field. When we have all of the data we need, then Rui reverses the anesthetic, and usually within a minute the animal is off and running again. It’s quite an experience, and something I wish I could share with more people. It’s one thing to see animals like this on television or in a zoo, but being able to work directly with them in this sort of a way really is amazing!

OK, so before I wrap this up I also have to mention a couple of really fun bonuses that we got during this capture. These things weren’t planned, but came up opportunistically for Rui, and so he let the rest of us tag along for the ride. First, while doing the helicopter darting for kudu, we found a bull elephant that was wearing a GPS collar that was many years old and no longer functional. So, Rui decided we should dart the elephant and remove the collar…and that’s exactly what we did! Rui darted him, and then the rest of us got to help with the collar removal and handling. Kevin even tried to do some ultrasonography, but it turned out that the elephant’s skin was too thick for the ultrasound to penetrate! Man was it cool to be able to work hands-on with an elephant. And is if that weren’t enough, the second bonus came a few days later. Yep, you guessed it…a lion! The lion researcher here in the park opportunistically located a lioness that she’d been wanting to put a GPS collar on, so she called Rui while we were doing the antelope work, and we all got to go out and help. This was also an incredible experience. We essentially drove right up to within about 20 yards of her while she napped lazily in the sun, and Rui darted her. Ten minutes later we were working with an anesthetized lioness! It was pretty neat, but I do have to say that lions definitely aren’t as cool as antelope…;)

Well, I think that’s about it for now. Enjoy the pics!

This is one of the first bushbuck I darted at Gorongosa. They're beautiful little antelope that weigh between 65 and 85 pounds.

This was actually the final bushbuck I darted and collared here. This is also the one that we lost track of until Louis noticed an eagle circling her as she lay anesthetized in the long grass!


This is the first kudu (and in fact, the first animal of any kind) that I darted from the helicopter. Note the perfect shot placement in the left hindquarter...;)

 

Here are two additional kudu that I darted from the air. Shot placement on the second one wasn't quite so good (note the blue spot on the front shoulder where Rui administered some penicilin after removing the dart), but it did the trick. Kudu are the largest of the species I'm working with here, weighing in at around 400 pounds. The funny looking guy in the second photo is Kevin. 

 

Measuring rump fat on a kudu using a portable ultrasound.

 

 

These two pictures are both of the first nyala that we managed to collar. Theses skittish antelope have proven to be the most elusive and difficult to approach of the three species. You may or may not be able to tell this from the picture, but it was raining when we captured this female, which actually helped with the approach by making the grass quieter.

 

Another nyala female. These mid-sized antelope weigh in at around 180 pounds, and are, in my opinion, the most stunning of the species I'm working with.

 

This is actually a mature kudu bull we came across one day while searching for nyala. I love the big spiraled horns of these guys!

 

One day while we were out looking for antelope we noticed the lion research team stopped and staring at something. We went to see what was up, and this is what we found! Both of these lions are wearing GPS collars that were put on last year as part of a lion monitoring project here in the park. Unbelievable animals, and the first lions I've seen in the wild!

We came across the same male again a few days later. Definitely not a sight you want to see while on foot in the bush! Classic Africa right there.

So, this was amazing bonus number one. Rui darted this bull elephant from the helicopter during our antelope capture in order to remove a GPS collar that was placed on him years ago, and had long since ceased to function. In this picture Louis is beginning the process of removing the collar.

Removing the collar.

Our antelope capture crew...with an anesthetized elephant! What an experience.

Kevin attempting to use an ultrasound to measure fat on an elephant...nope, not happening! Their skin is just too thick. Fun opportunity to try though!

Amazing bonus number two! Rui darted this lioness opportunistically one day while we were out looking for antelope in order to put a GPS collar on her for the lion research team. Kneeling down, from left to right, is Louis, me, Kevin, and Rui. Awesome group to work with!

Yep, that's my hand, and her paw!

The lioness slowly recovering from her anesthesia.

We came across these two old bull elephants one day while looking for nyala to dart. They stood here in this mud hole for quite awhile to stay cool. The one in back had much bigger tusks than the one in front, but Louis estimated that they were both over 40 years old!

The Irish Ambassador has my email address

More pictures of sights around Chitengo

Some of the baboons we see every day.

 

Here's a local dove of some kind.

Sunday, June 8, 2014

We went on another drive around the park today. Kevin is here to help with Ryan’s capture work and to do ultrasound on the animals they collar, but they haven’t been able to start working yet because they’re waiting for the park veterinarian to arrive. As soon as he gets here it’ll be Game On for Ryan and Kevin, but right now they’ve got time to just enjoy the sights.

A lonely little wildebeest. Can you find him in there? He's just to the right of that little clump of bushes. It's funny to think that these guys are actually a rare sight in Gorongosa.

Bush pigs! Much fuzzier than warthogs.

A water buck. Note the target shape on its behind. This is one of the first antelope critters that I could recognize on sight. They just look so different from all the other types. They're so fuzzy, almost like an elk.

Some kind of eagle. You can never tell in pictures, but this thing was really big. I wish I knew what it was.

Almost everything has thorns over here. Some plants even have thorns growing on their thorns!

Typical African plains picture.

Here's a close up of one of my favorite trees over here. A fever tree.

Crocodiles! I saw crocodiles!

Guinea fowl. Yep.

Here's a cute little orobi.

Another fever tree. Expect lots of pictures of these things.

Here's a kudu on the left and an impala on the right. I think the kudu have such amazing horns! Sables grow pretty cool horns too, but I don't have a good picture of those yet.

Serious impala is serious.
Actually, he looks more like the Impala of Moderate Disapproval. 

You can't see me if I stand veeeeeeery still.

Who'd have guessed! Another fever tree.

Friday, June 13, 2014

The big excitement today was not that big or that exciting, but it did give a start to some construction workers who were raking up the leaves under a tree about twenty-five yards in front of the cabin. There were about ten of them raking away at the underbrush when suddenly they all jumped backward with shouts of surprise.

A little vine snake had popped up in the grass. It was small, with a bright green head and a grayish, bark colored tail. Very cool looking. About twice as thick as a #2 pencil, it wouldn’t seem like that little snake was worth all the fuss and attention it was getting from ten fully grown men…

…until you take into account how extremely venomous they are. As much as I adore reptiles, if I come across a snake with enough venom in its bite to make my chances of dying much greater than my chances of living, I’m going to give it a respectfully wide berth as well. 

Luckily, they’re also really mellow little fellows. This one didn’t even seem disturbed by the agitation of all the great big noisy people around it. It just wisped away to another tree and shimmied up the trunk faster than you’d think possible from a creature with no legs.

Saturday, June 14, 2014

So, I have now met his Excellency, the Irish Ambassador to Mozambique. Yes, you read that right. No, I’m not joking. He is here visiting Gorongosa right now, with his daughter, whose name I didn’t quite catch, and the only reason I met him is because there are so few people in Chitengo right now that, if you walk around a little, you can bump into pretty much everyone here in a few hours time.

Our small talk lasted all of two minutes, and I spent the entire time telling myself to not sound like an idiot. So, I probably did a pretty good job of sounding like an idiot.

He was nice enough to take some pictures of Caden for me, when one of the helicopter pilots currently working here let Caden sit inside his helicopter. The Ambassador was the only one with a camera on him at the time. And he was nice enough to offer to email me the pictures. So, yeah… the Irish Ambassador has my email address. ;-)

Anyway, moving on.

Caden has helicopter fever big time! Whenever we go out walking he begs to go look at the helicopters on the airstrip. He could and would stand and look at them and walk around them and touch them and climb on/in them for HOURS if I let him. Future pilot? Maybe so.

Ryan has been doing capture work for two days now. Things are going well, but you won’t hear any of the details from me. Ryan’s going to tell you all about it himself in next week’s post!

P.S. Sorry if I seem a little lackluster right now. I got hit with some kind of allergy this week and I feel like I’m in the middle of a spring hay fever. Yuck.

When in Africa, and you don’t have toilet paper…

Life in Chitengo

 

So if I try for a candid shot I can't get the camera out fast enough, but if I ask him to stand still he gets super serious. I can't win!

 Wearing dad's shorts like pants & his belt like suspenders. :-)

So, apparently Flavio really does think lemons are sweet, or at least that the local lemons are sweet. He gave us some to try... It tasted like a lemon.

Walking along the road to the restaurant.

Here's a closer view. The menu is small, but the food is very good.

Speaking of food, I should get some pictures of the tent kitchen they set up for us (the scientists) to use when we feel like cooking for ourselves.

Our intrepid little explorer, examining some of the local wildlife (i.e. a dead beetle). 

 Beetle is one of his new words, and he says it all the time now.
 
A baobab tree growing right here in Chitengo. We see it every time we jog around the path.

So here are some pictures of the friendly neighbors we met this week:

That's my foot, and that's a snail!

Here's a five inch long caterpillar that we had fun looking at. The resident entomologist said it's a relative of the lunar moth, and that we don't want to touch it because it has little microscopic venomous hairs all over it's body. Good to know!

Here's a jennet that hangs around in Chitengo. We've seen him a couple times now.

A mantis we saw while at the restaurant. There are mantises everywhere over here! All sizes and colors and shapes of them!

He was cleaning his antennae like a cat cleans its whiskers.

Believe it or not, this is another mantis. He's able to flatten himself out like a shriveled up dry leaf.

Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Jen invited us to go take a look at a bat colony she's been studying out here.

Jen and Flavio hard at work.

Favorite picture of the week.

So the bats are living in this enormous abandoned well, and I found this little guy hanging out in the vines above us. I wonder if he's related to Gilbert.

Flavio with a net full of bats.

Close up on that sexy face!

What'chu lookin' at?!?

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Thanks to Ryan, who was able to have a father & son day with Caden, I was able to go to Chimoio with Anne today, which is a town about two hours away from the park. It’s on part of the same road that takes us from Gorongosa to Beira, so if you remember my description of that drive, it was pretty much exactly the same except that this time we had the added bonus of a broken speedometer, so I have no idea how fast he was going… but I’m guessing it wasn’t always within the posted limit. We got stopped at a checkpoint along the way. Usually they just wave the Gorongosa vehicles through, but they decided to be thorough today. Groan! We’d already had delays getting out of the park on time because the vehicle we were supposed to take wasn’t available. It had stayed overnight in some town with its driver who had decided to use a company vehicle to sort out some personal financial issues. So we needed a new vehicle and that caused a headache because Anne and Mike had to find out which vehicles were free for the day, which ones had fuel, where was the driver, etc. So, nobody was happy about being stopped at the checkpoint, especially the driver who I think was charged with some sort of fine or something. Not sure. 

Once we were in Chimoio we stopped at an ATM first because Ryan and I were running a little low on our Meticais (the currency for Mozambique) and then Anne and I had to hit the bathroom. A two hour rollercoaster ride on a poorly paved African road is about my limit between potty breaks. I was able to use the Portuguese phrase for asking where the bathroom was. I’m proud of that fact, even though the lady answered in perfect English. Poo! Don’t go spoiling my foreign language fun, lady! So we found the bathrooms easily. I was so happy there was no line, because I was in no condition to wait in line. But there was no toilet paper! Anne went to ask the lady and she returned with two little cheap dinner napkins each. I didn’t complain. When in Africa, and you don’t have toilet paper, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,… or a paper napkin in the crease… I guess…

Ahem.

Grocery store in Chimoio was a Shoprite! Probably not the same company as the one in Princeton, NJ but still a funny coincidence. We go all the way to Africa to buy groceries at a Shoprite. It was what I would call an averagely-stocked small grocery store/general store that’s run pretty much the way our grocery stores are run. One difference was that there was a woman stationed in the produce department whose job was to weigh and tag your little bags of veggies and fruit. Another was that all of the signs and many of the items were in Portuguese. Ha ha.

Patronize me with a laugh, please. ;-)

One thing I wish I’d remembered to bring was hand sanitizer. The grocery store wasn’t dirty, but I came out of there feeling like I had run my hands over every book in a used bookstore. I hate that dusty, musty feeling!

On the way home we stopped at a roadside market to buy fresh fruit. We bought pineapples, oranges, papayas and a huge branch of bananas! It was about as long as my arm and covered in short green bananas! I should have brought my camera, but I thought that since Chimoio was a more “average-sized” town that we wouldn’t encounter anything really picture worthy. Plus I didn’t want to be one of those annoying touristy types with their camera in everyone’s face. So, no pictures from the trip. 

Also on the way home—actually we saw this on both ends of the trip—there was about a mile-long stretch of road lined all on one side with little carpentry shacks, where very talented craftsmen were making chairs, dinner tables, china cabinets, dresser drawers, beds, doors, sofas, etc. and setting them out in front of their shops. The furniture was gorgeous, but not in an African way. From what I could tell, as we weaved and dodged our way past them and the potholes, Every piece looked very European or American in style; the kind of thing you’d see in any furniture shop in the states. I think if the design or the artwork had been more African I might have bought a few pieces on the spot even though I have no idea how I would get them back into the states. Again, really wish I’d brought my camera! Oh well. That won’t be my only trip to Chimoio, so I’ll be sure and bring the camera next time.

Discovered something about the local culture. On our drive there would occasionally be one or a few people who would stick out their arms and not quite “wave” at us. Anne explained that that was their way of saying they wanted a ride in the direction we were going. We couldn’t stop and oblige them though, because we were in a Park vehicle, which technically is a government vehicle.

P.S. If this is my last entry it’s because I found one of those horrible, huge banana spiders in my share of bananas and died of shock and horror. Pray for me.