Week 5

Welcome to week 5 of my internship, probably my most exhausting one yet.

Monday started off quite okay. I collected my camera from the reserve and checked to see if there were any animals monitored by it. And it had! The camera took a few pictures of  a Tortoise passing by, a squirrel and a bird. On these pictures, however, it was unclear whether these animals entered the burrow, so at my weekly individual meeting with Grietjie, she recommended me to use the cameras that could film the animals instead of just taking photos. I also got the instructions to try to have walked every path in the reserve this week to look for new burrows around these roads. In the afternoon I placed two camera traps to film the entrances of uncertain burrows to check whether they are active or not so that I can focus on the active ones when I have eliminated all uncertain burrows.

On Tuesday the walking started. I had made a planning for this week to know what roads to walk on when so that I wouldn’t miss out of any of the roads. In the morning and in the afternoon I walked on various roads. Today I had found one burrow in the bushes of the transect I walked in the morning. I kind of got lost on that walk as the road was completely overgrown since it is barely used and it is the rain season, meaning that the plants grow really fast.

Wednesday I had my longest walk yet. I slept through my alarm I had set earlier than usual as I knew that it would take long, and I don’t want to walk too late in the day, when it starts to get warm really fast, but I still had to do it now. The walk took me to the far corner of the reserve, at Sunset Tower, where we watched the sunset in the first week. On this walk I also found only one burrow, so at least this 4-hour long hike wasn’t for nothing.

Thursday I had two walks planned again. In the morning I went out to collect my cameras I had placed on Monday. Looking at the footage, I saw that a couple of animals had walked around the burrows. There was a giraffe, impala and a waterbuck eating. Also a bushbuck walked past the cameras twice but most notably, a family of warthogs (animals that use abandoned burrows) checked out one of the burrows I trapped. They didn’t really walk in but it was nice to see footage of them being interested in the burrow. I planned to walk in the afternoon to look for burrows again, but I skipped out on it to join Q and Toni on a walk to look at the hornbill nestboxes and have a little break of the searching, I planned to make up for this walk on Saturday.

Friday I had yet another walk planned to Sunset Tower, but to look at different road leading towards it. I found a nice leopard track on the way there, so that might have been a sign of luck being high today? After coming back and having found just one burrow again, I left in the afternoon to place cameras again to leave them in the field over the weekend. Toni joined me and I helped her with her project a little (had to walk towards Vervet Monkeys and log the distance from which they initiated to flee from me). After placing the cameras it was almost time for the communal meal. Solène had prepared a (really delicious) lasagna and lemon meringue for us. Being completely stuffed in the evening, it was time for weekend.

On Saturday I walked my last road as I planned, without finding a burrow. The rest of the day I spent relaxing and in the afternoon we all went to sit around the lodge pool. We had a nice talk and played some cards. In the evening we had our weekly braai, and the day was done. Now it’s Sunday and I have even less planned today than on yesterday. Relaxing after this week of long walks is honestly one of the greatest things this week and I am going to fully enjoy it!

With that being said it is time to say goodbye yet again, and I’ll see you on the next update!