I am loving my time at Kariega Game Reserve. Everyday something new and exciting happens. Since I started on February 17th I have already ran into the elephant herd 5 times and with every encounter they walk so close to our open air truck, I can reach out and touch them if I wished (but that would be insane so I prefer not to). Our group here keeps running into the lion pride, no complaints there, which is awesome every encounter. Finally after being on the lookout for two and a half weeks I saw the elusive and rare black rhino.
I am learning so much from the volunteer coordinator and love my time out here doing research and simply watching the animals. We record the lion, rhino, and elephant positions via gps everytime we run into them. For elephants we monitor what plants they eat and for how long, in order to see how they are affecting the reserve. With the rhinos we record their dung middens in order to see where and how they socialize with each other. With the lions we monitor what prey they eat (or what actually remains) in order to see how they affect species populations on one side of Kariega. We do game counts as well to get a general estimate of how many animals there are on Kariega and we see what types of birds are on the reserve as well. Lastly project wise, every Wednesday we go to the local school to teach the children.
I am living my dreams thanks to the awesome people at Carpe Diem who have made this a reality for me! I am so happy, comfy, and blessed to be here in South Africa working with animals I love. Quick shout out to my friends and family back home, love you guys! And love you mom!
-Duncan