The week in review

Hi!

Not so late tonight, so I'm going to catch up on what's been happening here at Gorongosa.  Let's see.  In order to avoid a boring review of each day, I'll make a list of things that happened (slightly less boring, right?).  In no particular order, my week:

1. Poop was collected (kind of a given here).  We found a whole group of buffalo and got a bunch of samples from them, which was great because we didn't have too many samples from them before.  

2. Behavioral observation methods were piloted and then put to work.  So many waterbuck.  So much resting and eating (so far what they do 90% of the time I watch them). 

I swear he was posing.

3. Termite mounds were surveyed.  So many thorns/sharp things.  

4. Waterbuck were observed eating specific plants--very exciting.  It's awesome when I can go over to a plant and see exactly where the animal I was just watching was eating. 

Waterbuck herbivory!

More waterbuck herbivory

5. The truck's battery died and resulted in an unintentional day in camp. 

6. Board game night was held (Jungle speed was played--everyone should go buy it, it was so much fun)

7. A 'safari' was taken to the river, where we saw many crocodiles, a hippo, and a bunch of cool birds. 

Coming out of the water

A Goliath heron (left) and a Grey heron (right).  Apparently the Grey herons here are about the same size as Great blue herons at home, which gives you some idea of how huge the Goliath heron is. 

It's electric?

The crocs just sat there with their mouths open, which is apparently a method of thermoregulation--the same type of thing dogs are doing when they pant. 

We saw some eles on the way home! They were super close to the road

He was smelling us

8. Camera traps were moved to photograph other areas of the floodplain.

9. The thorniest leaves I have ever seen were spotted. 

The leaves had thorns.  The leaves.  It's a species of Solanum

10. Taylor Swift videos were watched.  (I know--not very exciting and not to do with my research, but she had two concerts in NJ this past weekend and a lot of people I know went to go see her.  The shows looked like they were amazing)

That's a good chunk of what happened this week.  

Also, a picture of my cookies from the Fourth:

I was very proud of them, given the lack of access to many kitchen supplies I usually use when making cookies. 

I hope everyone has a great week!

Good night!