Recap and Reflection

Wow.  I can't believe it's been nearly seven months since I first arrived at Gorongosa.  There have been so many days since arriving back in the US that I wish I could hop on a plane and head back to the park for more research (fingers crossed for that sometime in my future).  I learned so much while there: how to conduct independent research (with some help from my fellow researchers), how to live at a research facility without many others at my education level (i.e. almost everyone else there was a graduate student or above), how to travel across continents by myself (Newark to London to Johannesburg to Beira and back), how to drive a manual transmission car (even in the pouring rain on the floodplain with a full backseat).  

Some highlights from my last week there:

-I went out with Kaitlyn a few times to help her with her data collection.  She's interested in the various flight reactions different species have along the road network.

-I got to go to Mount Gorongosa and climb up to the rainforest at the top.  Which was so incredibly cool. Along the way up, you could tell where the deforestation had stopped--there was a clear boundary between the brown, dry land that was being used for agriculture, and the lush, green rainforest.  Efforts are being made through the park to prevent further deforestation, as the mountain plays a key role in the area's water cycle.  The green-headed Oriole is a species of bird that is endemic to the mountain (meaning it's only found there), and we saw one!  We also stopped at a waterfall on the way back down for swimming.  The water was so cold.

The view from where we parked.

The edge of the deforestation (lush rainforest to the left, dry agricultural land to the right)

Me! In the rainforest. 

We got to swim in this waterfall. It was so cold it took my breath away.

 -I also spent more time on waterbuck observations.  And more time conducting vegetation surveys with Jen.  I learned during one of these afternoons of fieldwork that I am highly allergic to a species of grass on the floodplain, one we called "float grass."  I had no idea beforehand, so I didn't have anything with me to help with the onslaught of allergy symptoms.  That was tricky.

Doesn't a quadrat make an excellent frame?

Trekking to one of our vegetation survey sites

One of the coolest waterbuck-related things to happen at the park this summer actually happened the day I left.  So I woke up really early for last-minute packing, breakfast and goodbyes, and then got in a car to the airport to begin my trip home.  Almost all of the other researchers who were there went out that day for waterbuck capture and collar work.  Similar to the kudu/nyala/bushbuck work that I did get a chance to be a part of earlier in the summer, the team went out and tranquilized individual animals.  Once the animal was sedated, they could approach and collect samples (hair, feces) and take other measurements (like the thickness of the layer of fat on the animal, which gives an idea of its overall health, and whether the females were pregnant).  There were members of a National Geographic team there as well, who travel around the world to put "Critter Cams" on different species.  These are video cameras that you attach to the animal's neck that record a waterbuck's eye view of life (or whatever other species is being studied).  From these videos, we'll be able to see exactly what the animals are eating, and just generally what life looks like when you're a waterbuck.  Here is a link to an article and video about Jen, the grad student I'm working with, and some of what she's doing at Gorongosa (including the Critter Cam videos).

I was very sad to have missed this part of the research and to leave such an amazing place, but excited to go home.  I missed my family and my friends and my dogs.  The trip home went smoothly.

Back on campus, I've been working on taking all of the data collected this summer and making it into something coherent.  It's been challenging, to say the least, but I'm confident that it will all come together.

I hope everyone had a good holiday season, and best wishes for 2016!