28
Aluredian
A
t the end of July, a group of
18 from King's joined
Operation Wallacea on a
conservation research
expedition to South Africa.
After a long flight to
Johannesburg, we travelled down by road to
the first research site at Intabane. On the way
we stopped at a high veldt farm in Ermelo and
were treated to massive tender South African
steaks (which had been marinated for five
days), and we saw our first African antelope -
a tame Eland called Sue.
After a ten-hour drive, we reached the first
research site which was located in a newlyformed
reserve that had been created by taking
down the game fences between Thanda and
Bhejane reserves - this allowed the 'big five' to
wander freely over both reserves: the theme of
the research project was to discover the effects
on these animals as they moved into bush that
had not previously contained the 'big five' -
surprisingly little research has been done on the
effects of elephants and lions on local habitat,
and this knowledge is important scientifically, as
hundreds of miles of fence are being removed
all over southern Africa, allowing the 'megafauna'
to wander more freely and naturally.
During the week's stay, the first two days were
spent learning about bush survival and
tracking, and the other five days we were out
in the bush carrying out survey work with
armed guards, and observing elephant
behaviour from Land Rovers. The camp was
unfenced, and one of the highlights was being
unable to go to the loo block because a lion
was standing outside. We also attended daily
lectures on many aspects of wildlife biology,
and discussed important issues such as
biodiversity, anti-poaching strategies and the
ivory trade.
The second week was spent at Nsikazi, a
wonderful wilderness (tented) bush camp in
the Mduli concession in Kruger National Park.
Now that we were all trained and could avoid
being eaten, we spent each day taking part in
game survey transects: this involved recording
all the animals and birds we saw during a twohour
game drive in Land Rovers or walking
with an armed guard and trackers through the
bush.