Late Night Bathroom Run

Originally distributed January 2009

The first night at the campground I had quite a scare. After going to bed I had to get up and go to the bathroom, and of course the toilets were way across the campground. We were the only group there and people don’t use the park very much. I had my headlamp with me but the moon was pretty bright so I didn’t use it the whole time walking back and forth.

When I came out of the bathroom I heard a huffing/grunting sound right near the bathroom door maybe 15-20yds away. I turned on my headlamp and couldn’t see anything but I could tell it was something large that I didn’t want to be near. So I ran across the grounds toward our tents where there’s a large gazebo, which also served as our kitchen. At the gazebo I heard a plastic water jug fall over. The wind was blowing lightly so it could’ve simply been the wind but I couldn’t tell and didn’t want to take any chances. So I ran over to the tents and walked along the line of tents toward my own. The whole time I heard the grunting sound and it sounded like it was across from me. So either one animal was moving and following me, or there were many of them…whatever “they” were.

To top things off, Simone and I were stuck with a crappy old tent that had temperamental zippers. So when I finally got to the tent I had to fight the zipper to get it open. The whole time I’m hearing this grunting sound behind me and I can’t see what it is, or where it is! Finally I got the zipper open enough to get in and I just jumped in. Simone woke up to my headlamp shining in her face and colorful language. Luckily the mystery animal was still grunting so she heard it and knew I wasn’t crazy. It/they continued grunting for a minute or 2 before settling down. My heart stopped racing as well and I went back to sleep.

 

The next morning I asked around and other people had heard it too. The local research director whom I work with, Ara, said they were probably wildebeests. I had heard wildebeests grunting at us in Hlane during our game drive, so I wondered if they were the ones scaring my pants off. But even if it was “only” wildebeests, they have sharp horns and if they thought I was a threat to them, how did I know whether or not they were going to try to do me in? So it was scary.

Soft Core Herping

Originally distributed January 2009

This is not going to go in chronological order because I need to provide some details on what I was/will be doing on a day to day basis in the field. It’s been a crazy 2wks. Bob McCleery the head professor on the TX A&M group’s trip, runs a boot camp schedule. Up by 5AM, working all day, up until 11PM-12AM and then up again the next morning by 5AM. Day after day. Everyone was exhausted all the time.

Barring that introduction, the TX group was great. They didn’t complain much, they all got along well the whole time and were really motivated. The trip was run by Bob, another professor, and a PhD researcher who had a superiority complex that became a common topic of conversation amongst the others. The students included 5 grad students and 11 undergrads who were all in this short field course together. Their job was to develop mini research projects and figure out the methods for collecting the data. They studied moths, bats, amphibians/reptiles (affectionately referred to as herps in the science world), predators, and game animals.

I was part of the bat crew since that’s what I’ll be doing for several months this year. I also have one volunteer for this month, named Simone, who was out with us in all the chaos. She’s from Germany and is a great sport.

Simone and I headed to the field with my immediate boss, Belinda, and met the TX group at one of the national parks, Mlawula (say M Lawula), where we all camped in tents for a week. For the bat research we set up mist nets and a specialized bat trap called a harp trap (because it kinda looks like a harp). The first night we caught bats and glued radio transmitters on them. I went to bed at 12:30 that night once we were all done. Then I got up at 6AM and I was late! Everyone else was up and ready to go find the bats in their roosts. Schedule-wise, that’s pretty much how the whole 2wks went.

For the week at Mlawula we tracked bats while they were foraging 7-11PM then started at 6AM finding their roost sites all morning. It was interesting. Unfortunately, the bats didn’t stay in the same roost sites everyday. That meant we found bats in a particular tree one morning and the next morning they weren’t there.  So we had to track them down elsewhere. And they didn’t all roost together in one place. A few hung out together but the rest were scattered around. We also tracked more than one species so they don’t all use the same kind of roost sites.

Simone and I also got to go out on a couple of game drives. For that you go out after sunset with big spotlights and count the number and species of animals you see by looking for their eye shine. Since this was a well-equiped group from TX they also had a night vision scope and an infrared camera. The goal was to see how many animals you pick up with the infrared vs the spotlight. They figured out people miss 1/3 to ½ of the animals with the spotlight. That info is useful to park managers who want to keep track of animal population sizes in the parks.

There’s a well-known herp expert who joined us at the park for a couple nights to lead herping expeditions. One night the group was so tired several of them didn’t want to go full-on searching for 3hrs. So as we were driving back at night from another location, and after a rain that left puddles everywhere, several of the students agreed to “soft core herping,” which was simply searching for frogs and other critters on the way back to the campground via the car’s headlights.

Now, going back in time, our first day out with the group we went to a neighboring private game park called Hlane (forget about pronunciation). We went on a game drive in the morning and saw a family group of elephants with a 2 wk old baby! It was so cute. I was amazed the adult females let us get so close! We were sitting in the jeep practically in the middle of the herd while they grazed and browsed. Then we went and found a family of hot, sleepy lions. There was an adult male, 3 lionesses and a cub or two hiding in the bushes. We drove right up on them too. They were too hot and tired to respond though.

In the afternoon we went on a game walk there. As far as I recall the ranger didn’t carry a gun. My group encountered a lone bull elephant, but we backed up and kept our distance, a group of hippos and a crocodile in a pool, wildebeest, kudu, impala, waterbuck, nyala, a young leopard tortoise, and a variety of birds. For the animals you don’t know, browse around my photo pages or Google Images. We were looking for rhinos and found evidence of them—footprints, droppings—but no rhinos in the flesh.

In Mlawula, I saw my first zebras and warthogs. All the warthogs have little babies right now, and they’re surprisingly cute! I also saw grey duikers, a genet, baboons, and all the other antelope species listed above. There weren’t any elephants or lions so it was safe to wander around in the dark when tracking the bats.

There’s a Skink in the Sink!

I really don’t have to be creative. I don’t make these things up. I just observe and end up in the right place at the right time from time to time. The longer I’ve stayed at Mlilwane Park’s campsite the longer the list of intriguing things I’ve encountered in the bathroom. Last weekend there was a striped skink, a common type of lizard here, in one of the sinks. I don’t know how it got there, but it didn’t seem to be able to get itself out. First I tried putting a stick in there to give it a way to crawl out on its own. But I felt a little strange about leaving a stick in the sink unattended as the next bathroom user would surely find that even more puzzling than a lizard if the lizard was gone by then. But staying there just made the skink nervous. Hmm.

I reluctantly decided to just “rescue” the skink by hand, which of course freaked it out quite a bit, but I figured it was better off in the long run. First I grabbed it and put it on the countertop, holding it captive for only a second or two. But this animal clearly wasn’t equipped to move on stone countertops like a gecko does so easily. It skittered on its belly, wiggling its body and tail and using its limbs like paddles in water. Not very effective. So I picked it up again and put it on the ground outside. By this time the poor thing was really stunned. It sat there on the ground with its body kinked up in an unnatural position. I watched it for several seconds and it just stayed there, frozen. So I left it alone to regain its composure and move to a more sheltered location on its own.

Meanwhile, at the very same time, there was a tiny green frog on the wall. I left it alone, other than taking its picture, because it was free to move around at any time. Turns out, it stayed for several days. I don’t know how it ended up on the bathroom wall or why it hung out there for so long.

Now that I’m posting these stories on an actual blog site, there will be an initial flurry of activity since I’ve been sharing these stories for almost three years already (assuming the internet connection is functioning). What can I say? In some ways I have to be dragged into the 21^st century. “An mp3 player? What is that, and why should you even want one?” Ha! I learned the answer and promptly got one. But yes, I tend to be slow to adopt new technologies (unless they’re green technologies, of course).

Posting all the old stories will give newer recipients a chance to read old stories if they feel so inclined. Plus, I’ve gotten behind in the past few months and have at least a few new experiences and thoughts to share, so I have to get caught up on those too. One more handy feature I’ve realized is that I no longer have to remember to include the link to my photos page. It’s always here at the bottom of the home page. And yes, I’m behind on that too. But I’m working on it!

I’ll be playing around with the layout and distribution methods for the next little while so if you prefer one way over another just let me know! And as always, if I’m sending things to you and you don’t want to receive them anymore, don’t hesitate to communicate that. As long as you do it kindly and gently, I won’t be offended.