Today marks the last full day I spend as an STE intern! With Shifra having headed back to the States for some well-deserved home time, for the past week I have been busy updating ID files and filling in LTM data. Jerenimo and David have since been very kind as to invite us (last week we welcomed the arrival of STE’s newest International Intern, Laura) along to the field whenever they went out. After the heavy rain we received a week ago a number of families that I have not previously seen have started making their way in to the reserve again – these include the Virtues, Native Americans and part of the First Ladies families. It is always very exciting to come across a family that hasn’t been seen for many months, and to be able to confirm they are still alive and well! I have also been able to spend some time using the mapping software, ArcMap, to plot some Mammal Census data, and therefore enable easy detection of any patterns displayed.
I have loved every moment of my internship and the time I have spent here will be remembered fondly as I pursue a career in wildlife conservation. I would like to thank each and every member of the STE team that was somehow involved in making my internship what it was. As an aspiring zoologist it has been invaluable to have been able to gain such a large amount of field experience and to learn how a research camp and its projects are conducted. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would be given the unique opportunity to spend time aiding in research in Kenya to help clarify my own career objective! I can confidently say the time I have spent here has helped me confirm that I would like nothing more than to conduct my own research.
Again, I warmly thank all those who were involved in making my time at STE such a success!