It has been a while since the last blog, but that is just because we have been very busy around here! We have now made the first part of our transect along the riverside to investigate the effect of the recent flooding on the vegetation here in the reserve. It is incredible to see the immense diversity of plants, even after such a devastating event. So far we have already collected, dried, stored and described over 30 different species that have not been collected yet for Save the Elephants. The herbarium is also coming along nicely, the stove is up and running and it is doing a good job. There are some absolutely amazing plants to be found here!
At the STE research camp we basically are operational again, the toilets have been put up and are absolutely amazing, we can sit down again! We also had an upgrade of our bedroom, some of the tents that used to be here have been recovered and cleaned. It feels like we have moved to a hotel apartment, with beds and everything. We also have been seeing a lot of elephants here in the reserve. During a drive we came across two families and started to identify them, among them was a big bull, called Pretty Bombom and he was in musth. The result was us hightailing it out of there as one of the biggest, meanest bulls was chasing us down, an experience we won’t soon forget, but nevertheless priceless. We hope to finish making the transect as soon as possible so we can start with the second part of our research, the focal study on elephant foraging behaviour!