Kasungu

I just spent the last three days in Kasungu National Park, home to the baboon release site and where I’ll be living for most of the next year. After a 3 hour journey in a bus crammed full of people, and a very bumpy two hour drive along dirt roads, I finally reached the park. Firstly, this place is REMOTE. I think it will be the most remote and rustic living I’ve ever done, if you can even imagine that. There is no electricity (no lights, no fridge, etc), with just one small solar panel with one plug from where to charge things. Keep in mind as well, that this is the start of the rainy season, so the sun might be scarce to power the solar panel! I will have my own large tent  which is great. We share the space with the campground of a nearby lodge, which apparently scarcely has visitors. The “stove” is gas-powered. Hot water for showers is heated by making a fire and waiting an hour and a half. The camp itself though is situated right on a dam, which is home to loads of hippos and tons of birds. It is very, very beautiful.

The kitchen

Very high-tech stove 

The solar panel 

My tent! 

I spent my first day up there walking around the release site with a guide/assistant and a park scout. We walked all around the area that the baboons will likely use, pointing out where other baboon troops are, which trees are good to sleep in, and which plants and fruits they will most likely eat. The forest there is beautiful. The trees are not too tall, maybe about 8-10 meters and there is a fresh layer of secondary growth trees sprouting from the ground. I kept expecting to see a unicorn walking around or something; it is such a beautiful place.

Building the pre-release enclosure

My second day was once again spent getting to know the area, and also learning how to drive a manual 4x4 truck. Prior to this, I had spent two afternoons driving a manual car. Ever. Let alone a rusty truck and on dirt roads that could barely be called roads. For those of you who understand this reference, I would say the road is worst than the Grietjie/CARE road, and for the even fewer of you who will understand this reference, not as bad as the Lajuma road. But luckily, Dan was patient with me, and I seemed to do okay! I only stalled the vehicle once or twice, didn’t get stuck in any ditches or potholes, and didn’t completely ruin the transmission! I drove for a few hours and again the next day as well. That afternoon was exciting because as I was driving all the workers back to camp, from where they were building the release enclosure, the scouts in the back spotted some poachers. Kasungu NP has a big problem with poachers. They sneak into the park and kill everything from hares and small antelopes to elephants, of which only about 40 exist when there used to be thousands. It’s a real shame that Kasungu now has virtually no wildlife. While I was walking around it seemed like the perfect place for elephants and rhino and buffalos and cheetahs, but sadly non exist anymore. I kept expecting to run into something around every corner, similar to what I experienced in Botswana, but there was nothing. It’s a real real shame. So I slammed on the breaks and the two scouts and the workers jumped out of the back of the truck and ran across the field chasing and shooting at (or around) the poachers, who dropped their supplies and ran. We saw that they were carrying the larger pellets which indicates they were looking for elephants. But those of you who are now worried, don’t fret; I will be accompanied everyday by a scout with a gun for this exact purpose. Besides, poachers aren’t really looking for baboons.

My vehicle 

Checking out the poachers' supplies 

The view from the camp

Release Update

Now, unfortunately, there hasn’t been enough rain in Kasungu yet. We want to release when there is water in the river (dambo), so that the baboons don’t go too far from the release site, and potentially get trapped on the other side. So the release, which was supposed to happen on the 8^th is going to be postponed at least a week. This also means that I’ll still be at the centre / civilization for another couple of weeks.

Lake Malawi

My day off last Sunday was spent with three other girls here at Senga Bay, Lake Malawi. It’s a huge freshwater lake that takes up like half of this country. It was about a two hour drive from the Lilongwe. We spent the day lounging on the beach, swimming a bit, and getting spectacularly sunburned. It was a nice little vacation, with some spectacular clouds. I've been just trying to take advantage of this semi-cushy life in civilization before I head to the bush soon.

Interestingly, the lake is swimming, no pun intended, with a parasite that can easily just absorb through your skin. So about three months after swimming in the lake, everyone is advised to take a special anti-parasitic drug.

On the way back home, we got a call about a sick duiker from a nearby park, and picked him up. Sadly he was in rough conditions and died upon return to the centre. Even on days off, we rescue animals!

Rainy Season Has Arrived

It seems that the rainy season has officially begun. For the past few days it has poured rain for an hour or so in the afternoon. It has been a welcome respite from the blistering heat, even though I got absolutely soaked. So far, the rain comes in the afternoon for just a bit, but I have been assured that in a few weeks, when I’m out in the bush all day, the rains will continue for hours and even days at a time. Not 100% looking forward to that, but such is life in the bush!

Pre-release observations are going well.  I’m pretty confident now in identifying them/knowing their names. We did carried out some Predator Awareness Assessment the other day, which involved hiding (as best as we could) a paper-mache leopard in the forest outside the baboon enclosure and then recording their responses. We want to make sure they know what to do when they see predators in the wild. They have done this assessment before with the leopard and also with a fake snake. Responses were okay. The baboons alarm called and quickly climbed the trees. Now I know what they will sound like should we see a real one in the bush, and I’ll be sure to also climb a tree. I definitely don’t want to be the last one on the ground! It was a quick but fun and new exercise for me and baboons! Hopefully they’ll do just as well in the wild, or else someone will have to learn the hard way.

We’re almost in the final stretch here, which is exciting and nerve-racking! The release is scheduled for the first week of January, so just after Christmas will be a big time for catching and checking and final preparations for the big move. Speaking of the big move, I found out some things last week about the living conditions out in Kasungu. There’s limited electricity because there is only one solar panel. Considering it’s the rainy season now, and solar power doesn’t work much without the sun, there will be even less power. They don’t even have enough power to run a refrigerator. So goodbye everything cold! But I’ll have my own big tent with what looks like a great view. Apparently there is decent cell and 3G service there (again, all dependent on solar power) but no wifi. So basically, it’s very rustic. Not sure what I’m going to be eating there! Or when I’ll be able to be in touch!

But until then, I’m still her at the centre. I’m enjoying continuing to get to know my baboons! Two nights ago, after the first rains, winged termites hatched. I got to see the baboons do something I haven’t seen them do before, which is always exciting for me. In the evening they were jumping feet in the air, super goofily, to catch these flying insects and eat them. They were all so excited and grabbing the termites out of thin air for a nice protein-rich snack. Last night there were even more termites so there was less jumping to catch them. I hope they come out again tonight! I love seeing baboons do something new! I got some good video of it, but I’m not sure about the wifi’s ability to upload it.

Tomorrow is my day off and a few friends and I are renting a car and going to drive to a nearby town on Lake Malawi! I’m stoked to see this lake and just relax on the beach. And hopefully to practice some of my manual driving. I will hopefully post some pictures of that in the next couple of days. I’m trying to take advantage of some of the luxuries of civilization and people while I’m still here before I go off into the bush for months and months.

Giant Silkmoth

Even the smaller animals are exciting! 

Hello from Malawi

Hello! Sorry I haven’t written sooner, but the wifi isn’t great around here for some reason and I’ve just been settling in. First of all, this sanctuary is amazing. Big open enclosures, tons of space, they do tours and have school groups so they do lots of education, nice people. So, pretty different from CARE. Not that CARE isn’t great, but it’s just different. It’s also different because I’m not here to do the animal care side of things which is more of what I did do at CARE.

 I’m just working with the troop of baboons that are going to be released next month. My day is basically scheduled like this: 630-9 baboon observations and pre-release data collection, 12-2 baboon observations and pre-release data collection. Pretty simple. I’m doing some reading on releases in the meantime and just getting acclimated. I’m not a huge fan of all the free time, to be honest. The troop has 22 individuals and they’re housed in a big open enclosure. Amazing to see after the enclosures at CARE. But, it does make it more difficult to observe and identify them. That’s my main focus now is learning the individuals. I’m doing pretty well I think.  Some girl said that if I can learn them in a week that would be impressive, and that’s easily going to happen. Data collection is also simple enough (for me). Basically involves following around a single baboon for 20 minutes and recording their behaviors. I do that for four individuals in the morning and four in the afternoon. A girl, Marta, who has been doing the pre-release observations since May is training me. She’s very nice and we have fun while we stand in the blazing sun for hours at a time. By the way, I’m quite sunburned at the moment. The baboons are good. They’re yellow baboons (before I worked with chacmas) so they’re quite a bit smaller than I’m used to, which only trips me up when it comes to telling their ages. To me they look 2 when they’re really 4 or 5. I’ll try and get some pictures in the next few days. I feel pretty important here which is nice, since I have a real job to do (not just volunteering). I think the work will increase a bit as we get closer to the release date, which should be the first or second week in January. I’m also looking forward to getting back out into the bush then.

As for the sanctuary, as I said, it’s very nice. The other volunteers are good but a little green. They have one orphan baboon about 3 months old that is paired with a surrogate older baboon, which is going well, but the volunteers do not know anything about baboons. I’m so surprised. Last night I was talking with some of them, and one girl said “So, are you a baboon expert?” and I flat out said “Yes. Definitely. Although, I prefer the term Baboon Boss”. No question. Haha. I’m supposed to hold a little meeting today to teach them baboon speak. Even Marta, who has been working with them for like 6 months doesn’t know their vocalizations that well. I’m so surprised. So I helped out with the baby baboon, Bo, today and was surprised when volunteers who have been caring for him didn’t even know what a playface was. So I taught them some stuff and told them to put more ropes and things in his enclosure to play with and that he needs to play. So Bo and I played through the fence for a while and he just loved it. The other volunteers were amazed at how quickly he took to me. Obviously. These are my people (baboons)! So I’m going to try and help out with him in my spare time.

 Anyway, the sanctuary has a bunch of other animals; vervets, samango monkeys, duikers, antelopes, crocodiles, two lions, etc. The accommodations are okay. It’s basically a big room with bunk beds, so like 10 of us sleep in a room together. It’s okay for now since I’ll be leaving in a few weeks anyways to live in the national park. Lilongwe is a nice(-ish) town, basically like every other odd African town. But it’s close and easy to get to which is nice, although I’m not really looking to hang out there. Apparently there are a couple bars with some good expat nightlife too.

Two nights ago we had an exciting event. They have here a Wildlife Emergency Response Unit run by an awesome vet named Amanda Salb (look her up, she’s fantastic). They came in with a hyaena that they had caught in the town. Hyaenas cause some problems in Lilongwe so they catch them and bring them here and then translocate them somewhere better. So in the middle of the night they come busing in here with a semi-unconscious hyaena and we got to just watch them do some vet checks on him and then leave him in an enclosure. It was pretty cool. I’ll be working a bit more with the team that does the carnivore research stuff out in the national park as well since we all live in the same research station.

That’s all I can think of to write about right now. Will update again in a few days with some of the pre-release preparation progress.