Python Rhino Leopard and Fieldwork

Just a few highlighting pictures from the last two weeks

 This young leopard had just lekker eaten impala lying lazily and full at the side of the road while his mother was still sitting in the tree busy chowing on the almost empty carcass. I got up to 3 meters close to it and wasn't comfortable to have my window fully opened. Later he got a little inquisitive and sniffed at my car from all sides.

 A Rhino all happy from eating fresh leaves after a long period of staving..

 One of the more experienced guys from Skukuza decided to catch this African Rock Python to bring it to the sundowners.

 When he wanted to pick it up again it wasn't so happy anymore and started to snap at people around it..

 But eventually he got it and no one got eaten or bitten ;) He was going to release it where he found it.

I rather stick to my climbing skill which came in very handy installing my pyronometer.

Climbing in Sabie

Last Sunday Tenele, Michael and me were climbing at the Sabie-rocks near a waterfall. Its a nice and cosy climbing area with short routes.
The rain in the afternoon forced us under the bridge where we could only find one route in the dry... But it was great fun!

Sabie waterfalls. You can actually climb the center rock by abseiling from the top and climbing up again. Or for the hard fainted climb it free solo.

Tenele climbing very technical on a flat wall...

Michael

Hannes has with finally some short hair...

Tenele in the field

This Saturday Tenele came to the filed with me to see what I'm actually doing all day long... we had a good time not working too hard ;)

 

My hard working girlfriend..

Thunder and Rain

The rain season has slowly started and we having the odd thunderstorm passing through Skukuza. Recently I witnessed quite a heavy one and even managed to get a lightning shot.
We also just had the first serious rains and now I hope that the trees in the exclosures will finally start to get leaves..

More wildlife

No words required..

 feeding..

Grand hornbil

 

We saw this Hyena in the early morning at about 5:30

Elefants at sundowners

Its been a while since I last posted something.. but below there is a very nice elephant video which is worth checking out.
We had a bunch of elephants coming right to the sundownsers at the dam. I have never been that close to them outside of a car which was a very nice experience and an example of a peaceful coexistance of elephants and humans ;)

 No, that is not a Photoshop manipulated picture. I was really standing there!!!

Elephants visiting us for sundownwers at the dam

Wild game - wild life is a game and the game is wild!

Herd of Buffalos

	hmmmmm lecker!

That 'bird' was sitting on a tree in the exclosure one early morning.. No idea what it is, but enjoyed it.

	Gecko living around my tent catching insects in the night when my light is on..

	We found these young male and a female right one early morning on the dirt road to the exclosures.

 

Those guys were having a 'lobola' party, wearing traditional cloths. Lobola is the ceremony where a man pays cows or in some cases cash to the parents of his future wife. The lobola can include excessive partying and usually takes a couple of days. The happy folks on the bakkie overtook me on the road showing their excitement when they saw I'm taking pictures.

away from the Animals and wildlife in the Province KwaZulu-Natal I was doing some wetland hydrology survey with Eddie and some two guys from the University. The countrywide energy company Escom called us to investigate a huge wetland in mountains on 1700 meters altitude. We were accommodated luxuriously in a 4 star lodge with great breakfast and restaurant everyday. Quite a contrast to my tent accommodation here.. but I still love me tent and being outdoors so much!

The wetland is huge and exclusively in a stunning mountain landscape.

The sun burn aggressively and after 3 days in the field I'm a mixture of cancer-red and brown.. but we work bloody hard fighting ourselves through reeds and ponded water.. no trees or other shade sources. I'm still waiting for pictures form the other guys from the reeds..

It was a nice feeling to work in a almost pristine 16,000 year old intact wetland..

The sap is finally flowing under surveillance...

About 10 days ago I finally installed sap flow (xylem flux in trees) in the exclosures. It was a extremely busy week which was followed by one week of wetland fieldwork in KwaZulu-Natal province not related to my masters thesis. Being so occupied with work I wasn't able to write anything but I will catch up now.
I just downloaded my first data set from the sapflow and it looks very promising! Over the ten days that I have been away all probes were successfully logging and the car battery which is fed by a solar panel just survived.

Roughly the steps of setting up a sap flow probe on a tree

The upper 'needle' has a heating coil wich heats the conducting sapwood on a very low rate (about 0.3 watts). Both needles measure the temperature difference between them. Accoding to the rate of sap flux the heat will be carried away from the heating coil faster or slower. When there is no flow the heat accumulates and the temperature difference will be at maximum. Usually the sap flux is in order of a few centimetres per hour maximum.

The casings around the needles are filled with insulation material to prevent possible biassed readings from external temperature influences. Glueing them to the stems with silicon is a good way to keep all sorts of insects out.

For just 13 probes I had to lay out 1.5 km of single pin cable. Tomorrow I'll install the remaining 3 sap flow probes.

All the heating takes up nearly 10 watts which is provided by a car battery and a solar panel

Today I downloaded the data for the first time.. looks very good so far.

An is Acacia nigrescens
Ag is Acacia granitulata
Ca is Combretum apiculatum
D  is Dichrostachys cinerea

I'll write more soon about the wetland work and Tenele's home in Swaziland where I've been too. Hope you are all well! Warm greetings from hot Sk;)