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| A fun giraffe sighting! We watched them chewing the bones from carrion for the calcium. Spooky- bone-eating giraffes... |
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| A Pangolin eating! A Pangolin is an insect eating mammal. It is the most poached animal in the world for its ivory scales. We got to spend the afternoon with Wendy Panaino one of the top Pangolin researchers in the world. Wendy and many of her fellow researchers at Tswalu Research Center- Dedeben- are working together to measure how climate change is impacting not only individual species, but also the links and interactions between species and the ecosystem as a whole... it is awesome to understand- the Kalahari is at the frontlines of measuring the impacts of climate change because it is such a fragile environment. |
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| Giraffe! |
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| The full moon! Watching it rise over the Kalahari was incredible.... |
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| Meerkat sighting! |
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| A pangolin's funny walk! |
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| Tilly Mahlatse, a Bat Eared Fox researcher, and Mary spreading raisins for the Foxes to get used to the cage, and to eat the raisins so they can be on camera! Eventually Tilly will collar a few foxes so she can better understand their behavior and how they are responding to climate change impacts. Tilly and Wendy work closely together....their team is called the Kalahari Endangered Ecosystem Project- K.E.E.P.- @KalahariProject and on Facebook... |
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| Mary and Tim on a scenic hike above Dedeben research center....we went about 2 miles into the mountains... |
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| Mary using the Pangolin tracking device with Wendy. |
This is sooo incredibly cool, Mares!! I had no idea that pangolin scales are made of ivory. I imagine that they’re very difficult to protect because their scales are supposed to do that job. No match for poachers. 😞 have you seen bat-eared foxes yet? Also, how does the telemetry track the animals? Are they all tagged? What are you looking for (tracking wise) when you’re tracking foxes and pangolin? I want to hear more about the climate science too! We’re in the midst of a tremendous heat wave, speaking of climate disruption.
ReplyDeleteThank you for explaining how you knew the tool was fashioned by early humans.
PS. I love the red color of the Kalahari.
Love you! So proud of you,
Deirdre