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Out of Africa
I was born and raised in Africa. My first job after college wasin the wild life reserves and I have spent much time in that part of the country. If you are intersted in the Big Five - lions, elephants, leopard, rhino and buffalo - it's a great place to vacation.
Africa in September 2008
I am joining an Earthwatch expedition in September of this year -- the Meerkats of the Kalahari Project. I am so excited to be going to Africa, and have plans after the expedition to go into Kruger and Phinda. This looks like a fun site for Earthwatchers!
EarthwatchJohn
If you're looking for all of our projects in Africa, click here to see the PDF of the mini-guide:
view link
Or just visit www.earthwatch.org/Africa
John
view link
Or just visit www.earthwatch.org/Africa
John
Drop everything and go to Africa!
I got started on Earthwatch expeditions because I'd done the "If this is Tuesday, this must be the Serengeti" tour, and wanted to see Africa in a different way.
Oh, I liked those tours - you got to see everything. But everywhere I went, felt like I was in heaven. And there'd be my guide announcing, "Alright, dinner in an hour and have your bags packed and be ready to depart at 7:30AM." I thought, I didn't come all this way just to tear off again in an air-conditioned mini-bus.
So with trepidation, I joined my first expedition, a bird migration project in Kenya. At last I got to fulfill a fantasy, albeit a temporary one, of living in Africa, with all the comforts of a lodge no less!
Since then, I've traveled many times to Eastern and Southern Africa, both with Earthwatch expeditions (I now work at Earthwatch), and occasionally just to relax. Let me know if you need some encouragement, or have some questions. I hope you can make it too!
Oh, I liked those tours - you got to see everything. But everywhere I went, felt like I was in heaven. And there'd be my guide announcing, "Alright, dinner in an hour and have your bags packed and be ready to depart at 7:30AM." I thought, I didn't come all this way just to tear off again in an air-conditioned mini-bus.
So with trepidation, I joined my first expedition, a bird migration project in Kenya. At last I got to fulfill a fantasy, albeit a temporary one, of living in Africa, with all the comforts of a lodge no less!
Since then, I've traveled many times to Eastern and Southern Africa, both with Earthwatch expeditions (I now work at Earthwatch), and occasionally just to relax. Let me know if you need some encouragement, or have some questions. I hope you can make it too!
An exciting update on the African Penguins
Earthwatch volunteers have helped prove that hand-reared penguin chicks can be released back into the wild and successfully breed and rear their own chicks!
This is very exciting, as it should help legitimize other such projects, and provide a starting point for further research - and there's the satisfaction of knowing that the hand-rearing actually saved 2,000 chicks.
Principal Investigator (PI) Les Underhill, co-PI Peter Barham, et al, published their research in Bird Conservation International, in an article entitled "The efficacy of hand-rearing penguin chicks: evidence from African Penguins (Spheniscus demersus) orphaned in the Treasure oil spill in 2000."
2,000 penguin chicks, orphaned after an oil spill, were hand-reared, then returned to breeding colonies at two islands off the coast of South Africa. Earthwatch volunteers provided the needed "hands in the field" to collect data on how successful the hand-reared chicks were in mating and rearing chicks of their own.
In their summary, the paper states: "Combining the data on survival with that on breeding success indicates that 1,000 hand-reared chicks will produce around 1,220 chicks themselves over their lifetimes, making this a worthwhile conservation intervention."
For six years, 30-40 nests were visited by Earthwatch volunteers every 4 days, from March to August, noting the number of chicks in each, their stage of development and fledging success. Without the large number of Earthwatch volunteers, a study this size would be very difficult to undertake.
This is exactly the kind of research that Earthwatch volunteers excel at - it requires enthusiasm and attention to detail, but is easily taught to non-scientists. And the volunteers get to spend their days amidst hundreds of penguin adults and chicks - how else could you get to do that?
Earthwatch PTMs (Past Team Members), please post your photos and experiences on this and other expeditions - we'd love to hear from you!
Kathy, the Earthwatch Webmaster
This is very exciting, as it should help legitimize other such projects, and provide a starting point for further research - and there's the satisfaction of knowing that the hand-rearing actually saved 2,000 chicks.
Principal Investigator (PI) Les Underhill, co-PI Peter Barham, et al, published their research in Bird Conservation International, in an article entitled "The efficacy of hand-rearing penguin chicks: evidence from African Penguins (Spheniscus demersus) orphaned in the Treasure oil spill in 2000."
2,000 penguin chicks, orphaned after an oil spill, were hand-reared, then returned to breeding colonies at two islands off the coast of South Africa. Earthwatch volunteers provided the needed "hands in the field" to collect data on how successful the hand-reared chicks were in mating and rearing chicks of their own.
In their summary, the paper states: "Combining the data on survival with that on breeding success indicates that 1,000 hand-reared chicks will produce around 1,220 chicks themselves over their lifetimes, making this a worthwhile conservation intervention."
For six years, 30-40 nests were visited by Earthwatch volunteers every 4 days, from March to August, noting the number of chicks in each, their stage of development and fledging success. Without the large number of Earthwatch volunteers, a study this size would be very difficult to undertake.
This is exactly the kind of research that Earthwatch volunteers excel at - it requires enthusiasm and attention to detail, but is easily taught to non-scientists. And the volunteers get to spend their days amidst hundreds of penguin adults and chicks - how else could you get to do that?
Earthwatch PTMs (Past Team Members), please post your photos and experiences on this and other expeditions - we'd love to hear from you!
Kathy, the Earthwatch Webmaster
Tidal Forests of Kenya
I'm considering the mangrove project for my next expedition. Has anyone been to Mombassa?
