This week I was no longer a Photography volunteer but instead a Research and Conservation volunteer at Thanda. This change in responsibilities was reflected in a large sign hanging in the research room: “Clipboards before cameras.” I was a bit anxious that this meant that I would not be able to photograph on game drives, but this hasn’t been the case. While our drives are now focused on game counts and documenting animal behavior, there is plenty of time for pictures. I am usually on the “lions and large predators truck” or the “elephants and rhinos truck.”

For example, when on the lions truck we actively seek out the lions using radio tracking equipment. If we find other animals, great: we’ll stop, look, document, and photograph. The telemetry system is rather simple but not always helpful. Sometimes the animal we’re seeking is behind a ridge, and we can’t get a signal. Other times we can determine where the animal is but can’t find it because it’s hidden behind inaccessible bush. Once we do find the lions or elephants we’re seeking, we document their behaviors and condition on a number of clipboards.

For instance, on Friday I documented that Skhondla Khondla, one of the male lions, looked up when our game truck was within five meters and again when a second truck approached within 20 meters. Exciting stuff, right? Yet all these observations provide valuable data both for the Thanda reserve management as well as the Africa Lion & Environment Research Trust (ALERT) which uses the information to compare the behavior of wild and semi-wild lion herds to monitor their relative health.

This need to monitor the lions is just one aspect of wildlife management in South Africa. This week we had a visit from Warren, the gentleman who manages the wildlife (and other aspects) of the Thanda reserve. He uses data he and his team collect in connection with our game count data to understand the numbers and location of all the game and the plant life on the reserve. And it’s a big reserve, with about 35,000 acres in all (though there are much larger private and public reserves in South Africa). One of the major differences for the wildlife here is that unlike reserves, say, in East Africa, here all the reserves are fenced. This is great if you’re a private reserve and you want to protect and retain your valuable game. It’s not so great if you are a naturally migratory animal like an elephant. It seems to me (though I am hardly an expert) that the benefits of fences outweigh the costs because South Africa seems to be more successful at preserving animals, such as the rhino, that are facing near extinction elsewhere.

Management of a reserve must be pro-active and intentional. For example, while we normally fear fire, here fire is necessary to clear out grasses that are no longer providing as much nutrition as they could. Normally such fires occur about every seven years or so. Here, however, reserve management conducts a series of controlled burns in different areas every year at the start of the rainy season. As you can see above, within a couple of days new grass begins to grow, much to the animals’ delight. Some species of plant life, including certain acacias, rely on the heat of a fire without which their seeds cannot germinate.

The irony, for me, in all this is that I’ve come to Africa to see wild animals. Yet these animals aren’t nearly as wild as we might pretend. Many of them are so “habituated” (or accustomed) to the game trucks that our arrival sometimes earns little more than a curious look before a lion goes back to sleep. Other animals, especially the antelopes, are quite shy no matter how many times they’ve seen a game truck. But one of our goals with the elephant herd on the Mduna side of the reserve is specifically to help get them habituated to our presence in game trucks. Why? It’s not so we can change their natural behavior (though that would seem to be an inevitable consequence) but so that researches and conservation staff can get close enough to accurately monitor their status and wellbeing.

Enough of wildlife management considerations! Here are a couple of other photos from last week:

Rhinoceroses are also present at Thanda, though we don’t see them nearly as often as we see other animals. They are quite shy, and even though their eye sight is rather poor, they do have acute senses of hearing and smell. All the same, this week we saw quite of a few of our rhinos, including this pair. We also saw two cows and their adorable calfs.

We also have quite a few giraffes here, including this fellow. How do I know this is a male? The ossicones (or horns) on male giraffes tend to be flatter and bald on top as a result of fighting with other giraffes. This fighting, in which giraffes swing their heads at each other, is known as “necking.” Still haven’t seen this myself, though one of the other trucks witnessed this behavior last week. That’s okay; it’s still quite marvelous to see these tall wonders!

Finally, on Tuesday I returned to Youth Group where I played with the local Zulu kids for a couple of hours. In the second hour we organized a volleyball game played, pictured here. It’s great fun to be with these kids, even if their English is often little better than my Zulu. Their desire for fun and connection is something to behold. Often one of them will initiate play with a ball or frisbee. Other times a young child will walk up and simply want to hold hands. A group of them took particular delight when I pretended to be a lion and tried to catch them. Of course, rather than eat them any I caught were tickled as they smiled and laughed and great energy and enthusiasm. They are also quite fascinated by cameras, and more than one child has wanted to take a “snap” when I bring out my camera. These interactions have become a great way for me to make a small connection to the local community and culture here.

This is has been quite the long post — I blame the excellent internet access at Ghost Mountain Inn to which five of us have retreated for a couple of days of good food, comfortable accommodations, excellent service, and speedy wifi. Next week I will conclude my time at Thanda. I have made some good friends here and have experience much which I will continue to contemplate and consider in the days ahead.

This week saw the conclusion of the Photography & Conservation Project at Thanda. This was another amazing week during which I visited two other parks: Lake Jozini and the Hluhluwe-Imfaloza Game Reserve. This first photo is from Hluhluwe (pronounced, improbably enough, as “shloo-SHLOO-wee”). These are a variation of antelope known as nyala. These are all females; mature males retain the vertical stripes but are much darker in color and have very pronounced horns.

One of the highlights of spending the better part of the day at Hluhluwe was watching our guide, Ian, and one of the other volunteers who participated in this optional trip, track a large herd of elephant. We parked where they figured the herd would appear next, and within a few minutes here they came. Well over a hundred elephants paraded just feet in front of our game truck: pachyderms of all ages and sizes, including the two young ones in this photo. Truly a breathtaking experience.

Near the end of a day in which we saw countless giraffes, rhinos, zebras, and more we came across a troop of baboons. Now baboons are generally considered pests, creatures capable of great mischief. But then you see a family like this one, with a newborn cutie, and, hey, what’s not to like?

Earlier in the week all of the photographers enjoyed a morning trip to nearby Lake Jozini, home to a number of animals, especially elephants and hippos. This was as much as we saw of most of the hippos who liked resting in the calm waters, lifting up every few minutes for a quick look and breath of air before submerging again. Our guide and boat driver kept a sharp look out for the hippos — not only to point them out to us but also to avoid getting too close. Apparently one does NOT want to mix it up with a threatened or grumpy hippo!

On Friday morning we went on a game drive. The weather was cold and the sky filled with dark and threatening clouds. Perfect weather for sleeping in or cozying up to a nice warm fire with a cup of hot chocolate. Not us, however! No, we were in the open-air game trucks by 5:30 am. It became clear fairly quickly, however, that the only creatures foolhardy enough to be out and about on that chilly morning where the idiots in the game trucks. All the wildlife of Thanda, however, wisely chose to stay where they were: protected from a cold, biting breeze and the possibility of rain. We ended our drive early — and shivering.

Later in the morning the weather improved, and some of us headed a few minutes up the road to the Bayete Zulu Elephant Encounter to feed, touch, and otherwise experience three African elephants. I wasn’t sure this was such a great idea for at least two reasons. First, I have heard that African elephants are more aggressive and unpredictable than their Asian cousins. Second, animals that regularly interact with human beings lose some of what makes them “wild” and become unable to survive outside of human contact.

The guide at the Encounter, however, told us the story of these three elephants (an adult male, an adult female, and juvenile). These beautiful creatures had always been around human beings, and when removed from regular human contact they became quite belligerent. In their current environment, however, they are quite docile. It seems that because of how they were raised human interaction is as important for them as it is for any of us.

Here we see one of the elephants’ caregivers telling Rambo, a three-ton male, to lift his trunk so that Julia (seen on the right) can look inside his mouth and feel his tongue while feeding him with her hand. I was invited to come close so I could photograph the inside of the elephant’s mouth. Now how could I resist THAT opportunity? What I didn’t count on was that Rambo would blow his trunk clean while raising it high, sending out a spray of elephant snot on my and my camera. No damage done, though!

On the way back from the elephants (or “ellies” as they are often called here), we saw the two cheetah brothers who live at Thanda. They were on the road right outside the entrance to the Ulwazi Lodge, my home for the past four weeks. It’s always fun to see cheetahs up close! If you look closely at his right front paw you may be able to see that a cheetah’s feet look more like a dog’s than a cat’s, lacking retractable claws (well, they do have one claw that retracts, but it doesn’t come in contact with the ground).

But we weren’t done with large predator cats. Later that day we spotted this leopard. Leopards are notoriously hard to find, and daytime sightings are pretty rare. This fellow was walking along one of the roads inside the reserve, and were following at a respectful distance. Every once in a while he’d pause, and look back at us. Pretty thrilling, and a completely different experience than seeing one of this beauties in a zoo.

I had previously seen some of the cape buffalo at a distance, but on this same drive we saw a small herd of them at rather close quarters. The cape buffalo is considered one of the “Big 5,” a phrase coined by hunters and awarded to the animals that they considered the most dangerous of game. The others are: lions, leopards, rhinos, and elephants. As we also saw a lion that day and an elephant at the conclusion of the drive, I managed to see four of the big five in a single drive. Wow!

My four weeks in the photography project have drawn to a close, but my time at Thanda will continue for another two weeks. I will continue on game drives (and a few other activities), but now I’ll be sharing in the work of gather data to support the conservation work here at Thanda. I’ll post more later this week!

My third week at Thanda included more game drives, of course. During one of them I got this photo of a Lilac-Breasted Roller, one of the area’s more colorful birds. I also spent a few hours at a nearby community center installing panes of glass into windows as part of a larger project to turn an older building into a useful site for a health clinic. Other volunteers repaired the concrete walls, did some exterior painting, or moved litter from inside the property to the other side of the fence.

The most significant event of the last week was an optional trip to the Drakensburg, a mountain chain in South Africa. When you think “Africa” you may have visions of open savanna or brush. But lush valleys and soaring mountain tops are not that images that usually come to mind. Having said that, this is an area of profound beauty.

On our first day we journeyed to Giant’s Castle, where a short hike took us to a site containing old cave paintings. The above picture is of the path to that site. Again, not exactly the kind of image you might have expected to find in South Africa!

The next day we travelled to a different part of the range in time to take some sunset photos, including this one. I rather like the colors and layers I managed to capture here.

The next morning we left our accommodations at 3:45 am, drove a ways into the range, and began hiking up toward Sentinel Peak in the Drakensburg. The calendar may say that it’s summer here in South Africa, but it was cold, cold, COLD on top of that mountain as we waited for the sun to rise! The wait and the cold and the walking in the dark were worth the effort as we were treated to extraordinary views.

You can tell by the number of layers I’ve got on that we all had to dress for the occasion. You can also tell that I really do need to get my beard trimmed!