Mkhuze! Finally! The whole reason for going to Africa! To work with wildlife conservation monitors and help them, well, monitor the wildlife in the Mkhuze game reserve. There are many different types of animals in the park, giraffe, dogs, elephants, rhino, impala, birds etc., but only some of the animals were being actively monitored - The wild dogs, the cheetahs, elephants, and vultures. The dogs and cheetahs had radio collars on them. Twice a day the dogs had to be tracked and once a day we went out either looking for the elephants or the cheetahs or whatever came along.
Apparently, on top of loss of habitat, disease and other issues, poaching is a problem in South Africa. Since the wild dogs are one of the most endangered species in all of Africa (I think there are only about 3500 left or something like that), they get top priority along with the cheetahs. Literally, every single animal matters. The wild dogs just had a litter of pups as well as the cheetah, Misty, who had 5 cubs.
My camp consisted of 4 women: A Brazilian, a Canadian, a German and me. Sounds like the start of a bad joke, doesn't it? - So a Brazilian, a Canadian, a German and an American walk into a bar.......
These women were wonderful! Each of us there for our own reasons, but there just the same. Our monitor was Meghan who exuded passion for these animals.
On our first day we got to see the dogs right off the bat! All the adults! And they were on a tear about something! Turns out there was another wild dog that didn't belong to the pack that got them all in a tizzy.
"It's that other dog I tell you! I can smell it! It was just here! Where did it go, where did it go?"
Anyway, not only did we get to see the dogs, but we learned how to use the telemetry, learned the difference between a resting signal and a moving signal, and how to tell the direction it's coming from. I felt very official, and so excited!
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