Was in Arusha, Tanzania for the Association of Tropical Biology and Conservation conference last week. It was such a fun trip. We went on a day safari to Arusha National Park and the conference itself was really interesting. I presented some of my preliminary carnivore data and met lots of really interesting scientists conducting research all over the tropics.
We returned to the field on Sunday and resumed live trapping. Our first day back we caught another genet. This guy (okan named him Scrappy because he was kind of older and scrappy looking) was an adult male.
Earlier this week, we went to the middle of the forest to deploy more camera traps. One of my undergraduate thesis students came along too. We began by crossing over a very high canopy walk in the forest which was amazing. We hiked a very hard trail (6 hr hike over 1000m in altitude) and I was really hoping a magical helicopter would come rescue me about 5 hours into the hike- three hours were hiking straight up 1000 m in altitude. BRUTAL! And I wasn't even carrying a heavy pack! Okan was carrying the camera traps, and as usual he was just skipping up the mountain. The hike was really beautiful and there were 5 different waterfalls along the way.
My student Aloys and myself on the canopy walk
Okan conquered his fear of heights on the canopy walk
Nyungwe Forest near Uwinka (middle of forest)
The first of several waterfalls
Aloys and I at the waterfall
More waterfalls!
Okan and I resting at the bottom of the valley (3 hours into the hike) at one of the last waterfalls
Okan is staying in Butare now to do some work and I have a friend coming out to help me in the field for a few days. I only have another 8 days of trapping until I finish at my current site. Then I will close the traps and I have two friends from NYC who will be coming for 2 weeks in early July for a visit. Okan and I have saved most of our sightseeing to do with Joy and Margaret so we will be visiting different parts of the country with them.
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