Zoo and Conservation Science Internships: We're (Hogs)BACK!

Names: Eileen Connon and Mallory Fox
Hometowns: Mandeville, LA and Harrison, OH
Internship: Cape Parrot Project Research Intern
Location: South Africa

Well hello again! A lot has happened since we last talked. Firstly, after leaving Durban, we spent two weeks in Kruger National Park, recording vocalizations of grey-headed and brown-headed parrots! They are not as easy to find as Cape parrots, let us tell you. Between observations and sometimes during (one person would volunteer to stay behind), we completed the first step of analysis on nearly nine and a half hours of vocal recordings. We went through and picked out each and every individual call from those recordings- 7942 of them!

A brown-headed parrot in Kruger

Over five thousand of those calls were Capes, to give you an idea of how much trouble we had finding the grey-headeds and brown-headeds. The brownies were easier than the greys, but nicknaming them 'brownies' did have the unfortunate side effect of giving us very strong, unfulfillable cravings for chocolatey desserts! Luckily, we did manage to find some grey-headed parrots, since they were our main reason for going to Kruger, and we successfully recorded enough vocalizations for Dr. Young's research.

A beautiful leopard in Kruger- we spent almost twenty minutes
watching it and no other cars came by to bother us

The best part about staying in Kruger for two weeks was the non-internship parts, though! (Don't tell Dr. Young we said that...) We were able to see 4 of the Big 5: lions, leopard, elephants, and buffalo. We unfortunately didn't see any rhinos. We also saw 5 of the Big 6 birds of Kruger: martial eagle, kori bustard, Southern ground hornbill, saddle-billed stork, and lappet-faced vulture. The only one we didn't get was Pel's fishing owl. Overall, we saw 142 bird species and 36 mammal species!

A Natal spurfowl at a Kruger picnic area- Eileen left her hand
dangling next to her chair and got a little nip!

We also saw a lot of Kruger itself. We primarily stayed at Punda Maria Camp, but we spent a weekend at Shingwedzi Camp and traveled to Letaba Camp and Pafuri Gate/Crook's Corner. Crook's Corner is the northeaster-est part of South Africa, and it's where Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and South Africa are separated by the confluence of the Luvuvhu River and the Limpopo River. Apparently, poachers and other criminals from all three countries would use this confluence during the dry season to cross country borders and avoid arrest!

The first elephant spotted in Kruger!

Professional photographer Mallory at work

One of the most beneficial aspects of this part of the trip was practicing our field research techniques in a much more difficult and stressful environment. Everywhere else we recorded, we were free to walk around and follow the parrots, but in Kruger, you aren't allowed to leave your vehicle. If we thought it was difficult to put together and maneuver the recording equipment before, it was nothing compared to using it in the backseat of a car, passing the mic back and forth as birds flew overhead. The biggest test was when we unexpectedly found brown-headed parrots near Crook's Corner- we whipped that equipment out, put it together, and got recordings within just a few minutes! It got frustrating to try and work with all of the wires and whatnot in the car, but then we'd see a herd of elephants or buffalo, or a group of lions, and remember that staying in our vehicle was definitely a smart idea!

A beautiful harvest moon one night in Kruger

Dr. Young, Eileen, and Mallory at Crook's Corner

Other highlights of the Kruger part of the trip include delicious food, meddlesome monkeys, and gorgeous views! We had a couple of meals at the rest camp restaurants, including a life-changing veggie burger topped with feta and onion rings. We also had a couple of primate-related food incidents. Mallory was almost eaten (hyperbole) by a baboon when cooking fajitas on our outdoor kitchen at Shingwedzi camp. Eileen saw its hands reaching for the food from inside her room and wisely stayed inside. There was also an incident at Punda Maria where we left the door open for too long and a vervet monkey snuck in and nabbed two bananas and our last avocado! And finally, we did get to see some amazing sights. The harvest moon we saw one night was absolutely breathtaking. We were up before dawn, so we saw some pretty spectacular sunrises. Driving up to the camp, we drove through mopane veld, or landscape covered in mopane trees, which are short, bushlike trees with beautifully vibrant leaves, and up by Crook's Corner we drove through fever tree forests. At Crook's Corner and a couple of camps, we looked out over vast, partially dried up riverbeds and all of the wildlife that came down to drink from them. It was very hard to leave on the last day!

Research team in Kruger- at Red Rocks, one of the few
locations where it's safe to leave your car

Eileen hard at work measuring "Squawky"

After one night spent near Pretoria with some of Cassie's family and two long days of driving, we've now made it back to Hogsback! Dr. Young has, sadly, left us. She spent a week in The Gambia looking for more parrots to record before heading back to the States. Before she left, she and Eileen started practicing measuring parrot specimens for Eileen's research! Since she's left, we've been working hard (or hardly working?) doing morning observations and surveying nests with Cassie. We've done observations at several locations around Hogsback as well as in nearby Alice and Fort Beaufort. Observations consist of getting to a site before the sun comes up so that when it does, you can see where the parrots are coming from when they fly out for the day. We record where the parrots fly from and to, and their roosting site if we can tell where that is. For the nest survey, we've been driving around in the bakkie (truck) to trees with known natural cavities or man-made nest boxes to see how the trees and the nests are doing. The main problems we encounter are collapsed nest boxes and bee-infested boxes or cavities, but we've also come across a few fallen trees as well. So far, we've surveyed 92 out of 228 nests!
When we aren't in the field, we've also been doing a lot of work in the office. We've analyzed two years worth of photos of Cape parrot flocks, counting the numbers of males, females, and juveniles, and counting the number of birds that look sick. We've also been working even more on the vocal recordings for Dr. Young, and on new recordings that Cassie has given us. It can get tedious to sit in an office on a computer when you can see the forest and the mountains through the window, and hear the birds calling or watch the baboons walk past just outside, but luckily we're taking turns going out every day so no one has to be stuck inside for too long.

Of course, it's not all work and no play here, either! We've done some hiking around town, and we spend a lot of time eating good food at the local pub with our friends Lana and Craig. Eileen's parents even came to visit, and promptly adopted Mallory as well. We spend a lot of time befriending the local wildlife- a chameleon we found on a hike, a spider Kate caught in the tree nursery, a local cat that decided Eileen's bed would be the best place to sleep, and more. And when we get homesick, we also go to the pub, because there are always dogs to keep us company!