Update from our lion conservation Malawi expedition
We have been busy. Bird transects, elephant counts, hippo transects, elephant dung analysis and camera trapping.
We start early with dawn drives or the bird transects. 05:00 up and out. Back for one of Luka’s amazing breakfasts (pancakes are popular) and then out again. Either on foot for the Hippo transects or into the vehicles for elephant counts. The elephants paid a 03:00 visit to camp this morning too.
Lion on camera
We knew that lions had returned to Vwaza and this morning we were informed by the park rangers that they had been heard last night. Lea and her team of hippo data collectors spotted lion prints on their transect this morning, very close to one of the camera traps we set two days ago.
So we decided to do an early check and bingo, there he was. The first captured image of a lion in Vwaza for three years. A super start to the expedition.
Lots of other activities
But let’s not obsess about that lion photo too much. There’s lots of other important work going on too. There’s recording bird biodiversity, adding to the elephant population catalogue, recording hippo populations – all to add to our understanding of biodiversity in the Wildlife Reserve here – perhaps even to assess whether it has the potential for a refugium.
Elephant dung favorite
Oh and once again collecting and rummaging through elephant dung is remarkably popular. I’ll explain what we’re looking for in a later post…
Read also: First I second I third entry. All entries for the Malawi expedition volunteering with elephants, hippo, lion and African biodiversity on one page.
Author: Simon Thomsett
Simon Thomsett MBE was born in the UK but now lives in the Austrian Alps. He served in the British Army for 36 years, working across the globe including two years in the jungles of Brunei, as well as Africa, North and South America and South Asia. He has run diving expeditions in the Indian Ocean, Caribbean and the Mediterranean Seas. A keen ski mountaineer, he now lives and works in Austria where he runs a ski business with his wife Claire. Simon is a qualified BSAC dive instructor, a ski instructor, international mountain leader and Emergency First Response first aider.
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