The bags are packed and it is almost time to go. Graduate students Steve, Kyle, Leandro, and Rem are writing-up their research projects preparing manuscripts for peer-reviewed publications. Undergraduate students Clara, Mollie, Waldemar, and Mikki and collating new data for analysis looking for solutions to some the most important conservation issues across the world. These are the students that will be 'holding down the fort' while I am in the field. Tutilo and Arthur, two more of RECaP's graduate students, are already in the field. Specifically, they are having an amazing time in Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda studying lions and giraffes, respectively. Tutilo, along with partners at the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), is working to describe the movements of lions in relation to a variety of human-caused disturbances including snares, vehicles, and oil development. Arthur is assisting the Giraffe Conservation Foundation and UWA in an incredible large-scale giraffe translocation project. Rothchild's giraffes are the most endangered subspecies of giraffe in Africa with a population that hovers around 1,000 individuals. As such, these animals desperately need help if we are to have them on earth in future. One of the last spots where they exist is in northwestern Uganda where for the last 100 years (maybe more, maybe less) these animals have been trapped north of the source of the Nile River. Giraffe Conservation Foundation will shortly change that. Arthur is helping to capture, fit with GPS collars, and relocate 20 giraffes to fruitful habitat south of the Nile. You can imagine what an undertaking this will be.
The bags are packed. Destination Uganda is very close at hand.
I am ready to be in the field with Arthur and Tutilo, to assist in their incredibly-exciting and important research projects. I am ready to collaborate with our partners in GCF and UWA so that we can sit down and talk about the pressing conservation issues at hand and the novel and original solutions that are just beyond our grasp. I am ready to meet friends at Makerere University in Kampala to continue our conversations of how we can work to train the next generation of wildlife conservation leaders in Africa.
By helping in efforts to restore giraffes to habitat where they have not existed for a century or by working to decrease the human disturbance of lions, RECaP strives to recapture some balance in the relationships of humans, wildlife, and wild places. If you have interest in this work, please check back to this site. Make a good cup of coffee, snuggle into your most comfortable arm chair, and prepare yourself for a thrilling read of this exciting research in real time. We will keep you informed of our efforts via my own chronicles (The Director's Cut) as well as our field correspondences maintained by our student community (Notes from the Field). Thanks for being part of RECaP!
By helping in efforts to restore giraffes to habitat where they have not existed for a century or by working to decrease the human disturbance of lions, RECaP strives to recapture some balance in the relationships of humans, wildlife, and wild places. If you have interest in this work, please check back to this site. Make a good cup of coffee, snuggle into your most comfortable arm chair, and prepare yourself for a thrilling read of this exciting research in real time. We will keep you informed of our efforts via my own chronicles (The Director's Cut) as well as our field correspondences maintained by our student community (Notes from the Field). Thanks for being part of RECaP!
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