Up at 6 for coffee, then off to check traps. It's a little bit like Christmas - you pick up your trap line and don't always know until the last second if a trap is full or empty. And if the trap is closed, you get to peek in and see what you've caught!
We catch alot of Namaqua rock mouse:
You have to be careful because they will launch themselves from the trap, but sometimes they're not very keen to leave.
I didn't get any elephant shrews, but Sarai and Sasha managed to get three between the two of them. So back to the lodge for breakfast.
Sasha did the behaviour studies with the shrews first, then we processed them. Measurements, tissue samples, blood samples, and ticks if any drop off. After that Sasha waits to see if she can bag some urine samples.
The rest of our day is our own so I worked on my R programming. Sasha later did some test marking of the shrews with fabric paint and hair chalk.
At about 15:00 we headed out again to release the animals, and then the cycle starts again - with us laying down the traps at a new site.
We catch alot of Namaqua rock mouse:
You have to be careful because they will launch themselves from the trap, but sometimes they're not very keen to leave.
I didn't get any elephant shrews, but Sarai and Sasha managed to get three between the two of them. So back to the lodge for breakfast.
Sasha did the behaviour studies with the shrews first, then we processed them. Measurements, tissue samples, blood samples, and ticks if any drop off. After that Sasha waits to see if she can bag some urine samples.
The rest of our day is our own so I worked on my R programming. Sasha later did some test marking of the shrews with fabric paint and hair chalk.
At about 15:00 we headed out again to release the animals, and then the cycle starts again - with us laying down the traps at a new site.
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