On sunday we celebrated our the end of BRinK's third season of projects! We all have achieved alot and now there is much data to be analysed and looked at.
The season started in July with a diversity and abundance study on birds endemic to Southern Africa. These are the birds that stay in Kuzikus all year long and do not migrate. However, they do loose the brightful feathers they wear in summer. Sometimes it was difficult to identify species, because they looked so different in winter (remember July is winter in the Southern hemisphere). Also they song differed, which in this case was rather a call.
After the birds, we studied the small mammal diversity on Kuzikus and captured 9 new and different rodent species. This was the first small mammal expeditioof its kind, for which it showed major success.
In September, two projects were successfully performed by research volunteers: One group was walking endlessly to count larger mammals in the Savanna. The others were studying tracks and signs of animals. With that we could determine the presence of the African Caracal and the Wildcat.
Finally, we had two more expeditions running simultaneously. The reptile expedition turned out to be hard work, as trapping was not that easy. However, we got to observe the huge monitor lizard in a treehole. At last we also found species of reptiles never seen on Kuzikus before! We learned: patience pays in field biology. The entomoloy expedition in turn, we captured many specimens and were kept very busy identifying them too. In the BRinK collection we have over 250 specimens!
Now it is time for BRinK leaders to analyse the data, produce the reports (which should be available soon) and propose new BRinK expeditions and studies for the years to come.
We are looking forward to your applications!
