in kasane--ELEPHANTS

so the truck driver managed to get me to kasane just in the nick of time. i met up with my friend jonah and his team who started the elephant tracking project. i have some awesome pics from this adventure that i am dying to share with everyone but the cafe has me blocked from posting so i am going to try to do it from renee's when i get to livingstone.

here's the lowdown on the elephant project that i was so fortunate to actually witness--i still have unanswered questions of my own so i hope this info is helpful for you all...

--the vet rides in a helicopter with the elephant tracker who is tracking the elephant via satellite.

--he shoots a tranquilizer gun at the elephant

--people rush in to the elephant that is now on the ground.

--they take the collar off the elephant.

--the vet now injects the elephant with a reverse tranquilizer that will wake up groggy elephant.

--we all run away from groggy elephant.

--elephant goes back into wild

what kinds of collars:

2 main types that the fit the elephants with

1. GPS based - are very expensive (obviously) so this team didnt use them but can track data remotely on a day to day basis.
2. satellite based - used by this team to track elephant data for about a 2 year period on the collar itself, then remove the collar to download the data. this method sucks because in the 2 year period, if the elephant falls into river and dies, the elephant team is SOL.

why the collars:

--to learn about the elephant migration patterns. turns out that the botswana to angola regions are some of the only areas where the elephants still roam free and they are dying rapidly due to the landmines in angola.

--to learn about their vegetation patterns--how are the elephants competing with the people that live on that land for the food on that land area.

--to learn about reproduction patterns.

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after the elephant experiments, i hung out with these people (they work for Conservation International) and went to a buffet dinner where they had kudu, impala and ostrich (for all my meat loving fans). but also plenty of produce for me.

off to another game viewing and a boat cruise this afternoon! hope all is well on the stateside...oh and GOODLUCK to my BT softball homies.