I am currently sitting in a hamock under a guy staring out into the savanna. I have been in shingwedzi for 2 weeks. Here we sleep in hut sized tents with 4 people in each. We are a bit more intimate with nature which is a nice change. At night I hear hyenas and lions from a distance and often dodge scorpions when walking through camp. There is one building where we study that has air con and couches which is great for naps and breaks from the heat. Last week it ...

Kunjane! (which is Shangaan for "how's it") The past few days have been very work intensive. We spent two days writing scientific papers for our independent field projects revolving around the impacts of elephants on biodiversity. We sorted through thousands of dung beetles and identified them at the species level. OTS is very group oriented so all of the scientific papers are writen as a group, which is not the norm for most of th Elon science cla...

The past five days we have been doing research in the park on elephants impact on biodiversity. My group is testing the effects on dung beetles. The first day of our projects we had a long day in the field setting up 10 sites full of traps to test for small mammals, ants, beetles, spiders, scorpions, and herps. The next three days we spent all morning collecting beetles from the traps. At night we pin them and identify them. It's certainly been a lot of work ...

We have been staying in Kruger National Park for the past week. On our drive in we saw 3 of the big 5: lions, elephants, and buffalo. We also saw impala, kudu, giraffes, wildebeast, and lots of pumbas (warthogs). The camp, Skukuza, is more like a city than a camp site. We are staying in dorm style rooms with 10 people in each. There is a bank, a few restaurants, and a bar to hang out in at night. It is the most public area we have stayed in but it is nice t...