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  • Foto van schrijverVera Praet

Dreaming of the African bush

Bijgewerkt op: 29 okt. 2018

Sometimes, life brings you those moments that you've always dreamed of. My dream has just started, and will last for three months.


On the 26th of September, I moved to Hoedspruit to join the team of Elephants Alive (EA). Here I will be working on a variety of research projects and gain a lot of experience in the office and in the field. As my family and friends in the Netherlands would confirm, this is a dream come true for me. As a young girl, I would always mesmerize while watching as many documentaries on African wildlife as possible, and couldn't wait to be a part of it. Now, after graduating from university with a master in Environmental Biology, I get to kick start my career in one of the most inspiring places with equally inspiring colleagues! I am very grateful for this is an amazing opportunity.


Before arriving in Hoedspruit, I spent an amazing week in Dinokeng game reserve, where I worked with my former supervisor Antoinette van de Water of the Bring the Elephant Home (BTEH) foundation. Antoinette had supervised my review on the Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC) in SA, which I wrote to complete my master program in the Netherlands. I found the topic very interesting, and had already fallen in love with South Africa (SA) when I studied here for 6 months in 2014. So whilst writing it, I couldn't help but dream of going there again and continue to work on the topic.


Antoinette was very supportive of my ideas to go back to SA, and suggested to check the opportunities at EA, as she was still moving to SA to start a PhD on the HEC. After I had filled in some elaborate forms from EA (after all, they want to know who they're dealing with), I learned that they were interested, and there was even a chance to have some collaboration between EA and BTEH. I might have done a little dance of joy that day.


It has just been a few days at the EA office, but I've already learned a lot. Just to name a few things: the people are friendly, the work is serious (and seriously good), but smiles and jokes are abundant, cars get names, temperatures are high, opportunities are present, your colleagues are keen to help, and plans are open to change. Additionally, the knowledge of the bush and wildlife of these people is so impressive. I can only hope that one day I'll be casually carrying and sprinkling around as much knowledge as they do. And by the way, I get to live in a wildlife estate! Can't get much better than passing by numerous warthogs on your way home, and hearing the leopard at night, right? I'm living in a bush lodge with three of my colleagues, who are approximately my age and have kindly taken me along on all their activities the last few days.


I guess you could call the activities I've started with slightly random. After half an office day and a little getting to know my colleagues, we went directly to the field. We quickly checked the beehive experimental sites as we would be filming there for the next two days. The environmental tv show 50/50 visited the experimental site to film the Elephants Alive project of using beehives to protect marula trees from elephant impact. It was very interesting to see what it takes to make a show like that, and very nice to spend time in the field. The episode is expected to be on SA national TV in November. We're excited to see how it turns out!


This week I spent more time in the office, and just returned from my first official field day. We recorded elephant impact on trees with vulture nests, which required us to drive and walk around in the bush a lot. I had a great day in the company of very skilled people. As an absolute bonus, we saw 3 bull elephants and an entire family herd, and a leopard with a kill!


In the coming months, I'll be working on numerous projects, including work with bees, trees and elephants, and regularly going into the field. Whatever might come, I'm sure it will be a great experience, so I'm looking forward to it! I'll try to keep you posted regularly about life at EA!




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