Liwonde National Park tries to keep track of the wildlife populations of its larger animals. To do this, they have an annual population study, and they use PCVs for the job.
Last year, I was unable to go since it was during our first three months at site, and only important, official travel is allowed in order to facilitate site integration. This year, however, I did get to go.
As second year volunteers, we were allowed to stay at Mvuu Lodge, a nice resort in the north of the park. Mvuu let us stay there for free, but we had to camp, cook for ourselves, and pay a small fee to use their swimming pool (yes, a legit swimming pool).
By far, for me, the coolest part was the fact we were doing science. Not just science, but a topic I had taught in Ecology at the university the previous week: species population estimates using transects. All done on foot, walking on trails that the public never get to use.
On the first day, we saw dik-diks, antelope, elephants, bushbuck, waterbuck, kudu, hartbeast, sable antelope, hippopotami, crocodiles, a Fish Eagle, warthogs, and a lot of smaller things. We also took down about 20 snares set by poachers, and we came across a freshly killed (still warm) warthog (well, half of a warthog) that we must've scared the poachers off of while they were dragging it out. We ended the transect on the Upper Shire River.
The second day was much quieter. Some dik-diks, bushbuck, waterbuck, warthogs, baboons, a Martial Eagle, and little things. We ended the transect with a wonderful view of Lake Malombe.
One of the coolest parts was on the morning of the first transect. My alarm was set for 4:00am, but I didn't need it. At 3:50am a lion let out a blood chilling roar that woke up half our camp (how the other people slept through it, I don't know, because it was loud). We never saw the lion, but he still made a big impression.
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