A brief update

Well I've finally spent a week in Pretoria. Nothing special...it's just a city. I'm slowly meeting people in the department and have been amazed by the hospitality of everyone I've met.

My big news: I'm making my first trip to the east coast of South Africa this week for the Zoological Society of Southern Africa Meeting in Illovo Beach. I'll see some new habitats, check off a ton of new species on the drive, and see the Indian Ocean for the first time. We return from the meeting on the 26th and I turn around and head back out to the field on the 28th. I'll be in a game preserve near Pretoria shaving elephant shrews and rock rats for 3 weeks. No lions or elephants on this preserve, but a ton of new game species. I've also got a plan in the works to go hunting for some South African game, probably springbok or impala, in August or September. With any luck, I'll get enough biltong (South Africa's version of jerky) out of it to last the rest of my time here!

I've started the map below to show you where I've been and where I'm heading the near future. I'll update it occasionally. If you can't see the markers, try zooming out on the map. You can click on the markers for a bit more detail.


View Where I've been and where I'm going in a larger map