2 June
Last night was our last night all together so we threw a little party for the team, though I wasn’t really in the party mood and have to admit to shedding a tear or two. We’ve come so close so many times, but still haven’t managed to catch a pygmy hippo.
And what would our last night be without another close call? This morning we checked one of the traps that had shown lots of signs of hippo activity early on and it was obvious that a hippo had been trying to reach the salt we’d put out. But again, it was too smart for us and had managed to back off just at the last minute.
Well that’s it. Our month is up and April and Michele have left the island and are flying home tomorrow. Even if they had been able to stay longer, the heavy rain we’ve had over the last few days has flooded many of the traps so we wouldn’t have been able to use them.
We’ll stay on the island for another day to make sure all the traps are closed and make sure they’re safe until we can work out if we can come back. The team will keep checking the traps and the area for signs of hippo activity so that we’re ready, just in case.
Even though we didn’t manage to catch a hippo it’s been a great learning experience and if we get the chance to try again we’ll be in a much better position. We managed to collar three guineafowl in the end (two crested and one white breasted) so the team will keep improving their radio telemetry skills by tracking them and collecting some really useful data.
Photo by April Conway (UGA)
The bad weather has definitely been a problem for us. Some of the pygmy hippos seemed to have changed their movement patterns and that’s why the more popular traps at the beginning of the month saw less activity later on.
Hopefully we’ll get a second chance to catch a pygmy hippo and Abdulai and I will finally get to realise our dream.