Rick is currently in Africa to see elephants. Read his previous blog, Botswana: Still Tracking Elephants.

May 6, 2009 (Wednesday)

Today we woke up before sunrise to gather some gear and head out to see if we could find the lions we had been hearing the night before. The air was cool and thick with moisture, dew had settled across the Chobe National Park, and it was just a gorgeous scene as we drove away from camp in the early twilight. Many bird species were starting in with their morning calls and scattered groups of impala were grazing along the way.
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Rick is currently in Africa to see elephants. Read his previous blog, Botswana: Tracking Elephants.

May 5, 2009 (Tuesday afternoon)

After lunch, we headed back the way we came, checking a side trail off of the firebreak trail for elephants, but still no luck and no sign of the elephants we were looking for. We turned back toward the river, some 60 miles (100 kilometers) away and decided we would meet up with the river at the point where the Chobe National Park starts and then drive in to the park from there.
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Rick is currently in Africa to see elephants. Read his previous blog, Botswana: Adventures Begin!

May 5, 2009 (Tuesday morning)

At this point I have lost track of the days and time is measured only by the sun coming up or going down. I love it. Every adventure thus far has all blurred together into one remarkable experience, and today has simply doubled the awe and amazement I have for Chobe National Park.
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Rick is in Africa to see elephants. Read his previous post, Botswana.

May 4, 2009 (Monday)

You may remember from my previous post when I mentioned the lightning and thunder off to the south of us. Well, by dinner time that huge lightning and thunderstorm was right above us. As the wind blew in and the rain started to fall, we ran for our tents, dinner in hand. I can not recall the last time I was in a tent during a massive all-night lightning and thunder storm. Though I did not get much sleep, it was an amazing experience that was wonderful to have.
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Rick is in Africa to see elephants. Read his previous post, Africa: From Gaborone to Kasane.

May 3, 2009 (Sunday)
What an amazing day!  We woke early to catch the 6:40 a.m. shuttle to the airport.  Though our flight was not until 9:30 a.m., we needed to catch the early shuttle because the later shuttle would have been too late to check in on time. The nice thing about getting to the airport early was it afforded us the time to sit and enjoy a very rich cup of African coffee.
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See Rick’s previous blog, Where’s That Elephant Odyssey Ambassador Now?

May 2, 2009 (Saturday) - Day
Due to the limited number of flights (three per week between Gaborone and Kasane) Shea and I had to spend a day in Gaborone. We flew into Gaborone the night before and are going to fly out tomorrow morning, so we have today to ourselves—or so we thought.
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I am not at the San Diego Zoo or at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park. However, I am on my way to see elephants that are tracked by our partners at Elephants Without Borders.

That’s right, after spending over 21 hours in the air, on three different airplanes, making for 27 hours of travel from beginning to end, I am in Africa. More specifically, I am in Gaborone, Botswana, waiting for my connecting flight to Kasane, Botswana. Once the Zoo’s videographer, Shea Johnson, and I are in Kasane, we will join Dr. Michael Chase and his team to head out in the field for a few days and nights of tracking and research.
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It has been a busy month for the St. Bees Island koala project, not that you would know it from the number of koala bellows we are recording on the island. (See previous blog, Koalas of St. Bees Use Cell Phones.) As usual, when the koalas over at the San Diego Zoo are getting their vocal chords warmed up, those at St. Bees are being quiet. I have just stepped off a boat that has been my home for the last few weeks, having finished a survey of the other islands that lie close to St. Bees, off the coast of Queensland, Australia.
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April has been a very busy and exciting month for the San Diego Zoo’s California condor project. Condor field managers and researchers have been using VHF and GPS telemetry to closely monitor the movement behaviors of the birds that have been reintroduced to Baja California, Mexico. Early spring is the condor breeding season, and we hope to observe breeding and nesting behaviors that will lead to successfully fledged chicks this year.
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The core staffing for the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center (DTCC), located in Las Vegas, is now complete, and we are ready for peak tortoise season to begin within the next few weeks! (Read Paula’s previous blog, Help for Desert Tortoises.) I’d like to introduce you to my intrepid crew.

Angie Sawyer, the DTCC’s research coordinator, has her hands full making sure that the facility is up and running to its full potential, and she makes sure we have everything we need to care for the tortoises. With 12 years of zoo-related experience under her belt, she is definitely up for the challenge.
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