Meerkats of Kalahari
Ed Note: Senior volunteer Warren Stortroen shares his experience with Earthwatch Institute.
By Warren Stortroen
The meerkats troop led us on a fast-paced afternoon foraging trek, finally going through the fence of the Kurumen River Reserve and into a neighboring waterhole area. Since the researcher and I were monitoring their movements and activities and wanted to keep them in sight we decided to follow. We found a spot to climb over the fence and as we caught up with them we spotted some ostrich plumes. We collected a few to bring back to the research center and as we were doing that heard a noise behind us. I looked around and saw an eight foot tall ostrich watching me! In all, there were fifteen of them all around us!
Usually only the males are aggressive, and these were all females, but because of their size they still are intimidating so we eased our way back to the fence and continued our research from the other side! It was nearing dusk so the meerkats were starting to head home to their sleeping burrows, and we followed. Before they went underground for the night we used a little hard-boiled egg and water to entice them onto the scale for the evening weigh-in. As usual, some of them mobbed the scale so had to be gently lifted off by their tails in order to weigh them one at a time!
The Earthwatch Institute volunteer expedition was MEERKATS OF THE KALAHARI, in South Africa, just below the Botswana border. Earlier I had enjoyed another Earthwatch expedition working with SOUTH AFRICAN PENGUINS on Robben Island near Capetown. After leaving that project I boarded a bus to Uppington where I spent the night at a great B & B, Le Must Manor. They had two houses along the bank of the Orange River and an excellent gourmet restaurant downtown!
Anne-Marie Stewart, the Principal Investigator, picked me up the next day and we went to the airport to meet the other volunteers, Andrew and Louise, both from London, and an Earthwatch Institute friend Carol and her sister Susan from the US. We shopped for food supplies and then drove through the fringe of the desert to our home in the Reserve. Each senior volunteer was assigned a private rondavel, a 4-meter diameter thatched, round hut with electricity, cold water, a bed, dresser and other furnishings. Hot showers and toilets were in a central building.
Breakfast and dinner were in the old farmhouse, where we also had some of our training and did some lab work. In our free time we also played some cribbage and monkey bridge. Work started early in the morning – we were assigned to a specific troop of meerkats each day, and with a researcher would arrive at their sleeping burrow as the sun was coming up and they were emerging to stand in the sun to warm up, stretch and do some grooming before leaving for daily foraging. If there were babies too young to forage they were left with teen-age babysitters while the troop was out searching for grubs, termites, millipedes, scorpions, small lizards, etc. The researcher would do a weigh-in before the troop left and another around noon when we would return to the station for our lunch. We would then find them again, by radio-collar on the dominant male, for the late afternoon observations. During the foraging we mapped their route with a GPS and did other interesting studies and observations.
Other activities included game treks to see the many different species of antelope, walks to see the many interesting and colorful birds, removal of invasive alien plants and a visit with the third-graders at a local school. Highlights included cocktail hour on the big dune while watching the gorgeous desert sunsets, and, of course observing the interesting cooperative social activities of the amazing little meerkats!
This is a great senior volunteer experience that anyone who likes working with animals would be sure to enjoy! There are teams still scheduled for 2011 for those who are interested!