Tanzania

This fall I hope to see another Southern Ground Hornbill like the one I took a photo of last year at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, CO. Except this time I hope to see it where it belongs - the plains of Tanzania.

I have been selected to join a team of nine other biologist-types to assist five community based Wildlife Management Areas with their biological inventory and monitoring programs. We will be split up into teams of two, one team for each management area, with the task of initiating or modifying existing monitoring programs with area specific methods. The monitoring must be meaningful and sustainable in places with limited resources such as electricity. These sideboards certainly provides focus on what can and should be done in these areas.

I am currently getting all my paperwork and immunizations in order. One of the first items I purchased was Birds of East Africa by Terry Stevenson and John Fanshawe. Even better, many of the illustrations were painted by one of my favorite artists, John Gale as well as Jonathan Kingdon's Pocket Guide to African Mammals. Once I figure out which WMA I will be working at I may wind up bringing Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania by Zimmerman, Turner, and Pearson.

I am really looking forward to this experience, hopefully making at least a meaningful contribution to wildlife conservation, as well as just being in Africa. I have been reviewing my field guide, trying to at least get a handle on what the birds look like and where I might find them in the field guide when I am trying to figure out which Cisticola I am looking at (yeah right). Hornbills, Sunbirds, Weavers, Starlings (the really great African species), Lions, Leopards, and Hippos, oh my.