Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
2015
Limpopo
New
survey
skills
for
interns
and
additional
data
for
partners
Objective
Summary
This
is
the
second
of
a
number
of
new
initiatives
aimed
at
improving
the
long
term
internship
pro-
gram.
The
focus
is
on
increasing
the
volunteers
skill
levels,
allowing
them
to
further
contribute
to
biological
surveying.
By
increasing
their
knowledge
of
animal
tracks
they
are
able
to
conduct
spoor
transects
as
a
method
of
indirect
surveying
and
this
in
turn
enables
us
to
contribute
more
data
to
various
studies,
both
our
own
and
external.
In
February
the
interns
were
introduced
to
tracks,
re-
ceived
lectures
and
training
in
track
identification
and
then
undertook
two
tracking
surveys.
Report
Two
of
the
hub
objectives
that
were
set
in
2014
were
to
concentrate
more
on
conservation
initia-
tives
by
building
relationships
with
national
conservation
organisations,
including
those
that
offer
citizen
science
projects;
Secondly
to
improve
the
quality
of
the
long
term
internship
program
by
providing
additional
training
over
and
above
what
the
regular
volunteers
do.
In
February
we
introduced
the
second
phase
of
work
aimed
at
contributing
to
both
of
these
goals.
CyberTracker
works
to
utilise
traditional
tracking
skills
towards
more
modern
outcomes,
including
scientific
research.
A
number
of
the
research
staff
have
been
assessed
under
the
Cybertracker
sys-
tem
for
track
and
sign
identification,
verifying
the
accuracy
of
any
recordings
then
made
from
tracks.
Conducting
tracking
surveys
on
the
reserve
is
a
good
way
to
record
nocturnal
and
rarely
seen
ani-
mals,
as
well
as
to
relate
prevalence
and
location
of
tracks
to
the
known
populations
of
focus
ani-
mals
and
herbivores
on
the
reserve.
A
number
of
200m
transect
locations
were
determined,
spread
across
the
south
of
the
reserve,
on
roadways
of
a
suitable
substrate
for
easy
track
identification.
GVI.2014.2
The
tracking
month
started
with
two
introductory
lectures
on
tracking
and
identification
of
mammal
tracks,
followed
by
a
bushwalk
looking
specifically
at
tracks.
This
was
then
followed
by
a
week
of
research
drives
dedicated
to
learning
to
ID
tracks
in
addition
to
our
regular
research
activities.
Week
three
and
four
then
involved
dedicated
tracking
drives
where
the
interns
and
a
rifle
qualified
staff
member
undertook
each
of
the
predetermined
transects.
Over
the
two
survey
sessions
22
different
species
were
identified
from
their
tracks.
At
the
end
of
their
three
months
on
base
the
interns
will
sit
a
tracking
test
to
assess
how
many
species
of
mammal
they
have
learnt
to
identify
from
their
tracks
during
their
internship.
The
addition
of
track
identification
and
spoor
transects
to
the
internship
program
has
been
a
great
success.
Interns
felt,
and
demonstrated,
that
they
had
significantly
developed
their
track
ID
skills.
Getting
any
volunteers
interested
in
tracks
enables
them
to
identify,
or
at
least
bring
to
a
staff
members
attention,
important
tracks
while
on
regular
surveys,
enhancing
our
ability
to
locate
focus
animals
promptly
and
our
awareness
of
animal
activity.
They
can
now
also
visualize
the
presence
and
behaviour
of
animals
they
may
never
otherwise
see.
The
additional
data
contributes
to
our
ex-
isting
focus
animal
dataset,
rare
game
and
prey
species
monitoring
and
this
in
turn
improves
our
reporting
to
reserve
management.
The
training,
surveying
and
then
testing
gives
the
interns
a
clear
indication
of
their
improvement
and
evaluates
their
progress,
with
an
obvious
end-goal.
The
internship
will
be
further
enhanced
in
the
same
vein
over
the
coming
month
but
next
up
is
a
focus
on
tree
identification.
This
will
allow
the
interns
to
participate
in
vegetation
surveys
as
part
of
a
university
study
based
on
Karongwe.
GVI.2014.2