On any scientific Sunday

Another Sunday outing (Gerhard & Olivier)

On a Sunday morning sidewalk

Sunday fishing with Herman

Whiling away your day off

So breakfast was late this morning and we had the day off. To recharge the batteries, so to speak.  Well, the team of scientist welcomed the break. The chance to do what they love most. Yip, you’ve guessed it. They went out sampling.

Cape Galaxias

I don’t know whether it was because they had the day off and didn’t feel pressurised to perform or what, but they did exceptionally well. Not only did the accumulative total of all species for the day broke the previous record by coming in at 279 and bringing the total to 1098, the fish people also caught a Cape Galaxias. So what? you might say. What makes it so unique is the fact that there is only one genus in this one family and it contains only this one species in the whole of Africa. And we’ve got him! While they were at it, they also came across a marsh terrapin to keep Marius Burger fascinated on his day off. Marius, you can have it, this marsh thing stinks.

Marius and his marsh terrapin

Another thing that got me excited on this expedition is the Garmin GPS support we’ve got. Now as a well trained dog, I have never had the need for directional support, but on this trip the Garmins go much further than only finding your way. I’m not the expert so I asked Christof Linde, our on-board IT-guru to put you in the picture. While talking about Christof, I think he deserves a big hand for making this blog work and look so great. No matter where we are, the blog always gets on the internet. Sometimes via satellite and sometimes via smoke signals late at night, but it always gets there. Enough said, Christof, please explain:

“In the past the Toyota Enviro Outreach has only used Garmin GPS technology to plan the routes we will travel and also to track exactly where we have been since most of the areas we travel have no documented roads.

“This year however we are using technology called Geotagging. In short Geotagging saves the GPS coordinates on a photo automatically. With this year's Outreach thousands of samples are collected and with the Geotagging feature, the record keeping of these samples are much easier. The Geotagging further allows us to import all the photos onto a map and see where certain species are located throughout the country as well their density.

Geotagging example. (photo taken with Garmin Oregon 550)

“We currently use a Nikon camera connected to a Garmin Etrax GPS and also a Garmin Oregon 550 which has a built-in camera.”

Now that’s what you call the GPS of DNA and... what the... there goes Marius Burger like a bullet over the veranda fence here at Klipbokkop. He crashes in the rocks below. We all run to the edge, but he’s the only one over it. Lying face down in the rocks and spitting dassie dung, he holds his right hand triumphantly in the air. A little tail wiggles in his fist.

“Got him! It’s an Afrogecko,” he splutters.

OK, 280 species for the day and 1099 in total. But I’m going to sleep now, these guys never stop.