January 16/2011
Dear Journal;
We are now in Queen Elizabeth National Park. We have been doing some amazing activities here with Dr. Ludwig Seifert, and his assistant, James Oluka. They are running a predator project in the park and have collared about 20 lions and one leopard and have been tracking their activity and movement. There are several obstacles they face in terms of preserving the predator population. They are poaching, cattle farmers poisoning the lions (because the lions eat the cattle which are illegally grazing in the park) and lots of burocracy (SP?) and corruption from the government. So far we have seen 3 leopards (one which is collared and is named Kim), and 4 lionesses with their cubs.
Today we woke up to go out early with james and saw a leopard outside the front window of our house! Tanner saw it first and he said it was walking past the window and grabbed my t-shirt. The leopard saw Tanner thru the glass and paused. Tanner beckoned me and when I came I saw it but it was already starting to go around the corner. I saw it carrying my t-shirt as it went into the bush! So crazy! We went out with james and saw one lioness, Shifra, and continued looking for a pride of lions which is not collared.
The predators in the park are suffering. there used to be 9 leopards which all died during the anthrax outbreak. The lion population has halved since Dr. Siefert's been here, and the hyenas are nearly extinct within the park. It is too bad. We did see two hyenas this morning, but they are some of the remaining few.
They also have these neat camera traps which we have been setting up to see what types of animals are in the area. They flash at night and the animals look so surprised in the photos!!! a hippo's face was right next to the camera, it was a great shot!
We are having fun here in the park. Tonight is our last night and tomorrow we shall return to Mbarara.
Bye for now!James, Dr. Siefert's research assistant, holding the antennae used for tracking the radio-collared lions.
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