Shamwari, No. 2 and No. 5

Arrived at the Shamwari Game Reserve yesterday afternoon.  We are in a group of 13 volunteers from the UK, Denmark, Switzerland, Australia and the US.  We awoke this morning to a large African rain spider on the wall of our bedroom.  Nice start!

Our first activity of the day was helping in a study of the feeding habits of brown hyenas and African wild cats.  This involved analyzing the contents of the brown hyena scat (No. 2) and the stomachs of the wild cats.  Just another day at the office.....

Melanie rinsing hyena scat:

African wild cat stomach:

After lunch, we headed out for rhino monitoring.  We drove around in search of rhino on the reserve, and then had to record our sitings of specific animals based on notches in their ears.  In addition to the rhinos, we saw lots of other cool stuff:

Pumba:

Zazu:

And not from the Lion King, the Cape Cobra (the deadliest snake in South Africa):

And best of all, No. 5 of the "Big 5", the elusive leopard:

Tomorrow morning we head out at 5:45 a.m. for a very full day of work.  Stay tuned.....