Mole! Mole! Mole! Mole!

Hey Everyone, hope all is treating you well back home.

My trip to Ghana seems to get better and better with each day! The past several days have been focused around meeting with the management and staff at Mole national park near the Kulmasa dam site where the crocodile surveys will be done. Daryl (the head of the Damongo branch of A Rocha) and I put together a small proposal involving the methodology that we will be using to survey the crocodile population to show to the mole staff.  We made the trek up to the park for the first time yesterday (11/8) in order to get the blessing and cooperation of the staff in Mole.The people there are extremely friendly and knowledgeable and I like to think I made several good new friends at Mole this week! A Rocha and the Mole national park service have had a very good relationship for a number of years, so they have offered to help me in any way that I need when doing my work. 

They also very kindly offered me free entry into the national park site at any time along with the option of free safari trips. This was obviously something I could not resist so my friend Braimah and I decided to take them up on the offer! Needless to say we were very glad to have done so!

We began our second trek to Mole very early this morning (11/9) and met up with the guide and safari group. Two students from a university in Kumasi helping with tourism practices, an older couple from San Diego, and two volunteer nurses from Holland rounded out our group.

The safari began with a climb down a very steep “hill” (maybe considered a small mountain!) and from there we moved closer to the primary water hole near the front of the park. The first thing I noticed was the presence of several large crocodiles in the area, and more importantly the presence of smaller one with a slightly different head shape as I’m fairly certain I saw a more rare Slender-Snouted Crocodile! It bolted underwater quickly so I the picture I snapped of it is inconclusive but I’m going to assume it was a Slender-Snout regardless just for my sake! 

As I was gawking at the crocodiles everyone else began to get very excited as I looked to my right, I saw a wild Savannah Elephant for the first time up close! It was an older solitary male and he was taking an early morning dip, it was absolutely amazing to watch him funnel liters of water into his trunk and spray it everywhere. It was truly a blessing to see such an animal up close!

Elephant number one, we were literally less than 50 feet away from this one!

I assumed that might be the only elephant we would see today so I took as many pictures as possible, but man was I wrong! As we continued through the park not only did we see at least 19 more individuals, we saw them in herds! They were moving together, bathing together and doing all sorts of interesting behaviors, from playing in the water, to demonstrating to each other! Besides the elephants we saw many Bushbuck and Waterbuck which are species of Antelope, lots of heron and egret like bird, and the ever common Baboon and Warthog!

The fifth or sixth elephant we saw! This one was leading a group to a water hole!

Braimah and I with the Elephants!

 

 

After the safari ended Braimah and I thanked the gentlemen who offered the safari to us (named Oliver) and the proceeded home where we chowed down on some local dishes like Red-Red and Rice ball stew, all of which are absolutely delicious!

So besides the work on the survey project, Daryl and I have been discussing ways to get the youth of Damongo involved with A Rocha and conservation in general. So we have decided to begin working on a youth wildlife education program which I will be leading. So far we have decided that I will capture and temporarily keep some of the local common wildlife and establish a small education center set up with them and begin doing demonstrations at some point. Once interest grow we will also consider going out on the trails near Damongo at night with Daryl, Braimah and myself leading the way and showing the kids all the cool creatures that are just outside their backyard! I’m very excited for this opportunity, especially considering how much I enjoy working with kids and also blabbing on about wildlife!

Also just wanted to take a moment to dedicate this entry to my late great Mamaw Miriam. She passed away this week and I just wanted to pay my respects to her considering I won’t be able to make it to her memorial this week.

Mamaw I love you very much and will miss you dearly, thank you again for all the support you have given me over the years.

Much Love everyone, and God Bless.