Field Reseach for Dummies

You’re probably all wondering exactly what it is we’re doing out here and I’ll let Tim explain more of the “Why?” questions, but I’ve got the “How?” down. So this is an Field Research for Dummies (I needed it when I started, and I don't think any of you are dummies, btw).

Game Drives: The basis of how Tim collects data on animals. He picks routes (usually along a river’s edge) and we drive them. Ideally, we collect data for each route six times, three in the morning (starting at 7 am) and three in the afternoon (starting at 1 pm).  So, we drive along bumpy, dusty roads at about 20 km/h and each time we see an animal or group of animals, we stop and take some data about the group size, their location, and their group size.

Data Collection:

We get the GPS location of our car using a handheld GPS unit. 

Then, we find the distance from our car to the animal (or middle animal of the group) using a Laser Range Finder.

Lastly, we get a bearing to the animal using a compass.

Often we need also binoculars to count the group size. So far we’ve had three herds of impala that are at least 500+ animals!

We also record notes about habitat and activity of the animals (whether they’re grazing, sleeping, drinking etc).

Usually all of this takes about2 minutes, except when there are multiple groups of animals all around the car. For example, yesterday we had several points where we were counting huge herds of impalas, kudus, warthogs, elephants and giraffes. All in around the same place. Makes for exciting times.