This past week we had the wonderful priviledge to watch Shiloweni rediscover his freedom in the park. Sadly, he did very little of interest. He came out all fat and out of shape from 5 months of being delivered his meals in his enclosure. Yet his ego was huge and he scent marked his new territory like it was going out of style. Sadly he didn't take into account that the other male leopards are much bigger and in good shape. So he promptly got his ass kicked. No big injuries but since then he has spent most of his time sleeping and laying low. Since the other group was on the mountain portion of their trip, our group had to do double duty. We'd have a day of two 6 hr shifts following the leopard, then switch to two 5 hr shifts of general drive the next day. The schedule of trying to grab a meal and catch a few hrs of sleep in between shifts certainly wore us down. I was paired up with another girl, Kath, and we made the most of our time - chatting, reading, getting in quick naps while the leopard slept.
Oh! One funny story. When we need to take a pee break on our shift, we try to get a good sense of where the leopard is (either by sight or by the reading on the telemetry), drive back a decent distance, then pee as fast as we can. So the second night, our guide went first, me second, then Kath hopped off to pee. At this point though Shiloweni stood up and started walking in our direction so Kath had to hop back on the back with her pants around her knees! Pretty amusing to all of us. Seems Shiloweni was very intrigued by my 2 gallon urine sample :) I was flattered. Life is odd, hunh.
Now we have two days for the most part off. We are going to an animal rehabilitation center today, and perhaps town tomorrow. I'm half way through this project, and while I'm loving it and look forward to the next 2.5 wks, I'm glad I'm not doing the 10 wk program. It'll be good to try something new and to get some R&R with Drew in Cape Town. This has shown me that field guiding is great, but not a prospective career :)
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