Big Five Favorites

Hello! I have arrived home safely and am starting to get settled back in. This semester was incredible, as well as the past few weeks of travel. I thought I was already over jet lag, but then I woke up at 3am this morning, so I guess not! :) The extra time this morning gave me a chance to go through some of my thousands of photos and pick out some good shots of the big 5 (cape buffalo, elephant, rhino, lion, leopard). Here they are:

Cape Buffalo:

African Elephant:

Rhino:

Black Rhino

White Rhino with Ox peckers (birds that eat ticks off of rhinos and other large mammals)

White Rhino

 Lion:

Leopard: (my personal favorite)

 

End of OTS and MADAGASCAR

This was the best semester ever! OTS is an amazing program and helped me realize where some of my true passions lie. I loved studying in South Africa and having the opportunity to see the things we were learning out in the field was amazing. I know we were all very sad to have to leave each other- I don't think I wrote much about the group we had, but the 25 of us got really close by the end of the program and I already miss them so much!

But, immediately after the program ended - I embarked on the next phase of the adventure: Madagascar!! We only had one week to spend in Madagascar and there was no way we could see nearly as much as the country has to offer, but we tried to make the most of our time and toured quite a few parks/reserves in the north, including: Ankarana, Montagne d'Ambre National Park, Domaine De Fontenay's private park, Analamazaotra Reserve (Perinet), Mantadia National Park, and the community managed Mitsinjo Forest.  It was awesome!!

Here's a recap of the adventures with some pictures:

I climbed to the top of the tsingy.

I crawled into stalagmite filled bat caves.

I overlooked a huge canyon with the unique red tsingy.

 

And saw lots of reptiles:

(smallest chameleon species - Brookesia minimia) 

                leaf tailed gecko                                   

Some cool insects:

                                                      giraffe necked weevil

And 7 lemur species, including: crowned lemur, common brown lemur, bamboo lemur, woolly lemur, mouse lemur, diademed sifaka, and Indri