Wednesday 18 May
After: The second half of the second field period, on the half of the practical training and after my birthday…….the first working day begun amazing. I saw a lot of kob antelopes, 3 warthogs and a large group of horse antelopes. these animals are beautiful and were just 10 metres away from the car. I observed them very well. The most epeniphrine stimulating moment was the black snake traversing the road just 3 metres in front of me!! It was a black cobra, about 1 metre long. hopefully it’s the harbinger of more spectacular things. The chance is greater, since I’ll observe 2 days and walk 4 days.
The weather is changing more and more. This Thursday no observations and transects. It’s raining heavy with thunder and lightning. With such a force thunder, that you could feel the boukarou shaking on its foundation!
the next day was a repeat for observations on the WWF platform. Here is the biggest chance to see giraffs, warthogs and elephants. Unfortunately I only saaaw a kob antelope. On my way back to the camp it was my luck! I was treated on a snake……still don’t know which species. It was black and approximately 1,10 metres. Am I going to see all kind of snakes?? mmmmhhh…..I thought I was here for antelopes…….but reptiles are also fun (as long as they don’t bite). as if hippos are friendly…?!
At last….the day has come; All transects have been walked, it’s time to leave Benoué. But before that there was time to put all data in the computer. we also decided to leave Benoué 1 day earlier, cause there is no work to do anymore. That’s nice!
Last transect day I was lucky to see 2 pumba’s (warthog) one of the less animals I saw. But also 4 little side striped jackals with their mother. Amazing to see. Furthermore I heard a lion, but I didn’t see it. Very pitty.
The last evening in Benoué we made a night drive. Lot of antelopes, but in search for the lion I heard that day. No lion……but a nice night drive. So the field period ended with seeing lot of animals again. Hopefully there’re more during the next field period. We’ll see?!