Resource Guardianship week 4

16-20March 2011

16March
Today I was very excited but very nervous because we got the best news every we were going to start  with Game Capture.It was an bit early in the year as it was still very hot but we had to do it as the population of males were growing to fast and this means they were fighting more over territory than worrying about family and mating.The ratio between males and females was not correct.We started building the Boma this was hard work but fun.We cut trees for camouflage and put the structure together.This was interesting to see how the whole set up works and how much planning really goes into it.

17March
We had an really early start because we wanted to start before the day gets to hot.We were all really excited but in the same breath very anxious.No one knew what to expect this was overall a great experience we had some very close encounters with the animals.This was very scary as the animals are wild and trapped that means there more aggressive than usual as they are scared and wants to get out.Over all we caught about 20 antelope such as Blue Wildebeest and Zebra.This was far less than expected as this was our first time there was way to many communication gaps as the helicopter chased the animals in.This made it I bit frustrating and put a lot of pressure on as for the following day to get to our number.

18March
We got up early again for the capture today everyone looked more focused and everyone at least now had a days experience behind them so knew what to do.We caught a lot more today and the communication was good amongst one another the best catch according to me was the Oryx Gazelle.They are very dangerous and this made it so difficult and the fact that it is such an beautiful animal made it so amazing this was over all an amazing experience.

19March
I started working late shift and it was raining the whole day so I did guest service at the Caravan Park were I just had to find out if everything is still okay with them if there are any problems.This teaches you to handle different problems and difficult situations.

20March
I worked at the Farmyard were I led the horse took the guests on a small route with the horse you get to talk a lot to the children and other guests.We had a damping problem at the Wildlife Center and I had to go and try to lead the water away from the animals cages other wise it causes further problems the animals get sick.