Tales from the bush

... has always been my favorite part of the bbc wildlife magazine.

Here´s mine:

It was getting dark quickly and I was on my way "home", to the research station in Goegap Nature Reserve, in the semidesert or succulent karoo in South Africa.
I was spending my holidays here, working as a field assistant for a french PHD student, helping to gather data on some families of rhabdomys pumilio or four striped mice.

As always I had spent the evening hours in the field, setting traps for "my" beloved families of mice and recording their group composition, weight ect. .

field work

I also had the Antenna, GPS and receiver with me to record the sleeping sites of a couple of female mice that had been fitted with  radio collars.

mouse - painted, eartagged and with radio collar

 
By now it was getting dark and "cold"  - well, after 40 degree celsius all day, any temperature drop feels cold ! -  quickly.
In only six weeks life had already become a bit of a routine and I was looking forward to dinner and sleep. After all, I´d be up at five o clock the next morning again to keep the endless stream of data flowing.

our field site

Antoine´s field site wasn´t far away from the station, only a ten minute walk along a dirt track and dry river bed. As always the sound of  barking geckos filled the air as soon as the sun set and I´d just spotted the "unicorn" - an oryx with a missing horn that was staying around the station. I could also hear the resident troop of baboons making their presence known.
Life was good and I was happy to be where I was, doing what I was.
But also sweaty, dirty, tired and hungry.

Once I´d left the little, natural path, a "gemsbok-highway" we were always sticking to, in order to to keep the disturbance of the sensitive local plants to a minimum, I was on the sand  road to the station. As always I was scanning the ground with my headlight, in order so spot a nocturnal, venomous animal in time -  my highlight was the cobra I once saw when checking the traps.
Tonight it wasn´t a snake but I was lucky to catch a glimpse of a beautiful sand gecko.

I only had my little camera with me as the dslr doesn´t really make a good fieldsite companion when you´re busy catching, painting and tagging mice.

Still I thought I´d try to get a photo of it and to do so I lay down on my stomach on the road. To my surprise the gecko stayed where it was, posing like the perfect model. We watched each other for quite some time and at least I was enjoying this unusual encounter. When the thought of food finally got the better of me I turned round to get up and saw this other, lovely creature just a few centimetres away, on the other side of my head:

Now, I´ve seen my share of scorpions both in Goegap and elsewhere, but that definitely was a bit too close and sudden for my liking :).