What the People Say

Cape Vultures near the walk-in trap.

It was a breezy morning, especially if one is wearing a skirt as I often did during this last trip to Mkambati Nature Reserve for my vulture research. Granted skirts are not the best hiking apparel, but when talking to members of the royal family (i.e. traditional leaders) they are the preferred attire for a woman. 

My goal for this past research trip was to interview 160 individuals with the help of my research team: two undergraduate students and a mountain man. Preparing for the trip was a mission and a half. On top of organizing the food, accommodation, and transport I had to find 160 people to interview. The students had some contacts in the area from family and friends, so we tried that first. After a few phone calls we had our first meeting set up with a ward council. The result of that meeting was another meeting where 30 people gathered to talk to us about vultures. The community outreach officer for the reserve helped organize a youth meeting which also added a lot of participants.

One of the students conducting an interview

A lesson on vulture feeding.

 Between the meetings, we hiked the normal route to the vulture colony to observe the birds incubating. The team was trained in the fine art of identifying incubating birds among the whitewash and rocks. Another day was spent getting to the base of the breeding cliffs to collect anything (vulture carcasses, bones, non-food items the birds might have used). We climbed as far as we could to the base of Baboon (one of the cliffs) and found some bird and mammal bones. On our descent one of the students dislodged a rock, and luckily none of our body parts were near this falling rock.

The first day of observations with my team

The rock broke from the fall!

The majority of the interviews were conducted in the local language, Xhosa, by the students as they recorded in English. I learned a few words here and there, but not enough to conduct the interviews, which was frustrating for me. I wanted to interact with the people, but I was left with hand motions and taking lots of pictures.  

 In the evenings the team would help prepare dinner while I entered data. Each interview seemed to come alive as I was reading it, however sometimes the student’s hand writing was hard to decipher. They dreaded when I would knock on their door asking for interpretation. 

Waterfall #3 that day

The goal was 160, and we reached 105. Not bad for one week, but more interviews will be conducted during the summer vacation (January). Very interesting information was gathered though and I look forward to comparing different areas to see if that influences people’s perceptions of the vultures. Until then, let’s hope for no more falling rocks!