NAU trip
By Ani Johnson
I’m not sure how to possibly speak highly enough to express how incredible the coolest three weeks of my life were, but I will begin with this…
The experience I had at the SSLI research station, Kruger National Park, and in South Africa as a whole absolutely inspired me in every way: personally, academically, professionally, and beyond. To experience such extraordinary wildlife in the absence of human development—and to live for three weeks in the middle of a truly wild, interconnected ecosystem—changed me forever.
Throughout this adventure, each day was different. Several days were spent waking up before sunrise, setting, capturing, and processing rodents to monitor disease prevalence in human-altered ecosystems such as anthropogenic hotspots inside of the National Park, in comparison to completely wild ecosystems, and then in Kruger’s surrounding villages of Huntington and Justicia. Others were spent analyzing ecological patterns in vegetation, soils, geology, and landscapes across the national park as a result of fire regimes, basaltic and granitic soils, and mammalian presence, among many other things, through field data collection and camera trap data. To conduct ecological fieldwork in the most magical of places and exist within a community of such profound knowledge, passion, and brilliance, was mind-blowing. Not to mention, nearly every day included a game drive, giving us the chance to observe critters ranging from predators to prey, and everything in between. We even were lucky enough to spot all of the Big Five—including countless elephants, my personal favorite!
In each experience, we had the incredible opportunity to be surrounded by scientists from South African backgrounds who are experts in each field, and teachers of such a depth of knowledge. We engaged with members of the public, got a sense for environmentalism in the eyes of South African community members, and experienced human-environment relationships in many different ways. Being immersed in this scientific way was invaluable to my experience, and allowed me to open my eyes and incorporate perspectives from global, non-westernized thinking to my learning.
I could not be more grateful for this time, and I am a changed human because of it. The knowledge, friendships, and newfound community which I will now carry with me for the rest of my life is something that I hope each and every one of you who is thinking of joining the OTS community through the ecological restoration project become a part of. I guarantee if you apply and say yes, you will be a changed person because of it.
See you in South Africa!
