Web Blurb - Jason Swenson
September 13, 2005
As I was boarding the plane for Tanzania on May 10th 2005 I felt strangely like I was going home. I was very excited to once again have gotten the opportunity to work for Dr. Taranjit Kaur and travel to Mahale Mountains National Park. This year’s trip took me first back to Dar Es Salaam where I purchased equipment and infrastructure for the research camp and new lab in Mahale and received my research permit. After two weeks in Dar Es Salaam I was ready to travel to Kigoma which is a small town on Lake Tanganyika about 120Km north of Mahale. I then proceeded to Mahale after I received all of the research equipment in Kigoma; all together it was over 700kg of equipment delivered via train. After an 11hour boat trip down Lake Tanganyika I arrived in Mahale on June 3rd 2005. The next two months were very exciting and also very challenging.
In Mahale I set up a new digital solar powered weather station, a solar powered freezer, and a lab for processing fecal samples. In the park, I utilized resources and facilities at both the new research house in Kasiha that is maintained by TAWIRI (Tanzanian Wildlife Research Institute) and at Kanseyana which is the research camp maintained by Kyoto University.
While in Mahale I collected fecal samples from the habituated chimpanzee population also known as the M-group that inhabits the area around Kanseyana camp. I utilized a new version of the CyberCHIMPP to record daily attendances, samples collected, and health observation of the chimpanzees in M-group.
This was a very successful field season and as a result it was a tremendously educational experience for me and I am indebted to everyone involved with the Bush-to-Base project including the collaborators who enabled me to have such an incredible journey.
Above all I want to recognize the support from Dr. Taranjit Kaur who through NSF grant # 0238069
devised the Bush-to-Base concept and without whom none of this work would have been possible.