Back in the field by Josephine Walker

Josephine with Kate and Mphoeng in the field collecting samples

I first had the pleasure of visiting the Elephants for Africa camp in November 2012, shortly after starting my PhD at the University of Bristol. I’m back again, for a few months this time, and getting settled in to camp life and the field research routine (or lack thereof). Although I love elephants, I’m joining the EFA team with a very different goal from the other researchers. I am building on the links that EFA has with local communities; with my research I hope to improve our understanding of the interaction between domestic animals and wildlife at the border of the park, and whether intestinal parasites are being transmitted between species. With this knowledge, we can target regular parasite treatment to times of high risk for each community which will be a cost effective method of improving the health of livestock. The communities here are dependent on their livestock for a variety of things, including food, transport, and as cash investment, so improving the health of the animals could have a big impact on human health, economic resilience, and food security, and potentially reduce human-wildlife conflict down the line.

For my PhD, I’m taking an interdisciplinary approach to examine transmission dynamics of parasites between wildlife and livestock. What I do is collect and process a lot of fecal samples from different wildlife and domestic species, and talk directly to farmers to find out about the health of their animals. I’ll also be training farmers in targeted selective treatment methods (where they only treat the animals that are most in need) and using this program to monitor seasonal effects of parasites. Seasonal effects may be due to movement of wildlife (since the animals migrate across the park when it rains) or to climatic effects on parasite development and food availability. I’ll be exploring these questions further using mathematical modeling when I’m back in Bristol in between field visits.

It is very exciting working with the team at Elephants for Africa – there is always something interesting going on when you are living in a national park in Botswana! I’ll be writing more about my work and my experiences here at my personal blog, http://interfacewalker.wordpress.com.