User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
My field research was a great learning experience where I was immersed in a theoretical aspect of field research. This was new to me and therefore my field research project came with a few teething pains, so to say.
At first I had wanted to study two sites for the duration of the 58 day study, however that did not seem sufficient once I started to collect data. I then set about picking ten randomized sights through out the game reserve. This allowed me to sample a number of different areas with different elevations and vegetation profiles. Increasing my number of sites monitored did not increase my overall number of elephants captured in my study. This could have been due to seasonal movements and the amount of water left in natural pans and dams.
Overall it was a great experience, I had first hypothesized that a majority of the Elephants would drink during the heat of the day. This however was not the case and a majority drank around 20 degrees C. Comparing that temperature to the times of the day it was evident that the Elephants preferred to drink in the hours after the hottest part of the day.
A great learning curve with many different things to take from the experience but the biggest lesson is that research is not as easy as taking a few observations and putting pen to paper.
this has been an interesting study and I am glad that you have found some learning!