For many of us, during a state of emergency, life stopped for a few weeks or at least moved to "online" mode. However, our doctoral student Zuzana Holubová was lucky and could continue to work on her research for her dissertation without much restriction directly in the field - in the African savannah of the Pendjari National Park in Benin. Zuzka aims to find out as much information as possible about the two species of antelope, korrigum and western hartebeest, and come up with possible solutions to prevent their declining populations from becoming extinct.
Their inconspicuous colouration and shyness towards human activity make their observation in the field very difficult. Therefore, monitoring techniques such as the use of camera traps or observation from an ultralight aircraft have become Zuzka's daily activities to get closer to animals. Likewise, in the future, satellite collars should be used to find out how these two species move, where they migrate and what dangers they may face. More information about the park can be found on the Afrikan Parks website
Video: A close encounter of our doctoral student Zuzka Holubová and a male West African lion in Pendjari National Park. This species (West African subpopulation) is classified by the IUCN as critically endangered and occurs in about 100 individuals in Pendjari. This is almost a quarter of the total West African subpopulation. The individual is fitted with a collar that records data via satellite and thus enables to obtain information about the individual's movement for several years.
