by Kerry Dyke, MS Service Coordinator
Two weekends ago we had our first overnight Eco Trip since the pandemic started. It was so great to get back into eco-action. 20 students and 3 chaperones went to Kuiburi to work with Bring The Elephant Home Foundation (BTEH), whose main focuses working with the community to facilitate Human Elephant Coexistence. We arrived in the evening and set up our tents and then had a very interesting cooking competition on the first night. In the morning we went for a walk to observe how the farmers try to deal with elephants raiding their crops. We witnessed physical deterrents, as well as sound and natural deterrents.
Later we made paper out of pineapple leaves, tie-dye, and working with the stingless bees we used the wax to make lip balm. In the evening we interview a ranger at the park and watched him use the drone to find animals such as a guar. We were treated to another delicious meal from the local community that night before returning to the camp to just let the kids be kids around the campfire. We had an early rise on Day 3 to go birding and found a tree with over 25 hornbills sitting in it. This was also a great time to learn about other birds and elephant tracks and signs such as rubbing trees.
