I'm only a bit late with this (just over a year) but I guess I should wrap up my posts about my time in South Africa since, unfortunately, that time came to an end.
The last few weeks there, we collaborated with a group of scientists from North-West University on parasitology and ecotoxicology of sharks. Helping with the project helped me get real up close and personal with the anatomy of sharks and even a skate.
For the parasitology side of things, we looked at every internal and external part of the shark for any possible kind of parasite. Luckily, there are a lot. In sharks alone there are thousands of identified parasites and just as many yet to be found. There is generally at least one species of parasite per shark species with a few having multiple specialized parasites. During our time collaborating, the chief researcher suspects he found 2 new species to add to his list. Not to brag, but I did find one of them. It was a leach-like thing stuck to the liver (barely noticeable white bump on lower right liver, 1st picture). The most common places to find parasites are the stomach, spiral intestine, and body cavity. One shark we found had at least 24 digenians (2nd picture below) in its body cavity and another had around 35 worm-like parasites in its stomach. I know this is not a popular opinion, but I found some of them to actually be kind of cute in an odd way.
Although I loved all the parasites, the ecotoxicology was my favorite part. I took samples of most of the organs in the shark and preserved them in different ways for future analyses. We sampled the liver, kidney, muscle, skin, brain, and sometimes heart. I got pretty good at it, if I do say so myself. The third picture below shows the beautiful chevron pattern of the muscles after the skin was cut away. In sharks, the toxins that they pick up aren't always absorbed evenly throughout their body. Sometimes the toxins accumulate on the left side of the body, sometimes the right, or sometimes it's fairly even throughout. In order to balance this, we sampled from the left side of the shark so that the random variation was dependent only on the individual shark. We sampled the chunk of muscle from the left side of the shark's back between the pectoral and anal or pelvic fins. The length we had to remove was dependent on the shark as little ones had smaller muscle mass so more would need to be removed to have enough for the analyses.
Outside of the lab, this collaboration gave us interns a better feel for the South African life as we were able to live and work with them much closer than the people who visited the lab. We ate like South Africans by having braais (similar to a BBQ) with interesting grilled sandwiches (on the actual grill, not just a stove) and lots of meat throughout. We also played like South Africans which could either mean watching Rugby or going outside and playing cricket barefoot in the streets. No shoes was common and I even got to go to a restaurant without them! When in Rome, right? Overall, it gave me a better insight into the culture I was living in and let us have a lot of fun at the same time.
In our last free weekends we had to hit up the tourist locales. We went to Cape Town and climbed Table Mountain. I highly recommend the India Venster route, it's not as dangerous as the signs imply as long as you're physically capable to scramble, pull yourself up a rock face using a chain, and climb a few boulders. The mental aspect of the route comes in when you're standing on a ledge 2 to 3 feet wide. We also ate at Mama Africa's which is THE place to go for both local food and an exciting atmosphere. There's also the V&A Waterfront named after Queen Victoria and Prince Alfred. Around the waterfront is the Two Oceans Aquarium, many cute malls, a Ferris wheel, and cultural activities or performers everywhere you look.
We spent a day in Oudtshoorn exploring the Cango Caves doing an Adventure Tour. It was about 4 USD more than the normal Heritage tour but lasted 30 minutes longer and is definitely an adventure. After the normal route that both tours take, the Adventure guide splits off and takes guests through more of the cave which is basically testing how many small holes and tunnels tourists are willing to go through. Answer: the limit does not exist. That night we stayed in an adorable little house that had peacocks, dogs, (territorial) geese, and a beautiful 360 view of the South African wilderness.
A trip to Africa wouldn't be complete without a safari. We arrived at Aquila Private Game Reserve around 9am for a global breakfast buffet. There was a section for every corner of the globe and a coffee and mimosa bar. We then piled into an open jeep style 4x4 safari vehicle and got a seat in the very back. Our safari guide drove us around in search of the big 5 while telling us about the conservation issues a lot of these animals are facing as well as some fun facts. In the end we managed to see hippos, elephants, wildebeests, kudu (they're delicious), rhinos, zebra, giraffes, lions, buffalo, ostrich, springbok, baboons, and I'm sure more that I'm forgetting to mention.
South Africa is known for it's beauty, but no picture that I post here will compare to seeing it in person. Everything is breathtaking and everyone needs to see it at some point in their life. And hey, if you need a tour guide, let me know!
