Field work in the Namibia Desert

Project photography has attained new meaning of late as I’ve been involved in more than just construction progress.  I have been fortunate to get a taste of the work that environmental scientists do in seeing that mine owners treat the environment in a responsible manner.  Writing about it has added new skills to my repertoire.

I got to see first hand how data is collected when three eminent scientists, tasked with research on the populations and distributions of the Husab Sand Lizards (Pedioplanis husabensis), did some field work in the Namib Desert.  This was in preparation for the establishment of a new uranium mine in the Namib Naukluft Park, some 70km east of Swakopmund.

On a sunny day in March, Drs. Theo Wassenaar, Hans-Werner Hermann and Tom Wilson, set out to catch a few lizards for DNA sampling.  Drs. Hermann and Wilson are from the University of Arizona in the United States and I was amazed at how agile the latter was at first identifying the little chaps and catching them to boot.

The Husab Sand Lizard is a pretty lizard, as lizards go and although well camouflaged with his mottled khaki back, his slightly peach coloured tail that is longer than his body, is a give-away.  Once captured, said lizard was photographed from every known angle and then some .

Getting a sense of scale though was easy as Image 2 shows and this was aptly described by my good friend and editor, Tom Ferreira as a “thumbnail picture”.