Here are a few of the 70 students in CARACALs  Kazungula Primary weekly Conservation Club. We teach them to respect and protect the environment with lessons, crafts, games, interactive activities, and countless bad jokes.  I tried to get a picture with one of them, and this is what happens. I adore my students! -Erica

Simple Questions Can Help Stop Killer Disease

Simple Questions Can Help Stop Killer Disease

Project findings are profiled on the home page of the National Science Foundation - read more about our work. NSF Profiles Research Findings - Go to Web Page

Science Daily - Researchers Help People in Remote Africa Respond to Diarrheal Disease


Our new publication provides information on diarrheal disease which might provide important insight into this persistent public health threat in Africa.

Kathleen Alexander, associate professor of wildlife, and Mpho Ramotadima, community extension officer at the Center for African Resource: Animals, Communities and Land Use (CARACAL), check water quality at a public faucet in a Botswana village. Alexander conducts research through CARACAL, a nonprofit nongovernment organization she co-founded in Botswana. (Credit: Virginia Tech)

Mpho Ramatadima and Cysco Charlie play a key role in our research program. Here with Dr. Alexander - Mpho is contributing to our knowledge of how aggression over human waste can increase health threats to wildlife and also continues to monitor ecological aspects of our study banded mongoose troops in addition to his work with local communities. Cysco uses his unique skill base in animal tracking to identify where and why animals move across the landscape. This information is key to identifying how humans and animals are linked across the landscape and how our impacts can change the health of the system.

Water quality work continued this field season with both graduate students and undergraduates working on the project. Here Tyler, a PhD graduate student,  and Greg, a Virginia Tech undergraduate, work on the Chobe River during the biweekly sampling of the water and sediment. This long-term study is designed to provide unique insight into the impacts and interactions of human medicated environmental modification and related water quality changes. Keep up the good work guys!!!

Our summer was busy!!! Hundreds of children arrived at the biodiversity center to learn about animals and the research CARACAL and Virignia Tech are conducting. The core component of any meaningful research is the inclusion of education and outreach. Here, Dr. Alexander presents to a school group excited to see the Center.