Honorary Rangers and SANParks learn together
The Honorary Rangers presented an eight-module course, titled “An introduction to Table Mountain National Park”, at the Cape Research Centre from 8 October 2021 to 4 March 2022. The course was attended by park staff, including rangers, tourism monitors and environment monitors, and staff from the Cape Research Centre.
The modules focused on the accommodation and activities catered for in TMNP, including Wild and Activity cards, climate, geology, freshwater, flora, terrestrial fauna, marine matters and history.
The course presenters included Jackie King, George Smith, John Elford, Wendy Hitchcock and Denis Stephen. This group of knowledgeable tutors included an aquatic ecologist, geophysicist, geography teacher and botanist.
Each of the honorary rangers presented different modules, within their field of study and expertise; and provided a snapshot of relevant information and fun activities, such as exploring a geological time-chart and hands-on observations of macroinvertebrates collected from Silvermine River. The course was a collective success, resulting in co-learning among the speakers, scientific services staff and park staff, who shared their outstanding knowledge of our park.
Photo: Dian Spear
Park rangers and SANParks scientists attended a freshwater course presented by Jackie King at Cape Research Centre (Photo: Sisanda Mayekiso).
Park rangers and SANParks scientists exploring a geological time-chart with past events and the diversity of life forms that were present at different periods in Earth’s history, presented by George Smith (Photo: Jackie King).
Trevor Adams, SANParks biotechnician, demonstrating a MiniSASS and catching of macroinvertebrates during the freshwater course presented by Jackie King (Photos: right: Jackie King, left: Sisanda Mayekiso).
This article was originally published in the 2021/2022 Research Report.
