Greetings from Marion Island - halfway between South Africa and Antarctica!

Hi there, I am Thando Cebekhulu. I am 28 years old, from Ladysmith (KwaZulu Natal) South Africa. I grew up in Ladysmith and went to a local school until my matric.

I have an honours degree in Zoology from the University of the Free State (Qwaqwa Campus). I graduated from my studies in 2015 and then I joined the Department on Environmental Affairs as an intern for the 2016/2017 programme, where I worked with marine mammals (seals and cetaceans) and also helped with seabirds projects around the Western Cape for the department.

I am currently at Marion Island overwintering for 14 months as a seabird field assistant for the department. Here I am responsible for long term monitoring of the breeding success of different seabird and penguin species on the island. I also assist with other projects on elephant seals and fur seals. Animal science has always been my field of interest and conservation is the ultimate goal of the work that I do.

Thando with seal

Here I am chatting up a seal. All in a day's work.

I'm really looking forward to sharing my adventures with you on Steemit!

If it sounds like someone else is posting for me sometimes, that's because that's exactly what's happening. I don't have predictable internet on Marion Island, so @kiligirl will be posting and monitoring my account for me until I know I can monitor it regularly myself. I don't want to miss any interesting comments or feedback from you! She also told me you want penguin photos, so I got all those penguins to line up in the background of that photo just for you :-).

South African Steemit logo

Cool South African Steemit logo courtesy of @alainite

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Welcome to Steemit, @scienceguy. And thanks to @kiligirl for making it possible. I'm sure you'll be able to give us some great content while on Marion Island

Thank you, @tim-beck, I really hope to give people an idea of what the wildlife is like here and what it's like to do a remote research programme like this.

Welcome aboard the Steem train!! Really glad to see you here :)

Haha!! U saw my comment 2 months later XD

You have been steeming really hard!

Cheers man!

Ha ha, @pisolutionsmru! The internet connection here is throttled - we can only use a couple of social media platforms occasionally and nothing else gets through. Also the weather often affects our wi-fi. We do what we can!

Sorry to hear about that @scienceguy!! Hope the situation gets better for you soon!

Cheers

Honestly, I doubt the situation will change, @pisolutionsmru, but this is one of tradeoffs we live with. Thank you :-)

Wish you great success on Steemit!

Then you might be able to move to another country :)

Cheers XD

Thank you for your wishes of success on Steemit, @pisolutionsmru. For now I'm good in South Africa, although so few South Africans even know Marion Island is part of the country!

Glad to have you here, finally!! Thanks for coordinating all the penguins for us

Welcome to Steemit!
Can't wait to learn more about your adventures
I hope you enjoy your stay

Thank you, @arckrai! I'm slow in answering people because our internet connection makes it very difficult to load Steemit. I really appreciate your support and will follow you now.

Thank you, @daveks. I appreciate the welcome!

Hi there, welcome to Steemit. Bet you loved working with animals and would loved to read about it. Writing is my passion and I just like to share how I get ideas for my posts.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@positivesteem/newbie-nuggets-how-i-create-killer-content-for-my-posts

Thank you, @positivesteem, I really love birds and am super excited to be involved in this research project.

Hi, @positivesteem, just checking in after a long time with really bad internet and our monthly round island week long tour. Thanks so much for your good wishes for our research.

I love that photo of the seal! Welcome!

Thanks, @satchmo! It was fun having a seal chat with him 😀

Welcome and Thank You for being with us!! Following your Blog now

Thank you, @digitalplayer. Glad I finally saw your message.