Hunting Scorps in the Desert
In 1995 my friend Reza Darvish and I made a field trip to the Northern Rim of the Sahara Desert. We were sent there by the
University of Frankfurt. Our job was to collect several hundreds of scorpions (Androctonus australis) for experiments on circadian rhythms.After a lot of bureaucracy we were able to travel to Tunisia. First to the ministry of agriculture in the capital (to get hunting and export permits), later into the desert. Close to the salt lake Chot El Jerid there are a lot of Oasis (Bazma, Jemna, Kebili, etc.). And there are a lot of scorpions!
During daytime we measured temperature, humidity and rainfall (during our trip we had a lot of that, too!) or gathered our strength by sitting at the pool (unfortunately beer was not easy to get at that time in this place..). At night we hunted scorps with the help of UV-Flashlights ("Blacklight").
Check some pictures above to get an impression.
For more info about trip and results:
Mail me!To see the abstract of a resulting diploma-thesis (in German):
click here!To see the abstract of a resulting publication (in English):
click here!To learn more about scorpions:
click here (very good site) !!Or check the
Singapore Scorpion Page. More links about scorpions there !!
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