Page 35 - Thola Issue 17

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It was difficult and focused work but by the end of the week, Onica was a hardened ‘pro’ with full mastery of the ‘dark arts’ of bird skinning.
Greg and Faansie went out of their way to take Onica through the complexities of proper bird specimen preparation.
It was difficult and focused work but by the end of the week, Onica was a hardened ‘pro’ with full mastery of the ‘dark arts’ of bird skinning.
On her return to Durban, Onica soon started putting into practice all she had learnt by tackling the backlog of frozen bird carcasses awaiting processing in our freezers. But, sadly for us, Onica received and accepted an offer of a fairly senior
LEFT: Onica teaching Museum intern Crystal Clitheroe how to skin an Amur Falcon. RIGHT: Crystal poses proudly with an immaculate juvenile Palmnut Vulture that she successfully skinned on her own after Onica’s departure.
position in the Mammal Department
at Ditsong. Onica first came to us as an NRF intern before being selected for the Ornithology Technician post and she proved a cheerful, capable and hard- working employee of the Museum. We all miss her and wish her the very best in her new post.
Before she left in early April, Onica was able to pass on some of her training in bird
skinning to one of the Museum interns, Crystal Clitheroe. Unfortunately, Crystal too was poached away from us when she left for Japan to set up a laboratory at a prestigious school. Crystal also takes our kindest regards with her on her intrepid travels to the Far East. And I guess I’ll be travelling back up to Pretoria sometime soon for some more bird skinning practice once we find a replacement for Onica.
thola: VOLUME 17. 2014/15
Photo credit: David Allan