MAKHADO (LOUIS TRICHARDT) - A German student from the University of Applied Sciences in Bremen chose the Soutpansberg region to be the first destination for her research on giant rats.

Tanja Mahnkopf, a third year biology student, initially from Hamburg, always wanted to come to South Africa. When the opportunity arose to do practicals, she chose to make Lajuma her first destination in the country. Tanja did research there for eight weeks. Her research project is entitled "The giving up densities of giant rats".

Tanja's project includes the planting of peanuts in sand and the monitoring of the search patterns of giant rats. "I monitor how long giant rats search for food before they are disturbed. There is also very little known about predators of giant rats," says Tanja. She says that her stay at Lajuma is "very special" and that she enjoys hiking in the mountains. Tanja leaves on October 17 for Springbok where she will conduct research for three months. Then she will attend a semester at the University of Cape Town, before she returns to Germany in June 2004.

Professor Ian Gaigher and his wife, Retha, from Lajuma, most of the time find themselves with six to ten overseas students doing research at Lajuma. "They come from two to five months and do research on anything from leopards to giant rats," Dr Retha Gaigher said.