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.

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 :-).

Cool South African Steemit logo courtesy of @alainite