A team of elephant researchers from Stanford University has
transformed a remote corner of southern Africa into a high-tech
field camp run entirely on sunlight. The seasonal solar-powered
research camp gives scientists a rare opportunity to quietly
observe, videotape and photograph wild elephants at Mushara
waterhole, an isolated oasis in Etosha National Park in Namibia.
"One of the really special aspects of solar energy is that it
allows us to be in this incredibly remote area that's closed to
tourists and is off the grid," said lead researcher Caitlin
O'Connell-Rodwell, an instructor at the Stanford School of
Medicine and a collaborating scientist at Stanford's Center for
Conservation Biology. She is also co-founder of Utopia
Scientific, a non-profit organization that promotes awareness
about science, conservation and public health. "We get to watch
elephant society unfold before us in a very quiet environment –
no generators, no people, no vehicles," she added. O'Connell-
Rodwell has been studying elephant