15:30, Tuesday, 21 June, 2011

After the snake, I settled into my hammock beneath the African trees for a nap. It is a wondrous view staring up at the trees, with tents as the only visible human shelter; I don’t think tents can quite be said to mar a landscape.

When I woke up, I noticed how cramped my legs were feeling. We cannot run in West Camp unless we do ridiculous circles within its general perimeter on the uneven ground. The road is not an option unless you desire being trampled; that will be one nice thing when we have to switch to East, I suppose. However, there is a little trampoline stashed in the lab tent that one of the previous research assistants left here. I took it out behind the tent, and got creative, jogging in place, jumping patterns, jumping in general, jumping jacks, doing leg lifts, butt kicks etc. etc., punching the air to the beat of my music in confined exercise-style bliss, orange-tailed flycatchers and robin chats flying overhead. I felt like I could take on a cape buffalo. Afterwards, the cold shower water wasn’t quite as unpleasant.

Elephants were everywhere again during night obs! Sweet little (relative term here) babies were all over the place. One elephant was up at the top of a modest mountain! It seemed like it should be overcome by gravity, but it was obviously balancing just fine. Another group of elephants was very into the tourist vehicles watching them. All four of them, including a mother, a teeny-weeny (as far as elephants go) baby, and two subadultish-looking individuals were raising their trunks towards the vehicle and trumpeting. That baby about killed me with its cute imitations of the older elephants. Among the other zillion groups of them we saw one baby nursing, and came upon some really old lone looking males, two of which had only half of their master tusk leftover (elephants are tusked like we are handed, and the master tusk is the one they use the most). The base of the trunk of one of the males appeared to have a circumference equal to that of a fairly good-sized log. Enormous. I think I might like to be an elephant in my next life. As far as life on the savanna goes, I think theirs is the most insouciant, because their food is everywhere and other animals have to be pretty dang hungry before attempting to take an elephant down.

Near a patch of these elephants, Dave spotted a hyena skull, and skillfully saddled up next to it, scooping it up while we kept an eye on the closest mother and her little one. I love skulls; ever since taking mammalogy this spring, I find them to be fascinating beyond all measure. The teeth of this skull were fairly worn down, indicating it belonged to an old hyena. The sagittal crest on a hyena skull is unreal; that is a ridge on the top of the skull where the temporalis muscle attaches, which powers the jaw.

Then we came upon Bieber, the young male lion with a good-sized but still developing blonde mane. I named him Bieber because he is young, and because I thought that my cousin Ella Signs might appreciate knowing there is a lion here named after her favorite music artist. Bieber is gorgeous, not that I have ever met a lion I wouldn’t describe as thus. He groomed and yawned a lot, rubbing his paws over his eyes in an attempt to dissuade the flies, and looked around from his mound with an intense sun-like experience. Upon reexamining my five male lion photos for the project, I was surprised to realize that they are all different individuals. Joe, there is a lion out there named Coltrane now! :) I haven’t decided between McJagger and Harry Chapin for the other one. I suppose John Denver is also on the roster; he looks as though he could be a John Denver. Or perhaps Usher; Dave suggested that one, and even though I haven’t really listened to them much, Usher seems like a good lion name. As for my possibly new female, she will be either Janis or Joplin, because she looks tough with her missing eye, and I can picture her singing “Take another little piece of my heart out Baby! Oh, oh, break it! Break another little piece of my hea-a-a-art!” And my Grandma Janice is unfailingly tough, so it fits in that way too.

Topi, impala, thomson’s gazelles, and cape buffalo were scattered across Breakfast Plain yesterday evening too (named so because tourists take their “hippo breakfast” on the riverbank nearby). We even saw two grant’s gazelles; they look very much like tommys, but slightly larger and with white that extends up the backs of their legs and over their butts. We were taught to tell them apart during BEAM by remembering that “Grants have pants.” I would also like to tell Sam Aliah (or maybe it was Reagan?) that I fully appreciate the comment that tommy tails could power a wind farm; I guess I didn’t notice two years ago how truly constantly they are always moving! Oh, and I forgot to mention that I actually witnessed a topi in the act of rubbing its horns in the mud the other day. All you can do is chuckle. The cape buffalos look grumpy as ever; Lia and I thought it rather funny when Dave suggested it is because they are “just so preoccupied with being massive.” As for the impala, three or four males were chasing one another around, making a ton of racket. A poor tommy almost got caught in the middle of them, and barely managed not to get plowed over. I understand that the groups of gracile, beautiful females that make up their harems must be highly desirable, but really? Oh, and I can’t forget the mother warthog that ran across our path, followed closely by her three overgrown teenage piglets, every one of their tails pointing characteristically at the sky.

Two females hyenas were nursing their cubs at the den: Zoey and Sauer. Zoey was nursing her two tiny black cubs; they squitter like little kittens!!! I almost squittered watching them, because such cuteness necessitates vocalization lest one should burst. It is a naturally elicited reaction, I swear. Zoey groomed one of the little cubs so hard at one point that it tumbled over backwards, and squealed its way back to nurse. Zoey is a good mama. So is Sauer, who was very nervous with us around her cub, even though it is much bigger than Zoey’s. She was very on edge, perhaps for some other unknown reason. I think she and Zoey are my favorite adult females, maybe along with AWP. Sauer is just beautiful; her neck is extraordinarily thick, and she is so big! I wouldn’t mess with her. Following the peaceful den scene, some light whoops in the distance drew several of the surrounding hyenas in the direction of the lodge. We didn’t know where they were going, and couldn’t follow them. The mysteries of animal behavior are what make it so fun to study.

We have been deprived of our African sunsets lately, which are made up of just the type of sinking blazing ball you would imagine; but here, you can literally see it moving as it glides down the sky behind the mountains. It’s quite amazing. Two nights ago there was one of these brilliant suns in the western sky, while forks of lightning extended to the ground towards the east. But the last two nights the sun has been completely obscured, replaced yesterday by flashing lightning that lit up the entire plain. I can’t complain; it was just as cool, especially with the added thunder. AND we saw a whitetailed mongoose in our headlights! They sort of resemble a skunk with their fanning white tail, and are rather large for being mongooses. I didn’t even know they existed before last night!

We all split for bed pretty fast after dinner when it’s raining out, because it is harder to hear one another, and the cold and wet just makes you want to curl up under those warm Maasai blankets. The rain had stopped by the time Lia and I fell asleep, which is when we heard our leopard. Lia and Dave saw it on their drive this morning, and we could hear it from obs at North Den! The cubs were chasing each other around playing this morning. It was hilarious watching them grab one another by the ears and neck, wrestling all around and playing chase. Even Zoey’s two little black cubs were joining in the play, tumbling over her back, and becoming the center of attention of the older cubs. They all seemed so fascinated by these little versions of themselves, and it was so great to watch. In addition, one of the adult females actually lifted her leg in greeting for a cub-so sweet for her to be so appeasing to such a little one. We checked out pancake den (don’t ask; I have no idea where it got its name) before leaving. Tinsel had two tiny cubs still in her natal den, even smaller than Zoey’s cubs! I almost died. They kept running out to their mother, then back to the den, following the other’s lead with every move. They played tug of war with sticks that they detached from tiny bushes, dragging them along behind them. I also loved it when they would stick their ickle-d noses in the air and sniff the great wide world that was soon to be their own.

Although Zac had procured the numbers of a couple of safari guides for me to ask about the usual location of lions, we couldn’t find any even given their advice. I hope to have more luck tonight! Either way, the drive was phenomenal; we didn’t see a whole lot of wildlife, but we did stop momentarily by the hippo pool. A curious hippo swam its way over to look at me from the bottom of the bank I was standing on; I was surprised, because most hippos appear to ignore human observers. I liked this hippo; I think it represents the ethologists of the animal world, akin to those of us who are so fascinated with other species. It disappeared in a great swirl beneath the water as I left.

It has been a relaxing day at camp, and now is almost time to go out for night obs. I am sitting amidst the big rocks of the fireplace, looking out at the savanna and snaking river behind the trees, writing. I really love waking up to the sound of that river rushing in the distance. Earlier today I worked on my lions until the computer ran out of power, and entered hyena poop sample data into a spreadsheet. It was rather hilarious reading over the various descriptions of poop, from green and gooey to hard, hairy and crusty. Gross? Yes. Zac and Meg also showed us how to clean the solar panels after lunch, as well as check the battery juice. We can now officially take part in the chores of camp life!