21:19, Tuesday, 28 June 2011

This morning we shouldn’t have needed an alarm, given that a lion was roaring about 300 meters away. The shining stars and moon promised sun as we stepped out of our tents into the cool air.

My favorite hyena moment of the morning was when all the cubs out of the den were laying in a pile, as they usually do, and little Mari came over and just climbed up and sat her little butt down on top of the pile, struggling to stay balanced. She is the cub who most likes to cuddle, laying her head down on top of the other cubs’ backs and shoulders, regardless of what position they are in. I just want to pick her up and cuddle her.

We didn’t find any lions this morning even though we drove around looking for them. However, we did come upon a pretty awesome group of elephants. The matriarch was HUGE. I would be happy to live in a house as big as she is. In contrast, there was the smallest baby elephant I think I’ve ever seen. Its little gray back was barely visible above the grass, and until it got up towards a mound all we could see was a thin moving semicircle of gray. An older juvenile elephant seemed to be babysitting it, following it around and keeping a close eye on it.

Dr. Seuss Ville was full of giraffes today! They dwarfed the trees, and something about them being in that area of abundant yet spaced acacia trees just looked really awesome. A short ways beyond that was a baby Grants gazelle in the road. I could have taken a family photo, because the male and female were both there with it, and no other animals close by.
When we returned to camp, Jorgio and Moses were “mowing” the camp grass. They walk around with really long-bladed, slightly curved machetes, bending over and swinging their arm backwards and forwards so that grass tops fly everywhere. You wouldn’t believe how effective it is!

I found out today that most of the delicious water we have been drinking is actually straight up rainwater. I couldn’t believe it; everything is just so excellent! AND environmentally friendly.

I had a good chat with Senny up at the lodge today; I went with Dave to get gas and make some copies of lion whisker charts and profiles. I explained to her why I feel studying animals is important, because she was unsure as to why anyone would want to bother doing so. However, she is very fond of mongooses, because they keep snakes away. She smiles and calls them “good people.” Senny is such a cheerful and smart person, her English flawless. I hope she gets to return to college, which is where she wants to be.

Speaking of mongooses, ours were back today! It was so great to see them. We fed them cinnamon rolls, which they seem to enjoy more than peanut butter bread. Before I knew they were back, Lia said she had enticed five of them to come right up under the table!

Although the sun had been out and hot during midday, yet another storm rolled in just as we should have been going out for night obs. It rained very hard for a short while. Dave was stuck at the lodge, where he had gone to visit his balloon pilot friend. Lia and I ate dinner alone; we missed Dave, but it was also kind of fun having it be just the two of us. And I got a lot of lion work done, constructing a spreadsheet to organize the haphazard data I have been collecting. It was nice to sit in our tent with the windows open, smelling the rain while we worked. But gosh darnit, those wildebeest are never going to arrive if this keeps up. I need them to come, if only to make sure my data isn’t biased by the long grass obscuring my view.

Right before bed, on the walk back from dinner, we saw a jerboa or jumping mouse or some little something with a long tail and big mouse-like ears running along the ground. It was scared of our headlamps and climbed the tree where I was earlier amusing myself by trying to get a good look at a lizard that kept scuttling to the opposite side of the trunk. Then the frenzied little sprinting mouse-like creature suddenly fell to the ground with the remnant of a thud. I think it was okay though, because I couldn’t find it on the ground anywhere. It climbed a tree, shot down a branch and fell off of it within about two seconds. Whatever it was needs to do some deep-breathing yoga.

An enormous slug different from the orange one is outside of our tent tonight. It pulls its little antenna-eyes in when I touch it, and then if I wait awhile, it starts to poke them out very slowly, and I can watch as they timidly elongate again. I love doing that with slugs at home; the only difference here is that the slug is about ten times as big.