Friday, 17 June, 2011

I think the best synonym for the Masai Mara is “life.” Even if I tried, I could never recount all of the life forms I see in a day. The animal kingdom is represented at its best here.

Yesterday morning at 5:45 sharp, we donned our headlamps, and headed out to the lab tent. Dave showed us how to record temperature for the previous day using a brilliant thermometer that records both maximum and minimum temperatures. The first person to arrive at the lab tent each morning also has the responsibility of recording rainfall from a simple gage located behind the tent.

We immediately drove out to South Territory (the lab has names for each area of the Mara, as location is crucial to ethological research). Dave introduced us to recording notes with a little hand-held recorder. Each morning he says the time, the initials of the observers, and where we are headed. He mentions whenever we enter a new landmarked area, as well as any carnivores we see; of paramount importance, however, is of course observed hyena individuals and behavior. The tapes are later transcribed into notes.

On our way to South Territory, I was introduced to a species of antelope that I had never witnessed before. They are called olinik, and they are slightly larger than a dik-dik, with the same spindly build. We also passed hippos in the pre-dawn light that were still out grazing on land. Hippos on land are absurd. In fact, hippos are perfectly absurd in every way, such that I enjoy them very much.

People who think hyenas are ugly need to see the hyena cubs that we watched for about an hour at South Den. There were about six of them, all around 7 months old, and all fuzzy with big eyes and dog noses, acting just like puppies. They were all curious and bumbling, but with perhaps a little more grace than your average puppy due to their unique gate. Their favorite position was lying in a pile on top of one another. I also loved the fact that they would periodically disappear into their den holes, and after a short while you would just see a little head poke up. These cubs gave us our first practice session in identifying individuals using spot patterns and ear nicks, based on picture book of known individuals. Lia was absolutely super at picking out who was who; I took a little longer to get the hang of things, but once I did it was super fun. My favorite two cubs to identify were Czar and Pala. Czar has a chunk of spots that looks like a little roller blade on his side, and Pala has both an A and a B-nick in her left ear (the letters refer to the position of the nicks, which are little pieces of missing ear). I also really like the mother hyena named Java, because I was the first to identify her when she walked in, due to a “V” pattern on her right shoulder.

The most surprising thing was how unafraid the cubs were of our research vehicle. One actually came up and started chewing on the front of it!

I named a landmark tree! The acacia in the front of South Den will forever be known in future hyena data as “Rock Lobster” due to the way one of its branches curves up into a lobster-clawish shape. We had passed a landmark tree named “Rainstick Tree” on the way to the den, and when I asked if Rock Lobster had a name, Dave said no, and that I could name it.

Lucky for me, it looks like I am going to be doing a lot more naming. However, instead of trees, I am going to be naming LIONS. I came up with a project while we were driving around the savanna finishing up morning obs. I am going to try and develop a model for determining lion population based on the utilization of a small area. I will most likely develop the model when I get back to MSU, using lion data from 2006 that was never analyzed. Then, I will use the model to estimate the current lion population in the Mara with the data that I am able to gather in the next two months. An up-to-date estimate of lion population is sorely needed for conservation measures. I wanted to do cheetahs and leopards too, but cheetahs have too wide of a home range for such a short time period, and leopards are next to impossible to keep track of regardless of how much time one has. My method is going to be photographing every lion I see, so that I can use whisker patterns, scars, nose color, etc. to distinguish between them and create a lion book here in camp. Eventually I will do this on both the west and east side of the Mara (since we will be switching camps halfway through the summer). This will allow me to additionally compare how much the population has declined in the more disturbed east side as opposed to the relatively undisturbed west side, offering some insight into whether the main problem for lions is anthropogenic influence. If the west’s population is declining at a greater or similar rate, then other things like rising temperatures may be contributing more than a negligible amount. It’s not exactly the neurobiological experiment that I had in mind at first, but two months is not enough time for something like that. I am going to be pushing it as is. I am so excited though!

On the way back to camp, I was reminded of how much I love topi. It looks like God took an artist’s brush and carefully painted them in gorgeously placed segments of tan-brown, dark-red brown, and black. And they are so ridiculous in their behavior; for one thing, the males rub their horns in mud to make them look bigger in an effort to impress females, so you often see them with a bunch of grass sticking to a layer of mud over their horns. They also stand on termite mounds to see, which is smart, but it makes them look like silly savanna sentinels. Among the other ungulates we saw were hartebeest. They are one of my favorite antelope species as well, even though I’m not entirely sure why I feel that way. Notably, we saw some bat-earred foxes further along. Talk about adorable!

Filiman made the most delicious breakfast called “crumble,” which is evidently a camp favorite. It is like apple crisp filled with all different types of fruit. Filiman is an EXCELLENT cook. We all get so excited when we see him coming with his tray at mealtime.

Camp in the daylight is gorgeous. We are situated on the side of a medium-sized hill alongside a bigger mountain, and from the lab tent table we can see out onto the savanna below with mountains in the distance. There is a fireplace in front of the lab tent that I had not noticed in the dark. The toilet is a lot less scary when you can see around you, and trees are everywhere, with any number of birds singing foreign songs atop their branches. One of the trees in front of our tent has a huge hammerkop (sp) nest; hammerkops make the biggest nests known to man. They are a big ball of sticks and mud, with a relatively very tiny hole for entrance. Lion King-like rocks and red dirt make barefooting it easy.

Aunt Chris, I would like you to know that the hammock you got me fits perfectly between the two trees in front of my tent, and I have already been laying in it extensively. It is the perfect place to brush up on my lion knowledge, read, write and watch dik-diks. Thank you so much!

On night obs we went to an area designated “Happy Zebra”. On the way there we passed through an area where the acacia trees were still spaced considerably apart, but there were tons of them. Lia described it perfectly when she said it seemed like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. I could drive forever around here, because even when the animals are feeling antisocial, the landscape is just so lovely and interesting.

We off-roaded to the Happy Zebra Den, which was surrounded by zebra, topi, impala, and tommies. Similar to the South, there were about six cubs there. When we first arrived, one of the cubs was testing its hunting ability by seeing how close it could get to a tommy. The tommy kept an eye on it but didn’t seem too worried. The best part came when all six cubs came right up to our vehicle. One of them stood directly below my window, staring straight up at me, not sure what to think. I could have reached out and touched it without fully extending my arm. Can you believe it?! Another actually put its front legs onto the car and sniffed the tire. It makes you wonder what they think that they aren’t afraid of the vehicle; they obviously must know that we are in there because they can smell us, but yet any movement made them skittish. I would love to know what goes through their little minds.

While we sat watching them, the sun set in a remarkable display. As it was going down, all of the ungulates tensed and looked in the same direction; one of the sentinel topi (minus his termite mount) started to loudly snort. The cubs disappeared into their den so that we expected to see a lion, but whatever it was must have been cryptically hidden in the tall grass, because we didn’t see anything.

Lightning flashed across the sky as we returned to the main road; there is no lightning like African lightning. It spreads its electric fingers across the enormous expanse of sky in a split second of radiating branches, or else forks down powerfully to touch the ground. Although we chased the rain, we never caught up to it. Strangely enough, owls were everywhere along the road, flying up in front of our headlights one after another. Owls are one of those things I had never really imagined living on a savanna.

After dinner, a husband and wife that live in a tent near the edge of camp came over to talk with us; they are researching the water quality of the Mara River, and their names are Amanda and Chris. Chris is downright hilarious; the reason I didn’t get to write yesterday is because we all stayed fairly late around the dinner table listening to his and Amanda’s stories. A group of science nerds with a good sense of humor is a formidable spectacle.

While we were talking, the deep, throaty burp-laugh of hippos sounded from the river, which is just across the savanna from camp. I guess they come up and graze by us at night, but the blankets here are so wonderfully warm that I have had no trouble sleeping regardless of my desire to stay awake and listen to the sounds of the night. Lia and I have decided to leave the front of our tent open so that the screen is exposed. That way we won’t miss anything that might come close while we are still awake. Last night brought my favorite African sound: the spine-chillingly deep, feral roars of lions that announce an unlocked force of nature.

I am going to catch up the rest of the way with my writing tomorrow; everything in camp is solar-powered, so we cannot charge things after dark, and my computer is nearly out of battery.