20:41, Sunday, 3 July, 2011

Closest lion roars yet just occurred, and on both sides of us! According to Kay (who is staying with us right now), lion eyes appear green in the dark, while hyena eyes appear more yellow-green. Therefore I have the satisfaction of knowing that the night of the hyena/lion/hippo/leopard frenzy, it was indeed a lion whose eyes we saw. Tonight, they stop roaring every time we open our windows and shine our lights out. Typical.

The last couple of days have been filled with socialization, putting me behind on my lions. It’s been worth it though. The day before yesterday, we went to Steph’s husband Howard’s safari camp to eat lunch, because the balloon pilots that were going to eat with them cancelled last minute. It was delicious, and I drank about a gallon of mango juice. The camp was right on the bank of the Mara, about ten meters overlooking a fairly steep drop-off. We watched hippos and a crocodile below while we waited for lunch to be ready. I got to talk with Virginia again! She smiled really big and grabbed my hand warmly when she saw me. Jeff (the dog trainer), his wife and kids were also there.

That night Sarah Skinner came with us on obs. It was delightful to have her along; she is just so enthusiastic about the animals, and so pleasant! When she saw the littlest black hyena cubs, she exclaimed in her spry British accent, “It should be illegal to be that cute!” It’s always fun when people discover just how adorable hyenas really are. Apparently, Sarah helped out with the movie African Cats. She directed the film crew towards large carnivores, and her name is in the credits.

Yesterday, we returned to Howard’s camp to eat a lunch actually planned for us. Pizza!!! I love the food here, but pizza was definitely a welcome reminder of home. There was the biggest crocodile I have ever seen laying on the rock in the middle of the rushing Mara, its mouth wide open as though waiting for something to walk into it. And we got to see the other IRES girls! They drove over from Talek with Julia, Tracey, Brian (a research assistant on the other side), Elle (a balloon pilot), and Kay. We had so many stories to exchange! The previous night they had seen hyenas killing a cape buffalo, which took an hour and a half to die while being eaten alive, another buffalo trying desperately to chase the hyenas away. I think I would have cried all night long after that. It’s nature, yes, but actually watching something like that would be very difficult for me. Janie and Adrianna seemed to feel it was a bittersweet experience for sure. Annnnnnnnd.....THEY SAW THE WILDEBEEST COMING!!!! The migration is FINALLY on its way. Now we can only hope that they won’t eat too long in between Talek and here. While we were talking, a hippo was carefully stepping down the opposite bank to try and enter the river. It was like an unspoken oxymoron watching a hippo be so cautious, testing out rocks with its big feet and stepping timidly along. Eventually it decided to try a different entrance, and disappeared back up over the bank.

After lunch we played a massive game of volleyball with the about twelve Maasai from around camp. One of the Maasai actually had a whistle and acted as referee. It was Tanzania versus Kenya; later it became Amboseli versus the Masai Mara. After three games under the hot sun (it is at last feeling like Africa midday), my team came out triumphant. Such fun! One of the Maasai guys would hit the ball in a karate-chop motion, coming over then under the ball with the pinkie sides of his joined hands contacting it. It looked extraordinarily painful, but was extremely effective, and he seemed completely unbothered. By the time we were finished, I was absolutely COVERED in dirt. So much for the shower I had held my breath under that morning.

Kay returned with us to stay in West Camp for a few days. We had prepared heavily beforehand, making sure the lab tent was clean and tidy, all bulbs replaced, the solar panels cleaned and battery fluid tested, the car spotless inside and out, the liquid nitrogen container properly filled. The “Things that Make Kay have a Rage Blackout” list (made by a grad student and approved by Kay) was read and re-read. At last we were ready for “Mama Kubwa” (Big/Head Mama in Swahili, which everyone calls her out here) to arrive. It has been great having her around. She sure loves animals! She almost rivals me. And she has gajillions of excellent stories. Last night we went up to Serena Lodge and had drinks with Amanda, Chris, and their visiting advisor Shimmy (great name!) from Yale. Kay told about the night that she and some grad students had gone out to dart a striped hyena, and somehow lions got between them and the car, so that they had to stay all night huddled in an old ranger outpost hut close by until the lions finally moved out in the morning. She said she could see the headlines in her head all night long: “Professor Leads Students to be Malled by Lions.” :) There was another time that a bull elephant in musth chased her car for about four kilometers offroad. Four kilometers!

The animals are active as ever. Since I last wrote, I’ve observed some excellent behavior, although all fairly commonplace in the hyena world. Two days ago, we were at one of the South Dens, and there was only one cub out, lying atop the den. Suddenly, a different cub whooped in the distance. All at once five cubs popped out of the den to listen. Then yesterday morning Java refused to nurse her cubs. She is fairly skinny, and her cubs’ squitters likely won’t be appeased until she’s had something to eat, which has hopefully taken place by now. A few interesting interspecies interactions have occurred between hyenas and the canids of the savanna. We watched a bat-earred fox play chicken with a sacked out and apparently uninterested hyena. It kept walking in closely, nervously, and then bouncing back at the last second. And tonight it looked exactly like a jackal and the hyena Golgotha had a miniature conference. We were following Golgotha around North, and noticed a blackbacked jackal. Stopping to get a GPS for the jackal, we saw it approach Golgotha, and they casually faced one another, looking into the others’ eyes and standing about a foot apart as though hosting a conversation. Eventually Golgotha moved on and the jackal lay down, but how intriguing! There is a whole world of interspecies connections that we know nothing about.

The hyena Waffles actually showed up at the lodge last night; Lord only knows how she got past the electric fences. We were driving away from the main lobby, and were startled to see a hyena standing right on the cobblestone path in front of us. She looked so bizarre there! We wished her well as she continued on towards the building through the little side-woods.

All four little black cubs were in the same den tonight, their wittle heads poking out all in row as Panda, Stoney, and the rest of the gang sniffed in our direction or chewed on the car. And we saw Sergeant Pepper!!! Pepper was badly hurt by a lion or something about a week ago; he had three brutal slash marks across his face, his jaw hung loose and he was limping. We were all so worried about him, and thought him dead since we hadn’t seen him in at least a week. But tonight he was on top of the den right by his sibling Mean Mr. Mustard. What a remarkable healing system hyenas have! They are such an amazing puzzle that holds potential answers for injury and disease, unaffected by rabies, distemper, and many other supposedly incurable maladies. Besides the obvious advantage of researching this aspect of their biology, the lab is also finding them to be an indicator species for the health of the ecosystem and other carnivores here in the Masai Mara. If hyenas are doing poorly, it should follow that much less adaptive species are suffering to an even greater extent.

We witnessed a call-in last night! Steph and Howard played a tape of lions and hyenas fighting over food, and hyenas loped in from far and wide in answer to the recorded whoops. Only a very small percentage of the population showed, probably about six or seven hyenas, but it was still a pretty neat experience. Call-ins are used to estimate hyena populations based on previous calibration.

I have so many new lions! I still cannot get over what gorgeous animals they are. A group of seven came running straight at us and past our vehicle yesterday; a hot air balloon overhead was frightening them. We couldn’t find them again until this morning. The group is comprised of a lioness with three subadults and three juveniles, presumably all hers from two different litters. If Kay’s estimations are correct, there are three males and three females. One of the younger cubs has a tumor growing out of its cheek; I want nothing more than to heal it for him. As it is, I must be sure to pick out a really special name for him. Then, Kay found me four lions double-dating about twenty meters from one another, likely two brothers and their girlfriends. I think one may have been Jack Johnson. My book of photos is underway at last, so hopefully soon I can determine who is who in the field. Only one of the probably ten new lions has a name thus far, and her name is Carole King, or King for short. I like the idea of having a lioness named King.

The non-carnivorous animals have been quite entertaining as well. There are giraffes simply EVERYWHERE right now, in groups of up to twenty. I never thought so many giraffes would be in one area. Many of them are just little ones, and this morning three of them standing next to one another formed a giant’s staircase: one really tall one next to a medium one next to a baby.

The elephants are still everywhere; I will always have a special love for elephants. They and giraffes are just insurmountably awesome. Today we saw a juvenile elephant trucking it to keep up with its group, clumsily running along with its ears out and tail slightly raised. One of the elephants it was running to had no tusks. This is becoming a selected trait thanks to poachers. On a happier note, there was a baby further along that couldn’t have been more than a week old. I keep thinking I’ve seen the smallest possible elephant, only to happen upon a tinier one. I almost died viewing that little bundle of love flaring its ears and reaching its trunk up towards its attentive mother.

As far as antelope go, the male impala are still snorting obnoxiously while they chase each other across the plains, sure to become someone’s dinner in their oblivious pursuit of females. Meanwhile, the biggest harem of impala I have ever seen was under the reign of a male with very small horns, but probably three times the brain of the big-horned jocks speeding around grunting with their tails in the air. Twice I have witnessed tommies and grants trying to mate while walking, the ultimate multitaskers, and we usually hear topi horns cracking noisily together at least once a day as they spar. Recently I even observed two tommy females dueling with their little toothpick horns.

The warthogs still go running away with their tails up every time we so much as glance in their direction, except for the one we saw chase two hyenas giggling away from its den. The rage of a mother is a force to be reckoned with. And if the rage of a warthog is intimidating, imagine what it would be like to have upwards of one hundred cape buffalo mothers charging at you. We passed a large herd with very young calves today. I bet nothing is bothering them!

The plethora of birds has not diminished. The other day we observed a bright, bright red male ostrich chase another off of two females. They look so silly when they run, like an enormous featherduster with legs. Tonight a pair of the most handsome crowned cranes had two juveniles with them, the yellow tufts on their heads still sparse and wispy. We saw scarlet ibises, pelicans in trees, a black and white eagle of which Kay knew the name but I can’t remember, white egrets, and some kind of bird (different from a widow bird) possessing an amazingly long tail.

Camp itself is teeming with wildlife. Our dwarf mongooses had stuck around until today, when they mysteriously disappeared. We have been seeing their close relatives, the banded mongooses, on observation sessions though. Today there was a pack that contained itty-bitty mongoose babies, a heart attack of cute. A skink kept me company in the shower the other day, we recently spotted a green snake about twice the size of the smaller one that generally hangs around, and to Lia’s dismay we have a very large spider named Godzilla that hangs on our outside tent flap. The flycatchers are still around, and two days ago when I came out of our tent in the morning, the illuminated eyes of our civet were staring at me from halfway up a tree. I caught a glimpse of it last night as well. Kay couldn’t sleep last night because she had an elephant eating branches above her tent, and when that finally left, she looked down to see a black widow building a web beside her bed and had to remove it. Lia and I were strongly disappointed that the elephant had chosen Kay’s side of camp, but this morning after arriving back at camp we heard a great trumpet, only to look out from inside our tent and see an elephant rush through the trees not one hundred meters away.

I must end by writing that I no longer have to resist dancing across the savanna. It was so beautiful while we were out on obs the other morning, and I mentioned how much I wished I could just run and dance through the tall inviting grass. Dave stopped the car and told me to go ahead. I looked at him, thinking he was joking, but he said I could go frolic if I wanted. I told him I am a very gullible person, and he shouldn’t joke about this, but he really wasn’t kidding. No animals were currently around, apart from the elephant off in the distance, and Lia and I got out of the car and went spinning, dancing, and jumping across the still slightly dewy, sunlit savanna. It was one of the freest sensations I have ever felt. Lia suffered about seven tics afterwards, but for some strange reason I didn’t get any.



P.S. Happy birthday on Friday Tee! You make me feel old.