21:24, Friday, 5 August, 2011

Wednesday morning, the male hyena Kioto was a dancing king. He was head over heels for Pan, and repeatedly enacted the hyena leg-crossing behavior. Leg-crossing is done before mating for some unknown reason. Kioto would take one leg and put it over the other, then do the same thing on the other side, back and forth and back and forth. Pan was sacked out under a bush and paying the poor guy no attention, probably inwardly rolling her eyes and only tolerating him because she was too tired to aggress beyond a couple of T-1 looks and one lunge. Kioto was clearly nervous, but wouldn’t give up. He went on dancing like a fool for at least half an hour, retreating and returning while busting the moves. It was adorable, and I wish that Pan had fallen for him. As it was, she eventually got up to walk away; Kioto followed her at a safe distance. Once when she looked around behind her, Kioto promptly looked away as though he hadn’t been following her and was merely minding his own business. We left after she turned around and walked back towards the bushes. Kioto was still following close behind, and we can only guess how much longer he pursued.

After Kioto and Pan, we found a lioness and four cubs ambling along. We decided to follow so I could get some GPS’s and better ID photos. Suddenly we saw another lioness up ahead, and watched as the first lioness began to sprint towards her. The new lioness leapt up and they met in the air, biting playfully before coming down and nuzzling one another. People who think cats can’t be sweet don’t know what they’re talking about. The first lioness continued on with the second close behind, and pretty soon she sprinted ahead again, at which time we noticed a third lioness. This lioness also got up to receive her tumultuous greet. The two wrestled and nuzzled before the crew continued onward to arrive at a circle of six cub/subadults eating a freshly killed wildebeest, a fourth lioness laying close by. The cubs’ faces were stained with blood; one’s entire head was covered in red. The lionesses sat off to the side, nuzzling and grooming arriving cubs before they continued along, tripping over their oversized paws to join in the feast. Soon all ten cubs were gorging away. Compared to hyenas, the lions shared their food rather peacefully. When one of the adults decided to eat, she didn’t shove anyone off, but just scooted in so that the others made room. There were still rumbles, bizarre squeals, growls and the occasional roar that caused an individual to get up and change position; the etiquette wasn’t up to Pride and Prejudice standards by any means, but it was pretty darn good considering the environment.

For evening obs we rode out to Fig Tree, driving along the Talek River in a lovely new area with lots of bush scrub before entering longer-grassed savanna. We were at a loss as to where the hyenas were, and eventually got out to stretch and pick up some trash. At that time I satisfied an urge I’ve harbored since the start of the migration. Nobody was around, so I handed my camera and binos to Lia before sprinting after a big herd of wildebeest. I always hoped to run through them, but of course they wouldn’t have it. A group of probably one hundred bolted, the wave of panic spreading quickly from one to the other; I have never felt so powerful. When at last I stopped to catch my breath, a horizontal line of them had formed ahead, every head turned my way. It was so impressive. I booked it at them once more before thanking them and returning to the car, where my smile was reflected on the faces of the others.

We stopped by Fig Tree Lodge to pick up something that Gabe had left for Joseph. While there, some of the meat they leave out for their genet somehow made it into Eli’s pocket and was fed to Kelsey upon return. Boy, did she ever go crazy for it! She now has her own chair at the end of the table where she hops up to sit and groom herself, wandering onto the table when we hold out food. Kelsey washes herself by licking both paws and rubbing them over her face like a rabbit. Her little ears are always twitching and moving this way and that, and her chocolate brown eyes and sniffing pointy nose poking up over the table edge would make anyone melt. Best camp pet imaginable. So on the way to bed, we were walking along, talking and laughing over Kelsey. Nearer to our tent, we grew quiet, and I was reveling in the night and the thought of bed when Lia suddenly screeched and began to run. I was thoroughly confused until she yelled, “ANTS!” I looked down at my feet to discover I was standing in an absolute sea of safari ants. I wish it had registered sooner than it did, because as I began running I could already feel them crawling up my pants. I dashed out of the frenzy and past lines and lines of them before making it under our tent awning, where Lia had jumped up on the desk and was in near hysterics. I hopped up on the chair; they were everywhere and falling out of my shoes. Next thing I knew they were biting me. Lia was yelling, “Open the tent! We have to get in the tent!” I couldn’t help but laugh at our situation amidst the panic, and made myself hop down and unzip the tent between regular exclamations of “Ow, ouch, ow!” with each new bite. Thankfully I had not picked up any warriors. After what seemed an age the zipper was finally undone, and we shot into the tent and whipped off our pants, yowling and dancing. Lia grabbed her shoe and started pounding every ant that wandered out of my discarded pants with great shouts of “Awwwwr!” When we had finally exterminated them and calmed down enough to put our pajamas on, we realized we had no way to go to the bathroom. The ants were all over under our tent and coming out of it. Lia said, “Well, I’m just going to have to hold it.” Then there came a shout from the tent next door, “You can’t hold it forever!” Eli, the comic relief. I couldn’t stop laughing and fell onto my bed; Lia was sort of laughing, but still slightly hysterical. She is brave as can be when it comes to big scary animals, but doesn’t do well with spiders, ants and bees. We knew we had to make a break for the choo, but Lia needed her boots, which were hanging in a tree above the formidable siafu. I took a deep breath and sprinted out the screen to get them, hopping along like a maniac. While she was putting them on, I tucked my pants into my socks like Steve Erkle (sp), said a prayer and jumped atop the desk outside with my water bottle to brush my teeth. While on the desk, Lia shrieked from inside “I HATE BUGS!”; as though the ants weren’t enough, there had been a bee in her boot, leaving a throbbing lump on her right foot. I cornered the bee with a cup and dumped it outside as she recovered enough to stand. Then, on the count of three, we sprinted in form running fashion (if only we had feathered hats and batons to sway at our sides) to the choo. On the return trip, we stopped to rest between ant sections, at which time Eli told us through his window screen that they were chewing on the edges of his canvas in a way that sounded like rain. When he stuck his head out to investigate, they had crawled onto his head and neck and bitten him. We offered him our floor, but he ended up moving to Tracey’s old tent for the night (who went home with Kay). We finally made it back into the safe haven of our tents, and fell asleep chuckling to ourselves. What great adventures!

2:26, Saturday, 6 August, 2011

Come next morning, the safari ants had organized themselves into abundantly neat little lines, so we didn’t have to fret quite so much about unexpectedly stepping into them. I would love to make a study of siafu; they are interesting as all getout. (I don’t know if I mentioned it before, but the Maasai actually use the warriors as stitches. They won’t let go with their jaws, so they twist the bodies off and leave the head to hold cuts together. Super resourceful!)

On obs we witnessed the three cheetah brothers that will be a part of my book eating a kill. The data is compiling like mad. I am so close to being finished with the Serena book; I have discovered one last lioness named Dolly (for Dolly Parton), and I just need to wait for the cord to finish printing pictures. In the meantime, I am compiling all of the information and pictures I will need to make a book for this side, and will be expecting lots of help picking out names when I return home.

We also found three new male lions, which Eli and Brian are trying to get me to name after the Jonas Brothers, but I don’t know; one of them is named Nick, which just doesn’t seem a very lionesque name (sorry Ningle :) ). But we’ll see.

I have to throw in mention of a giraffe that had walked through mud and looked exactly like it was wearing boots. There was also an elephant that got down on its knees to rub its tusks in the mud for some reason (I will have to check with Estes on that behavior). Two of the earth’s best animals right there.

I noticed lots of little colorful birds in camp Thursday afternoon. There was a striking black and white one, smaller than a house sparrow, with a gorgeous red crown. Another had a light brown tail fading into blue and two shades of orange on its belly and head. Yet others are tiny finch-like birds with sky-blue or softly rust red bellies, and some of my favorites are yellowy-green all over.

A lioness stalked a giraffe in the evening hours, obviously not too serious. She crouched and slunk towards it in the grass, stopping every time it turned its head. I was very impressed with how close she got; we had to leave to look for hyenas after a while, but I’m sure she wasn’t silly enough to go for a full-grown giraffe on her own. In the hyena world, Kioto was trying to move on after Pan, now hopelessly following Helios around. Helios ignored him, perhaps aware she was a rebound, and unwittingly led him to a den. The cub Idi actually went over to greet and follow him around, an uncommon show of tolerance (and apparent liking) for a male at the den. Very interestingly, Helios then began what looked like a mass exodus; all five cubs at the den (even those who weren’t her own) traveled beside her a considerable distance. I think she was probably leading them to a new den. I’m intrigued that she would move others’ cubs with her own; my limited experience suggests that hyenas don’t have much to do (outside of greeting and aggressing) with the cubs of other clan members; maybe Kay would say otherwise. And all the while Kioto followed at a safe distance.

Before sunset we found an old abandoned bus on the side of the road, with a “St. Muir Girls’ Secondary School: Strive to Excel” decal across its side. It’s been sitting there, propped up by rocks for a few days now, like something from a zombie movie. We peered curiously inside to find it trashed with hubcaps and tires. Very strange. The next logical thing that comes to mind when finding an abandoned bus with a ladder up its side: why waste the view? We climbed up, and it was of course excellent.

Kelsey let me pet her without running off of the table at dinner. I haven’t been joining in the petting because she clearly doesn’t like it, but I think the problem is that everyone has been too forceful about it. I didn’t push it when she started to move away, and she turned around and came back. She climbed up on Brian’s arm for part of a granola bar, and we tried putting food on my head (laid on the table), and she took that too. Last but not least, she licked frosting from Lia’s granola bars off of our fingers, only testing very gently with her mouth beforehand to make sure it wasn’t food. Her tongue is rough like a cat’s, but long, thin, and disproportionately thick. She is such a sweetheart.

A pair of bushbucks ate right beside our tent when I stepped outside late that night, and a female is quietly picking her way through the woods just now as I sit writing.

Missing my family and friends more with each passing day. Come Wednesday, I am going to be completely torn between sprinting to the plane and grabbing an acacia tree in a way that no one can pry my fingers off.