Sad News

I woke up this morning at 6:30 AM like usual, but as I was getting up a plane landed along the airstip out back... and then another. It was very early for planes to be coming in and we began to wonder if something had happened.

Then we found out the sad news that one of the Southern White Rhinos, Max, was killed sometime overnight. Poaching for rhino horn is still a big problem in Kenya. There is a huge market in China for rhino horn for "traditional medicine", for impotence of all things. Apparently since some people think a horn looks kind of phallic, they think crushed up rhino horn will work like Viagra. So even with zero evidence that it does anything, rhinos are being killed in Kenya for people in China to use the horn.

Even with all of the armed guards this place has, poachers are determined to get in because one rhino horn brings so much money. So sad. Apparently the guys snuck under the electric fence somehow. Even worse, this rhino who was killed was the nicest. He was partially tame because he was hand-raised and he liked to come up to cars and people could even reach their hands out and pet him.

I feel bad feeling good about my day after that, but I did get a lot done. James and I went out to do vegetation again and I think we have a system down now. We were much faster this time. We finished 8 of the 10 cages before lunch, and only had to go back out after lunch for a little bit. James also wanted to go with me to the boma tonight to get some milk from the cows and he helped me explain to the herders what I tried to tell them the other day about only putting 1 GPS unit on per day. It was a good thing he came, because they definitely had not understood me before.
We got done and started driving back just before the rain. Yes it is still raining-- I think I brought it to Kenya somehow. It is very late in the season for there to be rain and everyone keeps saying how unusual it is.

Moooo!

Every night I go to a boma or two to pick up my GPS units from the past 2 days and give them new ones. Today as I pulled up, the herds were just getting back, and the young cows seemed especially interested in my car. I got a pretty amusing sequence of photos.



An update on other things: Dan did come yesterday to check in on me and he brought Lena (another grad student in my year at Princeton) who is now at Mpala! It was nice to see her and find out all that has happened to her the past few weeks. I didn't even know she was coming up to Kenya  after things fell through in Tanzania until this past weekend when Dan mentioned in an email that she had arrived. Dan and I discussed my project and talked about changing/adding some things, so we'll see how it goes. He is planning to come back next Tuesday again, which is nice of him.

Trout Tree

Today I got no work done, but it was a fun day….

I tried to go out in the morning, but the roads were still wet from the rain yesterday and I almost got stuck in the mud. I had to switch into 4-wheel drive and reverse out of a mud hole until I could turn around. I then went the opposite way on a better road and watched a couple hybrids, but did not actually get to any of my sites.

Then in the afternoon, it was time for Alli to leave. So we drove to town and first had one last lunch with her at the awesome Trout Tree restaurant. For those of you who haven’t heard me talk about it, it is literally a restaurant in a tree. And they raise their own trout in tanks just behind. Here are some photos. There are usually colobus monkeys in the tree also, but they were not around today. They have actually never been there the 3 times I have gone. Is it me?

Alli then got in the taxi to go to the airport in Nairobi and the remaining three of us ran errands. Kim, Nicole, and I also EACH had a flat tire that we had switched out for the spares, but needed to get the punctures patched, so we brought the 3 tires into town with us to get fixed. We also did lots of grocery shopping and rang up a pretty big bill, even though this food only needs to last us a week until the first Earthwatch gets here next Monday.

We met up with George (the manager of the chimp center) who was also in town and went to a local bar/hangout spot for a couple beers. We were the only ones there, but they had a pool table, so we played several games. By the time we left town to drive back to Ol Pejeta, it was already 6pm. So we got back just in time for dinner at 7. Which means, I didn’t make it to the bomas to switch out the GPS units for a second night in a row… But I think the roads are still wet, and the ones to the bomas are especially bad. So I don’t know that I would have been able to get there anyway.

When we got back for dinner, there were two new ladies who are staying at the research center for just 2 nights. Trish and Helen- they are very nice. I’m not actually sure who Trish works for, but I think she is based in Denver, and Helen works for the Zoological Society of London.

Dan comes to visit me tomorrow and might be bringing Lena (one of the other grad students in my year at Princeton), who has apparently given up her project in Tanzania after some difficulty and come up to Mpala to try to do it here in Kenya. We’ll see how the meeting goes.

Rain

(The cheetah brothers again, this time without a baby zebra)

It is pretty late into the dry season for rain, but it rained again. Yesterday there was a light shower that passed and didn't do any damage to the roads. This afternoon, however, was a heavy downpour. I was out in the field when I heard thunder and saw dark clouds coming in. So I quickly drove back to the research center and pulled up just before it started to pour. Consequently, I am not going to the boma tonight to pick up their GPS units, because I think I would get stuck on the road there.

The past 2 days have been me trying to start behavioral data collection. It has gone ok, but I am worried that I am not going to be able to collect enough data. Dan is coming to visit next week one day, so hopefully we can figure it out then. I have also discovered that one of my supposed "before cows" sites, actually has cows on it right now. They were out in the middle of the plain today when I was collecting data.

Tomorrow Kim's friend Alli leaves to go back to California after visiting/helping out for 2 weeks. So we will go to town to have one last lunch with her and then put her in a taxi to Nairobi. We may go eat at Trout Tree, and if we do I will make sure to take picture this time and post them.

Project Started

Yesterday was a long day. My cages were finished and delivered to the research center Wed, so yesterday it was time to put them out at my sites, and do vegetation measurments at each one.

I met my guard, James, at 8am and we worked until 1:20 getting 6 of the 10 cages out. We took a short lunch break and then went back out from 2-5 to finish the other 4. I spent a lot of the day squatting down to count grass, so I was definitely tired by the end. I think James was tired too, and probably wishing he hadn't been the guard assigned to me.
But my day was not over yet because I then had to drive to the 2 bomas on the East side to pick up their GPS units and give them new ones. One of the herds lost one of their units, probably because the collar was not tight enough. But oh well, what can you do.

These units only lasted 1 day instead of 2 also, so I am going to need a new plan. Right now I give each herd 2 units and tell them to put them both on for 2 days in case one doesn't work. But I think I will tell them to put one on for the first day, take it off, and then put the second one on for the second day. I don't know how to say this in Swahili though, so I need to either find someone to come with me to tell them, or translate it for me ahead of time and write it down.

When I was still waiting for the cages on Wednesday, I went to the Chimp sanctuary with Nicole for the afternoon. One of the chimps has a brand new baby and I got a cute picture of it.

Cages done

Not too much to report today except that my cages are done and have been delivered to the research center. So I will officially start my project tomorrow. Nathan has promised me a guard to go out with me so that I can get out of the car and put out the cages and measure the vegetation. There are 10 cages to put out and several vegetation measurements to take at each cage site, so it will probably be a long day.

I also retrieved my first set of cow collars off of the cows this evening and downloaded the data to see where the cows has gone the past 2 days. The bad news is the GPS units only seemed to take data for the first day... so I don't exactly know what happened. Maybe the batteries didn't last, but 2 of the units were still flashing when I picked them up, so they were not dead. So I don't know why they stopped recording data on day 2? If this continues, I may have to switch to changing out the GPS units every day instead of every other day, which would be a pain. Also, the cows didn't actually go where I was expecting them to. So I may have to think on that for awhile and decide if I need to change anything or just keep going with the original plan.

Cheetahs!!!

Sweet cheetah sighting today. Three brothers had taken down a young zebra and were eating away when I drove up. Their stomachs were sooo full and they were panting, clearly tired, but still eating.

I feel bad for the poor baby zebra though  : (

Kim's car in the background.

P.S. All of the photos on here are compressed. So if anyone wants the high quality ones, remind me when I return to the states and I can email them to you.

Lazy Sunday

(Here is a photo of a curious zebra. When I first saw it last year, I thought it was a pregnant female. But no, it is a very swayback Male. Poor guy. But he survives ok it seems)

Sunday is generally a day off here. Most of the staff work a half day on Saturday and do not work on Sunday. So I had planned to not go into the field today, but to get stuff done around the research center. However, as seems to happen, time passed by and I feel like I didn’t get much done. It has taken me until 8:30 pm my time to write this blog entry.

To start with a recap of yesterday: I drove up to the workshop at Kamok and got them started on all of the construction I need done. My cage frames were finished Friday, picked up from town and brought to the research center. However, I am still waiting on a truck to take them up to Kamok to have the chicken wire put on. But Brian (the head of the workshop) was optimistic that they can have them done in a day or two. If so, I can start my project on maybe Wednesday.

They also cut the ends off of the dog chains I bought in town yesterday to make them a good length for cow collars. And they attached the new back number plate to my car, so I can drive it into town now if I need to.

I also went for a drive with Mathenge to see the far northwest plain I was going to use as a “before cows” site. Turns out, it is VERY far away. So we decided to eliminate that site and chose a different one that is much closer. It is a small plain, but I think it will work well, and Mathenge said that the grass looks good, so he can even move some cows on it in a few weeks for me.

Saturday night we all went for a sundowner (where you drive to a scenic spot and have a beer while watching the sunset). Here is a photo of Alli, Nicole, Kim, George, and Duncan, sitting by Nicole’s fancy rented car.

Today (Sunday) I did laundry and worked on wrapping my GPS units in wire. I need a way to protect them and attach them to the collars, so we wrap them in wire, making sure to leave openings to press the ON/OFF button and to plug in the charger cord. The wrapping in wire is actually quite a detailed job. I got done with only 15 of the 40 units today, so will have to keep working on them for a few days straight.

Another productive day

Today was another pretty productive day. I went out to the field this morning and found 8 hybrids! Then at 1pm it was time to head into Nanyuki again with Kim and Alli. We were going to meet up with Nicole, another UC Davis grad student coming to do research here for 3 months. She will be working at the chimp center. Oh, and as we started to drive toward the gate to head to town, we saw another hybrid.

We met up with Nicole in town, got milkshakes and did some grocery shopping (I got some snacks to have around). Then I went to a different harware store to buy chains with clips to use for cow collars. I had emailed Dan's Kenyan postdoc Wilfred, who also works on cattle grazing research, to tell him I bought chain but they didn't have clips and ask his advice. It turns out, I needed to ask for dog chains. They are lighter weight chain (which is good) with clips already attached. I told Nathan (the research coordinater) this in the morning and he called a guy he knows to make sure they had them for me. The guy even came to meet up with me in town and walk me to the store. So I now have cow collars!

On top of that, my frames were ready today! So I got Nathan to arrange for one of the Ol Pejeta trucks going to town to pick them up for me (they are too big to fit in my car). They are sitting by the research center now. I just need to get a truck to take them up to Kamok tomorrow and have them start putting the chicken wire on. I am hoping that will only take 2 days. But they probably won't start until Monday. So we'll see, and hopefully I can start my project the middle of next week.

And just to throw a cute picture into this post, here is a baby baboon riding on its mom's back (and napping)

Simba!

Lion pictures from the other day, copied off of Alli's camera. We were so close!

A big male and two females. The one on the left is has a collar on.

Hybrid fight

Today I needed to go to Kamok to get more fuel. The roads are still bad, so I asked if there was an alternate route to Kamok where the roads are ok. Apparently the road just inside the northern boundary fence has been all gravelled since last year. It is a longer route, but less chance of getting stuck so I went that way. It turned out to be a really good road and I got to see part of the conservancy I haven't before. There were a few places where you had to drive through a literal pond, but the road was gravel underneath, so no chance of getting stuck in mud. You just keep driving through the water.

On the way I found a hybrid. This was a male that appeared to have a harem of 1 female and (I presume) her colt from last year. While I was watching, a bachelor male came over and started challenging the hybrid. They started trotting, then running, then biting and kicking at each other. I have a lot of it on video. But in the middle of the battle I lost sight of them in the bush! I tried to see if they would come back out, but no luck. So I continued on to Kamok.

While there I got fuel and went to find Mathenge's office to see if I could talk to him a little more about my project. He wasn't there right when I walked in, but another guy called him on his cell phone and Mathenge came to meet me. I told him about the delay on the cages and being unable to find clips for the cow collars. He is going into town tomorrow, so he said he will check at several stores and let me know if he finds them. Then I can go back to town with Kim on Friday (when she is going in to meet another grad student from UC Davis who is coming here to research) and buy them.

Mathenge also introduced me to Giles, the head cattle manager. I told him about my project and he seemed very supportive, so it was a good meeting. I also made a plan to meet up with Mathenge again on Saturday so he can show me one of the sites we chose that I have never been to before. It is in the far northwest corner of the property. There are no cows there now, but they are planning to move some there soon. So this will hopefully be a crucial "before cows" site that then becomes a "during cows" site so I can see how the wildlife respond. Giles said that if I only need 2 weeks to get "before cows" data, they can hold off on moving the cows there for me for 2 weeks. So that was nice.

On the way back I drove by the spot where the hybrid had been trying to fight off a challenger and saw the hybrid alone-- without his female. So it looks like he lost the fight, and his harem to that other male! Poor guy. As a hybrid, he was much bigger than his challenger, so I don't know why he lost. I will have to check back in the next week and see if I can find that hybrid again and see who he is with now.

(The hybrid and his female, before he lost :( )

Yesterday was a mixed bag

There were good and not so good parts about yesterday.

In the morning I tried to go out into the field to look for hybrids, but the roads were still so bad because of the rain. And I think I am so scared of getting stuck, I just don't try any roads that look bad. So I could see all of the zebra over on this one plain, but I could not get to them because the road there was bad.

In the afternoon I went to town with Kim to pick up her friend Alli who is staying for 2 weeks, and run some errands. One thing I forgot to mention in my last post is that I bought cow collars in the US (collars made for cows) to attach my GPS units to and brought them all the way to Kenya with me. But when I showed them to the cattle guy he didn't like them! He thinks they will scare the cows, and just wants me to buy chain and clips to make collars with instead. So I bought those collars with my own money and hauled them here for nothing!
But anyway, so I needed to buy chain and clips and also chicken wire to put on the cage frames which were supposed to be being welded. I went to the hardware store and got chicken wire and chain, but they said they have no clips of any kind. The chain is kind of useless without the clips, so I need to try to find some somewhere else ASAP. They also told me that they had been busy and hadn't started making my frames yet. They will start today. So that pushes everything back by another 2 days at least. I can't really start without those frames.

On the way back to Ol Pejeta we saw it had rained here again and the roads are even worse. I need to get to the workshop (called Kamok) soon to get more fuel, but I'm afraid the road there is too bad. So in the meantime I can't really drive around anywhere else (on the ok roads) because I don't have that much fuel left. I need to save enough to get to Kamok (which is kind of far) to get more.

One bright side was that on our drive back in we saw three lions really close up. A big male walked right by our open car window and stared at us. Then he headed over to nap with 2 females. Of course I didn't have my camera! but Alli did. So I will post a picture as soon as I can copy her photos.

So to recap:
Good: some errands completed, Alli is really nice, lions
Bad: roads suck and it rained again, hardware store had no clips, my frames won't be ready

Meeting went well

This morning was my meeting with Dan, Nathan (the research coordinator) and Mr. Mathenge (the assistant to the head cattle guy), and I think it went pretty well.

Dan arrived and I saw he had brought 3 girls from Mpala with him- 2 of the Princeton undergrads and one research assistant who is just starting a year-long position. I guess none of them had been to Ol Pejeta before and didn't have anything else pressing to do today, so he brought them along to show them the place. They just had to sit around during my meeting and then Dan took us out to try to find cool wildlife to show them, but sadly there was not much out today. So I hope they still enjoyed coming.

But back to my meeting... The most important part was for me to find out where the cows are now, and if they are planning to move any of them soon. With this info, Dan and I selected sites for me to focus on. In general, I want to see how wildlife behave before, during, and after cattle grazing. In practice, it would take a long time (more months than I am here) to see this full cycle at a single site (and I would want replicates, so multiple sites). Therefore, we picked 6 different sites that represent different parts of the cycle. For more info on that, read the next paragraph. If you don't really care about the details (and I don't blame you if you don't), skip to the last paragraph.

There are a couple of plains that already have cows grazing on them now and the managers are not planning to move the cows soon, so these will be my "during cows" sites. There are two places where there are no cows now, but they will definitely be moving cows to one of them soonish. So those will function as my "before cows" sites. Once they move cows to one of them, it will become another "during cows" site. There is also one plain where there are cows now, but the grass has gotten very low and they will be moving the cows off of that site any day now. So as soon as the cows leave, that will be my "after cows" site to see how the grass grows back and how the wildlife respond after the cows leave. I may also have a site inside the white rhino enclosure. This is a fenced off area, so no cows ever go there, but there is wildlife inside that I can study. So this may serve as a "no cows" kind of control area.

I will also be putting out grazing exclosure cages (1m x 1m x 0.5m of chicken wire on a frame) to prevent grazing inside these cages. That will let me know how the grass is growing on each plain when it is not being eaten.The frames are being welded in town now. They will not fit in my car, but there are trucks from Ol Pejeta that go into town often, so hopefully one of them can pick up the frames for me. I thought I was going to have to attach the chicken wire myself, but it seems they might be able to do that for me at the workshop here.

So the rest of this week will involve buying supplies, getting things made, and basically getting set up to start the project. Then hopefully next Monday I will actually put out the exclosure cages and the experiment will begin. It looked like it was raining off in the distance today, but didn't actually rain at the research center so far. So hopefully the roads will be able to dry out a bit-- although the rain is very good for the grass and the animals, so I shouldn't complain.

Another Day of Rain

I went out this morning to look for hybrids. The roads were still wet from yesterday, and were just starting to dry when we had another drenching downpour this afternoon. Today's rain may even have been more than yesterdays.Luckily for me, the thatch roof of my room does not leak. Most of the other rooms however, are not so lucky. Kim came back yesterday to find it raining on her computer. She said today it felt like it was raining inside her room (along the perimeter) just as hard as outside.

So the roads will probably be even worse tomorrow. They didn't have time to fully dry today before being inundated again. But I don't have to go out in the morning because I have my meeting with Dan, the cattle, and research people. I am kind of nervous. This is a very necessary meeting so I can find out where the cows are now and where they are planning to move them, so I can pick research sites. I am just worried that the plan I have will not work out because the cows are already everywhere, or are not being moved in the timeframe I am here, etc. We'll see how it goes.

The next step is to get my exclosure cages finished. The frames are being welded in town now and are supposed to be done by Wednesday. However they are too big to fit in my car, so I need to find someone here with a truck that can drive me in to town to fetch them. Then once I get them back here, I need to wire the chicken wire on myself, and possibly hire someone to help me.

Rain

It has been raining here for the past few hours. This time of year is usually about the beginning of the dry season, but I guess the rains are not quite over yet.

Before the rain, I woke up this morning to my first clear view of Mount Kenya since arriving. It had been too cloudy every other time I thought to look, but this morning at dawn there was a great view.

I went out to the field this morning and saw not one, not two, but 5 different hybrids! I am scheduled to meet with Dan and the assistant to the head cattle manager on Monday to get my real project going, but until then I am trying to collect some more hybrid behavioral data to see if we can get a paper out of what I did last summer.
After a fairly successful morning, I came back to the research center for lunch. I thought it looked dark off in the distance and wondered if it was going to rain again this afternoon like it did yesterday afternoon. Sure enough, just as I was thinking about going back out after lunch, the skies opened up with a drenching rain. It poured heavily for a good while. Now it is just light, but the roads will need some time and sun to dry out.

Still no big cat sightings, but I did see a rhino today, just into the bush while I was watching zebra.There was also a lone male elephant that came walking by.

at Ol Pejeta

I have made it to Ol Pejeta safely and have my internet working here now. I woke up this morning, ate breakfast, packed my car and filled up with fuel and was on the road. It is about an hour drive from Mpala to Ol Pejeta... a little more since I was going kind of slowly to make sure I didn't hurt the car. The roads are still not great. In fact, the main road has gotten worse since I was last here. I gave three different people rides along my way. They all wanted to go to town, but I was not going all the way in to Nanyuki, so I took them as far as I could.

It turns out they are doing construction on the research center here at Ol Pejeta, so the main building is all torn apart and being worked on. They have even moved the kitchen into one of the former bedroom huts. It looks very different than I remember! There is not even a dining room place to eat at currently. So I am not really sure where we will be eating dinner. I think there are only a couple other people here right now too. They are currently out in the field, so Kim is the only person I know is here.

I hope the company is good though. Dan is coming over Monday for a meeting with me and the people I need to work with here for my research. Hopefully that goes well. Until then I will try to drive around and look for hybrids again like last summer. I tried that today and did see one for a bit before he disappeared into the bush. Then it started raining, so I headed back. I probably could have stayed out, but didn't want to get stuck in the mud my first day!

successful day

Today was a pretty good one. I am heading to Ol Pejeta tomorrow, but it turns out the car I am driving is currently missing the back license plate, so I am not allowed to drive it into town until that gets replaced (at least with a fake one). I had some errands I needed to run in town, so I was trying to find a ride with someone else. At first I thought I had a ride, but then heard the car was full, but then managed to work something out and was able to go in with a group of other researchers from Mpala.

We got to town and had a nice lunch at the Boulangerie. Then I went to the hardware store to see if they can weld together frames for 10 grazing exclosure cages. I was worried this might be difficult or take forever, or be really expensive. But it was very easy and fast to explain it to the guy. He says he can hopefully have them ready by Wednesday and they will only be 1/4 of the price I was expecting. So assuming they actually do get built, great success! I need to put these cages out before I can really start my project, so getting them built as soon as possible is excellent. Once they weld the frames, I still have to wire the chicken wire on myself (and probably hire a day worker to help me), so hopefully that goes off well.

I also needed to buy groceries to take to Ol Pejeta with me. We will have a cook to make our meals, but we have to buy all the grocieries. So I got my shopping done too. While we were in town I got a phone call from a number I didn't know, but answered it anyway. It turns out it was one of the Kenyan guys who works at Mpala that was in town and needed a ride back. He had called the office at Mpala and I guess they gave him my number. So we met up with him and drove him back too.

Perhaps the funniest part of the trip was that the whole British army in Kenya appeared to be in town today. We were eating lunch when a group of like 5 British army solders saw us and walked over and asked if they could sit and started talking and talking to us. They said they had been in the bush training for 5 weeks straight and this was the first day they had off. So they all came to town to get drunk. And I think they were so excited to see 3 white girls, they did not want to let us leave to finish our errands. They asked if we wanted to get a drink with them or go to a party tonight, haha. But unfortunately we had to run errands.

That's about it for the day I think. For good measure, here is a cute photo of the dikdiks outside my room this morning

Animal Shots

I went out for a drive with Wilfred this morning (Dan's Kenyan postdoc who also studies grazing issues) so that he could try to teach me to identify grass species. If the seed head part of the plant is still there, I think I can do it-- if not (like if it has already been eaten by a cow or zebra) IDing the plant will be very hard. Yikes.

But on the way we saw a good number of animals so I thought I would post a few pics. That's all anyone cares about anyway, right? Here are a giraffe running and a Grevy's zebra (there is only one in this pic, but we saw a big group of them today).

in Kenya!!!

Hi everyone-- I have arrived safely in Kenya.  We had a tight connection in London. Our flight from Newark landed as they were almost about to close boarding for our connecting flight to Kenya. Plus, Heathrow is laid out in a very strange way. We could see our next gate through a glass wall, but had to walk approximatley 2 miles and go through security again in order to get to it!  But luckily we and all of our luggage made it onto the plane!

We arrived in Nairobi at 8:30 am local time this morning. I slept 3 or 4 hours on the plane, so my body is already on Kenya time. Hopefully no jet lag at all. It took an hour or 2 to get our bags and get everyone organized into our van ride up to Mpala. Then we had a 4+ hour drive from Nairobi up to Mpala, stopping on the way to buy cell phones for people. So we got to Mpala at close to 4pm. 

We saw the usual elephants, giraffes, gazelles, and zebras on the drive into Mpala. For all but me and 1 other girl, this is their first time to Kenya. One girl was so exicted to see the giraffes. No pictures yet, but I will try to post some in the next couple days. I will be at Mpala until Friday when I plan to drive over to Ol Pejeta for the rest of the summer.

Leaving tomorrow

I am leaving tomorrow for Kenya. My flight leaves Newark at 8:00 am, and because it is an international flight, we want to be there to check in by 6:00 am. So the shuttle van that has been arranged to drive some of us to the airport suggested we leave Princeton at 4:00am!!! I think that is a little early, but oh well. Guess I need to get to sleep early tonight.

I will try to update the blog more regularly this year, but we'll see how busy I get. I would love to hear from people over the summer. Feel free to leave comments here or if you want to send a longer message, email me at schieltz@princeton.edu. See you all in August!