at Mpala

So this morning I said goodbye to everyone at Ol Pejeta and drove to Mpala in time for lunch. It was sad to say goodbye, but hopefully I will see most of them again... either next year at Ol Pejeta, or in the states somewhere. Tomorrow morning I will go with 3 Princeton undergrads to Nairobi and be on a plane Wednesday morning.

Here are a few last animal shots. The goat roast the other night was very fun-- it turned into a dance party by the end. I have photos of the goat roast, but don't know if people actually want to see them or not. The goat part is pretty graphic as always, but hey.. that's where meat comes from. So I figure if I am going to eat meat, I should be able to help slaughter it.

 Here is a mother elephant with 2 of her offspring. The older one is in front and the newest baby is behind to the right.

 And then here are those 3 elephants after 6 tourist cars pull up to take pictures of them....

 Another newborn baby zebra-- still wobbly on its feet

 Baby waterbuck!!! I love them- they are like teddy bears

 And the baby white rhino again-- don't worry, he's not dead, just sleeping-- with one leg in the air!

Done with fieldwork

So Thursday was the last day of my project this summer. I officially finished fieldwork yesterday. That means only 4 more days in Kenya now. I am excited to get back home, but the closer it comes I realize I will really miss it here too. It is just so beautiful.

Today I did laundry and we went to town to do some souvenir shopping. Tomorrow we are having one more goat roast before I leave. Se we will go buy another goat and slaughter it ourselves again. Sunday I will pack. Then Monday I drive back to Mpala for the night. Tuesday some of the undergrads and I head to Nairobi for the night. Then our flight is at 9am on Wednesday the 24th. With the time change, I get back to Newark at 11:30 pm that same day. Hopefully I can get through customs in time to catch the last train back to Princeton! Otherwise I will have to bribe someone to come pick me up at like 2am...

I will try to take a few more photos before I leave and post them either in the next few days or after I get back. It feels strange that the summer is almost over. And there will be new grad students at Princeton when I get back! We are not the newbies anymore.

Leopard!!!!

LEOPARD!!!

So today was pretty epic as far as wildlife viewing. It started off with a leopard!!!! Leopards are really rare and very hard to see because they are usually active at night and in bushy areas near water. This one was out at 8 am, about 50 feet in the air in a tree. It was sitting on branches way out on the edge and looked very precarious, but clearly the leopard knew what he was doing. He shifted positions a few times, and Nicole caught this awesome photo of him jumping between branches.

Later that day I also saw a cheetah eating a warthog and then saw a lion. So all 3 big cats in one day.
I also saw "the big 5" all in one day:  lion, leopard, buffalo, rhino, elephant
These are called the big 5 because back in the days of colonial trophy hunting in Africa, these were the hardest to hunt, so they were prized by sport hunters.

In research news, only 3 days left in my project! I finish up on Thursday and then just have to tie up lose ends before driving to Mpala next Monday. Then Tuesday I am headed to Nairobi and on a plane home on Wednesday the 24th!

Busy research center

There are lots of people at the research center right now. The last Earthwatch group left on Monday, but were quickly replaced by Kim's undergrad Sophie, 3 people doing chimp research for 2 weeks, and an undergrad group from George Mason University (8 undergrads, 2 PhD student leaders and 2 drivers). The staff was struggling to find rooms for everyone, but luckily I didn't have to move again.

Then Blair arrived today! Glad to have another friend here. I really wish this week was just me, Kim, Blair, and Nicole, though. I'm honestly tired of having all of these other people around. It is too much constant commotion. They take up all of the common space and are very loud, especially in the morning when we are trying to sleep! It would be nice to have some quiet again...

Oh, and it has started raining again. It rained very hard last night, and the roads were wet this morning. Just as it was drying out toward midday, the thunder started to roll in again. So instead of going back out to the field this afternoon, I am writing this blog post while it is currently raining.

So here are a few photos from the past few days:

 This buffalo did not like me

 Three female lions on Grants Plain. Two of them have radio collars on

 One of them has 3 cubs somewhere, but I still have not seen them :(

And some zebra taking a dip/drink in Ol Pejeta Dam

hyena puppies

Hyena puppies are really cute. There is a den on Oryx plain where the adults come back and all the pups come our every night around 5:30pm. Very cute to watch. I have some really good video of them playing together too.

 These ones are a little older and starting to change to their adult fur.

 But there is also a litter of tiny ones that are still all black. There are at least 4 like this one.

 And I even managed to catch a photo of this one yawning.

I also went on a walk with some of the Earthwatchers to the marsh one day. Here I am with Jim, Paul, Eric and Kim. There are elephant behind us, but I don't know if you can see them in the distance in this small photo.

some more photos

A brand new 8-day old white rhino calf!!! So cute

And a lone lioness on Grants Plain. She must still be somewhat young because you can still see spots on her belly.