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.