ZOMG!

You guys... as I posted yesterday, things have not been going well in my search for fresh poops. Not only were we not finding fresh poops, I was beginning to doubt my abilities in the field. I've done little tidbits of field work here and there in various classes throughout college. I know how to use a compass, find a point on GPS (unless we are geocaching with a particular German), even classify a few Wisconsin type trees/plants/animal tracks. That being said I am no Bear Grylls (don't even hate). I have spent the past year and a half pipetting to my heart's content in laboratories. I love it (most days). Lab benches, new box of pipette tips, colorful lab tape, and best of all... perfect CV and control values. Ahh... the confined chaos of the lab. But now I find myself thrown to the hyenas in the world of the Kenyan bush. It all began when the real field work started... looking for poop and helping Erica set up camera traps for her project (more on this later). Beginning of the day we are using pangas (large machete type things) to whack branches from the tree so they don't block the camera's view of the bait stations. FIRST BRANCH: Mind you before I begin this story... these trees have HUGE thorns all over them (instead of leaves), like over 2 inches long sized thorns. So I'm about to go all Xena on this branch, flailing about with my panga. I forget to take into account that this is indeed a tree and there are other branches... when I bring my hand up to get some momentum a giant thorn goes into the back of my hand, right about where the wrist begins. At first it was not a big deal, I only felt a prick of pain and saw some blood. As time passed my hand began to throb and I found myself no longer able to move my fingers. These thorns have some nasty toxin on them that causes some crazy swelling and reactions in people. So I spent the rest of the day only using my right hand, taking an anti-histamine, and icing my hand.

By the next day the swelling had gone down enough that I could grasp things but not straighten out my fingers. Meh, good enough. So we continued setting up camera stations... all the way til dark. The last station we put up in the dark using the headlights of the truck. There are probably some hyenas around, maybe a leopard... let's do this shit and get the heck out of here. Ahh more branches to be cut down. Great. Damn you panga, you betrayed me. This time I shall choose the handsaw! One branch down... Yes! Second branch. It's really dark. What was that sound? I'm not sure... Everyone is still here right? Ouch. The saw slipped from the branch and landed on my index finger of my left hand (yes the same one I paralyzed the previous day). It took my brain about 5 seconds to realize what was happening so for those 5 seconds I had started sawing away some of my flesh. Yay. Again, it didn't really hurt or bleed right away. But then... it was dripping everywhere. With that I was given the ever important job of holding the flashlight near the car when people needed to get supplies. I can handle dangerous lab equipment, radioactive and mutagenic chemicals, and broken glass containers but give me sharp tools and toxic plants and all hell breaks loose.

BUT TODAY I WAS JUSTIFIED.

Today, my friends, marks a glorious day in history. Well at least in my history, and the history of this blog. Congratulations. WE HAVE FOUND OUR FIRST FRESH CHEETAH POOP SAMPLE. Tho having found it without Nelson (the poo guru) or Ginger (sniffer dog champion of wanting treats) I suppose I should be careful... but I'm PRETTY positive that it's cheetah. YAYAYAY! Some AWESOME FANTASTIC AND AMAZING herders walking around one of the ranches called and said they had a fresh one! We made it over there (of course I had forgotten to bring the cooler, which had been temporarily converted to the lunch storage unit) and found 4 dry poops and 1 FRESH! These cheetahs love to poop on this road... I couldn't believe how close together they all were considering we had driven down that road 2 days ago and didn't see ANYTHING. Crazy, these herders know their shit. Literally. And for that... they are priceless.

Because it was so awesome here is a play by play... just so you can feel the excitement from home, AS IF YOU WERE ACTUALLY THERE. You're welcome.

P.S. Sorry some of the pictures are weird/distorted/unclear... my internet is super crappy right now and this is the best I can do. When I can I will reload them for clearer ones!

Checking out the freshness of the scat by mushing it with a stick... could it be? Is it too good to be true?

Writing down all the important information like the GPS point!

My first fresh cheetah poop!

Poop collection in action!

Into the poop bag with you...

Success!