Injured Cheetah!

On our first day of hiking Mary got a phone call while we were out in the bush. There was an injured cheetah in Samburu National Reserve. Since I had come all that way to look for poops, that's what I did while Peter and Mary left for Samburu from Meibae. Here's what I missed:

When they got there they found the male cheetah to be resting in the shade under a bush. They had seen him walk and he was limping. They were concerned he would be unable to hunt. Once they got closer they were able to see a wound on his back leg. The leg didn't appear to be broken so they thought perhaps he just had a bad wound (a tiff with a leopard or other cheetah) and perhaps it was getting infected. Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) approved the shooting of an impala (otherwise illegal) to feed to the cheetah. The impala was coated with antibiotic to treat any infection the cheetah may have from the wound. He hungrily accepted his free meal and pulled it into the bush to eat.

A few days later we went back to look for him but he was no where to be found. The day after we got back to Nairobi we got a call that they saw him make his own kill and he wasn't limping anymore. Yay!

You can see the wound on his right back leg. We were worried here may be a tendon torn or broken bone.

Enjoying a free meal. With a belly full of food and antibiotics, he had plenty of time to rest up and heal.

Thanks to Peter for the pics! Unfortunately, the next cheetah story I have to share didn't end so well. But more on that next time...

Sorry for the quick post but our internet expires today and there is a high school group here now from Michigan so things are a little crazy right now! Heading into Nairobi on Sunday so hopefully I can catch you up on everything then!

Gerenuks, Crocs, and Elephants... OH MY!

Sunset on our last night in Meibae

On our second day out searching for cheetah signs, Chris and Edward were leading the way (as I clearly had no idea where the hell I was going).  It was becoming evident that I lacked the skill of evading bur plants and those damn acacia trees. In short, if you choose to follow me, do so at your own risk. One particular lovely walk (the first DAY I was out alone with the boys), I was scouring the floor looking for poop and I walked right into an acacia branch. It hooked me in the nose just in time for Chris and Edward to turn around and start there unnecessary and incessant cries of "sorry!" as they start running towards me to help me out. I managed (with a little finagling) to unhook my face, just to have it scratch me across the forehead and get stuck in my hair (after which there is usually little hope of escape). Luckily, I survived and after that they never trusted me around acacia trees again.

HOWEVER, on this day I redeemed myself (BIG TIME if I do say so myself). While out searching we sort of fan out to cover more ground (but you must always stay with in sight or it drives the rangers who are supposed to protect you absolutely mad). Edward and Chris had already sauntered by, but I decided to just have a little looksie to the side of where they walk. AND BEHOLD... our first and only cheetah track (at least we think so)!


I mentioned we did some driving through Samburu National Reserve which is nearby. Not really any exciting stories about this drive, just some cool pictures to share.

Gerenuk. Note the extremely long neck!

Croc hanging out at the river.

Photo thanks to Peter! I still have to ID this guy...

And oh yeah... SOME ELEPHANTS!

Outside of the park while we were driving down a quasi-busy road (aka we actually saw a car and a lorry (truck) or two on it once), there was a tortoise attempting to cross. Just in case one of those big lorries went flying through we stopped so I could move him to the other side.

Just saving a tortoise, NBD.

Sidebar: if you're looking at that photo and thinking I look kind of tan, it's actually about 85% dirt. Nature's sunscreen. Yay.

Welp, that's all til next time. My final entry about Samburu will be about a CHEETAH. Yes, with pictures! Whoop. Stay tuned my little minions. 

Dodging plants like a boss.

Welcome to Samburu/Meibae Conservancy!

Chris, me, one of the park rangers who went out with us, Mary, and Peter in Meibae!

My recent (and way too brief) trip to Samburu National Reserve and Meibae Conservancy was great! I went up here for the purpose of looking into the possibility of also collecting poop samples here as a better control area. Because these are protected areas, there is very little threat of development, thus small, controlled human interference with cheetah populations. ACK already has a team in this area so all I have to do is train them in poop collection and help them find areas to check for fresh poops!

ACK rents camping space at the Meibae Conservancy park ranger camp. This means we share a camp site with 15+ dudes toting giant rifles, aka we are super safe. I should also mention that whenever we went out looking for poops in the bush we had a park ranger (rifle and all) out with us. The reason for this is mostly just precaution due to the lions, elephants, leopards, and buffalo in the area. The biggest threat being the elephants. The elephants have become more aggressive due to poaching problems. That being said I never saw an elephant, lion, leopard, or buffalo while we were out poop searching. Mostly we ran into dik dik, hyrax, and lots and lots of camels. Anyways, we camp under the meeting conference center roof. It's a nice little area! I should also mention our toilets were just holes in the ground. Yep. Just a little hole about 6 inches by 6 inches. Well, that's not very big, you're probably thinking. It's not. I had to get VERY good at aiming. It's an acquired skill.

Pitched our tents inside of here.

Girls' side! 

I met the three scouts: Chris, Soulh, and Moses. They are all awesome. Chris is the one I worked with the most since he is the only one who is full time at the moment. Mary and Peter had to leave us for a cheetah emergency in Samburu Reserve (more on that later), so Chris and I were left without a car for a few days. This means we hiked. A lot. Edward, a park ranger, came out with us on those days. He was super helpful and always looking on termite mounds for poops! We walked down to the river (with croc tracks!), across dry river beds (awesome!), elephant corridor (trails frequented by elephants through the bush), and on top of many many rock hills. Also it was super ridiculously hot there. Not that you guys in the States will feel sorry for me regarding this, as you have been officially frying for the past few months... but in Salama and Nairobi it is chilly, so I was quite unaccustomed to the heat. After about 4 hours out there you're about ready to collapse, or at least I was. Chris and Edward NEVER carried water and barely ate anything for breakfast and lunch. These guys are insane.

Edward and Chris leading the way through the river bed.

Beautiful sand patterns on the dry river bed.

Every night we were visited by bats (eating all the bugs attracted to the lights) and a genet cat. The genet cat became more and more ballsy and finally didn't care at all about our presence, it even licked Mary's toe! I've got a lot of pictures of it but I think this is one of my favorites...

Climbing in the rafters above the tents looking for lizards to snack on.

I would also hear it outside my tent at night munching on all the bugs crawling around. So cute.

It rained just about every night, and when it rained, it POURED. Just before or just after the rain we saw amazing sunsets (Color Games!) from camp. The camp is located at the edge of a ridge with a lot of giant rocks great for sitting on and pondering life. A day before we got to camp there was a pack of African wild dogs (say whhhaaaaa???) hanging out on those rocks and sometimes they also see elephants passing through. I didn't get to see these guys frequent the camp, but I did get to enjoy the rock ledges during sunset.

Just after it poured our second night.

Just before it poured one of the last nights.

 Samburu Reserve and Meibae Conservancy are absolutely gorgeous places. In the conservancy live the Samburu tribe. They are semi-nomadic, moving their manatas (homesteads) to follow good grazing areas (for the goats and camels)/water availibility. They wear beautiful bead works (especially the warriors). I didn't take any photos because I didn't want to be disrespectful. If you are really curious google Samburu warriors and Samburu women and you'll see some amazing bead work!

It was an amazing trip and I have a million more pictures to share but I think that will be it for this entry! I will leave you with the first and only HERD of ostriches I have ever seen or heard of. It was a male Somalian (blue necks) ostrich (down in Salama we only have Masaai ostriches - ones with the red necks) and about 26 young ostriches. He did a great job as dad protecting his young from us :)

In Samburu National Reserve

'Merica

I wanted to post this BEFORE I left for Samburu because "obvi" I have many things to write about from my recent adventures in the great Samburu and Meibae Conservancy bush. BUT to stay in chronological order and to keep EVERYONE CALM, I will first do a little blip about my Merica Day in Kenya.

There are 4 women in camp. All of us are Mericans. The three boys are Kenyan. Thus, on Merica Day we had s'mores for breakfast! To prepare Mary and I made a trip into the Nakumatt (super grocery store) of Nairobi. First... to find chocolate! No Hersheys, made do with Cadbury milk chocolate bars (much thicker). Next, marshmallows! No normal marshmallows so I settle for some weirdly pink strawberry and white ones with a weird dinosaur picture on the bag... what? Finally, graham crackers! NO GRAHAM CRACKERS! We had to settle for some weird English breakfast hybrid sugar biscuit (blasphemous to use BRITISH crackers for such a glorious celebration of independence from the queen's regime, I know... for shame). Regardless, it's all we had and by golly if we were going to let this british influenced theme ruin our FREAKING INDEPENDENCE DAY.

Come the morning of the 4th, us ladies got a sparkle in our eyes that we just couldn't explain. For today was the day... of S'mores. The boys had NO IDEA what we were talking about. We eagerly got out our supplies and whittled some sticks into perfect roasting sticks. Then the feast began. So good. The only Kenyan brave enough to go for the food of the free was Mandela. Nelson and Cosi just looked on in confusion while sipping their Kenyan chai. There was a brief rendition of the Star Spangled Banner over the ashes of the fire and then off to work. It was a brief celebration but WORTH IT. Anyways, hope your 4th was full of 'Merican win.

Mandela roasts his first marshmallow in preparation for his first taste of S'moredom.

Erica, seasoned s'more making pro.

S'mores!

'Merica!

Dogs, Goats, and Travels

Sorry I haven't posted in a long time. Lots of little stories, little nothings, and awkward moments but nothing I thought was quite blog post worthy. No big discoveries, no mountains of poop (tho I keep dreaming), and definitely no cheetah photos. Sigh... tho I will say there have been plenty of cheetah sightings by everyone BUT ME. A bush pilot who flies over part of our study area quite frequently saw 6 cheetahs (2 adults, 4 sub-adults) on a particular ranch a few nights ago, there was a report of a single cheetah on that same ranch that killed an antelope, 3 sunbathing on a rock near a ranch office, and Cosmas, one of our very own, accidentally stumbled upon a cheetah (and scared it, but not enough to scare it shitless, damn) while looking for samples for me around "poop rock." Yes, we have a poop rock. And no, it doesn't quite live up to it's name. We do have a poop road, and that definitely does. That's where my first fresh poop samples came from!

Tomorrow I am embarking on an exciting journey. We are heading 10 hours north of Nairobi to an area called Samburu. I have decided to try and expand my study site to a new area. ACK already has cheetah scouts working in this conservancy, and they are telling us they have been finding fresh cheetah poop. Because this area is very different from the current areas I am studying, this could act as a control area and give us valuable information about cheetahs living in more natural situations and habitats. The Samburu area has many more predators/competitors for the cheetah. There are leopards and hyenas, but also lions. Other animals in Samburu include large numbers of buffalo and elephants. Very different environment, much hotter and more severe droughts. After shivering to sleep so many nights, maybe the heat will be nice... FOR ABOUT A MINUTE, GAH. The communications there are limited and we have no electricity. Thus, you will not be hearing from me after this for at least a week but hopefully when you finally do, IT WILL BE AMAZING. I hope to have some awesome pictures and stories for you... but don't get your hopes up TOO high please. :)

To ease your curiosity for now I will enlighten you with a little story about Ed (one of our bait goats) and Ginger (Mary's silly dog).

Handsome Edward Sampson the 11th

He loves plain grass... even more than leafy branches. What a goon.

Ed had just finished his week in the cage (we have 3 goats on rotation) and we were heading out on our way to take him home. The rest of the crew had the truck and we had the Toyota Rav. We keep the spare tire in the way back/trunk of the Rav because some of the bolts are missing that are used to hang it on the back. Because Mary didn't want Ed to poop or pee all over her car we put him in the way back, where he had to balance on the spare tire while we drove. Mary and I sat in the front and Ginger took over the back seat. I looked back to quite a view...

Oh hey guys... just a normal day at work!

Ginger expresses her unease with the situation... Ed already seems like he's up to something...

Ginger seemed a wee bit nervous about this situation. She wasn't too fond of the goat hanging out in the car. As we were heading down the driveway to the highway, Ginger suddenly was desperately trying to get into the front seat and onto my lap. She's usually pretty good about hanging out in the backseat so this was weird. Then I looked back and saw that Ed had had about enough of this balancing on the tire bullshit and decided Ginger looked way more comfortable in the seat. He jumped over the back of the seat and had taken up real estate on one side of the backseat (totally content to share the rest with Ginger). Ginger would have no part of this. We couldn't keep Ed out of the backseat and we couldn't keep Ginger back there with him. And this is when things got ridiculous. Kenyans already think most of us Mzungus (white people) are crazy when it comes to pets. They see us letting our dogs sleep in our bed, carrying them around, riding in our cars... They see them as animals that protect their house/bomas or for some, just as pests. So imagine the sight that the Kenyan's had (including some police) when we pulled onto the highway with Mary driving, Ginger (A DOG) sitting shotgun, and Ed (A GOAT) and I sharing the backseat. People were staring. But I'm pretty sure Ed loved it. I was sad to see him go, I'm getting attached to these little goats. Almost makes me want to get some when I get home!

Still looking nervous, even though she's secured shotgun.

Ed, happily hanging out on his comfy new seat. And he didn't even poop in the car!

Oh also, I found this cool spider.

While I was taking the picture, one of the herders started yelling at me when I tried to hold the plant steady (he doesn't speak English very well), but I could understand that he was indicating it was poisonous. He said, AHH POISON, MOUTH EYES!!! Found out later that if I had touched any mucous membranes after touching that plant I would have had nasty blisters all over. Gross. But thank you herder man, and thank him I did, by sharing my biscuits with him. :)

Hope everyone still has all their phalanges after this holiday (be safe with those bottle rockets)!

HAPPY 'MERICA DAY!

See you in a week!

LION KING SIDEBAR: I've recently discovered that PRIDE ROCK IS A REAL PLACE IN KENYA! I will be driving past the area on my way to Samburu but I will not be able to see it from the highway (le super tear). BUT OMG, PRIDE ROCK IS REAL. Best part is, they called it Pride Rock before the movie. Boom. What I wouldn't give to walk on the real Pride Rock though. Sigh, maybe one day...