Jambo!

Stereotypical greeting from country being blogged from... yay!

I've had a busy first couple days. I will be in Nairobi for a few more days as we prepare the dog for the field. Right now Floris is learning to find cheetah poop we have hidden in the woods. Soon we will see if he can find poop that has been sitting out for a few days and then test if he can find the cheetah poop when there is also hyena and lion poop present. Since sometimes it is hard to tell the difference and there will be hyena and lion poop present at the study site, we need to make sure he leads us to the correct piles of poo! :)

Today we hid 4 different cheetah samples and he eventually found all of them. We're feeling confident that he will be ready to take out in the field soon! Today while walking out in the woods for dog training we found a black and white horned chameleon. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera with me. One of the other interns got a photo so hopefully I can steal the picture for you to see. We also had to take an alternate route to get back to the kennels from the woods because the creeks were all swelling from the recent rain. The new route was much longer and Floris was a bit flustered by the heat. How did he solve this problem? Not by drinking water... but by plopping down in a huge mud pile. Yay. Even the elephants will tell you there's nothing like a good old fashioned mud bath to stay cool. I let him stay in there longer than I think the handler who is training us wanted me to, but he just looked so happy. Needless to say, I had my first experience giving Floris a bath today... :)

For now this will be the focus, to get Floris ready for the field. It's very interesting to witness and be a part of the training, to see all the work and skills that go into developing Floris as a scat dog. Hopefully he enjoys it too and we can find many poops together! Detection dogs are amazing and can be used in many aspects of conservation. I was really surprised to learn all the different things they do. Some are even trained to locate species of invasive plants! There is an awesome organization in the States called Working Dogs for Conservation Please check out their site, it's pretty interesting!

That's all for now, it's late and I should sleep!

Sidebar: I promise there will be more pictures to come. I've been slacking on that a wee bit. I know, I know that's the only reason you clicked my link. THEY WILL BE HERE, HOLD YOUR HORSES.

:)