Hi everyone!
So today is my last day in Kenya. In about two hours, we'll get in a car that will take us to Nairobi, for our flight to Amsterdam tonight. All six of us who are leaving will stay together till Amsterdam, where we split up to go to our final destinations.
I've had an incredible time here. I got a taste of what field research is, I've seen some amazing sights and animals, and I've met some awesome people. I'm getting ready for the reverse culture shock that is going home, with which I will be questioning the lack of animals everywhere, the easy accessibility to pretty much everything, and the humidity. Oh, and why it's still light out at 7pm. Among other things.
I've still got a little packing to do, and I have to return my key to the gym, so I'm going to sign off now. Hope everyone at home has a great day, and I can't wait to see you!
Friday, August 15, 2014
Thursday, August 14, 2014
Last Field Day
I just got back to the center after my last day out in the field. We were collecting data from all of the Barleria plants that we worked with this summer so that they can be monitored into the future. Today we were just working in South, and I actually only went out in the afternoon. This morning was work with the camera trap photos and starting to pack. Very weird to be done with field work for the summer. There's a sundowner planned for tonight, and then we leave tomorrow after lunch.
It's morning back on the east coast, so have a good day everyone!
Team Barleria |
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Adventure Time!
We went on an adventure on Sunday! It was lots of fun.
So we left after tea time, and drove over in three cars to Mukenya. I posted a picture of it earlier this summer--it means "Little Mount Kenya," and it's basically a hill. We parked at the bottom and hiked up.
Parked at the bottom. |
The hike up only took roughly 12 minutes, but parts of it were pretty steep so it felt very intense. The view from the top was awesome. I also discovered while up there that while I am not necessarily afraid of heights, I certainly did not want to get too close to the edge.
View from the top. |
The bottom of the rock we're all sitting on was the roof of the cave area. |
Cows cows cows. |
We had lunch while sitting on the banks, and then just hung out for a while. There were rocks out in the water that you could get to to sit/lie down on. The only tricky part was getting there. There were four different things about the river working against you if you tried to get anywhere. One: the water was pretty opaque, so you couldn't see where you were stepping. Two: the bottom was not even, there were a lot of rocks to step/trip on. Three: Not only were there rocks that made the bottom uneven, but you could be standing in one place and the water would be up to your ankles, and then two steps later it was up to your waist. Four: although the current wasn't overly fast, it was moving. But it was worth it when you got to the rocks. They had been in the sun all day, so it felt like lying down on a heated bed--it was wonderful.
The river. |
They were really stuck. |
This is the fence that surrounds the LMH plots, the ones where all animals are excluded. |
One of the trees where we were working at central. The birds build these incredible nests hanging from the trees. It looks like the tree is wearing earrings to me. |
The puff adder, with Tyler for size reference (Tyler's 6'6"). |
Hope everything's going well for everyone at home, and I'll see you soon!
Saturday, August 9, 2014
Easter Egg Hunt! (kind of?)
OK, I don't think it actually counts as an Easter Egg Hunt, but today's field work certainly felt like one. One in which there was no candy at the end, and the eggs were all super protected with lots of spines/thorns. Or, even better, the eggs didn't actually exist. All that's not to say I didn't enjoy myself, because finding these "eggs" was so much more satisfying than any egg filled with chocolate.
We went out this morning to look for Solanum fruits. I know I mentioned them before, but I'm not sure if I explained what they are. They're a toxic invasive plant with green-grey kind of leathery leaves, and little bright yellow fruits (when they're ripe; when the fruits are unripe, they look like little watermelons). Rob's been studying them for a while--see an article about his work here. As you'll see in the article, most herbivores out here absolutely love the fruits of this plant. Which means that finding them outside of the UHURU exclosure plots, where all herbivores have access to them, can be super difficult. We ended up walking all the way around the perimeter of one block, looking for the fruits and we found none. Then we drove around slowly for a bit, trying to see if there were any fruits along the road. I spotted two different plants with some fruits on them, which we stopped to collect. We'e still short a few fruits, so this hunt may continue...
There were even lilies for the egg hunt! The African version of the lily is so tiny. |
We also found a super small tortoise while looking for Solanum fruits. |
Backing up a bit. Thursday was a very lazy day at the center, with a sundowner in the evening. It was at Wandering/Wondrous Point, which was beautiful.
Friday morning I went out into the field again with Renata, and we collected the seeds we'd placed out on Wednesday to see how many had been taken. We were also collecting seeds from trees, to be used in future experiments.
The seeds always seem to be right out of reach. And the shorter trees, that are more of a Katie-appropriate height, never have any seeds. |
This is my final weekend here, which feels very weird. I believe that there is an adventure planned for tomorrow, so look for a post on that too.
Finals should be about over by now, so congratulations to everyone who swam this morning! I'm sure you all did amazingly, and I can't wait to hear about it.
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Eles Eles Everywhere!
So in the same way that most people shorten "hippopotamus" to "hippo," and "rhinoceros" to "rhino," many people here shorten "elephant" to "ele." And I saw a bunch of eles this week. And it's only Wednesday :)
On Monday, I went out with Renata. As I think I've mentioned before, she's here doing senior thesis research under Rob. She's looking at the effect of being on or off a termite mound and being on or off a glade on seed predation by rodents, among other things. So in order to explain what a glade is, I need to first explain what a boma is. A boma is an area of land that a cattle herder "fences" in with acacia trees to protect his livestock from predators at night. With so many animals there and so much waste, the land becomes pretty nutrient rich. When the cattle herder moves on and disassembles the boma (or I guess the trees might just kind of go back to the soil, I'm not sure), what's left is a super fertile area of land. Which attracts lots of herbivores. The land has pretty dense grass and few trees, and it stays that way for up to decades after it was last a boma. When it's like that, the area is called a glade. So Renata's looking at sites that are either on a glade or not, and within each of those, either on a termite mound or not. It seems that there is a higher density of rodents on the glades and on the mounds than not, and that's part of what she's interested in. Monday was mostly about gathering GPS points for the sites where she's going to collect data, and collecting acacia drepanolobium seeds for the experiment.
Acacia drepanolobium |
So much rain |
So we went out for about 3.5 hours, driving around looking for elephants. When we found a group, we drove up to it really close to identify the individuals and record which families we saw. The first thing Sandy taught me was how to correctly approach an elephant (in a car) : you need to approach them from the front, otherwise they will feel like you are chasing them and run away pretty quickly. And you won't get to see their faces. I got the closest I've ever been to an elephant yesterday, probably only 10 feet away. It was so cool. Sandy also taught me how to tell the difference between male and female elephants: the females have a sharp angle from the top of their heads to the foreheads when seen in profile, and the same area on a male is much more rounded.
In the area where I took that last photo, I also watched an elephant completely knock over an acacia tree. I've seen the damage from that, but I've never actually seen an elephant do it. Granted, these trees were pretty small, but still.
Then yesterday evening there was a sundowner. We went to Lookout Rock, which is a spot I hadn't been to yet. It was a smaller location than some of the places we'd been to before, but just as nice. We sat up on a rock and were surrounded by savanna. There were too many clouds to see much of the sunset, but it was lovely just hanging around, eating popcorn and talking.
This morning I went out again with Renata. We placed seeds out for the predation experiment. We didn't go out again this afternoon because the black cotton roads are still too wet to be completely safe. So it's just been an afternoon of getting stuff checked off my to-do list, with a nap in the very near future :)
Edit: There was indeed a nap this afternoon, which was glorious. And then another sundowner, back to Eagle Scout Point (where we went on Saturday evening). It was really nice. Now I'm back at the center; we've finished dinner and I'm winding down for the night. So good night everyone!
Also: good luck to all the Roxbury swimmers competing tomorrow in Trials! Swim fast, and I'll be cheering you guys on from here!
The elephant's reaction when we drove up really close to the family. It's in this position that Sandy is most easily able to identify individuals. |
We got really close. |
So I've been asked several times while here what my favorite African animal is. Definitely up there are baby elephants. I was pretty sure about that before yesterday, but our time out in the field solidified that. Sandy was able to tell me the rough age of each individual we saw. The youngest baby we saw was only about two months old.
Such a little baby! |
Second in from the right, the three eles there looked like Matryoshka dolls to me. Sandy had no idea what I was talking about when I said that. |
One of the bigger families we saw. I counted 16 individuals. |
Then yesterday evening there was a sundowner. We went to Lookout Rock, which is a spot I hadn't been to yet. It was a smaller location than some of the places we'd been to before, but just as nice. We sat up on a rock and were surrounded by savanna. There were too many clouds to see much of the sunset, but it was lovely just hanging around, eating popcorn and talking.
The bit of the sunset that we did see. |
The group (the flash was super bright). |
Edit: There was indeed a nap this afternoon, which was glorious. And then another sundowner, back to Eagle Scout Point (where we went on Saturday evening). It was really nice. Now I'm back at the center; we've finished dinner and I'm winding down for the night. So good night everyone!
The view from Eagle Scout Point. |
Sunday, August 3, 2014
Animal Crossing
Hi! Animal Crossing is totally a game, right? It's also what happens whenever you drive anywhere here. We usually don't stop, so I can never get any pictures, but I got a few this week.
Shake shake shake! |
There was one point during the game drive that felt (especially) unreal. There were plains zebras to the right, and Grevy's zebras to the left. We were surrounded by giraffes, and there were impala off in the distance. After we drove for another minute or so, we came across some more buffaloes and elephants.
Notice the birds hanging out on the middle giraffe's neck |
Plains zebras |
Ten people, including Alex, Kathy, Anchal and Annelies (all of whom have been staying at the center) headed home today. Which was very sad. But I'll see everyone again in the fall. Which is happy :)
I believe that we'll be changing it up a little this week, and likely heading out into the field with Renata to help her with her work. So we'll see. Hope everything's going well at home!
Kathy, me and Alex |
The group |
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