Driving in Nairobi

Driving in Kenya is an experience.  In general, I don’t like driving in the city and try to avoid it at all cost. But, now that I’m back analyzing my samples at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), I’m driving back and forth between the lab and my house on a daily basis.  This constitutes a drive of about 15 km and takes about 30-35 minutes.  No big deal……right?

The roads here are very narrow and the matatu drivers (bus drivers) thrive on anarchy.  Thus, the key is to be very alert.  For example, I never know what Kenyans are trying to say when they use their turning signals, as sometimes a right blinker means ‘I’m going to turn right’, sometimes it means ‘It’s okay for you to pass me on my right’, and sometimes it means ‘Don’t pass on my right, there is a car coming’.  And, with all the rain that we’ve had over the past few days, the limited drainage, and the improper grading of the roads here, many of the roads are flooded, causing complete chaos.  In the US, there would be a police officer directing traffic.  Here, no such luck.  It’s just every man, woman, and child for himself.  Chaos.

Tonight, I had to stay late at the lab.  I generally do not like to drive at night or when it rains.  So, even though I left the lab at 6:30 pm (it get’s dark at 7:15 pm), all the daylight was gone with the excessive rain.  As you can imagine, my vehicle is not the best for driving at night.  It is older than I am and doesn’t have any defogger, vent, etc.  The lights  and wipers work well, but not when compared to newer, more modern vehicles.  Thus, I’m forced to drive with the window partially open and have to continually wipe the inside of the glass to clear the fogged windows.  Since there are no streetlights, it’s hard to see anything, especially since no one seems to care that their high beams are blinding and shining directly into the eyes of on-coming traffic.  And, the rain releases the heat from the surface, with the effect being a very rainy/foggy ride.  Add a few hundred people walking along the roadside with no shoulder to the mix, the hatching of millions of flying insects the size of small birds, potholes that you could fit a VW bus in, and speed ‘humps’ that are unmarked so that they are  nearly impossible to see unless ingrained into memory, and the drive can become extremely tense (Coincidently, this little 15 km drive from the lab to my house has nearly 30 speed ‘humps’, as Kenyan’s seem to be in love with placing a speed ‘hump’ wherever possible (for example, at the top of a hill)).

In any event, I made it home safely.  I would have liked to take a picture to show you what it was like, but that was an extra step that I was unable to take on my own.  Maybe next time.

Last Days of Field Work

Little Makui celebrating the completion of field work…..okay, okay, he was just showing off for the camera

I finished up the field campaign in the Nairobi National Park area last week.  This has been a long and exhausting few months out in the field, but we’ve managed what I hope to be a very good dataset.  I’m currently analyzing the samples in the lab, but to give you an idea of the last week, I’ve written down some details:

Day 1, Wednesday:  Woke up early in Karen (suburb of Nairobi where I live) to pick up Sauna and head out to the field.  Sauna was, unfortunately, no where to be found.  Instead, I met his younger brother Sitiol (pronounced “City Hall”….Yes, you are correct on how he got the name) and found out that Sauna had to go to the hospital to be treated for Malaria.  Not to worry, he ended up being fine and met us on Friday night.  Anyway, Sitiol ended up going out to the field with me in place of his brother.  We arrived in Kitengela (the town just southeast of the Nairobi National Park border) mid-morning and collected 4 samples.  Two from lone males and two from small herds.  We also traveled to the west side of the park, where there is a huge amount of development going on.  No wildebeest in this part of the study area, that’s for sure.

Day 2, Thursday: The plan was to head south to the town of Isinya, collect a few samples and then head to Naserian Primary School where I had a meeting scheduled with a few teachers at 1 pm.  The morning went well.  Sitiol and I went to a few areas where we hadn’t been before and collected a few samples.  But then, the rains started.  We ended up making it to the school, but were about 30 minutes late as we traveled through muck, mud, and water.  The meeting with the teachers went well and they were happy to receive the books from Cache La Poudre Middle School in Colorado.  Then, two teachers asked for a ride back to Kitengela and the entire day changed.

They told me that it was faster to go another way back to town and assured me that the road was good.  Well, the road was not good.  It dead ended at someone’s boma and as I lost momentum driving through the mud, the car got stuck and myself and Sitiol had to dig it out.  We freed the car and the mzee (old “wise” man) instructed us that we should push on.  I told him that he had to be out of his mind and that we were returning to the school to follow the track that we came in on.  This, however, was not well received and finally I had to tell him that if he wanted to walk, no one would stop him.

Long story short, the drive that took a couple hours on the way in, took over 5 hours on the way out.  I was sweating bullets as night fell, but we made it, exhausted and annoyed.

My two new friends, grabbing some Zzzzz’s after a long night of rain.

Day 3, Friday: The rains continued throughout the night, and I had two little visitors that were trying to make use of my tent.  Woke up in the morning and these two little fellas were keeping warm in my vestibule.  Sitiol and I headed back up to Kitengela to collect a few more samples and stuck to the main roads. You cannot believe what happens to the roads out here when it rains.  Sauna took the bus down and joined us for the last few days.  Fortunately, all the gear from Sierra Trading Post has held up really, really well.  My two tents, the Mountain Hardware Lightwedge 2 and the ALPS Mountaineering Zenith 2, didn’t have a drop of water inside, even after a night of nearly 4 inches of rain.

The other little boy in camp that was expressing how I felt after another day in the mud.

Day 4, Saturday: The three of us (Sauna, Sitiol, and myself) tried to see if we get all the way out to Konza on the eastern boundary of the study area and collect a few more samples.  We made it part way, but then the roads just turned to absolute muck.  Then, we started to have problems with the vehicle, as the car would not start.  So, we push started the car….not the situation I wanted to be in in bad weather, but we made it out and returned to camp.  Not exactly a big night of celebrations, but happy nonetheless to be done.

Day 5, Sunday: We returned to Nairobi early, taking the back road through Ngong town, and start the clean up.

Mission Complete.

Final Days in the Maasai Mara

Our view from our campsite in the Olare Orak Conservancy

The Maasai Mara has, in fact, been a much easier place to conduct research.  We didn’t receive any rains while camping in the Mara, but they must have received a few hard rains in the past few weeks as things were very green.  Staying at the Olare Orak Conservancy, we had our choice of animals that we wanted to sample.  It was almost as if the migration had already occurred, as thousands of animals filled the open plains.  But, these were all the Loita plains resident wildebeest that we were observing and sampling, not the Serengeti migratory population.  It’s unclear why the Loita plains wildebeest are all in this area at this time.

We visited sites in the Olare Orak, Motorogi, Mara North, and Naboisho Conservancies.  All very nice and full of wildlife.  Plenty of wildlife including buffalo, elephant, impala, zebra, eland, small rhino (i.e., warthog), among many others.  Zebra, hyena, wildebeest, and elephant all in our campsite at night.

Now on to Nairobi National Park to finish up all field work before starting the laboratory analysis.

Sampling throughout Amboseli National Park

The chameleon “Clyde” crossing the road.

After a tough few weeks of field sampling, we have returned from Amboseli.  No rains to speak of yet, so conditions are very dry and hot.  The picture here is of a chameleon crossing the road that we took along the drive from Nairobi to Mashuru, a town north of the Park.  You’ll notice that his eye is fixed on me, even though he is continuing to cautiously move forward.

We stayed in Amboseli for a few weeks due also to the presidential election that has been going on here.  After nearly a month, however, there still is no president in office.   Fortunately, there has been been little violence.  The Supreme Court in Kenya is currently hearing the case to determine if the election was conducted fairly before confirming the president elect (Uhuru Kenyatta).  Of note and unfortunately the case, President-elect Kenyatta is also being investigated by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity.  Only in Kenya!

There are very few wildebeest outside the park right now due to the dry conditions, making collecting samples very difficult.  One day we were on the road for 9 hours before  locating a lone wildebeest and collecting a sample.  Wildebeest can survive only about 4-5 days (maximum) without water.  During dry periods, wildebeest are therefore concentrated around the swamps in the interior of the park.  I, unfortunately, do not have permission from the Kenya Wildlife Service to collect samples without Park boundary.

Wildebeest grazing with Mt. Kilimanjaro in the background

In the end, we were able to collect 26 samples throughout the community areas surrounding the park.  We had one flat tire that we changed in record time and have now resolved a problem we were having with the vehicle battery.  Now on to the Maasai Mara to finish up sampling there, which should be a bit easier due to much wetter conditions.

Completion of 1st stage of Mara Sampling

Sauna and I are heading back up to Nairobi today after a few successful days of field sampling. We will re-stock our supplies and then head to Amboseli National Park to continue collecting samples. We were able to collect many samples today as we navigated throughout the Olare Orak, Emotorogi, and Naboisho Conservancies. The picture provided shows a small family group of elephants as they crossed the savannah from one forest area to another. Lot’s of elephant damage in this part of the conservancy.

Elephants crossing the savannah

We also startled a newborn gazelle calf this morning, inadvertantly. As we collected our field data, we saw a calf that must have only been a few hours old. It was curled up in the grass, blending in perfectly with its surroundings. If we hadn’t nearly stepped on it, we wouldn’t have seen it at all. It’s hair was still wet from birth and it kept so still that I thought it was stillborn. But, as Sauna checked it out it finally burst

Some shade on the savannah

to its feet and took its first wobbly steps. Amazing how quiet it kept, not calling for its mother, even after we startled it. Camouflage is the greatest tool for survival at this stage. We left it alone and within a few minutes the mother and calf were re-united as we departed.

Maasai Mara Field Work – Day 1

The start of field work throughout the Mara was met with a brief but intense rainshower. This meant that the black cotton soil was converted from a fine powder to a thick/heavy cement, making travel slow and difficult. Fortunately, our vehicle is very reliable and at its best when the 4-wheel drive is engaged.

Hippos rushing to the water for cover

The most difficult spot was trying to find areas where the water was low enough to facilitate a river crossing. We came upon a large group of hippos, which we stayed well clear of.

First task was again to retrieve some of the dropped collars. Unfortunately, these collars have dropped many months ago (May/June 2012) and without a airplane to do reconnaissance, they are very difficult to find. After so much time, even the VHF signal seems to be dead. I’m not optimistic of recoverying many of these collars, but we’ll see. The picture attached shows two old buffalo bulls that were taking a rest from the hot African sun as we passed by.

Two brothers sitting out the hottest part of the day in the shade

We’ve now moved to Aruba camp, which is a tent campsite across from the Talek gate entrance into the Reserve. This is a good spot as it is centrally located in relation to our collars and has running water and hot showers (most days). At least one elephant got into camp on our first night, however, which caused a lot of noise as the askari (guard) tried to get him out. Lot’s of trumpeting and low frequency sounds as the elephants communicated to easy other. The elephant(s) was perhaps only about 20-meters from my tent.

Back to the Mara

The landscape of the Maasai Mara as we arrived

Today we arrived in the Maasai Mara, staying at a camp outside the Reserve in the Emotorogi Conservancy. The camp is called Mahali Mzuri, which in kiswahili means “nice place”, and is being developed by Sir Richard Branson (of Virgin Atlantic fame). The camp is still under construction, but is expected to open in June or July of this year. Features of the camp include views of the valley and a gorge full of wildlife. Really an amazing spot.  The tents are also very cool, designed by a local architect, and are designed to blend into the hillside. They are also a design that the Mara has not seen before. You can get a look at the camp at Mahali Mzuri.

We stayed in the working camp, just around the corner from the main camp. During the night we heard sounds of hyeana, wildebeest, and zebra….snorting and calling, all within walking distance of the open field camp. First thing in the morning, we awoke to the sound of weaver’s (Ploceus sp.) making their nests above our tents. A pretty great start to our arrival.

Surveying throughout the Athi-Kaputiei plains

Just returning from the Athi-Kaputiei plains and am now getting ready to head off to the Maasai Mara.  Today, we spent most of our time to the southeast of Nairobi National Park, in an area to the east of the main road connecting Kitengela and Kajiado.  This area still has a number of large ranches and although only a few kilometres from the Kitengela, there are still a wide range of mammals here.

A family of giraffe in the Athi-Kaputiei plains

The picture shows a large family of giraffe, with a newborn only a few days old.  We also saw eland, gazelle (Thompson’s and Grant’s), impala, warthog, zebra, and ….of course, wildebeest.  The area is heavily used by both wildlife and livestock.  However, since the area is still quite undisturbed, the biomass was higher than in other areas we have been surveying.

We also were able to recover an additional 3 of the GPS collars that had fallen off.  Unfortunately, 2 of these 3 had been destroyed by the Maasai that had discovered them.  Evidently, they thought they were bombs.  It’s hilarious that they thought they were bombs and yet they still brought them back to their boma’s to take them apart and smash the devices to see what was inside.  In any event, we were able to verify the fates of these collars, even if we won’t be able to recover the activity data that is stored on-board.

More from the Mara later in the week.  Extremely hot and dry here right now, so hopefully the rains will come soon.

Back to Athi

Spent the last few days/nights back out in the field, working in the Athi-Kaputiei plains (just south of Nairobi National Park).  Really hot out here, with little to no shade.  The goals of this first effort are simple: (1) re-establish our presence by meeting with the chiefs in the area, (2) collect the GPS collars that have detached from animals and fallen to the ground and (3) test out the field methodology.  All three objectives were accomplished.

Upon meeting one of the chiefs (Nickson) in the upper triangle closest to the National Park, Nickson pulled out one of the collars that he had found months ago and had been storing inside his boma.  We also recovered a collar from a man (Pius) that had recovered it a week or so ago and called the African Conservation Centre to return it.  Today, we traveled to the last known location of one of the collars (collar 30086) and used the the VHF antenna to see if we could find it.  It pointed us directly to one of the boma’s in the area.  After talking to the Maasai that lived there, we were able to retrieve it.  Offering a reward for its return definitely helped!

Wildebeest and Cattle throughout the Athi-Kaputiei plains

We also collected a few fecal samples from wildebeest in the area to start research activities.  Sauna and I tested out our methodology, which is basically designed around measuring disturbance in the area, along with doing a point count of all the mammals we see within a 5 minute period.  Very similar to the Breeding Bird Survey data that has been collected for decades in the US.

The picture taken shows the general issue throughout the area.  This particular area still looks quite open.  However, on the ground, the entire area has been demarcated, split up into 1/4 acre plots.  While there are no houses, the Maasai that we talked to and were tending these cattle said, “for as far as  you can see, the land has been sold.”  They were well of the issues throughout the area, both for wildlife and their livestock, and wondering where they will go to graze once houses are built and fences constructed.  Here, this picture shows cattle and wildebeest co-existing together.

Lion Guardians

One of our GPS collars was recently recovered by the Lion Guardians in Amboseli, a participatory community approach to living with and conserving lions.  They have a very nice website (Lion Guardians) and were recently featured in a BBC nature series with Sir David Attenborough.  This series focuses on promising and innovative ways to protect and conserve Africa’s wildlife and wilderness areas.  You can find a link to this episode, The Future (Episode six of the series Africa), via the BBC website (BBC One).  The series aired on February 6th in the UK and February 9th in the US.  I’m hoping to stay at their camp in Amboseli when I go down to visit, which will be great.

Recover of this collar means that 6 of a total of 36 collars have been recovered.  Eight collars are still working and remain on animals throughout our study areas, that leaves 22 collars on the ground.  The good news is that the VHF signal was still working on the collar, even though the GPS had failed.  This means that there is a possibility of still finding some of the remaining collars.  One was recently reported as being recovered by a man in the Athi-Kaputiei plains, outside of Nairobi National Park.  I plan on heading down to collect the collar tomorrow and then try to find a few others.  I have the last known GPS position of each animal, but who knows if the collar will be anywhere near this location.  We’ll see.  The collars store activity data (head dips) on-board the device, so we are anxious to get these data back.