Group Ranches Field Exercise

For environmental policy, we headed out to a group ranch where agriculture is the main source of livelihood on this communal land. Our assignment consisted of interviewing local Maasai people living on this ranch via a translator in order to gain greater perspectives on human-wildlife conflicts. 

We walked through several miles of farmland at the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro, which extended as far as we could see.  Stopping at three bomas, we interviewed neighbors who all expressed that they needed more help from the government in terms of compensation for crop damage by wildlife, such as elephants and monkeys.  They said that a warden from Kenya Wildlife Services comes once per week for free to watch over the crops at night, but this leaves the majority of the time for wildlife to raid crops.  The people are frustrated and view the wildlife as a big problem.  They can’t kill the wildlife because they will be fined immensely, but they throw rocks at them to try to get them to leave and attack them with spears.  They also kept asking us for money and food, and were surpsrised that we didn’t even have some chai (tea) with us to give them.  It’s unfortunate that whenever you try to talk to someone here to get to know them they start asking you for money or your watch. 

After several interviews, we realized that everyone was saying the same thing and expressing the same problem in terms of lack of governmental assistance and a major conflict and thus distrust/lack of care for the wildlife.  As a result there are serious wildlife conservation issues in the area, such that the local people rely on wildlife tourism to support their communities, yet they do not reap significant economic benefits from it, only the national government.  Therefore, they do very little to protect the wildlife here.

When we got bored of interviewing we helped one man weed his onion crops.  It was around 90 degrees in full sun and I couldn’t believe he was wearing a winter hat.  We lasted about ten minutes before we got too hot and tired.  It’s really hard work!

On the way home in the Land Cruiser, we were waving to the little kids as usual and heading back to camp for lunch.  All of a sudden, the student sitting next to me in the back row of the car saw a hand reach in the window, followed by a little boy falling off the back of the vehicle.  He was actually trying to hang on to the Land Cruiser over the extremely bumpy dirt roads and fast speeds on the paved infrastructures.  I was shocked that he tried to do that!! He wasn’t hurt but I’m amazed at the lengths these people will go to in order to get a ride here.  They pack into the vans here like sardines, so that some are literally standing on top of each other.  I will never complain about the subway being packed again having seen this comparison. 

Tomorrow is non-program day so I’m excited to see what the Kenyan market is like!  We’re also supposed to visit an AIDS support group so I’m really looking forward to it! 

Life in Kenya

I survived Tanzania without getting any jiggers.  I have mixed feelings about this, since it would have been cool to say I had that experience, but glad I didn’t have to deal with something growing in my toe.  But since they don’t have them in Kenya I guess I’ll never know what it’s like…

The travelling lecture this morning consisted of two hours of cutting our own road through bushland to avoid getting stuck in the biggest puddles of mud I have ever seen (we’re talking several feet deep).  Just when we would get close to the site, at the top of a steep hill we would end up rock climbing, we would have to change routes so that we wouldn’t spend several hours pushing the vehicles out of the mud.  It was all worth it though…a constant view of Mt. Kilimanjaro, a cheetah sighting and getting stopped by several herds of cattle and saying hi to the local Maasai on the way to a lecture.  This is life at the new camp site in Kimana, Kenya, at the southernmost part of the country and in a semi-arid agricultural region.

This afternoon we also resumed our volleyball tournament, a new sport we’ve taken up since this camp has a really nice court.  My team placed third so we did alright.

It takes some getting used to making sure we close the door when leaving the banda so animals don’t get in and dodging the massive spiders in the shower, with water that comes directly from Kili, but the new camp is what I expected when coming here.  And there are way more mosquitos.

Also the askaris (guards) killed a black mamba, one of the most poisonous snakes in Africa, right outside the office I was just photocopying in.  So far I haven’t seen any snakes myself and I hope to keep it that way.

Our schedule is still really busy, and in a matter of days we’ll be going on expedition, taking exams again, and starting directed research!

The Switch

I’m now in Kenya!  It was so sad to leave all of the staff behind and pack everything up.  At the new field station, there isn’t a little town close by or hot showers, so it will definitely be a more remote, rustic experience.  You have to turn the solar panels so that they are facing the sun directly, otherwise there may not be enough electricity for the rest of the day.  There is a huge field for playing games and a volleyball court, and even a one mile running trail within the camp.  The staff told us we should alert them if we notice any elephants have broken in. 

Our bandas are a little different…we no longer have bunk beds or a bathroom in our banda.  Instead, they are made of burlap and wood branches.  Vervet monkeys, poisonous snakes and other local animals will break in if we keep food in there, so we’re not allowed.  Or we might just find them anyway. 

The camp is so much bigger than it was at Moyo Hill.  The new site is called Kilimanjaro Bush Camp (KBC) and is the original site for this program.  It’s obvious from the amazing staff, the better food and the more established research program.  I’m excited for this half of the semester!

SERENGETI

Lions and leopards and cheetahs…oh my!  The wildlife in Serengeti has been the best we’ve seen so far.  For the first time I saw a leopard, a cheetah,  hippos walking out of the water, and lions really close up (and even mating)!  We went on a game drive each day, accompanied by afternoon lectures with the Chief Ecologist of Serengeti National Park and a researcher working with the Lion Project, the second longest mammal project only to Jane Goodall’s study on chimps.  She even showed us a lion decoy they used for one of their studies. 

At night, buffalo hung out behind the bathroom and stared us down, while hyena came right into our campsite and fought over scraps near the kitchen while we were sleeping.  You could hear lions roaring from the campfire and the first group of the Great Migration casually ran by our tents about 100 feet away the first day we arrived.  Literally nothing could have topped this.

The first day we stopped at Olduvai Gorge on the way, the birthplace of mankind.  It is an archaeological dig site where the oldest human footprints have been found.  It was really cool to hear about the evolution of man from the guide.  

 

This is Charles and I at Olduvai Gorge; he is the staff member who picked me up at the airport the first day I got here!

 

When we got to the campsite, we had already driven past all kinds of wildlife.  There were hundreds of zebra, wildebeest and other antelope within site from my tent!  It was a struggle to put up the tent, I ate out of Tupperware that was only cleaned in cold, bug-filled water, and I went five days without showering and sleeping on the ground in the dirt, but I didn't even care.  It was such an amazing experience!

       How would you like to see this when you wake up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night...

 

When we weren’t just driving around on safari, we were “in class” cruising around observing elephants and identifying bird species.  One of the days we went to the Serengeti Serena Lodge and had a buffet lunch and swam in a gorgeous pool.  It was amazinggg to have American food once again!

On the drive back home, there was a lion in a tree, a really rare sighting!

Overall the staff said this was one of their favorite groups/expeditions and the group got a lot closer on this trip.  I’m sad to leave Tanzania to go to Kenya in only a few days!

Spring Break!

Now that finals are over, we're going on expedition!  While other students back in the US are heading towards warmer weather or community service, we're going to spend the next five days in the bush (the African wilderness) camping out in Serengeti National Park.  When you see scenes of Africa in magazines or on TV, this is where they're from!

We had a risk management briefing this morning.  Here's what I learned:
1.  The students are in a U-shape of tents with up to six people in the middle of the campsite, surrounded by staff tents, and finally surrounded by Land Cruisers that keep the lights on all night.
2.  Showers don't usually happen because the forty of us are sharing two small bathrooms, and the elephants like to knock the water tanks over.
3.  5:30 AM wake up call every day...jeeeez.
4.  Do not go beyond the short grass.  You will find snakes and scorpions, and who knows what else.
5.  The whistle means there is a dangerous animal in the camp.  If you wake up in the middle of the night disoriented and hear a car running, it means the staff are trying to scare the animal out of the campsite.  No, you are not missing out on a night game drive.
6.  The Serengeti is LOUD.  You can hear lions from 15 km away and they will sound as though they are right next to you.
7.  Don't leave any food in the tent!  The animals WILL break in. 
8.  From 12-2 PM each day we get a break because it is so hot that all you will want to do is complain about how hot you are.
9.  Expect to see animals migrating, copulating, eating other animals, etc.  Up close and personal.  And feel free to stay up until midnight in the Land Cruisers watching the animals come near camp.
10.  If you encounter an elephant, stand still.  A buffalo, lie down.  A lion?  You back away.  And a hyaena...PANIC.

Rest assured, we have guards with guns and lots of safety protocols.  It should be an amazing experience!  I'll post about my adventures and lots of pictures when I get back!

Ngorongoro Crater

The Ngorongoro Crater, a landform created by a collapsed caldera, is amazing!  At the top of this conservation area, in the forest, it’s so cool you can wear a fleece.  In the crater, with direct sun, its close to 100 degrees.  And at the gate, the baboons, unlike at other national parks in the area, are so aggressive they will steal your oranges.  Out of your hand.  One of the smaller monkeys even jumped up and clung onto the open window of the car, looking around inside for things to steal.

         It feels like Jurassic Park every time we drive through one of these gates in the Land Cruiser.

                                                                    View of the crater

                                                                         Wildebeest

                                                                    Warthogs snuggling

                                                                Posing for the camera

                                          The blue color on this bird is so pretty in the sunlight

                                                                       African buffalo

Here we saw lions for the first time as well as critically endangered black rhinos, but only from a distance. 

                                                                  Lioness on the prowl

                                                         She's definitely eyeing that zebra

 

We also had a lecture with a tourism officer at the site for Environmental Policy class.  The conservation area is special because it protects wildlife and also allows for human inhabitants.  Many local tribes live in the ecosystem, including the Maasai, Datooga and Bushmen, who live off of bushmeat, like antelope. 

These tribes are traditionally nomads and pastoralists, so it was cool to learn about the interactions between wildlife in the park and their livestock.  There is a disease that affects livestock and wildebeest, so the tribes do their best to separate them such that during the rainy season when the wildebeest inhabit the crater, the pastoralists bring their livestock up to the highlands to avoid disease transmission. 

In addition, the Bushmen are one of the few tribes that are almost entirely untouched by Western influence.  They even are allowed to hunt at the edge of the protected area, which we have learned can be sustainable depending on the populations of the hunted species.  In some cases, hunting can promote tourism while preserving wildlife, such that if some animals are killed, people will recognize their value, decrease demand for their tusks etc. and attempt to preserve them.  In certain African countries, the elephant populations are so high that wildlife managers perform culling (purposely killing them).  

The following day, for our travelling lecture, we planted trees with kids from the secondary school and made bricks with a sustainable brick company.  I planted a Grevillea tree with a freshman at the school, who wrote down my name and labeled the tree.  They told us all that we could come back and check on how our tree was growing.  The school had an impressive amount of environmental initiatives.

Afterwards we made a stop at a site in the middle of nowhere where they were making bricks by merely using compression rather than fire.  By doing this, they save lots of trees that they would otherwise have to deforest.  The bricks fit together like puzzle pieces and require no mortar, and last as long as burned bricks.  It was really impressive!!

So far the academics are getting pretty intense…I was up until 2 am last night doing a powerpoint presentation for today.  However, the rest of the day was a non-program day so we all went to Happy Days and got some American food.  We have exams in a few days so wish me luck!