[Tanya] Last Mpala day: what a day!

Last day at Mpala. It came way too soon. Everybody is trying to wrap up the projects. The general feeling is that we are just now really have figured it out and we can REALLY do the projects. The sheep people (sheeple) have collected their last GPS data the day before, Ipek is downloading the 20 Gb of video she has taken of sheep behavior (yep, 20Gb of a sheep followed by other sheep grazing, drinking, baaaing). Caitlin has gone in the morning to give a water bottle to the sheepherder, Steve, who was in charge of our specially created numbered herd (he is also the head herder of the Mpala sheep herd). Other people from the sheep project are helping the ants project.

Everybody is helping the ants project, which is Collin’s and Viktor’s. They are looking at the species of ants that live in little nodules, called domiciles, on branches of acacia trees. When you tap a branch the ants run out of the holes of the domiciles. Those are the defenders. The workers and larvae are in the nodules. If you crack a domicile open the workers right away start carrying the larvae to another domicile. Not all domiciles have the same number of larvae and workers. Is there any logic to it? Are the defenders concentrated in some strategic domiciles while the larvae are in the safer ones? Nobody knows and that’s (part of) Collin’s project. Viktor’s main focus is on visualization of a schematic tree and the information Collin and he gather about domiciles and the distribution of ants. Gathering that information is an extremely time consuming process. First they cut down one tree, instantly killing all the ants on it (using special gas). They measured the exact topology of each branch, counted the number of each type of ant in each domicile. Insane. They and Iain have tapped dozens of branches, letting the guard ants come out and sting them, enduring little stings for hours, to estimate the number and distribution of guards. They’ve opened hundreds of domiciles, estimating their contents. That’s what everybody has been helping them do the last day. Counting ants.

Qing, who is studying zebra stallion behavior, is downloading gigabytes of GPS data. Ann and XingLi are wrapping up their butterfly project, Maria and Jenni are done with mapping out weaver nests, and Sebastian is in the lab, trying to process for parasites all the dung he has collected (don’t ask).

At 8:30 am Dan, Mayank, and I set out for Mpala, carrying 25 GPS loggers, the same ones that were used to track the sheep. We are going to give them to Ol’ Pejeta so they can put them on scouts and trackers. Among many other things that Ol’ Pejeta is doing, is rhino conservation. There are numerous rhinos on its property and the number is growing, all brought in. Every rhino must be seen at most once every 3 days. Ol’ Pejeta has 23 trackers who patrol the preserve and find the rhinos. They are also acting as security for the preserve and protect the preserve’s extensive wildlife against poachers. Batian, the director of security for Ol’ Pejeta, wants to make sure the trackers are doing their job, that the entire preserve is covered, that there are no blind spots, and, possibly, to see if there is a pattern to rhino sighting. From tracking sheep to rhino conservation, not bad.
Almost as soon as we enter Ol’ Pejeta, we see a group of wild dogs. This is great, especially since they have just introduced wild dogs on the preserve only 2 days ago. As we ride, we wave “Good bye” to countless animals. Ol’ Pejeta is giving us quite a farewell.

After we come back to Mpala, we eat our late lunch and a group of us sets out to the Mpala school. People have brought little things for the kids (about 200 of them on Mpala), like stickers, etc. Rajmonda and I also have brought soccer balls. We arrive at the school and al the kids are assembled in the schoolyard, politely waiting for us. The headmaster introduces himself, directs the kids to welcome us, we say our hellos. Then we give out the four soccer balls. The kids (both boys and girls) instantly start playing in little groups. Our boys (Iain, Andrew, Albert, XingLi) join in. In the meantime, the headmaster explains about the school, tells me that he has only 6 teachers, shows us the tiny school, the sheets with kids’ marks and the handmade posters displayed on the walls. We also give out stickers to kids. Over the last couple of weeks, especially during the soccer games with Mpala staff, I have gotten used to seeing dozens of little hands trust out and the screaming “Me! Me!” whenever we give something out to kids. At the soccer matches we gave out bubble gum and I played little games (like high fives and tickling) with the kids, which earned our team a great cheering squad who could chant in unison “COMPBIO!” (I hope it doesn’t mean anything in Swahili). Every time we have to say “only one” and every time the kids are trying to get away with getting more than one of whatever it is we are giving out ☺ Here, at the school, the scene has been repeated again. By now I recognize the kids and I know which ones are likely to try for more then one and I watch for them. As soon as the kids get the stickers they start putting them on their faces. It’s very cute.

The school bus picks up the kids from the Mpala village (where the research centre staff live) and leaves the Mpala ranch kids (the school is at the ranch so they just walk home). We follow the school bus to the village. There I take a glass pitcher of hot water and a couple of capsules of foam animals. I show the capsules to all the kids now assembled around me on the ground in a circle. They are uncertain of what’s going to happen. I dump the capsules into the pitcher and hope that they are going to dissolve quickly. They do. And as the foam animals unfold, there is a collective “Ah!” from the kids. They love it. I pull out one animal. “Goat!” somebody yells. Yep. Another. “Sheep!” I put more capsules into the water. “Cow! Pig! Cock! Ducky! Horse!” They give me both the English and the Swahili names. They don’t recognize a turkey or a goose. No surprise.

We hurry back to the center to meet everybody else, to pack our beers into cars, and to go to a rock for our last sundown. Oreste, the mechanic shop director, and Julius, the head of Mpala security, join us. With a couple of hiccups we get there perfectly as the sun starts setting. It’s gorgeous. We drink, joke, take pictures, and are sad to leave. We come back for dinner and Dan tells us that he has arranged for Turkana (the tribe most of the staff are from, similar to Maasai) dancers to perform for us after dinner.

After dinner we clear the tables from the dining area and turn it into a stage. It’s dark. Before we see the dancers we hear their rhythmic singing. The procession, led by Anthony, a young man who works as an assistant on various research projects on Mpala, enters the dining area. The dancers are dressed in various combinations of traditional red and black wraps and T-shirts saying things like “Go Aggies!” or “Bob Marley”. First song is just a performance but from the next song on the dancers/singers pull us into the dance with them, nobody is left sitting. It’s a lot of fun. Julius (head of security), Patrick (another security guard), and Laurence (the head of the kitchen staff), who are all Turkana, join in, too. After they are done with the traditional dances, the performers ask if we can put on our music and dance our dances. We bring speakers, a couple of iPods, and we all dance anything from hip-hop to salsa for the next hour. We still need to pack.

After the dance, Josphat, the driver that took the bird and the sheep people every day, as well as helped out with the bird project, suggested a night game drive. We try to find a spotlight but after half an hour of futile searching we set out armed with the car’s headlights and our head flashlights. In two hours we see many many hares and dik dik. But also Genet cats, aardvark, and a group of 9 giraffes and some zebra, sleeping. We get back at midnight. I still haven’t packed.

[Tanya] Random thoughts

* Guano has a sweet smell
* Male nematodes have a curving tail but females do not
* It is very hard to get moths out of your computer's vents
* Lions have spots
* Sausage ants look like wasps
* Lions eat cheetah (if they can catch)
* Rocks can cut tires
* Hyena sounds like a pigeon on steroids
* Sheep have LOTS of ticks
* Africans can get sunburned (but not as much as everybody else)
* Plains zebra make a whiny barking sound
* When bargaining for a price of a trinket, offering a pen or a hat (as requested) does not bring the price down
* Everybody can live without a TV for 2.5 weeks
* Giraffes fight (viciously) by swinging their necks very slowly (you can work out the physics)
* Everybody likes gum
* Zebras are not domesticated because they are insanely aggressive towards each other

[Jenni] How to stop an elephant from charging your vehicle when it is 10 feet away and angry

1. Have a driver who knows what he/she is doing.
2. Have a driver who is not scared.
3. Stop the car and rev the engine for prolonged period of time to show dominance
4. Ignore female in back screaming "Drive! Drive! Why are we just standing here! It's coming! What are you doing!!?! Agggghhhhh!
5. Drive away only after elephant has lost interest in car and will not follow car as it drives away.
6. Tease female rest of day by asking her if she would like to visit the elephant again.

[Mayank] Occupational hazards

Last night, a moth flew into my left ear and got stuck there. The electricity had been switched off for the night and I was watching a movie with Caitlin, Monda, Jenni, and Maria about (somewhat ironically) a disc jockey who goes deaf. The moth managed to navigate to a point where I couldn't reach it with my fingers, and then decided to flap about in a frenzy, inside my ear.

I am now an authority on moth wing flapping sounds.

Fortunately, Jenni had a pair of tweezers, which Maria used to pull the little beastie out of my head, with an immensely amplified crunch as the tweezers grabbed the moth. No loss of cognitive abilities, or superpowers gained, as of this morning.

[Mayank] See you down by Ol' Pej

Yesterday, the powers that be decided to give me a 30-year old Land Rover (with a new diesel engine), some graduate student passengers, and permission to go off-road "judiciously" in the Ol' Pejeta Conservancy. Qing and I were to watch and photograph the zebras for our projects, and Maria, Monda, Khairi, and Jenni were along for the ride, and to see lions.

It was a fantastic drive from Mpala Ranch to Ol' Pejeta, cruising along at 40 km/h on dirt road and 60 km/h on brief stretches of tarmac. The Land Rover lived up to its reputation, sliding around the road admirably, with a very sticky 3rd gear. All around us, zebras and cattle and giraffes scurried out of the way.

We got to Ol' Pejeta and the guard recognized me from our previous daily excursions. We stopped at our customary location just past the gate to prepare for the day's data collection. People got on top of the car, zoom lenses were polished and poised, notebooks were set under fresh ballpoint pens...and the car refused to start.

It was interesting to note that just two days earlier, we had stopped about a hundred meters away to watch a group of three lions feast on a freshly hunted warthog.

We tried the ignition again. We cursed. We tried pushing the car in reverse. We tried pushing the car in first gear. We cursed some more. We looked at the engine. Nothing would start the car, and only curious gazelle passed us by.

It took about 3 hours for us to radio for help and the Ol' Pejeta mechanic to arrive. Turns out the fuel pump was clogged, some connections were loose, and there was no way in hell that we could have fixed it ourselves . The mechanic flushed out the fuel system of the 30 year old Land Rover with the retrofitted diesel engine, piece by piece, under the blazing sun, while my passengers and I got a little delirious under the sun. It was about 2:30 p.m. before we were on our way, which seemed to be a bit late for catching the zebras at their best.

On the plus side, we got a tip from Patrick at the visitor's center that a group of lions had just been spotted about 6 minutes away from where we were. We set off towards the beasties immediately, and would have completely missed them if Maria (sitting on the roof) hadn't spotted them. Four beautiful lionesses! Fortunately, a dirt track lead right up to them, and it was far enough off the main dirt track that tourist vehicles sped right by without seeing us. It was just us and the four lionesses.

My project involves zebras, and I have tons and tons of photographs of them. I'm almost starting to recognize them by stripes, and I sometimes see stripes when I close my eyes (a side effect of staring at them through a 300mm zoom lens for 6 days). It's fantastic to drive around the savannah, Tusker beer is quite nice, and the food at Mpala is very good. Giraffes are nice to look at, and brilliantly colored starlings steal food from our open-air breakfast every morning. We saw a pack of wild dogs hunting an impala the other day, and the visitor's center at Ol' Pejeta has a pet rhino called Max.  Nothing, however, quite compares to staring at a lioness in the wild at five meters, sitting in a car that has just broken down a few hours ago.

[Tanya] From solar eclipse to sunset party

Everybody was excited yesterday about the solar eclipse. We are supposed to be able to see it from about 8:20 until about 8:40. The teams are either delaying their start or going out early to come back to see it. Margaret, Mpala research center director, has provided exposed film so we can watch the eclipse. Everybody gets their cameras and films ready. It is spectacular. We were even able to take picture with the film covering the camera lens. The teams then start their day.

In the afternoon, I go out with Maria and Jenny (joined by Habiba and Monda for the day) to see their bird nest project. They are looking at different species of weaver birds and mapping out the configuration of their nests on trees to see if there is a distinction in the geometry by species. I correct a little geometry error in their measurements and am satisfied with my contribution. The driver who takes the girls to their site every day, Josef, teaches us some Swahili. “Watafiti mwenwazimu” means “Mad researchers”.

In the evening, it’s the Princeton Friday beer hour. The Jenga house (thank you Leslie Scott) is transformed again into a night club with a campfire. Dan wanted to make smores, so he has ordered marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers. What we got was colored marshmallow twists, Cadbury inedible inferior grade, and digestives. Close enough ☺ We were happy. Most people had smores for the first time in their life and beer help make it go down better.

Another exhausting, sunburned, amazing, exhilarating day.

[Tanya] Counting sheep

Going to Ol’ Pejeta is a coveted resource. On Thursday Habiba, Andrew, and Albert took a break from the sheep and went with Mayank, Dan, and Qing. They saw two baby lions with their mother eating a warthog. Yesterday Caitlin, Ipek, and Ian joined the zebra crew but they were not so lucky. No number of zebras, impala, Grant’s gazelles, waterbuck, warthog, rhinos, baboon, monkeys, buffalo, or giraffes could make up for the absence of felines. Hopefully, they will see some on Monday, when we all go.

In the meantime, I joined the sheep crew on Thursday. I watched Caitlin, Ipek, and Khairi put on the GPS collars on our very own herd of 19 sheep (with some lambs). Each sheep has a number painted in blue on each side, for easy counting. “One sheep, two sheep, three sheep…” Well, not counting but identifying each individual sheep so we know which GPS belongs to which individual and from day to day, which individual sheep interacts with which other. There are flies and ticks all over. The process goes much faster now, on the fifth day of data collection. On the first day, Monday, it was sheep wrestling, stressful, rechecking of whether GPS were turned on, realizing that the casing that comes with them is not rugged enough to withstand sheep wear. At one point there were 7 people on one sheep: two holding it down, two putting zip-ties on the GPS, one clipping the zip ties off, and two writing down the numbers. The boma (the area where the herders live and keep animals) women and children were standing in a group watching the whole process and laughing. It was funny, in retrospect.

But on Thursday things went smoothly: in under 15 minutes we are done. Then Ipek watches the sheep behavior, especially instances of leadership, Caitlin counts the grazing rate and samples the vegetation. The pin drop vegetation sampling goes as follows: Khairi drops a metal wire stick sticking into the ground, Caitlin counts the number of leaves and stems touching it, and I write it down. Sheep graze. It’s hot, the day goes slowly, nothing happens, we follow the sheep, observe, measure, wait. And then we see a group of about 20 giraffes on a slope in the distance. Two males are fighting by swinging their necks. It looks brutal. We cheer and then it’s noon: time to get back fro lunch, yeah!

[Tanya] Zebras and rhinos and cheetahs, oh my!

We (Dan, Mayank, Qing, and I) went to Ol’ Pejeta again on Wednesday (Jan 13) to take flank shots of zebra for Mayank’s project. First, we did some behavioral observations for Qing’s project. There were TONS of zebra with a group of about a dozen bachelors (single males) and a harem (a group of females with a stallion) near by. One particularly dominant stallion was reasserting his superiority over all the bachelors. He sniffed, bit, and fought into submission the near by bachelors, in the process initiating a spectacular fight among the bachelors themselves. Then another harem came by and a few more bachelors. Our stallion and the new one joined forces to deal with the 15 or so bachelors. Once they were done, they faced each other. “So, we are definitely better than all these single guys, but what about you and me?” The fight escalated right away into biting the Achilles’ tendon, rearing, and running. The new stallion would not submit to our one and our guy was clearly getting exhausted by all that fighting. He was very near loosing his harem of 4 females and 3 babies. When all seemed to have been lost, they suddenly took a grazing brake. Just like that. And right after they had a snack, our guy managed to get a good bite and the visitor went away. All was over. The females peacefully grazed through the whole thing.

The zebras are around a waterhole and there are also impala, Grant’s gazelles, warthogs, waterbuck, giraffes, ostrich. Further away there are rhinos, buffalo, baboons, …

We then started taking photos for Mayank’s project. Each zebra has to be photographed on each side. We keep a blank shot in between individuals to keep track of who is who. It is an exhausting process of driving around zebra (off road) trying to get them to turn both sides. Through all of this I sitting on top of a 4 ton Lan Rover in the narrow strip in between two pop tops, my legs over the opening of the front pop top, hanging on for my dear life, burning to a crisp (first serious sun burn in my life). Throughout the day we got about 2000 pictures of about 40 zebra total. We give them to Dan’s field assistant Rosemary for identification of individuals (for the test set for learning algorithm). She is amazing, taking about 15 seconds to pick out the individual from the photo when she knows it.

After we drop off the photos we go to the Serena Hotel, which used to be Adnan Khashoggi’s house. It’s an expansive place with a swimming pool, 12 feet in every direction bed, a bathroom bigger than some houses, a walk-in closet the size of my living room, and pulleys in the dining room ceiling. A canoe used to be suspended on those pulleys and women would be sitting in it covered with fruit during the dinner. It would be lowered for dessert.

We thank the very accommodating house keepers and go to the information center to see Baraka (means “Blessing”, just like “Barak” in Barak Obama), the blind black rhino held in an enclosure. He is one of the poaching orphans rescued by the conservancy. His horn is sawn off to prevent poaching. He comes up to the observation platform and the keeper gives him some sugarcane. We touch him, feed him. A 2 ton pet – amazing. Dan is impatient: “C’mon, guys, we need to get back before dark” But I want to feed Baraka and take a picture with the keeper (and his AK 47). So Dan walks to the car hoping we follow. We do, after the pictures. Dan is dishing it out: “You guys missed some jackals, a whole bunch”. I answer that between touching a rhino and seeing jackals, I am ok with missing the jackals (I have seen them before). “Ahhh,” says Dan, “but what if had missed some cheetahs?” “Then I would have been upset”. We pile back into the car and take off on the way home. Not five minutes later we see four cars standing on the road. Must be lions. No! Cheetahs! A momma with a baby. When we saw it, it was laying with the mommy, but then it got restless and started bouncing around. Mom got up an started walking away. He ran around, back and forth, play hunting andpouncing. Sat for a while, looked at us directly and then got restless again. It was fantastic! We try not to look too smug when we get back to Mpala but our poker faces don’t work.

[Mayank] LION!

It happened while we were in Ol' Pejeta Conservancy collecting pictures of Zebras for machine learning. The plan was simple: collect multiple pictures of the same Zebra, from different angles, so that we can train an algorithm to tell Zebras apart by looking at photographs -- nothing spectacularly out of the ordinary, so it was only Dan, Tanya, Qing, and myself in the car on the 1.5 hour expedition from Mpala to Ol' Pejeta.

And then, around dusk, we drove right past it on an off-road trail.

The stimulus in the brain starts off as a mild reaction. "Oh, a lion," you think to yourself nonchalantly, while adjusting the wide-brimmed hat you bought at the airport. And then someone yells "Lion!", the car screeches to a halt, and a hard and heavy lump forms in your throat.

This one was about 5 meters away from us, casually walking along the side of the road, completely oblivious to our existence. It accidentally made eye contact with us, but it looked right through. Not an ounce of fear, not a shred of deference, not a smidgen of uncertainty in those eyes. It walked along the road with us, slinky like a ramp model, a deceptively tame beastie carrying giant chompers of death. Lesser mortals would have soiled themselves.

[Caitlin] one more thing.....

i recently discovered that, among the 19 of us, we represent 14 distinct countries! it's like a mini united nations over here, pretty cool.

okay, back to uploading igotu data......