Other Laikipia wildlife

We were constantly surrounded by beautiful animals while we were at camp, out with the baboons, or driving in between:

 

 Superb starlings are the most common birds seen around camp.

 Thomson's gazelles near sunset at camp.

 My first open field encounter with elephants! They are gorgeous, but actually quite dangerous in the area. As soon as I snapped a few shots, I jumped right back in the truck. 

 This handsome male ostrich is commonly foraging around camp. 

 Gerenuks might be the most interesting ungulate I've seen. 

 We even found a hippo in the nearby dam! (That's the dark spot in the water behind me...)

 Eland are very majestic animals, this was a large herd that watched us for at least 

5 minutes before moving on.

 Giraffes have always been gorgeous in my eyes, but seeing them in the wild was an experience of a lifetime. 

 What could be better than seeing giraffes in the wild? Seeing giraffes AND zebra in the wild :) 

 The more giraffes I saw, the more I fell in love.

 Not to mention the babies are incredibly adorable!!

 These elephants were a little more nervous of us, and us of them. They began flapping their ears in agitation and we skedaddled to give them their space.  

 These gazelles are always hanging around camp.

These are rock hyrax, the closest living relative of the elephant, but more reminiscent of marmots. We run into them all the time on the boulders at baboon sleeping sites. Luckily, they are not considered a decent meal to the baboons and move freely around them on the rocks. 

Ok, that's all my posts for a few weeks, I'm heading back to Filoha. Hope everyone back home is enjoying the last of summer! 

Olive baboons

At the Kenyan site we are studying olive baboons (AKA anubis baboons). Here are some of our fist shots of these handsome animals:

These baboons are so welcoming, I felt like a really just fit in! 

My first trip to Kenya: The people

As at Filoha, the crew gets you through. Here are some introductions to the folks of the Uaso Ngiro (pronounced waso niro) Baboon Project (UNBP):

Dr. Joan Silk - my post-doc advisor - sitting with baboons at one of the baboon sleeping sites.

Dr. Shirley Strum with baboons from the population she has been studying since 1972. To learn more about UNBP and the great community work she's been doing, visit www.baboonsrus.com. 

Here I am with one of our future study subjects, sporting an Ann Arbor t-shirt no less! 

(Thanks Auntie Mary and Uncle Joe!!)

In order to get all of this great data on so many animals, Shirley has a great bunch of local research assistants and baboon trackers. I managed to get pictures of some of them: 

James studies the largest group descended from Shirley's original study group: The Pumphouse Gang. 

As we are planning to study the Pumphouse Gang, we were constantly asking James questions about the troop, the individuals, and the action we witnessed. Luckily, James knows everything about these guys and was very patient in putting up with our constant inquiries. Looks like we'll get along great! 

Raphael, actually James' little brother, is a second assistant/tracker for Pumphouse. 

Francis is the man in charge of the troop called Namu. He took us out on our first day and also showed great patience while Joan and I got the lay of the land and the animals. 

 Butu also works on Namu. He's a little quiet, unless he's trying to teach me Swahili...hopefully those lessons will pay off on a longer stint, as it stands I can't remember anything!  

Here, Boursin is explaining some history to Joan on his study troop: Ngela. 

Ngoya here is a new tracker for Ngela, so far he's doing great! 

Sintaroi has recently been transferred to working on Sisel, the largest group at 114 animals. 

Edward is another newbie. He is joining Sintaroi working on Sisel. 

 With all these folks working on the baboons, we have enough coverage of their whereabouts that we won't lose them very often. But not everything is so easy. Communication with the outside world has to happen away from camp. Here's how we do it:

After working with the baboons, Joan is using a CDMA/3G USB modem where we can get cell signal. 

 Sometimes while we're out I can even get 3G on my cell and use it to read and write emails. 

 On this particularly exciting day we had great cell signal and Joan was able to call her daughter, Ruby, in California while out with the baboons. 

 Of course baboons are not the only animals around when we want to make phone calls in the shade. Shirley was surrounded by shoats (sheep/goats) within minutes of starting this call!

My first trip to Kenya: The place

I have just returned to Ethiopia after 3 weeks in Kenya, most of it spent at Shirley's baboon site on the Laikipia Plateau. Joan met me in Nairobi and we traveled up to the site where we spent 2 weeks figuring out the site and making plans to begin data collection there in September. Here's a look at the location, quite a contrast to Filoha!

The sky goes on forever with stunning sunrises and sunsets. 

Piles of boulders and beautiful vegetation characterize the landscape of the Laikipia Plateau.

The ranch itself is comprised of a main house (pictured here) and a number of smaller cabins.

 Joan standing out front of the main house. 

The largest room in the main house is a conference room that holds decades of data back-ups and large tables for eating as well as data work.

In the main house we have a nice little kitchen, including a propane oven!

 Attached to the kitchen is this little living room for smaller meetings and relaxation. 

 We also have a fridge, that's right, we can have cheese and yogurt in the field!

These little cabins are bedrooms. 

My cabin, at least for this last short stay. 

 Inside there's a nice set of furniture, very comfortable!

This is the view from my cabin's veranda, from here we've seen giraffes, elephants, zebra, gazelles, and loads of birds - I'll post those pictures soon!