Dr. Siva Sundaresan

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Day 4

Hi Graland!

It has been raining every day, which makes it very green and also smell really good.  Unfortunately, the rain means many things sort of halt because it is easy to get stuck in the mud so people tend not to go anywhere.  I am happy to say I am getting a lot of work done though, and am very excited to go to a platform tonight to see what animals come out into the clearing.  I promise to share what I see tomorrow.  I haven't posted that many animal pictures- but I haven't seen any others yet.  It has been surprizingly quiet at night too- no hyena or lion calls.  What I hear the most are African Crowned cranes (these are the same species that lives in Predator Ridge at the zoo).

Hopefully tonight, I will see some others to share with you tomorrow.  For now, here is a fuzzy picture of an olive baboon troop.  I heard their little um-um-um contact calls and had to do everything I could to stop myself from following them into the bush!  They are so interesting and this troop didn't mind my presence as long as I kept my distance.  The male here did yawn at me though- which means, stay back, I'm tough!

5 comments:

  1. How many baboons were in the troop you saw?

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  2. Hi Jen!

    Thanks for the updates! How long is the rainy season in Kenya? Is Kenya still in a drought and if so, how do you see this affecting the wildlife?

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  3. It was a small troop- only 2 males and 4 females. They may have been a smaller feeding group that split temporarily.

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  4. The length of the rainy season always fluctuates, but usually around 1 month twice a year. People here say that the rains are lessening, especially over the last 15 years. Currently the area where I am is not in a drought state- I'm very thankful for that.
    When there is drought, yes it affects the wildlife and people, as well as their livestock very much. This creates a situation in which there is also not enough food growing for the herbivores and the domestic livestock to eat as well as not ahveign enough water to drink.

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  5. How rare are Grevy zebras?

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