Dan Rubinstein arrived last week to teach our second course: Natural History of Mammals. He teaches with a relentless Socratic method barraging us with thought experiments. There is no difference between lecture and any other time of the day-he is always teaching. I started a second field project with Jen on Grant’s gazelles. We’ve been able to identify and name 10 separate males (Evander has a torn left ear) and have started to compare their territories to understand their resource defense polygny. Watching gazelle behavior has been a nice alternative to counting shit piles (another group is looking for parasites in fresh dung). Yesterday we saw dominant males chasing away bachelors and a near copulation. A new group of professionals has rolled through the center including a rodent expert and a guy from Mongolia who specializes in wild camels. Apparently Mongolia is kind of like the frontier for a very crowded Asia with lots of wide open space and wild animals including, my favorite to hear said, Asian Wild Asses. Black markets for Chinese medicine involving ungulate horns have resulted in massive poaching waves there.

We’ve gotten the first consistent rains. It’s amazing how fast everything greens up. The river by camp is overflowing and the water is so muddy that we can’t even use it to shower. Last night we had a toga party and after a few bottles of Tusker I worked up enough bravery to eat a sausage fly (female termite).

Rhino at Ol Jogi

Last week we went to another property in the area to look at rhinos (there are only about 450 in all of Kenya). The ranch, Ol Jogi, is owned by a French art dealer who protects rhinos as a hobby. His wife is the famous catwoman featured in People Magazine (she underwent a bunch of surgeries to look like a cat). The guy was not impressed; he divorced her and married a 19 year old Russian figure skater. His son who is going to inherit it all is 27 and brings his friends down for Safari weekends. They have their own anti-poaching force, veterinarians, and a midget zoo keeper (all together the staff amounts to 200). We toured his private zoo which he personally views about twice a year. He had a trained elephant who could play the harmonica and we saw predators for the first time (leopards, cheetahs, and lions). He even has his own bird sanctuary with every kind of rare bird you could think of. Insane how much money is out there.

Pygmy hippo and pygmy zookeeper

Last weekend we went to the Trout Tree House restaurant outside of Nanyuki. The place was indeed a tree house in a gigantic tree surrounded by the tanks of a trout farm. We were able to watch colobus monkeys and birds while eating (the monkeys did a good job bussing tables as soon as ppl left). In Nanyuki Mark bought a drum for jam sessions and everyone was hassled to buy anything and everything.

Trout Tree Restaurant

We’re heading to a conservation area on Monday called Sweetwaters, which will have many more habituated animals. After that we’re going to Amboseli National Park (near the border of Tanzania) to study elephants and baboons. Not sure how reliable my internet access will be. Mail here (PO Box 555 Nanyuki, Kenya) has been arriving and it was great to get letters from Grandpa and Mom on my birthday.

Toga Party

Toga Party

Before I post this-the river is so high that our campsite is inaccessible. We’re sleeping in bandas up at the center tonight….