Hello World!
Traveling for 46 continuous hours using public restrooms and sweating as you haul your luggage through various airports makes you appreciate the little things. The night we arrived at the Ecoscience lodge was probably the best shower and sleep I’ve ever had. In all honestly, I was just glad to be in a new change of clothes and laying flat.
After having a lovely breakfast of fruit, eggs, and toast, the group headed out on a game drive (otherwise known as a safari). After only 5 minutes on the dirt road we came across two browsing herds of elephants! My taxon group that I am presenting to the class is Proboscidea (elephants), so I was in awe. These herds are made up of 5-10 related females and their babies. The matriarch of the group will lead the herd to water, food, and safety. She holds generational knowledge of watering holes and food that is passed down from her mother. As we were watching they gave us a welcoming trumpet.
We continued on and saw hartebeests, impala, plains zebra, reticulated giraffes, Maasai giraffes, wildebeest, a cape buffalo bull, marabou storks, hornbills, ostriches, yellow necked spurfowl, and huge baobab trees. We have not yet seen the big carnivores as they are fairly elusive, but we saw evidence of lions on the buttocks of a plains zebra. There were fresh claw marks on his bum, but he clearly made it out in the end. That zebra just proves that carnivores are not always successful hunters and actually seldom are.
Following some student presentations on varying species of antelopes and canids, we went out on another game drive with an epic stop at sunset hill. From the hill you could see all the way to the Eastern rift which is were we are heading in the next blog! There were lines of spooked warthogs below running with their tails high in the air and ostriches settling down for the night. As the sun set behind the Eastern rift escarpment the stars came out, and we were off on a night drive. We saw bush babies (small primates) and a group of black-backed jackals. Overall it has been an amazing start to the trip. With a bit more sleep and a whole lot of coffee things are going to get even better.
Thank you for tuning in!
