Wednesday, May 12, 2010

What Are Your Favorite Hyena Blog Stories?

The Notes From Kenya blog is about to hit several milestones: two years of blogging and 200 posts. This is a perfect time to reflect on the success and gather some feedback (and have a friendly little competition among bloggers past and present).

There have been some remarkable stories shared here and we'd like your input as to which ones indeed are the best. Yes, we can look at the Google Analytics data and see that we've had 44,000 visits from people in 154 countries. That same data shows Kay's Birth Through A Soda Straw post was the most popular. This was followed closely by Kate's Mythbusters and Thrill of the Hunt and then Kay's very first post Lion-Hyena Fight.

Yet, as with many things, the numbers don't always give the entire story. Other media coverage, press releases, search engine optimization and external forces sometimes skew these numbers. For example, Kate's Crazy Things Guys Do For Girls was a big hit on Facebook; Kenna's Necropsies grossed many people out; Andy's Jingle Bells offered a twist on the holiday travel stories; and Leslie's Running in Kenya brought some visitors to the blog who were expecting personal fitness related stories.  

So to mark the two year anniversary of the blog, we'd like to determine the "Fan Favorite" hyena blog post. To phrase this another way, we are going to conduct a poll.

This is where we need your help. Nominate your favorite blog post(s) using the comment space below. We'll collect the nominations and do a poll among the most popular stories. What stories are the most memorable? What stories have you enjoyed the most or passed along to friends? The comment thread is open, so please nominate as many as you like. (And yes, we do expect hyena blogging alumni to enlist their family and friends to vote for their own pieces).

Then we'll compile the nominations and put a poll up in a couple weeks. The blog post with the most votes will win. The writer of the Fan Favorite post will receive bragging rights and a pat on the back from Kay (unless the post is by Kay in which case she'll need some acknowledgement from the folks at Fisi Camp).

If you need help finding a post, use the search box or keywords listed on the left. There are plenty of great stories from the bloggers, so have at it friends and let us know what you like the best. We'd love to hear from all of our readers, so please post your comments. Thank you!

10 comments:

  1. My vote is for the Killer Cheetah story and photos from February 2009. The pictures are great!

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  2. I have two faves... First, "It's a bird, it's a plane, it's... (The article about the pangolins)" by Kate. Second, and more recently, "Shoat disaster" by Kay Holekamp

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  3. I've been enjoying this blog from the beginning and my vote is for either Kate's "Hyenas, by the numbers" and "Animals have brains too (Part II)". They are both really informative.

    As far as photos, which maybe should be a separate category to nominate, I think the best sequences are "The thrill of the hunt" and "Motherly love".

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  4. A "Best Photo Essay" category would be great. For all postings, Thrill of the Hunt is my favorite.

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  5. I thought "Te amo, te odio, te amo, te odio: an ode to Barcelona" by Leslie was funny and interesting.

    And the pictures were cool in
    "Where Have All The Wildebeest Gone?" by David

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  6. The Shallow End of the Gene Pool is my favourite. The photos are great and I always enjoy hearing about the under-dog. Or in this case the under-hyena. But all the posts give great insight into what you all do out there. I enjoy them all.

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  7. Andy's story about traveling to Nairobi for Christmas was one of my favorites.

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  8. I loved the North Side Story updates and wish there were more of them. It's fun to hear about "Lifestyles of the Furry and Carnivorous"...especially for those of us who don't get to watch hyenas in our daily lives.

    I often catch myself wondering what happened to cubs you mention in old updates: did they survive to adulthood? Where did the males disperse to? How are the females doing? Have there been any rank changes or other upsets of the social order?

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  9. Cub Cuteness by Leslie is probably one of the most adorable sets of pic but Animals have brains too (Part II) by Kate is really informative and interesting.

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  10. My favorite has got to be"Sacking out: the strategy" by Kenna. Brilliant! Keep at it you guys!

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