Hi all!
As I’m getting more
settled in the Mara, I thought I’d share what a “typical” day in Fisi camp
looks like. In reality, there are no typical days out here, since we never know
what the Mara will throw our way – just two days ago, Lila and I were super
pumped to go to Happy Zebra (we have seen a couple of new black cubs at our den
and really want to confirm nursing to find out who the mother is!), but we
ended up getting stuck in a massive hole with our LandCruiser instead and spent
two hours collecting rocks, digging up dirt, and calling all of our friends to
ask for help getting us out of there. Big shout-out to Geemi, Lerjin, and his
crew for getting us back on track! Car problems aside, a typical day usually
looks something like this:
0515 – My first alarm
goes off, forcing me to get out of my cozy bed and start bundling up for a cold
morning with the hyenas. Lila and I meet at the lab tent to make coffee/hot
tea, check the weather, and get all of our equipment for morning obs (short for
observations).
0530 – We leave camp and
directly head to a communal den for the first half of obs. We never know what
we will stumble upon as we drive up to the den – sometimes we have a couple of
cubs snoozing and slowly waking up when we first arrive, and sometimes we’ll
pull up to quite a party abound with cubs, mothers, and even a random male or
subadult here and there. Throughout the session, we look for specific behaviors
(mainly aggressions and appeasements, but also other affiliative behaviors) and
record how far away everybody is from the den at certain time intervals.
0700 – A lot of action
happens at communal dens at dawn and dusk, but it usually slows down by 0700.
We start driving around the territory to look for other hyenas and predators.
This is easier said than done – the grass in the Mara Triangle Conservancy is
as tall, and sometimes even taller, than the hood of our car (reminder: we
drive a literal boat, so the hood of our car is pretty high). There have been
countless times where Lila and I have stopped because we mistook a
rock/branch/termite mound for a hyena. It once took me several minutes to
confirm that the black-backed jackal head I saw moving in the distance was
actually just a bird sitting on a branch.
0830 – We return to camp,
unload the car, and process any samples we collected (we collect poop and
saliva samples for the graduate students back at MSU).
0900-0930 – Time for
breakfast! Our guys love to spoil us when it comes to food. Before I came out
here, I was a little worried that I would be eating rice and beans for every
meal, but the food is honestly amazing. We usually have avocado toast, bacon,
cheese, and eggs (until we run out of bacon and cheese and eagerly await the
next Nairobi trip). Philimon, Moses, and Stephen will also treat us to
breakfast burritos, pancakes, and French toast whenever we want.
0930-1230 – We usually
spend the rest of the morning working – writing up our transcriptions, identifying
any hyenas we didn’t recognize while we were out in the field, sending emails,
and getting camp organized. While we’re out with the hyenas, we use DVRs to
record our observations, which gives us an opportunity to relive the morning
through random tidbits of conversation and action that our DVRs unknowingly
picked up. My favorite recording ends with a tourist excitedly shouting “I love
you, my little noodles!” at our hyenas before driving off.
1230-1400 – Fisi fitness!
If you’ve read Erin’s blog post about fisi fitness from earlier this year, you
know that we are professional sitters and don’t have access to a gym, so working
out always requires a little bit of innovation. My usual workouts consist of
running, running, and more running (and lots of walking in between), but I’ve
also tried to use heavy rocks as weights (this did not go well), started a
daily push-up challenge (Erin and I made it to Day 3 before abandoning ship),
and HIIT circuits (it’s way too hot for those).
1401-1402 – At this time,
I like to partake in a new daily challenge I like to call “try to take a cold
shower as quickly as possible.” To be completely honest, my primary reason for
working out is to get hot and sweaty enough to turn our shower into something
“refreshing” and “fun”, rather than “cold” and “even colder.”
1402-1600 – We usually
have a bit of free time in the afternoon, allowing us to read books, watch
movies, chat with friends, clean our tent, etc. I’ve been reading lots of books
lately, so feel free to send suggestions!
1600-1630 – Dinner time –
if you’re scrolling back to the top to see if you forgot to read the section
about lunch, I want to reassure you that you did not. We only eat two meals a day,
which my body actually adjusted to quite quickly. Once again, Philimon and co.
spoil us with lentil burgers, roasted vegetables, chapati (so good!), pizza,
samosas, pasta, curry, etc….
1630-1700 – We start
getting ready for evening obs.
1700-2000 – We leave camp
once again to study our hyenas. In the evenings, we drive around our
territories for the first half, and then spend the second half at the den. This
gives us another chance to appreciate the Mara and all of its glory – while
driving around our territories, we’ve seen a leopard with a fresh kill, three
tiny lion cubs with their mother, countless elephants, and so much more!
2000 – We usually try to
be in our tents by 2000, since we have a lot of wildlife coming through our
camp at night (and because my current bedtime is anywhere between 2030 and
2100). Throughout the night, I often wake up to the sounds of our hyenas
visiting us in camp, buffaloes and giraffes wandering by, and hippos screaming
for no apparent reason (I thought I heard a hippo dying one night, but Erin
reassured me that “they just sound like that sometimes”).
Thanks for reading! Stay
tuned for more fisi fun next month 😊
For your viewing pleasure:
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| RPSD investigating our car when we got stuck in the big hole - 4 other cubs came and hung out with us while we waited for help to arrive :) |
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| Cuddle puddle! |
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| Naptime |
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| Golden hour |
