Maji Mengi

I’m Matthew, Serena’s freshest RA, and this past year has been characterized by “enhanced” precipitation. Maji mengi, water, lots of it. I spent the spring in Missouri collaring and tracking neonate whitetail deer. Severe storms turned dry fields into ten foot deep lakes, gouged massive cuts through roads, made travel difficult for us, and life dangerous for the fawns. During the summer I assisted a graduate student with her mallard tagging project in the Dakotas. All the water left on the landscape from spring and summer rains widely dispersed the ducks making them difficult to even find let alone capture. While I was working in North Central Minnesota this fall, the area received near record amounts of rainfall and caused widespread flooding. Finally, on November 21^st, I arrived at Serena camp and, behold, rain. In my first week we received 185 mm (or about 7 inches) of rain.

Right now, there are a couple of road crossings that have enough water to conceal hippos and lots of sheet water. The sheet water has been lovely for viewing wetland birds with hottentot teal and spur-winged geese being the highlights. Anyway, for most field jobs, storms are annoying, it means the tracks you drove down before you now have to walk. Walking in the Mara is somewhat perilous and I don’t think the hyenas would appreciate it if we hoofed it up to them. Therefore, we have spent the majority of the time we would normally be doing obs, stuck in camp.

It has not been a waste of time though. My expert co-RA’s Lila and Jana set me up with a bank of photos of each of our hyenas and created some quizzes for me to practice on. I’ve focused mainly on learning South clan which is our smallest clan and least overwhelming. It was extremely rewarding to recognize a few of our hyenas the last time we visited the South den. I mostly study by looking at a photo of a hyena until a set of spots pop out at me. Then I go through our clan binders until I see that pattern again. It usually takes a few flips through the binder, and sometimes I have to abandon my original set of spots and find a new pattern. I also have been learning to drive the mighty land cruiser. I already know how to drive stick but having to shift with my left hand took a little getting used to, as does driving on the left side of the road. Another thing I have had the pleasure to learn is how we do fecal collection. We spotted one of our hyenas relieving herself away from the den. After she left, we drove over to collect the gift of DNA and hormones she laid in the grass. I hopped out of the cruiser naively expecting to see something roughly the size of a large dog’s droppings. I was incorrect. Turns out when hyenas go, they go big.