Our last day in the Mara

Today was our last day here in the maasai Mara. It was a busy day full of presentations and finishing up final papers. Once that was all over though, we wrapped up our time here with our last game drive, culminating in a dinner in the bush and a group hug.

Healthy bodies....and minds?

Well, we promised we'd bring them back. We didn't promise we'd bring them back the same...

I don't know if its the stress of final projects coming up or too much time spent in the bush, but we've been seeing some very odd behavior from our previously  seemingly sane  students. (Or maybe they were all really good at hiding their true nature in the interviews....)

We took them to a nice area to watch the sunset and hang out on their last day at Mara Leisure (before we went to the other side of the Maasai Mara). They seemed happy enough...if a little too happy?

Well at least Katie is enjoying herself...

No idea what is happening here.

Or here.

Jack and Aaron took the beautiful lighting as an opportunity to try their hand at modeling. They're lovely boys, but I think I will encourage them to stay in school. 

Later, things got a little morbid. Apparently, running around collecting animal bones on the savannah is also a great way to enjoy a beautiful sunset?

They seemed like such sweet girls...

Needless to say, we decided it was bed time for the students. I figured maybe after a good night's rest they'd be a little more normal.

Unfortunately, they didn't go straight to bed after the sunset like I was hoping. Instead, they embraced the Maasai culture a little more than I was expecting and decided to try their hands at Maasai dancing and chanting...oh and raid my tent.

The little hooligans preparing for war with Michael, one of the ever patient staff at Mara Leisure

Suspicious

I think here they are trying to get on rhythm with their chant. Alas, they weren't all naturals.

Anyways, fortunately I'm extremely quick thinking and threw candy at them from my tent and they went away surprisingly fast. Still, I can't say I had relaxing, sweet dreams that night.

Today we traveled to another lodge on the other side of the park, and everything seemed to be going well until this happened:

See?! They're completely out of control

Just wallowing in the mud...because you know. That makes sense.

Okay okay. Actually our car got stuck and we had to push it out of the mud. And they're wallowing in the mud because I told them I'd give them extra credit if they found my shoe, which unfortunately was sucked off my foot while we were trying to push the car out of the mud pit. (They never found it. Bad students!)

Well, at least they're good for something!

 Anyways,  my point is that I'm dealing with a bunch of maniacs. I mean, even the cheetahs are concerned and checking up on them.

Cheetahs sometimes will climb up on tourist cars for a better vantage point. I'm pretty sure these guys just climbed up to gawk at our weird students.

Cheetah on the roof.

Cheetah checking up on Jordan for us. 

He seems happy enough at least.

I send my condolences to any parents or loved ones who are reading this blog. You certainly have a lot to deal with raising this bunch. On the plus side, they are great sources of amusement, and now they're pretty darn good at getting cars out of mud pits! 

I'll leave you with pictures of a student attacking Julie, my poor, innocent co-instructor.

Julie innocently enjoying the view and pointing to some wildlife she spotted.

Oh never mind. It is Jack. 

Poor Julie. He never did get over that bad quiz grade.

Hyenas, children and lions, oh my!!

We had the fortunate opportunity to join the MSU Hyena Project on one of their dartings!! Students were able to watch the research assistants collect body measurements and samples from one of their cubs. There was even enough time for them to sneak a quick pet in!

Then we spent some time at the local primary school, seeing the differences between the U.S. and Kenyan school system.

Our game drive tonight is already off to a great start with some lions super close to the road!

Hanging with Maasai and more luck

Yesterday we went to visit the local hyena researchers at fisi (hyena in Swahili) camp. There they went on a nature walk led by two research assistants at camp. 

We rounded everything out by all of fisi camp playing volleyball with the BEAM students. 

Today we continued with cultural education by visiting a local family's home and market day in the nearby town. At the home they learned about Maasai culture, saw inside a home, and got a chance to interact with many local Maasai. 

Additionally, the good luck continues. We saw 5 cheetahs this morning and a leopard. 

This is the only BEAM group to have seen two leopards on the trip! Then this evening, we saw a double rainbow over five more cheetahs, and as we were leaving, we saw the aardwolf cross the other end of the rainbow. 

This is not normal! But it's amazing, and I'm thoroughly enjoying this group's luck. 

BEAM students vs animals

As we get into data collection for the student's final projects, we have begun to disturb several herbivores in the Mara. Several groups of students are interested in looking at anti-predator behavior in antelope. However, in order to look at anti-predator behavior, one must first wait around for a predator. This poses a problem, however. It is rare to see an actual hunt take place by a lion or hyena (even rarer to see one by a leopard), so we really can't simply wait around until some lazy carnivore gets off its butt and decides to get breakfast. So, like any good researcher, the students had to get creative.

We found a beautiful leopard...but its not looking alert (Photo:Nick Johnson)

Yup, definitely not going to scare any antelope for us  (Photo: Nick Johnson)

For instance, we have one group (Leah and Katie) who was interested in impala threat signals. They want to know whether impala raise their tail in response to a threat simply because it is an automatic reflex (in response to being startled), or if it is actually a signal they use deliberately in response to a predator (either to warn other impala or confuse the predator). This group  has loud speakers and are playing just static noise (which should simply startle the animals) or vocalizations of different predators at groups of impala to see how they respond. I'm sure there are several impala wandering around the Mara wondering why grizzly bear noises are coming out of tourist vehicles...

A nice impala butt for you

Another group (Aaron and Dan) is interested in how topi recognize predators. They are wondering whether topi recognize predators visually by their coat pattern and color. We have some leopard and print cloth on us, so the boys excitedly took it out on a drive and waved the pattern outside the car window at the topi, who stared at us for a moment and then promptly went back to grazing.


That was anti-climatic, so they went back to the drawing board, and lo and behold, Sisyphus (aka Sissy) was born. Sissy is a bunch of sticks draped in leopard cloth who vaguely maybe if you squint resembles a leopard. We put Sissy outside of the car (using the car as a blind), drive away, and then watch how the topi reacts. Weirdly, Sissy is apparently intimidating. The topi stomp, snort in alarm, and generally stare VERY intently at Sissy. The next step is to dress Sissy up in zebra print (instead of leopard print) and see if the topi react the same way. If they are as good at recognizing patterns as the students think, they'll just think its a fellow grazer and not be bothered in the least.

Meet Sissy, the terror of the Maasai Mara

The resemblance is uncanny

Some concerned topi meet Sissy

So we''re feeling pretty smart, having tricked both topi and impala into demonstrating their anti-predator behavior. Don't worry though. We aren't getting big heads. As soon as we start feeling good about ourselves, the frigin monkeys attack.

Yes, that's right. These cute little vervet monkeys are terrorizing our camp. No snack or tent is safe from their destruction.

A monkey watching me close up my tent. It's plotting.

Lurking over the porch

Hiding behind chairs

They are there during student presentations, lurking outside while we're eating our breakfast, stealing croissants from the kitchen, and sneaking into our tents. They take our snacks and leave their poop. Then they have the audacity to continue looking cute after this demonic behavior.

A monkey making a break for the kitchen

An infuriatingly cute baby going for some crumbs

The war will continue with the monkeys. I'm hoping the boys will let me borrow Sissy so she can teach those rotten things a lesson.

Balloon ride and more luck

Today a group of us went on a balloon flight while the rest took a morning to sleep in. For those of us who went out, we had a great flight. 

We covered much of the Mara. 

We even saw one of the few remaining rhinos, spotted by Nick!  It was a great flight, and everyone really enjoyed it. 

The rest of the day was spent working on their final projects and learning about science writing. 

In the afternoon, we went out fo a game drive as usual. The goal was to give everyone a chance to collect data for their final projects. But yet again, this group's luck came out. Everyone who hadn't seen one, got to see an aardwolf, a rare sighting despite what it seems from this blog. 

It was a great day!