THE OTHER END OF THE LEASH

Just a quick post to let locals know that I’ll be giving a talk on December 1st at the Black Earth Library on my animal-behavior focused trips to Africa. I’ll combine the best of my and Jim’s photographs and talk about the adventures of safaris in Kenya, Botswana, Tanzania and Rwanda. We’ll talk about radio-collaring “Jones,” the breeding male of an African Wild Dog pack, sitting with gorillas in Rwanda and the impact of the current drought on the people and animals of East Africa. If you’re in the area, I hope you can come!

7 pm, December 1st, 2009

Black Earth Library, 1210 Mills Street, Black Earth, WI 608 767-2563, Ext. 3

If you can make it, come up and say hi.

Here’s my favorite photograph from the trip we took in August, on the Masai Mara.

Watched adult female and two subadult cubs (3-4 yrs? still some spots on legs) chase vultures off a recent zebra kill. Elephants coming in out of the hills to feed in the amboseli swamps, we’ll see more of them later today. Am meeting with camp naturalist to learn more… saw an animal that looked exactly like an African Wild Cat…. which is pretty much exactly like a tabby house cat.  How tell difference? At night the zebra and antelope come right up to the veranda. Have to watch out for vervets, who try to steal the sugar off your table and dash in your room. Yesterday we caught one on our luggage, just starting to unzip it. And yes, we’ve seen lots and lots of robin egg blue testicles (on the vervets, honest.  they even have a penile display that zoologists patriotically call the “Red White and Blue display.” Gotta love it.)

Running out of computer time, don’t know if will have access again in Kenya. This lodge is the biggest we’ll stay out, otherwise we are in small, tent camps. The facilities are lovely, even can get a massage (!) but there are a lot of people and we’ve been spoiled by our first isolated tent camp in the Tsavo. Will be similar tho in the Masai Mara, staying in a small, isolated tent camp.

Love to everyone, with a heart ful of gratitude to be able to experience such an amazing place, and to be so blessed with so much. Wish I could send photos, but am taking bunches and will post when return.

Here we are in Amboseli. 9 pm, long day, ending with dinner watching gazelles, zebra and wildebeest walking past the dining room. went on game drive in evening, found pride of 9 lions:2 black maned males, 2 cubs and 5 females. some of us saw them very closely, my van not right next to the van, but still amazing. cubs playing on top of mom, males looking bored and regal. all getting ready for nightly hunt.

Is just as wonderful as you would hope. People so kind, country astounding–vast and huge and full of contrasts. Dry sand dirt and electric red robes of  Maasai. Is sadness too–terrible drought causing suffering to people and animals alike. Maize crop has failed for people. Grass gone for grazers, so hippos and zebra suffering terribly. Browsers like giraffe and Kudu antelop doing much better. Birds everywhere, so beautiful you can’t believe they are real. Lisa, one of group, got a photo of a Lilac Breasted Roller (check it out) that will knock your socks off.  It’s hard to believe some of the birds are real, they look like Dr. Seuss or Disney animals.

Too much to describe in my 15 min of internet time, but have seen hyena, black backed and golden jackals, absurd and amazing numbers of elephants (including babies, “tembo toto” in Kiswahili. (Baby giraffe are Twigga Toto. How cute is that?

We are reveling in wildlife, country and people. Went to a Maasai school today that we had arranged before hand. Chlldren sang for us, so sweet our hearts could barely stay in our bodies. We taught them how to play Hokey Pokey dance (Barbara’s idea.. such a stroke of brilliance). The kids loved it, but not as much as we, all holding hands in a big circle, laughing together.

Group that came is delightful, couldn’t be better. Each van, of 4-6 people is developing it’s own personality, including the Impala Harem. I’ll let them explain… if they dare.

Tomorrow it’s a 6:30 game drive (best to see cats) for some, visit to a Maasai village for others. Then back for breakfast, and a game drive or nature walk.

Gotta go do some laundry. So much dust in my hair and clothes I could sell bags of sand for highway departments…

More soon, if can…

I’m leading another safari in Kenya and Botswana this August. Wanna come? It probably will be my last.

The first time I went to Africa to lead an animal-behavior-focused safari, I cautioned the participants the day we arrived that we weren’t going to see what we usually see on a nature special on television. “What you see on a nature special is the result of hours and hours and hours of long, boring observations, while waiting to capture the excitement and beauty and drama that eventually will be edited down to a series of amazing sequences. We’d be wise to have our expectations be realistic: we’ll see some wonderful animals and some interesting behavior, but it will be far cry from what you see on TV.”

Boy was I wrong. I mean, totally wrong. I mean, totally, completely and utterly wrong. Here’s just a little of what I’ve seen on the past 3 trips I’ve taken to Africa:

~ Lions mating about 15 feet from our vehicle (and  mating, and mating, and mating… about every 20 minutes. (The photo below was between matings when the male lion got up and began courting the female again.)

~ A herd of elephants stumbling across a pride of lions, and ears flapping and trunks trumpeting, chasing the lions out into the savanna.

~ A cheetah and her two adolescent cubs fighting off a flock of vultures from the Grant’s gazelle she had just killed.

~ Thousands and thousands of Wildebeest “gnu gnu gnu-ing” (that’s what they sound like) as they stream across the Maasai Mara (the Kenyan Serengeti) on the largest migration of animals on earth, accompanied by herd after herd of zebra, hundreds and hundreds of gazelles–and the lions, cheetahs, leopards and hyenas that follow them. It takes your breath away (and this next trip is going during the migration, just fyi!)

~ An antelope mom and young cautiously circling a salt lick (a natural one) all night long, while a herd of elephants dug up the salt, and stroked a new born baby with their trunks (they were about 20 feet away from us, we could count the tiny hairs on the babies gray skin). Baby elephants are called Tembo Toto in Swahili, a perfect name for them we all agreed–the cute factor of baby elephants is out of the box. Seeing  them in person simply can’t be described. At dawn, we arose for breakfast, only to watch a leopard leap onto the back of the same antelope mom and subsequently drag her up a tree.

The elephant mother below walked across the river and right in front of our jeep–very common but never boring!

The two adolescent male lions below were part of a nine-member pride that walked out of the grass just before we were about to leave for ‘home.’ I had to take OFF my telephoto lens to get the picture, they were literally right next to our vehicle (which they completely ignore, as if it wasn’t there!).

~ Samburu warriors dancing their “I’m about to prove my manhood and go kill a lion” dance, followed by the “I’m about to be married and go into the hut with my new wife” dance. All I can say is that some of us considered staying a little longer than planned after the last dance…. Here are some young Samburu women watching the dances with us.

~ A Thompson’s gazelle being born, (and knowing that a pride of lions was not far away…)

~ A pack of hyenas squabbling over a kill they had made the night before. We spend several hours parked just a few feet away from them, and eventually were able to identify each as individuals. Imagine how satisfying it was when the next day we say a single hyena and, in unison, exclaimed “It’s Greybelly!!!!!!”

~ Maasai children singing for us in thanks for the school supplies we brought to their school. Try to do this and keep tears from streaming down your face; just try.

~ More gorgeous, colorful, outrageous birds than Dr. Suess could make up and, as importantly as all the above…

~ Some of the kindest, sweetest, dearest people you could ever imagine meeting. I have been consistently treated with tremendous care and kindness by the Africans that I have met. There is a saying that you can leave Africa, but it will never leave you, and I think that is partly because of the people. The sunsets and the animals and the light (golden!) is part of it, but for me, the kindness of the people stays with you the longest.

Here are some Maasai with their cattle, having trekked miles as they do each day, for water. I never saw them use dogs for herding, but the dogs play an essential role at night, barking at the slightest hint of a predator trying to break through the thorn bush ‘fence.’

You’ll have lots of opportunities to meet village dogs… you find them in lots of places, including in a Samburu village where I took this photo:

On every trip, I have taken either my nephew or one of my nieces, and I only have one left! I’m going to New Zealand in 2010 and Scotland and back to Alaska in 2011, so I just don’t know if I’ll get back to Africa again. I love to travel but I love to be home more, and I just don’t like to be gone too much.

I hope that some of you can come, I’ve begun to think of you as a kind of family.  Here’s why you might want to consider it: This animal behavior-focused safari different than most safaris in which you stop when you see an animal, give everyone a chance to take a picture, and then drive on. We’ll be much more patient, and will focus on observing and learning about behavior, rather than just capturing cool snapshots to impress people back home.

We are going to Kenya during the height of the Wildebeest Migration, and staying at places that put us right in the middle of the action.

We’re staying at Fantastic Places. For example, we’re staying four nights in the Kenyan Serengeti, the Maasai Mara, at an amazing tent camp, Tipilikwani Camp.  In Botswana we’re staying in luxurious tent camps, Chitabe Camp and Chitabe Trails which are right beside a research camp where the African Wild Dog Project has been studying African Wild Dogs since the 1980′s.

You’ll be with Expert Guides who know and love the people of Africa as much as the animals.

We got a Price Break! Whoppeee… Africa on sale! The economy hasn’t helped tourism in Africa, so the Kenyan safari is now 10% less than it was previously. This is also the perfect time to go because tourism is down, and that means the parks will be much less crowded. The first time I went to Kenya tourism was also down, and it was like having the park to yourself. (It is possible to have 20 vehicles parked around a pride of lions, all from 5 different groups when it gets busy….Going at a ‘down’ time is a huge advantage.)

We’re going at The Best Time. We’ll be in Kenya at the height of the Wildebeest migration and in Botswana when it’s cool and dry. It is usually horrendously  hot and muggy, and I am a major Border collie when it comes to heat. I am miserable when it’s hot and humid, so we went way out of our way to go at the perfect time with the best weather. It’s also a great time for families… you’ll be home well before it’s time to get ready for school.

It is SAFE. Okay, there is always some risk involved in traveling, but believe me, I wouldn’t go on this trip if I didn’t believe in my heart and soul that it is safe.

You can do both trips, or either one, depending on your time and resources. You can come from anywhere in the world, and meet us in Amsterdam en route, or Nairobi.

If you want to learn more, go to my website to African Safari. There you can read more details about the trip, and download a pdf that describes the entire trip. I should mention that I did take all of the photos here, but that my best ones (pre digital) are all in albums. The potential for photography is astounding, and everyone ends up with covers for National Geographic! Here’s a lion responding to us driving up right beside him. Note the signs of extreme stress…

Hey.. there are ALWAYS a million reasons not to do something (I know, I use them to put off doing my yoga every day!)… but maybe this is the time to JUST DO IT!