I’m dirty and smelly and my body is sore but this is the beauty of riding atop jeeps all over Lake Manyara National Park. This weekend we traveled the vast safari to experience our first field exercise. Saturday we woke up for breakfast and had a morning lecture of Wildlife Ecology. We then had a quick break for lunch before piling into the jeeps to head on over to Lake Manyara National Park. We were half way there when one of the jeeps broke down behind us, so we had to turn around, (since our driver was the mechanic) and stop to help them. And as I soon find out, this happens a lot. When we got to the entrance of LMNP we all met together for a last quick bathroom break as I wondered the main trails and saw my first Olive Baboons leaping across trees above me. Me and another SFS stood watching them when herd plopping noises next to us, thinking they were throwing food/nuts at us we actually realized they were pooping. So we quickly ran back to the cars before one of us got hit. We then started our tour. The beauty of the land was unreal it’s so hard to capture on camera what I really saw as we blazed through the trails. Of course we also had homework assignments to complete along the way so it was pretty difficult managing the papers and my camera as we flew across the park. We had to conduct 5 observations of all the animals we saw as well as a group sheet of each mammal we saw along the trails. My jeep was a lot of fun as we learned about the different behaviors of animals with Vedasto (our SFS coordinator) he's like my African version of Todd Fuller :). After a while we gave up on field observations and decided to take pictures instead. We saw baboons, zebras, cape buffalo, elephants, giraffes, vervate monkeys, dikdik and impalas. Unfortunately my camera broke towards the end of the trip while we were taking pictures of giraffes (of course it happens then) so that pretty much ended it and I started practicing my Swahili words with Vedesto instead. As soon as we got back to camp I plugged in my camera and took the pictures off my SD card before they were lost. It worked! And I got to keep all my previous pictures! By the time we got back we were all starving so we sat down and ate dinner. I quickly passed out after from being out in the hot sun all day. From this assignment we now have to write 2 papers from the observations we recorded in the field.
Sunday we woke up at 7 for 7:30 breakfast and immediately after breakfast headed back to Lake Manyara National Park. However when our car was trying to leave the campsite it wouldn’t start, told ya this happens a lot. Luckily by 8:45 the jeep was started and we were off. This time we were only in the field to observe Olive Baboon Behavior. Basically we spent 2 ½ hrs watching each troop and recording what their activity patters were. I thought it was really interesting as other people in my jeep were getting bored. I was just not excited for the amount of work we had already piling from the past 2 days. For this we have to write another field research paper on activity behavior. So far its been a lot of papers due between the next couple of days. Let’s just say stress is pretty high right now. After our observations were done we spent the rest of the morning cruising through the Park since we had to be back by 12. We didn’t have much time to see as many animals as yesterday but it was still an enjoyable drive towards the exit. Tomorrow is our day off. We have one day off a week where they coordinate activities for us to do. Were going to see an Iraqw Boma, visit Karatu Town and Market and conclude with Happy Days, a local bar that serves dinks and American food. YUM! However, since being swamped with so much work I’ll probably have to blog about that later during the week. So stayed tuned for more fun adventures, because we’ve officially been here for a week and our semester is just beginning.
I’m dirty and smelly and my body is sore but this is the beauty of riding atop jeeps all over Lake Manyara National Park. This weekend we traveled the vast safari to experience our first field exercise. Saturday we woke up for breakfast and had a morning lecture of Wildlife Ecology. We then had a quick break for lunch before piling into the jeeps to head on over to Lake Manyara National Park. We were half way there when one of the jeeps broke down behind us, so we had to turn around, (since our driver was the mechanic) and stop to help them. And as I soon find out, this happens a lot. When we got to the entrance of LMNP we all met together for a last quick bathroom break as I wondered the main trails and saw my first Olive Baboons leaping across trees above me. Me and another SFS stood watching them when herd plopping noises next to us, thinking they were throwing food/nuts at us we actually realized they were pooping. So we quickly ran back to the cars before one of us got hit. We then started our tour. The beauty of the land was unreal it’s so hard to capture on camera what I really saw as we blazed through the trails. Of course we also had homework assignments to complete along the way so it was pretty difficult managing the papers and my camera as we flew across the park. We had to conduct 5 observations of all the animals we saw as well as a group sheet of each mammal we saw along the trails. My jeep was a lot of fun as we learned about the different behaviors of animals with Vedasto (our SFS coordinator) he's like my African version of Todd Fuller :). After a while we gave up on field observations and decided to take pictures instead. We saw baboons, zebras, cape buffalo, elephants, giraffes, vervate monkeys, dikdik and impalas. Unfortunately my camera broke towards the end of the trip while we were taking pictures of giraffes (of course it happens then) so that pretty much ended it and I started practicing my Swahili words with Vedesto instead. As soon as we got back to camp I plugged in my camera and took the pictures off my SD card before they were lost. It worked! And I got to keep all my previous pictures! By the time we got back we were all starving so we sat down and ate dinner. I quickly passed out after from being out in the hot sun all day. From this assignment we now have to write 2 papers from the observations we recorded in the field.
Sunday we woke up at 7 for 7:30 breakfast and immediately after breakfast headed back to Lake Manyara National Park. However when our car was trying to leave the campsite it wouldn’t start, told ya this happens a lot. Luckily by 8:45 the jeep was started and we were off. This time we were only in the field to observe Olive Baboon Behavior. Basically we spent 2 ½ hrs watching each troop and recording what their activity patters were. I thought it was really interesting as other people in my jeep were getting bored. I was just not excited for the amount of work we had already piling from the past 2 days. For this we have to write another field research paper on activity behavior. So far its been a lot of papers due between the next couple of days. Let’s just say stress is pretty high right now. After our observations were done we spent the rest of the morning cruising through the Park since we had to be back by 12. We didn’t have much time to see as many animals as yesterday but it was still an enjoyable drive towards the exit. Tomorrow is our day off. We have one day off a week where they coordinate activities for us to do. Were going to see an Iraqw Boma, visit Karatu Town and Market and conclude with Happy Days, a local bar that serves dinks and American food. YUM! However, since being swamped with so much work I’ll probably have to blog about that later during the week. So stayed tuned for more fun adventures, because we’ve officially been here for a week and our semester is just beginning.
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