"Even Zebras can kick you to death if they're angry"

11.19.10

Day two of fieldwork.

Today we started our animal counts/transects. We used the map we generated yesterday to plot blocks for our four groups to cover. My group, Chui Wadogo (“Little “Leopards”), is composed of myself, another student, Jackie, a local guide, and an armed KWS ranger. Our goal was to view and log wildlife in at least 30% of Kimana Wildlife Sanctuary.

It was exhausting, but so good! I walked over 9 kilometers today, but had quite an adventure. For reasons I won’t get into, we had to plot the exact location of every herd we saw - aka, we had to walk toward wildlife. It felt soooo amazing to be so close. We chased zebra, Grant’s gazelle, and Thomson’s gazelle. We did this until we stumbled upon an angry wildebeest. See, we have to be pretty aware out there because we want to piss off anything that can hurt us. I barely noticed the wildebeest because it was positioned straight at us and was narrow. It was grunting and turning and freaking out. So needless to say, we didn’t go any nearer and got out of there asap.

Another group ran into buffalo, which is one of the biggest dangers in the field. They like to hide from the sun (and in turn, hide from you) and are really skittish. When they’re startled, they charge. So safe distances and awareness are key. We’ve found a way to log locations of these animals without having to walk to them.

Tomorrow we go to Kili Tome Wildlife Sanctuary!