Who let the dogs out?

As briefly mentioned in my previous blog entry, the Conservancy has a small team of poacher-sniffing dogs and their ranger handlers. The anti-poaching unit is still in its early days and was only started in 2009, so the dog trainers, Linda and John of the Canine Training Academy, still come to the Mara fairly often to check on the dogs and keep up with the training. Asuka, the Conservancy veterinarian, is also very involved with the dog training and is in charge of the training whenever Linda and John are back in the States.

Linda made a trip here just last month, and while she was here the dogs and their handlers would go on training runs pretty much every day. To do a training run, one of the rangers lays a scent track while carrying around a GPS tracker. The track is recorded on a little handheld GPS unit, and then left to sit for a while (the longer the track is allowed to settle, the more challenging for the dog). Then the dog is set on the track, together with the handler and the tracker who is holding the GPS. The tracker has to run with the dog too, because they're in charge of seeing how close the dog is to the actual trail at any given time.

Linda and Asuka were kind enough to invite me to one of these training sessions, and I was really excited to join in! Yeah I'm out exploring the Mara every day, but my job puts me in the car for all that time. For the dog training, you get to run through the Mara with the dogs and not sit on your ass!

Linda and Asuka picked me up from camp one morning and we headed out to the Ngiro-Are ranger outpost (pronounced something like "Ing-geh-rah-ray") close to the Kenya-Tanzania border, where the anti-poacher unit is stationed. Linda and Asuka decided to take two of the dogs out, Murani and Anna (Murani means "warrior"), and three of the handlers.

For our first run, Linda wanted to start Anna out on an easy run. Anna is a new dog, Linda brought her from the States last month and she's still adjusting to being here in the Mara. Linda had one of the rangers lay the track, a little over 1.5 kilometers across a pretty flat plain. Then we set Anna on the track. Now, 1.5 kilometers isn't bad. I can run that far at a leisurely pace. Unfortunately, none of us expected just how well Anna would perform that day. She was completely on her game, and a "nice easy run" turned into a frantic 1.5 kilometer SPRINT, avoiding holes, dodging rocky patches, yikes! And trust me, when you're tearing through the Mara on foot, you really don't want to be the straggler lagging behind the rest of the group...

We got to the end and I couldn't talk, I was so out of breath. I am obviously NOT built to be a runner. I admit this freely.

We did a total of 4 runs that morning, two per dog. I joined in for the first 3 runs, but after that the boots I had borrowed from Linda had rubbed my feet raw (half a size too small, but the lesser of two evils since I'd rather not break an ankle on the unpredictable terrain). By the time we were ready to do the 4th run, I was hobbling around pathetically and trying not to pop my damn blisters. Ouch! So I changed into my sneakers, waited in the car and drove over to them after Murani completed his run so they wouldn't have to walk all the way back to the car.

I have to say though, that was an absolute ridiculous amount of fun, and totally worth the blisters. Hopefully I'll get to do it again sometime soon, and in the meantime I might just have to run circles around camp to prepare for it.

Okay, storytime is over and now you get pictures:

Ngiro-Are, the ranger outpost. You can't see in this picture, but there are bullet-holes in the gate from when poachers/bandits/etc. have attacked the outpost.

Rangers like to decorate with skulls. Seems like a pretty effective warning to me.

One of the rangers laying the first track.

The group heading out on one of the runs. You can see Murani's tail in the grass.

Murani, the cute little devil.

Anna, isn't she pretty?

And one more of Anna, cause I can ;P


Woah, two entries in one day? I'm on a roll!

Lions and Leopards and Bandits, Oh My!

Alright, I admit it, I'm not the best at keeping current on these blog things. To make it up to you, I've got 3 entries coming up in quick succession. There's been a lot of craziness going on, so yes, it'll probably take at least that many entries to catch you up.

First things first, I'll tackle all the (relatively) recent camp and Mara excitement in this post. Top of the list? Bandits! About a month and a half ago there was a shooting here in the Mara Triangle. Some bandits attacked one of the tent camps, robbed the tourists, and then shot three of them. Two of the victims had to be airlifted to a hospital in the city, and the last one died too soon for medical attention (someone told me that one was shot in the head, but I don't know if this is true). The bandits ran away on foot, and a huge manhunt was organized to find them. The Conservancy put most of their rangers on it, plus poacher sniffing dogs and the local police!

The tent camp was pretty far away from our camp, and we're located very close to the Conservancy headquarters and ranger barracks, so we felt pretty safe. Unfortunately, one of my hyena clans has a territory that reaches all the way up to that area, so we had to restrict evening obs for a while. We were asked to avoid being out after dark until the shooters were found, for our own safety. The Conservancy also offered to station a ranger at our camp until they caught the shooters, but honestly I feel more antsy when there are strangers in camp, so I declined.

Anyway, at the time we had been having elephants in camp every night what better bodyguards could you have than a herd of elephants? They'd trample anyone who came close AND you can't take them down with a few measly bullets. The downside to this was that we spent several mornings in a row trapped in our tents because the elephants would forget to leave, but all in all it seemed a fair trade.

They eventually caught one of the bad guys, persuaded him to talk, and I think they caught the leader based on the info they got. I find myself speculating as to the methods used to make him talk, but mostly I think, "Good riddance!" One of the victims was a 70-year-old man who was just celebrating his birthday with some friends. Bastards.

Next up, more lions! (And why is it that I have so many stories about lions?! I'm a freaking HYENA researcher. Maybe if I pretend like I'm studying lions, I'll see more hyenas?) Before I came to the Mara, there was apparently lioness who decided to take up residence in the Serena Lodge compound and raise her 2 little cubs there (Serena Lodge is the closest lodge to Hyena Camp, only about 5 minutes away). In the process, she went and got herself completely acclimated to humans -- she's absolutely not intimidated at all.

She disappeared for a little while, only to turn up again last month.... in the middle of Hyena Camp. Oh dear.

I was in Nairobi at the time, so I missed the really exciting bits where she strolled through camp in the middle of the day, but read the post by Andy Booms here to get the full story.

By the time I got back to camp she was still hanging around (one day she decided to take a nap up by the choo/toilet, WTF?! We need that!) but mostly I just bumped into her skulking around the edge of the thicket that our camp is in, whenever we'd leave camp for obs.

She's disappeared again now, but I'll keep you posted on whether she comes back again.

And to close off this post, the last bit of camp fun I'll leave you with is: leopards! It's usually really hard to spot leopards out here. They're ridiculously shy, plus they're nocturnal, so you'll pretty much only see one by sheer luck. We at Fisi Camp don't actually have a problem finding leopards though, and that's because the leopards really prefer finding us. They just have to take a stroll straight through the middle of camp, every night.

They usually start at my end of camp, come up by the lab tent, stroll past the kitchen tent, meander up by the cars, and then end their jaunt by walking past the staff's tents. While on their walks, they like to bat at the edges of our tarps, shred helpless tea towels, and sneak up to tents where people are innocently sleeping and then VOCALIZE REALLY LOUDLY. Ok, to be fair I hadn't actually fallen asleep yet, but I was close! Also the leopard got so close to my tent that I could actually hear his paws as he stepped on the grass and leaves -- and if you know how quiet cats are while walking, then you know how flipping close that had to have been. I'm still a little bit pissed about that whole deal, but then it's hard for me to be charitable when something scares the living daylights out of me.

So, that wraps up the recent in-camp adventures. Next up, running with the poacher-sniffing dogs!

EDIT: Also, I don't think I ever officially posted the answer to the "Guess This Hyena!" challenge. I just told a bunch of people via chat. So, the hyena was... GRIMACE! I think that means only one of you got it, but thanks for humoring me <3