Today I saw a lion.
We started out by getting up at 530 again to be in the field by 6. This morning, however, we caught a couple of animals in the traps. At site 15, we caught a gerbil, and at site 12 we caught a mouse. There were some shrews in the herp traps at site 13 as well. We also saw a herd of elephants (I have lived up to the name of this blog many times over, hoorah!), as well as many many baboons, impala and hippos. Upon coming back, we ID’d the mouse, and started working on organizing our data. We briskly swam in the pool, and then had an excellent lunch of sammiches. I napped after lunch, because I was not feeling well at all.
When I got up, we had to go back out into the field. So hot. It was about 104oF today, and about 95% humidity. Blurgh. On our way to the first site, there were a bunch of tourists pulled over on the side of the road. When we asked them what they were looking at, they said a male lion was lying under one of the bushes. Lions have been my favorite animal since I was about 6 years old. Just ask my mother. I He was beautiful. He was older, as his mane was very broad and dark. I tried so hard to get a picture, but there was a stupid bush in the way. So, I have a few pictures of a pretty bush with a lion shaped shadow in the background. Grr. The first few sites were miserable, they were so hot. We had to return a shrew and a mouse, but the shrew got loose through a 3 mm hole in the bag, and the mouse died from the heat. So sad. We were very upset. We had named him Willard. A memorial was held.
After dinner, we had a lecture on the burning of the savanna. Fire here is actually a very useful tool in the regulation and germination of the plants, as there are so many fires a year just naturally. It has been decided that humans are a natural fire starter, although I’m not sure how much I agree with that sentiment. Another time, I guess. After that, we talked about our projects, and then I played a little guitar (remembered 2 songs!), and finally bed. Words of the day: hand = voko; hands = mavoko
The Joke
It's a frickin' elephant
A class of five-year old students are learning to read.
One of them pointed at a picture in a zoo book and said,
"Look at this! It's a frickin' elephant!"
The teacher took a deep breath, then asked... "What did you call it?"
"It's a frickin' elephant! It says so on the picture!"
And so it does...
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