Ant highway

SIT Enashiva Crew, minus me

I’ve just returned from camping at Enashiva Nature Refuge where I was collecting data for my ISP for three weeks. Enashiva is a 12,600 acre private conservation area owned by Thomson Safari Company, located 20 km East of Serengeti National Park and 10 km south of the Kenya border. I camped in Enashiva with three other girls from the program—one studied herbivores, another studied predators, and the third did a social science study on the community relations between Enashiva/Thomson Safari Company and the neighboring Maasai communities.

Enashiva Nature Refuge staff

I’d done all the planning and preliminary research to do my ISP on grass (yes, a highly riveting subject). It would have contributed data on primary producing organisms and been one part of a three-part study being conducted by SIT students on the trophic levels in Enashiva. But alas, I couldn’t find an adequate field guide for grass; none of the guides working at Enashiva could identify the grass in any language; and due to an unusually late rainy season this year, very little of the grass was actually flowering (the flowers of grass is actually the only way to identify grass species). So after only one morning of attempting my grass study…I decided to switch to birds.

So I spent five hours a day as an amateur ornithologist. An average day at Enashiva consisted of waking up at 6 and leaving for birding session #1 at 6:30. (I’m no morning person but a gorgeous sunrise over the savannah…plus 9 hours of sleep a night…helped). From 6:30-9:30 I’d walk to a specific habitat with one of the workers and watch birds for two and a half hours. One of the best parts about the private conservation areas in Tanzania is that you’re allowed to walk through the park with a guide…in the national parks you must stay in your cars if you’re not at the lodge/campsite. (I could go on and on about the downsides to these private conservation areas…but that’s a discussion for another time). From 9:30-4 the other students and I entered data; read; played way too many games of bananagrams and cards; drew; attempted to weave grass (and failed); beaded; watched movies on our computers; laid in the sun; hung out with the rangers and exchanged stories/fairy tales and had impromptu mini language lessons; considered showering or washing clothes; attempted to help our cook in the kitchen…and I may have even birded for fun in my free time (ohh what a bird nerd I’ve become). From 4-7 was bird session #2. After that was dinner, then we told stories around the campfire and somehow always managed to scare ourselves into thinking there were lions/leopards/cheetahs roaming the campsite. The one time we did see green eyes in the night it turned out to be the housecat that we named Chui (“Leopard” in Swahili). (Although the night watchman did tell us that cheetahs did walk through the campsite at night several times during out stay.) Repeat for three weeks…

Enashiva Nature Refuge was a great place to study birds. I’d like to say I might start bird-watching back in Washington…but when it really comes down to it I don’t know if “Steller’s jay, lark, robin, sparrow, sparrow” in the cold PNW can really compare to “red-billed hornbill, African white-backed vulture, golden-winged sunbird, purple grenadier…” in the nice, warm, sunny Serengeti. Plus it’s not too likely in the states that I’ll be studying a bird through my binoculars and then suddenly notice a blurry giraffe’s head staring at me from behind an acacia tree in the distance. Watching the other wildlife was half the fun of watching birds. I had a lot of down time in the grasslands because there were so few birds so I got to spend a lot of time just watching the zebras, wildebeest, gazelle, impala, the shy (but hugeee) eland, warthogs, baboons, dik-diks, hares and giraffes. I particularly enjoyed playing “red-light, green-light” with the giraffes in the grassland. Whenever I would look at them they would stand perfectly still and stare intently at me…but as soon as I would turn my back to look at birds they would take a few giant steps toward me. I’d quickly turn back toward them and they’d stop moving again until I got redistracted by my birds. Some of my favorite times were when I was sitting quietly in the woodlands, looking for birds and a herd of zebra would walk by, only 10 feet in front of me…not noticing my presence. (Well to be honest, they probably could notice my presence with their keen senses, but it didn’t seem to keep them from coming so close to me).

I had two Maassai guides that traded off walking with me while I looked at birds. We aren’t really allowed to leave the campsite area without a guide because of the danger of lions, leopards, etc. Olotuno, my main guide, spoke no English, had legs nearly up to my neck, and is probably one of the biggest characters I’ve met in Tanzania. He spent the majority of our birding time together napping in the grass with his hat over his eyes. (Each time I went out to look at birds I would stop five times along the transect and look at birds for half an hour at each stop). I’m not sure that he was really accomplishing his duty of protecting me from snakes, lions, cheetahs and leopards…but luckily the most danger I was ever in was when I would impale myself on acacia thorns while distracted by looking at a bird through my binocs. I once stepped on an acacia branch and it went completely through the sole of my tennis shoe and punctured the bottom of my foot. (Acacia trees are the bane of my existence and make up at least 90% of the trees in Enashiva). When he wasn’t napping he was usually imitating birds…he put branches in his mouth and would pretend to build nests or else he would be running around, imitating the erratic flight patterns of some birds.

Acacia tree

Olotuno anapumzika

Godwin searches for birds in his stocking cap

I once returned to Olotuno to find him lying face down in the grass with his face about 6 inches from a baby black mamba snake. “Bucky, angalia. Kuna nyoka mtoto hapa. Mimi na nyoka tunapumzika pamoja” (“Bucky, look. There is a baby snake here. Me and the snake are napping together”). After he saw the fear on my face and I ran a few meters away he reluctantly poked the baby snake into the bushes with his cattle herding stick. Baby snakes are arguably more dangerous than adult snakes because they don’t know how to regulate the release of their venom when they bite so they release much more than an adult snake would. Also they are harder to see and hence easier to accidentally step on.

Olotuno

Despite his laziness, Olotuno had an amazing ear for birding. He would periodically sit up from his nap and flip through the entire Birds of East Africa book until he found the bird that was singing. Then he would stand up, take me by the arm and lead me a few meters, and point to a far off tree. And lo and behold, there was the singing bird, correctly identified every time. I, on the other hand, couldn’t identify bird calls for the life of me and would forget the call about two seconds after the bird stopped singing.

Lily’s birthday was toward the end of the stay and we did our best to arrange a memorable birthday for her out in the bush. Our cook agreed to secretly bake her a cake, and all of the rangers and the three of us decorated it with Nutella. We even managed to scrounge up soda! (I’d never been so excited for soda in my life). In terms of food, the cake was the most variety we had for the whole three weeks and it was delicious (hardboiled eggs, rice, beans and chapati was about it). In the evening we surprised her with a trip to “sundown rock”, a ledge high up on the ridge with a breathtaking view of Enashiva and the sunset. That night the rangers took us on a night game drive (another thing that’s only allowed in private conservation areas). The ranger’s car was a pickup truck with handrails installed…so we stood up in the back and were forced to play the dangerous game of “dodge the acacia branches” while we drove. On the night game drive we saw hares, bat-eared foxes, jackals, spring hares (which are adorable…pretty much mini kangaroos) and the usual gazelles, wildebeest and zebras. We startled one of the spring hares and it jumped directly into three consecutive acacia saplings. Poor guy.

On the drive back to Arusha we helped a man who had broken down near Lake Natron (the hottest part of Tanzania I’ve been to). He was miles from a town or even a boma. His car had broken down four days earlier and he was surviving on the little food and water he had with him. He was nearly in tears when we stopped to help. We towed his car for three hours with a short strap he’d fashioned out of belts and pieces of fabric he had found. Unfortunately the strap broke (for a final time) a few miles outside of town so we gave him a ride to town and gave him all the food and water we could. I hope he makes it home…

Now here I am, back in Arusha, writing up my ISP report. I can’t believe the semester is almost over…only two weeks left!