Writing and teaching about science and nature
My latest story has just been published. “Hope for Big Life in East Africa” is a feature in The Collection, a new Scandinavian magazine. I write about the art and conservation work of Nick Brandt. Here is the pdf: The_Collection_Magazine_Nick_Brandt_SMD
You can see more of Nick Brandt’s work here.
And you can learn more about Big Life Foundation here.
My latest feature has been published by Ensia magazine. I write about innovative conservation tools being used by the Lion Guardians team near Amboseli National Park in Kenya. You can read the story here. And here are some photos that did not make it into the story…
Lions and spotted hyenas feed on a wildebeest nex to the dry bed of Lake Amboseli, outside of Amboseli National Park.
Metito, a Lion Guardian, records data as we observe the lions in the previous photo.
Metito tells young herders that there are lions and hyenas near the water hole they are headed to.
The home of an extended Maasai family below Ngararambuni, near Amboseli National Park.
An enkaji (Maasai house) surrounded by a boma (livestock enclosure) made of thorn tree branches.
Young children often herd the calves and baby shoats (sheep and goats).
The Lion Guardians HQ and Mount Kilimanjaro.
List of reports that have recently come in from the Lion Guardians out in the field.
The Kitirua pride of lions on the edge of Amboseli National Park. Note the radio collar on the adult female, whose name is Willy.
My guest blog post on lion conservation is up at Scientific American! I write about how data I collected in Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve in 2005 were combined with lion count data from more than 40 other sites on the continent to test hypotheses about management options and conditions affect lions. The data were published today in the journal Ecology Letters.
Here is the blog post and here is the abstract of the scientific paper. I am happy to email a pdf of the paper to anyone who needs a copy, just contact me through the website.
Collecting data on lions in the Maara in 2005.
After a year of camera-trapping we finally ‘captured’ a couple of hyenas! Two spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) made their way across the plot to the fence hole at 4AM on Monday morning! Being a hyena-ologist, I actually leapt from my seat with joy when I downloaded these photos from the camera trap. Have a look at the photo below: I think the first hyena is an adult female, and she appears to have a wire snare around her neck. The second looks like a sub-adult. So maybe a mom with her weaned cub? Just when I start to think I don’t need to check the cameras every day, we get another new species – and this time it’s my favorite!
A new species ventured through the fence hole last week: the bushpig, Potamochoerus larvatus.
Here is a video, composed of the still images taken by my motion-activated Reconyx camera trap:
We have had warthogs on our plot since the day we moved in, and I have hundereds of photos of these portly suburban pigs coming and going through the fence hole since we put the camera traps up about a year ago. Day after day I have gone through the camera trap images full of warthog snouts and butts. I have more images of suburban warthogs than any other wild animal, and we honestly never even considered that there was another species of wild pig in the neighborhood.
But about a month ago, I was quickly reviewing a few days and nights of camera trap photos when I suddenly saw a new shape peering at the camera from the darkness beyond the fence hole. It looked like a warthog without any warts or tusks, and with a swollen, abnormally long face. And it was a bit too hairy in some places, not hairy enough in other places. Even though the photo was blurred and dark, I knew it couldn’t be a warthog. So I turned to my trusted field guides (The Kingdon Field Guide to African Mammals and Estes’ The Behavior Guide to African Mammals), and confirmed that the only animal it could be was a bushpig. Over the next few weeks I continued to get images of this shy creature checking out the fence hole at night…until she finally decided to come on to our plot at 20:15 on January 17th – and leave just 5 minutes later.
Very little research has been done on bushpigs, but according to the work summarized by Estes, they are widespread in wooded and savanna habitats and can live in any kind of habitat with concealment and food. They are nocturnal and omnivorous: while roots, bulbs, and fallen fruit are thought to be main foods, bushpigs will also readily eat carrion and excrement, and they can even kill small mammals and birds. Although you can’t see the tusks, they are razor sharp and can be up to 7 cm long. Bushpigs use these tusks to dig deep holes, for defense, and for fighting.
While I was thrilled to see this new species at our house (I have never seen it elsewhere, despite it being widespread and common!), the bushpig is considered a serious agricultural pest in Africa. Bushpig populations can increase in farming areas due to food availability, and their rooting can strip all plants from a sizeable area.
In my next post, I’ll explain how this species has played a role in an astounding number of lion attacks on humans in southern Tanzania.