Nairobi, Necropsy and Malaria

A lot has happened since I last blogged! Basically, I went to Nairobi, came back and ran camp by myself for a week while Lily was gone, performed a necropsy on one of our hyenas and got malaria!

I got back from Nairobi a few weeks ago. Nairobi is nice because you get a hot shower, you get cold drinks and you get frozen yogurt. The first few days I was ecstatic with food I hadn't had in a few months and cold things! I totally binged on dark chocolate, pretzels (the only brand I have found is a German brand called “Saltlettes”) and chilled white wine. We take Nairobi trips every few months to re-stock camp. We go grocery shopping, we get more liquid nitrogen and we fix our bush vehicles, among other camp errands. Driving in Nairobi was pretty wild, not only did we have to remember to stay on the left side of the road but many Nairobi drivers don't really follow driving laws like they would in the states. You have to be aggressive to get anywhere, if you don't just start pulling onto a road, nobody will ever let you in. The Nairobi town car that we were driving is an old Land Rover that is pretty clunky and doesn't have any power steering. The lack of power steering certainly made parking interesting. It was like a little arm workout every time you needed to go to the store. Nairobi was nice but I was ready to get back to the bush. I missed the quiet and all my animal friends. I have quite a story about how our drive back from Nairobi went but I think that will have to be its own blog post.

The only pretzels I can find in Kenya! 

When I returned from Nairobi I was the only hyena researcher in camp. The Mara River researchers from Yale were around and Phillomon and Jorgi were here to keep camp running smoothly. It is double the work to be in camp alone though, instead of splitting up camp chores you do them all yourself and instead of just transcribing (taking notes on the hyenas) once a day, you have to drive and transcribe twice a day. I think the hardest part was not having four arms. At night it was very difficult to speak into my DVR, hold up a light and use my binoculars/camera all at the same time. My first few sessions out alone I fumbled a little with how to do everything with only two hands but overall I think it went pretty well. I was identifying the hyenas better and I think doing a good job catching all their behaviors.

I was worried one morning when I couldn't ID this hyena, turns out this is TREX a hyena we haven't seen since April!

On the second day I was in camp alone I got a call from Chris (one of the river researchers) that they had found a hyena dead in the road. I raced to the area they found him with Phillomon, got a location and took pictures then returned to camp with the hyena. When a hyena dies, we try to do a full necropsy on the hyena, find cause of death, take tissue samples and prepare their skull for a museum. This is the first hyena that has died since I have been here so I had never helped out with a necropsy before. After many phone calls to other researchers making sure I was doing everything correctly and reading the manual a few times, we got to work. It was a little gruesome to dissect a hyena and really sad that this was a hyena that I knew and that I had seen hanging out a few nights before. His name was Malotrus (I think it is french) and was going to be two years old in december. It appeared that he was hit by a car that was probably driving way to fast.

This is Malo a few weeks before he died during a target trial. We use this fake hyena to test social intelligence among a few other things. Malo was adorable and quickly figured out it wasn't a real hyena so he started trying to eat it. 

The day that Lily got back is that day I started feeling sick. Luckily, she was back and convinced me to not over do it and took care of most of the camp chores. I am feeling much, much better now. There is a doctor at Serena Lodge which is about a 5min drive for us so it was very convenient to just pop up there and get tested for malaria and get the meds I needed. Malaria is certainly not something to take lightly but it is an all too common reality for people living in sub-saharan Africa. It has been very interesting, all of the Kenyans that I have told that I have malaria are sympathetic that I am sick but not really that concerned. Most Kenyans have had malaria many times, almost like the flu in the US. All the white people I have told I have malaria are much more concerned. Anyway, I got the medicine I need and am feeling better now. The worst part is that I have been stuck in camp for the last few days and haven't been able to go see my hyenas! I miss those little guys!