Aug
28
The Scoop on Poop
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
Moses shows us poop from a Maasai giraffe. Looks small for a giraffe, doesn’t it? That’s because the giraffe deposits about 300 little round pellets like this at a time.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
The Scoop on Poop-2
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
The dung beetle lays 1 or 2 eggs and encloses them in a ball (shown here) it rolls out of animal dung. It then buries the ball about 6 inches underground. If the ball isn’t disturbed, the baby dung beetles will burrow out.
But the bat-eared fox  with its large ears  can actually hear the baby beetles 6 inches underground, and will dig them up, break open the casing, and eat them. Seems like an awful lot of work for a little bite to eat.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
The Scoop on Poop-3
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
This is impala poop; Â you see it everywhere! Grazers (like impala and gazelle) tend to have pellet-like poop.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
The Scoop on Poop-4
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
This is hippo poop. Browsers, such as hippos, generally have poop that is big and grassy.
Our guide explained that hippos tend to spread their poop around  by using their little tails as dispersing propellers  in order to mark their territory. What a cute image!
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
The Scoop on Poop-5
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
The grassy poop of a grazer. This is from a zebra.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
The Scoop on Poop-6
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
This lovely specimen is from a wildebeeste.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
The Scoop on Poop-7
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
To my mind, this is a scat scientist’s dream: Grant’s gazelle poop on top of zebra poop. Why are they right in the same place? Coincidence?
Did you recognize the zebra poop? Or am I silly to think you care?
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
The Scoop on Poop-8
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
This is from Thompson’s gazelle; it resembles Grant’s gazelle, but is a little smaller.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
The Scoop on Poop-9
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
This is mystery poop; I neglected to write down what it was when I took the photo. (At the time it seemed so obvious; I was sure I’d remember!)
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
The Scoop on Poop-10
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
These tiny little pellets are from a tiny little antelope  called the dik-dik.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
The Scoop on Poop-11
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
OK, now it’s time for the test. Â
Do you recognize this?
It’s wildebeest poop.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
The Equator
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
Here we are at the equator sign and gift shop.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
Professor Lopez at the Equator
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
“Professor Lopez,” an enterprising young Kenyan man, uses a piece of grass floating in a bowl with a hole in the bottom to demonstrate that water drains clockwise in the northern hemisphere and anticlockwise in the southern. “The farther from the equator, the faster it [the grass] twirls.” And he shows us that it doesn’t twirl at all right at the equator.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
At the Sarova Mara camp we met Solomon, who speaks English as well as Swahili and Maa (the language of the Maasai people). Solomon told us a lot about Maasai culture: clan structure and function, doweries, raising and herding cattle, use of herbs.
The Maasai are known for wearing red, but the plaid fabrics are a relatively recent development; they were brought to Africa by the Brits in the 19th century. I think they make the Maasai look like a bunch of very dark Scottsmen.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
Maasai Villagers
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
Young male villagers — wearing traditional Maasai red clothing — have come to greet us, show us around their village, and perform some traditional dances. About 80 people live in this manata, and they’re all one family: brothers, unmarried sisters, cousins, and the women who have married into the family.
Our guides were Dixon and Peter, sons of the chief.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
Maasai Homes
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
In the background are traditional Maasai homes, shaped like loaves of bread. The houses, made of sticks and plaster, last about six years before the termites make them uninhabitable, at which time the whole village moves to another location and rebuilds the compound.
If a man has several wives, he also has several houses; each wife “gets” to build her own home. Young girls learn to build houses from their grandmothers, and practice at it as children.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
Maasai warrior
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
This Maasai warrior shows off a marriage headdress made from the mane of a lion.
Boys and girls both undergo the circumcision ceremony when they are about 14 years old. Boys are warriors from ages 14 to 18. At 19 or 20 they cut their hair, get married, and become men.
Girls are generally married when they are 16 to 18 years old. A young man’s first wife is chosen — and paid for — by his parents. If he can afford to buy subsequent wives (the bride price is 10 cows) he gets to choose them himself.
Aug
28
Maasai children
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
Many of the Maasai children dressed in second-hand clothes imported from Europe. Several wore inexpensive digital watches given to them by tourists.
These kids were barefoot (their compound floor was covered with cow dung), and had flies crawling all over their faces. But the flies here were nowhere near as bad as in rural Australia.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
Maasai mother and child
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
Maasai mother and infant. In addition to caring for children, Maasai women are responsible for cooking; milking cows; fetching water (the women in this village had to walk about 1 km each way to get water from a stream); washing clothes; building and repairing houses; gathering wood and dung for cooking fires; planting, caring for, and harvesting crops (some Maasai now raise corn, wheat and barley); and making beaded jewelry for the family and for sale to tourists.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
Maasai grandfather
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
A Maasai grandfather entertains two little girls. This photo was taken in front of their house; notice the stick doorway and the “plaster” made of cow dung.
Each house has two rooms: one for the people, and one where the family calves sleep at night. The room for people just is just big enough to fit one bed for the parents, one bed for all the children to share, and a very small cooking area.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
Nairobi
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
Nairobi, a city of two million people, looks pretty much like any other city of two million people — except that here about half of the population lives in slums.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
Kariandusui Archaeologist
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
This is Samuel Kirui Rotich, our archaeologist guide at Kariandusui.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
Kariandusui
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
The Kariandusui archaeological site in Kenya where Dr. Louis Leakey worked.The tools found here are probably more than half a million years old. There are three kinds: cleavers, hand axes, and stone balls.
Human skeletons are not often found here, because people who died were simply thrown into the bush, where their bones were scattered by animals.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
Lake Nakuru National Park
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
At Lake Nakuru National Park we went on game drives in “pop top” vans that allowed us to get a good look at the wildlife, which included lions, rhinos, eland, Rothschild’s giraffe, impala, cape buffalo, Grant’s gazelle, baboons, waterbuck, a leopard, and many birds.
Over time, we learned to enjoy the “African massage” as we bounced along on very bumpy roads.
Here three baboons investigate us.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
Aug
28
Lake Nakuru National Park-Impala
August 28, 2002 | Leave a Comment
Here’s a typical safari scene: a “harem” herd of female and young impala, with one dominant male, who has feeding and mating privileges.
When young male impala begin to grow horns, they are kicked out of the harem to live in their own “bachelor” herd. When they’re older, one may challenge a dominant male for his harem.
(From a 2002 trip to Kenya.)
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