Getting Settled and a Viral Video

Sorry for the delay in getting this up and running. For everyone I haven’t been in contact with yet, I am in fact alive and well and having a fantastic time. I’ve been in Amboseli for about a month now and it’s a great time to be in the park. The elephant baby boom officially ended on October 12th, with right at 225 births recorded since that day in 2011. This baby boom was a response to the terrible drought of 2009 in which we lost 406 elephants, young and old, and this influx of births is a great sign of recovery. We’re currently at the end of the dry season, but generous rain over the last year means that there is still plenty of food in the park and none of the animals are in bad shape. From camp we can see rain falling on the slopes of Kilimanjaro fairly frequently, which is a signal that we can expect the rains to begin soon here in Amboseli.

 I’ve enjoyed getting out in the field with the project researchers whenever I can to see the elephants, who are a pleasure to watch since they are well-fed and happy and excited about all the new calves. We also have frequent elephant visitors in camp. The EA, EB, and GB families can often be seen feeding in the surrounding clearings and swamps during the day. In the middle of the night, however, they don’t mind coming right in to feed among the tents, and it’s not unusual to wake up to the sound of ripping grass and see an elephant just a few feet away from your bed in the moonlight.

 We’ve had several interesting events in the last two weeks, the first of which is pretty well known by now. On Monday the 8th we were called out to rescue Zombe’s female calf from a Maasai well west of the park. The rest is, somewhat surprisingly for all of us, viral video history. Some really wonderful footage of the rescue and reunion was captured during the process by team members Robert Sayialel and Vicki Fishlock, and the video Robert edited for YouTube started getting some major attention about a week later. I’ve been amazed at the response of people excited about and inspired by the work that the project does, as well as by the number of anonymous internet commenters who felt they were well-informed enough to question the rescue methods. One comment I found and appreciated: “You only deserve the right to criticize if you have successfully rescued more than one wild elephant from a well.” I won’t go into a detailed explanation here of why we did it the way we did, but if anyone is curious or had their own questions I’d be happy to tell you about it.

 And if you haven’t seen it yet on Yahoo!, HuffPo, or the Facebook newsfeeds of my friends and cousins (thanks guys!), here you go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOHw7lX3Gu4

 The next day another calf fell in the same well. Work to make it less dangerous had not yet been completed while we tried to determine if anyone claimed sole ownership of that well. Since it was outside the park boundaries and cattle are the sole asset of many Maasai in the area, it would obviously be inappropriate to do something to an important water source without checking things out first. One side of the well was dug out to a more gradual slope the following day. This second calf had already been abandoned by his mother, who was no doubt terrified of the people and cattle that arrived at the well. As a result he was sent to the Nairobi elephant orphanage of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, where I hear he is settling in nicely. I was not present at the second rescue because I managed to ingest bacteria from the well water during a breakfast in the field following the first rescue and was confined to my bed the whole next day. Lesson learned and extra hand sanitizer purchased!

 Not every day in Amboseli is filled with exciting events like elephant rescues, and I’m getting settled into a routine now with my work. For that reason, I invite anyone reading to comment if you have a question or are curious about some topic related to the elephants, Amboseli, or living over here, and then I can work on posts that people will hopefully find interesting.

 More soon!