More Lab Work

Here is a shot of Amanda processing some of her samples on the flow analyzer.

Colors of the Mara River

Here is a quick picture of one of the analyses I'm doing on the samples I brought back from the Mara.  The different tubes have soil samples for different parts of the Mara catchment.  I'm trying to determine the relative amounts of clay, silt, and sand in each catchment.  There are only 16 tubes in the picture but I have over 120 samples!  The color of each tube really doesn't have anything to do with this specific analysis but I think that it was pretty interesting...the distinct colors from different portions of the catchment.

Hippo Pools...

One of the items we accomplished this summer was some intensive, 48-hour monitoring of several hippo pools.  Not everything worked out completely as planned but we got some very cool data.  We placed our in-stream data loggers above and below the hippo pools and set them to log every minute.  We also used a GoPro camera to record the actual movements of hippos so that we could tie those movements to potential changes on the in-stream data loggers.

Here is a short excerpt from one of the hippo pools near the Amani Mara Lodge in the Olare Orok Conservancy.  As you'll notice, we hid the camera in a small rock crevice.  We ended up pulling the camera shortly after this video was taken because there were baboons watching us and we were worried they would take off with the camera as soon as we left.  The hippos are all in the water directly in front of the camera.  If you look closely, you can see some of their movements.  I'll be posting some more exciting videos soon.  

What do hundreds of dead Wildebeest in the Mara River look like?

Like this...

More Pictures from Paul's Wedding

The Bride and Groom

 This is what the "6k", two-hour long walk back to the Land Rover looked like...in the rain...

The seating area...

New Agreement to Help Manage the Mara

Great job by the Lake Victoria Basin Commission.  It appears they just secured an agreement to help "enhance governance and promote integrated natural and water resources management in the Mara River Basin" from the different county councils in Kenya and Tanzania.

Read more about it below....
Councils in a joint project to save Mara

Paul's Wedding - Final Video - The Flower Girl and Steppin' Boys

A Big Croc...

We were doing some sampling of water above and below hippo pools in the Mara River and ended up surprising a large crocodile as were looking for a place to get into the river.  This footage was taken with a GoPro.  Those big crocs can sure move FAST.

Paul's Wedding - Video 4 - Dancing Ogiek Mama

Paul's Wedding - Video 3 - The Blessing