Content

This croc looks very content after a big meal of rotting wildebeest.

Struggling

Wildebeest.  Struggling to cross a swollen Mara River.

Simon - the Kijana

Simon, the kijana. Simon, the young man.  Kijana Simon was another one of the game rangers we were fortunate enough to work with this field season.

Here is he watching over Amanda as she is takes a water sample below ~300 wildebeest carcasses in the river.  

Stormy Sunset

View of a storm arriving from Tanzania at sunset.

Simon - the Mzee

Every time we are at the river, we have an armed Game Ranger from the Mara Conservancy with us.  They are a fantastic bunch of guys.  We have become good friends with several of them since we spend so much time with them.  

Here is Simon.  Simon the Mzee.  Simon the elder.  

Amanda is in the river checking on litter bags.  I'm doing something downstream...don't remember exactly.  Simon is trying to alert me as he is pointing to a hippo that was looking at me....as I was taking a picture of him.  

As a reminder of how ornery hippos can be...take a look at our blog post from 2009 - Hippos...the Water Guardians.

Grazing Exclosure Plot

Or rather...a forgotten and abandoned grazing exclosure plot.

I'm always saddened to see forgotten exclosure plots in the Mara.  Here you can see the pieces of metal sticking up out of the ground that used to hold the fence.  Topi seem to love the grass inside this "exclosure" plot.  

Hazardous Work Environment

Not the best place in the world to open up your computer and surf the internet.  Nah, I'm just kidding.  I wasn't surfing the internet.  I was downloading the data from our water quality meter we had installed below the carcasses.  

I wonder if Yale Forestry would get more or less students if they used this in their recruitment campaigns.  

Patches

A view from above.  The green area was burned a few months before this picture was taken.  The yellowish brown area was not burned.  The small dark patches you see are termite mounds.

Count the Crocs

We often play this game.  Count the Crocs.  How many crocs are sharing that small sandy bank in the middle of the Mara River? 

Bug

A macroinvertebrate from the Mara.