Kulalu Camp 2017
May 19, 2017
Woke up at 5:00am to find giraffe samples between 6 and 8pm so that the time points for swabbing would be optimal. Searched for giraffe by SUV with a scout, the warden, and two other Pwani Students. We found a group of giraffes in the conservancy and observed a giraffe behind a bush. When we drove to that bush, we identified a fresh faecal sample. We had photos of this specific giraffe and described it as male, white-ish colouring, young adult. We GPS’d the location and collected our first sample at 7:55am, with the initial time of defecation around 7:35am. We collected swabs throughout the day at 1hr, 2hr, 4hr, 8hr, and 16hr past time-0hr. We saw a lion about to make a kill on zebras in the middle of the road in the afternoon. Time 16hr was at midnight in the same area of the lion so caution was taken to survey the area by scouts before swabbing at midnight.
May 20, 2017
Sample at time-32hr was at 4pm. We travelled with Kiera to get her impala swabs first since her time point is around the same time as my time points. There had been a little rain this morning at camp. It could have drizzled a little bit out in the field but can’t be sure.
May 21, 2017
This morning we woke up and were informed that nine lions had been sighted. In the night, they had killed a hippo in a 3 hour battle. The whole camp went out in covered SUVs to observe the lions eating their kill on the banks of the river. Across the road close by, there were males fighting for the affection of a female in season. JB photographed an adult, male Tsavo lion defecating at 7:38am. We parked the SUVs in a square around the sample for protection from the lions still only meters away from us. JB took 4 samples for us because it wasn’t safe to leave the vehicle. Later that day we worked on building an observation tower in the Lali hills, which will be used for research in the future. Afterwards, we left to swab Andy’s elephant sample and we stopped by the lion sample to see if the lions had left the area. There was a female still eating the hippo and a male lion a few meters away from the scat sample. Therefore it was unsafe to swab it again since we were only in one vehicle. We will go out tonight to try for giraffe and impala but it may be unsafe to collect these as well.
May 22, 2017
Last night Kiera and I tried to swab our impala and giraffe samples but there were about 5 lions still hanging around the river meaning there were others in the bush. JB made a call saying it was unsafe to collect swabs therefore we have no data for the 64hr. Today I stayed in camp to recover from being sick.
May 23, 2017
JB, Kiera, and I went out at 6am to find our second giraffe and elephant samples. It was steadily raining when we first went out, but then the clouds quickly dispersed later on and the sun came out. We followed some giraffe and elephant together near the boundary of the conservancy. Initial time of defecation around 8:20 – 8:30am and took my first swab at 8:40am. Female adult giraffe. We took swabs at the 1hr, 2hr, 4hr, 8hr marks. We also took an opportunistic sample of a tree where elephants like to scratch. JB has decided that we are no longer going out at night due to the dangers. We will get a sample in the morning instead of the midnight sample.
May 24, 2017
We went out this morning to swab the second giraffe sample at 8:46am. We checked JB’s camera traps at a small wallow where we saw a water buffalo to see if any animals left droppings on camera. We saw a striped hyena on the camera but no faecal samples. We took an opportunistic swab of an oryx. We also returned to the lion sample to swab again at 10:30am.
Kiera Thurman
19th May, 2017
We woke up early to try and find impala to sample between 6-9am in order to have a time scale that was feasible given the dangers of travelling at night for sample collection, the samples are near the river. With our driver and scout we were able to find a herd of impala by 7:15am and because the impala were moving out of the area I was able to collect the first sample at 7:20 and the second just after. A third impala had been identified, but by the time I arrived to sample it, dung beetles had already rolled it away. We drove about 10 minutes further to another impala herd and I sampled an impala there. All three impala were adult females, from herds of females and children with one buck each. The first three time points were taken out in the field, and the fourth later in the afternoon. Sarah and I with John and scouts and the warden then went out near midnight for our night samples. That was time points 0-16hr. Because of the activity of predators at night, and Sarah’s sample being in a lioness’s territory, extra precautions were taken during all night samples.
21st May, 2017
As Sarah has summarized the lion event quite well, and I have nothing to add, please refer to her section for details on male lion faeces sampling. The rest of the day was spent assisting with the building of a new watchtower. We attempted to drive back through the lion’s area from the morning to take samples, but it was too dangerous with a male lion sitting just next to the faeces. And again, as Sarah said, the samples tonight for 64 hours, we will go out early to try and avoid the prime nocturnal animal activity, but both impala and giraffe samples are in lion area and may not be possible to be collected.
22nd May, 2017
We were unable to collect the giraffe and impala samples the night before due to lion being in the area, and we had seen a couple of them as well. This day was dedicated to helping try to finish or move-along the research room here in camp—building and painting as possible. No sampling today.
23rd May, 2017
This day was, for us, dedicated to finding at least one more individual for both Andy and Sarah to sample. We went out with JB, and another group went a different way, to look for Giraffe and Elephant. It was rainy and chilly most of the morning, before clearing off and being very clear and sunny the afternoon and evening/night. We were able to identify one additional sample faeces for both Andy and Sarah. The first time points were taken. An opportunistic swab was taken of a tree that the elephants have obviously used for years to clean mud off of their tusks after visiting the neighbouring Walla. I took a sample swab of some smooth, cleaned wood, and one of some of the caked-on (dry) mud on the tree; these were taken at 12.15pm. Samples were collected for 0, 1, 2, 4, 8 hours for both giraffe and elephant.
Andy Tighe
19th May, 2017.
We left camp at 6am to try find some elephants. We found a group of three at 7am and followed them in the hopes of collecting a scat sample. Unfortunately they headed into thick bush and couldn’t be followed anymore, so the search was called off for the day as we had missed the optimal starting time point.
20th May, 2017.
We found a large bull elephant at about half 6 wandering into the conservancy from Tsavo East and followed him. He stopped and relieved himself at 7:42 am and I could get my first sample at 7:49 am as he had moved on. We then stayed nearby and I could take samples at 1 hr, 2 hrs and 4 hrs. When we came back to collect the 8 hr time point swab, a lot of dung beetles had discovered the sample and were beginning to break it down. We went back at 11:49 to collect the 16 hour sample.
21st May, 2017.
Today we helped build a new watchtower. Afterwards I had to leave with John to collect my 32 hr sample. We then stopped by the lion scat that John had swabbed earlier, but unfortunately couldn’t take another sample as there was a male lion lying about 10 metres from the sample.
22nd May, 2017.
We had no samples to collect today due to our time intervals. We spent the day helping to build the new research building/tower.
23rd May , 2017.
We left camp at 6am to collect samples for a second elephant. Due to time and logistical constraints we had changed the time intervals slightly so that the first 8 hours remain the same but instead of continuing at exponential intervals the 6th time point was changed to 24 hours. Simon found both elephants and giraffe on the west side of the conservancy near the Tsavo border. Soon after we arrived we noticed a bull elephant leaving us a fresh sample, at 7:42am. We stayed in the area and collected samples at 8:15 am and then 1hr, 2hr and 4hr intervals. When we came back later, a very large group of elephants had moved into the area and we noticed a female defecating at 5:45pm and noted where it was with the intention of coming back in the morning to collect a sample which had only been exposed to night time influences. At 7pm we collected my 64hr sample for the first elephant. It was originally planned to be taken at midnight but a large pride of lions had moved into the area so it was not safe to be out late at night.
24th May, 2017.
Today we left camp at 7:45 to collect a 24hr sample from the second sample. After Sarah had taken her sample we went to the sample which we had seen at 5:45 the day before. I took one swab from the top of the sample. We then went back to the lion scat sample and Sarah took another swab. We spent the rest of the day watching the Pwani stundents collecting river samples.