I am settling into the rhythm of camp life. It is easy to wake with the sun in morning. Gone is my alarm clock. Gone also are mirrors, extra clothes, appointments, classes, and a whole lot of stress. How refreshing! Chai or breakfast in the morning with the team has become even more exciting with the appearance of chocolate peanut butter on the table. I really love Michael’s pancakes, too. They have some sort of spice in them which I just can’t put my finger on. I’ve been lucky to join Shifra nearly every morning for LTM rides through the reserve. Identifying the elephants is a challenge, although I am trying to do so by noticing the specific ragged edges of an individual’s ears, the length and angles of the tusks, and any other special features. I am very impressed by Shifra and the team’s ability to identify elephants that are even at a distance on the other side of the river! So far, I have photographed close to a dozen nodules on the elephants. The nodules vary in size and location. The ones that are on the underside of the tusks are particularly hard to catch, but my eyes are getting keener.
By the time we return to camp, I am always starving for a hearty serving of rice and lentils or some variation of those dishes. Sometimes I have spent the afternoons going through all the pictures I had taken in the morning and matching them with my field notes on who each elephant was. My list of elephants seen is rapidly growing!
Right now I have a new project on my hands. I am beginning a mural near the offices. The mural is a tree schematic of a bifurcation diagram which shows the degree of associations between elephant individuals and families. George Wittemeyer published this diagram in his 2005 paper, “The Socioecology of elephants: an analysis of the processes creating multi-tiered social structures”. I hope it will serve as a lively visual aid to educating visitors about the families in the reserve and their social structures. With a fresh coat of white paint already on the wall, I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of red, green, brown, and yellow paint from Isiolo. I love painting, so this project is a real treat!