Month: June 2025 (Page 2 of 2)

Group D. Shamini, Emily & Hannah

We started off the day with a surprise attack at the breakfast table. Yiling bravely encountered a caterpillar found here at Lake Naivasha. This was an ironic start to our lecture on species-species interactions as it was a prime example of a negative-negative interaction. Negative for Yiling as she was stung by the caterpillar (the urticating hairs covering its body as a defence) who was negatively affected by Yiling trying to bat it away.

After our morning lecture we participated in an activity that inspired us to think about the “why” of the conservation of biodiversity and move beyond simple lists of species to considering ecosystem function and biotic interactions. During the activity we were to list all the species-species interactions we could see around the campsite and think about what type of interactions these were. These observations allowed us to see firsthand the ecological stage on which all these species play a pivotal role. We learned that redundancy of ecological functions may play a crucial role the resiliency of every ecosystem.

Following that activity we were inspired by the presentations of our peers. Of the handful of excellent presentations today (Selena on seasonal and elevational changes of plant-pollinators; Hannah on impacts of land use and climate changes on tropical and Mediterranean biodiversity ), a highlight was Kirstie’s discussion on the cascading consequences of acacia ants which protect the acacia homes from herbivory. Invasive big-headed ants have displaced them, meaning the acacias are no long protected and experience higher herbivory. This, in turn, makes the habitat more open for predators like lions. The accentuates the idea of seemingly small changes in ecosystems having major outcomes one an apex predator like the lion.

In the afternoon we completed a geocaching activity set up by Professor Wang and Cletus. We were given 10 coordinates to locate using the GPS units to find questions regarding Kenyan facts and history. We raced through this task to try to be the first to successfully locate all the points and answer all the questions but succumbed to Holden, Jana, and Susie, who were each rewarded with a carved giraffe from the Great Rift Valley.

Honourable mention: Dani vs vervet (vervet won)

Group C. Selena, Lacey & Amadahy

It’s 5:00 am, Naomi wakes up Lacey and whispers (in terrifying manner), “Lacey, I think there’s something outside of our tent.”

The ruckus was in fact hippos emerging from the lake. Lacey and Naomi would continue the day in fear, until learning that is what the lurking figure was. It didn’t really relieve them.

The Egyptian geese and hadada ibis added to the chorus of wake up alarms. Once awake, you could find yourself making eye contact with two grazing cape buffalo. Who had mysteriously left from nearby Hellsgate National Park. While setting up breakfast, we had our first vervet monkey encounter of two males and three small females ready to raid unaware tents.
During breakfast, everyone got acquainted with Kevin, Joseph, John (now the first. Last year John the second as the then driver John was John the first), and Chenzen, the amazing Bunduz staff working under Mukhtar’s leadership. Everyone then got ready for the big day ahead.

Much later in the distance, the leaping colobus monkeys made themselves known in the statuesque fever trees, leaping from branches with their white mantles used as parachutes, quite the display. Following that monkey business, Yiling got off to a great birding start as she saw flamingos flying in the distance to Lake Nakuru.

When 10am hit the camp, the practice bird-a-thon commenced. Prof. Stephen gave us a short but sweet lecture on how we see birds as a great lens into ecology – providing insights on life history and habitats. We briefly went over important aspects of bird ID, coloration, altitude, range, bill morphism, diet etc. We then had an hour and a half to see and identify as many birds as we possibly could and compare our findings with the group.

At 12:15 we reconvened, the results were:
Team A (Yiling, Naomi, Ella): 33 species,
Team B (Serena, Miranda, Akilah): 9 species,
Team C (Lacey, Selena, Amadahy): 30 species,
Team D (Shamini, Emily, Hannah): 9 species,
Team E (Amanda, Kirstie, Dani): 8 + 4 unsure,
Team F (Suzy, Jana, Holden): 5 + 4 unsure species. The gauntlet was thrown down between Team A and Team C, the rematch will occur later, either at here at Naivasha or at Kakamega, where the stakes are higher and the birds are crazier.

We had a delicious lunch to recover from our endeavors searching for birds – only to be set off once more by the visit of a lilac-breasted roller (the national bird of Kenya).
Come 3pm, it was time to get studious with Amadahy starting the primary literature review presentations, as she wiped the sweat off her brow she began her presentation on Museums and Cradles of Diversity in Angiosperms of Tropical Africa giving us insight into the rich evolutionary diversity surrounding us. Second was brave Dani, speaking on Geographic Barriers and Pleistocene Climate Change Shaped Patterns of Genetic Variation in the Eastern Afro-Montane Biodiversity Hotspots. While it was a technical paper, she did a great job giving us insights into phylogeographic patterns across the Great Rift system.
Up next on our busy agenda, after tightening our hiking boots we were handed new fancy Garmin GPS units in preparation for the intense geocaching activity to take place tomorrow.
Many got lost on that trail that we blazed, no worries theres nothing dangerous out there … except cape buffalo, hippos, boomslangs, offended warthogs, puff adders, oh and black mambas. Not to worry this is a safe campground!

Following geocaching, Shamini started us up again with The Ecological and Genomic Basis of Explosive Adaptive Radiation, a talk about how we can see the evidence and factors of adaptive radiation all around us … and especially cichlids. Finally, Naomi gave a review of a paper ‘Termite Mound Cover and Abundance Response to Herbivore-Mediated Biotic Changes in Kenyan Savanna’ which was an amazing insight into the ecological engineers that are termites and how their lives are shaped by ungulates (meso and mega herbivores). Speaking of ungulates, the hippos emerged from the lake to hear all about primary literature … I guess you could say it was “peer” reviewed. They seemed equally surprised to see the two daggaboy buffaloes.

After an exciting day, we were happy to relax in the mess tent and swap stories over dinner. To finish off the night, Yiling strikes again with an awesome find: bushbaby in the dark night climbing the fever trees. Much of the evidence being two orange pinpricks shining back at us and our headlamps.

If you made it this far, congratulations and stay tuned for the next blog post and the cutthroat geocache competition to find out who wins.

Group B. Serena, Miranda & Akilah

2am. All students were sleeping peacefully. In the darkness, Dr. Steve’s received a knock on his door.
“Sorry to bother you sir but there is a call from Mukhtar?”
“Uhh… yes?” he sighed.
“The bags have arrived!” Mukhtar said cheerily (we hope).
“Great.” Dr. Steve yawned.

After a hearty breakfast several hours later, the students (all save two) finally reconnected with their lost luggage, showered, and changed into fresh clothes for the first time in three days. Holden and Amanda had alas to wait for their bags to be delivered to Lake Naivasha.

Then, we headed out for the three-and-a-half-hour journey to our next stop, Lake Naivasha. The journey through the outskirts of Nairobi was remarkable and insightful for all. After a momentary commotion caused by several baboons just sitting calmly on the side of the road, we headed on our way.

The team watched speechlessly as we passed through some of the poorer yet vibrant areas areas that border the city. Small, crammed together abodes crowded the streets. Sheets of aluminum held up by wooden beams or metal poles and bars spread out across the even land as far as the eye could see. Pieces of paper blew past our truck, lining the earthen roads. People lounged on the grass beside the road, sleeping or else just sitting, and occasionally we smelled strong fumes as one or two people tended to small fires, burning trash or something rather odiferous.

“asefasdf

As we left the city behind, we encountered all kinds of livestock wandering freely in the valleys and grasslands beside the road. Goats, chickens, horses, cows, sheep, and even donkeys pulling wooden carriages were everywhere, flocks tended to by just one or two people – around Naivasha donkeys can be used to haul water.

The truck twisted and turned around the winding roads, slowly gaining height until before we knew it, we found ourselves overlooking the Grand Rift Valley; an endless expanse of low-lying farmlands and grasslands that extends from Mozambique to the Red Sea. We stopped to take a group picture and use the restrooms. Some of us had our first chance to barter in Kenya; “This is 500 shillings,” the shopkeeper said. “But for you, maybe we can make it cheaper.”

Excited, Lacey hurried back to the truck to get her money.  Upon her return, the shopkeeper said, “Actually, now it’s 1000.”

“1000?” Lacey exclaimed. “You said 500 before.”

“750,” the shopkeeper bargained.

“I only have 500.”

Money exchanged hands and Lacey left with a wooden elephant and her purse 500 KYN dollars (about 5 dollars CAD) lighter.

During this time, other students fawned over tock hyraxes nibbling on things under the support wall. “They’re like the capybaras of Africa,” Miranda said about the small, round, groundhog-like creatures.

We all piled back into the truck, and as we climbed higher over the valley, we noted how small the barrier between the road and the cliff side was; only a small, less than-a metre distance separated us from the sheer drop.

On the other side of the mountain, flower greenhouses lined the flat land. Dr. Steve told the students how cut flower exports to Europe are one of Kenya’s biggest industries.

“Why are some of them empty and open like that?” One student inquired.

Dr. Steve continued to explain how when funding fell through for some companies, the greenhouses were abandoned and left to decay, and along with them, the livelihoods of local folks. Living in these company villages and in this region can be expensive here, and without the cut-flower industry to provide jobs, many people would pack up and move somewhere with more opportunity. They left behind ghost residences of abandoned buildings and fallen-down huts.

After some much needed power naps, we all awoke to jostling and tumbling as the truck headed off the road and into the campsite. “Keep yourself away from open windows!” Dr. Steve warned everyone. Branches crashed into the truck and leaves fell on our laps while we bent foward, heads in our hands.

As we pulled into the campsite, on Lake Naivasha, two large eyes and ears looked at us from the water’s edge. Hippos!

Everyone rushed as close to the electric charged fence to take pictures and peer through their binoculars. A whole family of hippos, including one little baby hippo, kept us entertained for the next hour. Then, we discovered an endless supply of birds of various species, including fish eagles, drongos, great egrets, cormorants, yellow-billed storks, lapwings, Fisher’s lovebirds, and more flew and flocked around the campsite. The students had a blast identifying each species using their field guides.

Then, after we struggled to unload and set up the heavy-duty tents, a lengthy and confusing endeavor, we ate a hearty late lunch-dinner and sat together in a circle of camp chairs, reminiscing about the day and speculating what the ones ahead of us will hold.

Thanks for reading the blog today! Please remember to like and subscribe, and if you’re really interested, take the course next year! Until next time, Miranda and Serena.

Group A. Naomi, Yiling & Ella

To pick up from the last blog … One we deplaned, excited to stretch our legs and grab our bags… except that, the bags are still in Amsterdam. Dr. Lougheed filled out the forms and KLM said they would be on the flight tomorrow evening at the same time. Relived that our bags were not completely lost, we stepped outside, grateful for the fresh air. The fresh air was not short-lived though as we could not find our ride to Kolping Conference Centre. Eventually, after 30 minutes of wandering and investigating, we suddenly saw the biggest truck we ever saw reading to bring us to Kolping. After beautiful night drive and 10 minutes of trying to pull into the driveway, we finally made it to the conference centre and went to bed, falling asleep to the sound of Montane Nightjar’s songs.

We woke up the next day fairly late, (we could afford it because we had nothing to get ready with), met Jana (who arrived early this morning) and went right to breakfast at 8:30 for our first Kenyan meal. After breakfast, we convened on the covered outside patio. We had formal introductions and discussed the assignments we would be completing over the next 2 weeks. We also met Carol, Mukhtar, and our TA Cletus. We discussed biases towards Africa, as well as Kenyan history and geography. Miranda shared many fun facts. We had the rest of the day free to relax and recover from our jet-lag, so after our meeting we set out and began to explore the property around the conference centre. We had a blast identifying species we had never seen before. Yiling used her birding skills and binoculars to identify a menagerie of Kenyan birds, including Hadada Ibis, many Black Kites, the beautiful African Paradise-flycatcher, African Palm Swifts, Speckled Mousebirds, Northern Fiscals, Pied Crows, Common Bulbuls, Ruppel’s Robin-Chats, Variable Sunbirds, White-browed Sparrow-Weavers, Baglafecht Weavers, African Pied Wagtails, and Streaky Seedeaters. There is also an exciting diversity of plants on the property. Many are not native but were introduced as ornamental plants because they do well in the warm environment. Beautiful Wax Mallows, Giant Stripy Bamboo, Coatbuttons, Some very large cacti (possibly Senita Cactus), Silky oak, Garden Croton, and Crimson Bottle Brush, as well as an array of interesting plants that were harder to identify.

After having a wonderful lunch, and cleaned our dishes, we went to the local Galleria Mall. We bought snacks, souvenirs, and other essentials. Selena and Yiling had their first experience at bartering, they did their best! On the way back, we saw a beautiful, huge, white, sacred ibis flyby, how wonderful! We also marvelled at the Kenyan landscape. The re-entrance to the KCC was very successful compared to last night. After getting off the bus, we split off, and relaxed. The birds slowly stopped their songs as the night falls, and the night creatures started their shift. We were lucky to encounter a gecko, and an Abyssinian Thrush (why is it awake?). Amadahy, Lacey, Akila, Naomi, and Yiling went looking for frogs, but instead they found a stick insect and another gecko. We then ate supper, the beef was very yummy! Later that night, Amadahy, Lacey, Akila, Naomi, Yiling, Suzy, and Serena climbed all the way up to the roof of the truck to see the views. We went to bed still exhausted after two full days of travel.

We assembled at Pearson Terminal 3 on Saturday May 31. We checked in and cleared security by about 2:30 PM although not before some interesting messages from the check-in kiosk for some regarding not being old enough to check in on their own or simply the kiosk cannot help you further. We departed by about 4:45 for a flight of about 7 hours to Schipol Airport Amsterdam with a 6 hour layover before the 8 hour flight to Nairobi, arriving at 10:00 PM local time. Amsterdam is 6 hours ahead of Kingston, Ontario, and Nairobi 7 hours ahead.