Little black cubs!

Great south morning today, the south hyenas now have three dens, all of which are very active in a triangle about 400 to 500m away from each other. When at Boone D we can see both Monster den and FML den and all the hyenas at each respective den. Just Bellagio, Rasta, and Biscuit at FML but Biscuit was being totally adorable as usual. Next we went and checked out Monster den where we’ve been seeing clovis and there was a new hyena there! Not only was Clovis and Brophy chilling out by the den (brophy does not have cubs but she’s been hanging around) but Trumain was also there! Have not seen her since July I think at a carcass. Onekama, a male, was hanging out and Clovis and Brophy ran away from the den to chase him off and then Trumain sticks her head in a hole and PULLS OUT A TINY LITTLE BLACK CUB and then plunks him down into a hole a few feet away. Unfortunately his face was titled away from us so I couldn’t see if he had white eyebrows or white rings. But I would imagine he was pretty young. Also unfortunately this hole happened to be Clovis’ hole so when Clovis came back and sat down in the hole on top of Trumain, Trumain got really upset and start squealing and def growling but of course since Trumain is the lowest ranking adult female and Clovis the second highest that wasn’t happening. Dave had just started getting some Taj points south of Monster den so we drove over there next and found another 6 hyenas including Java, the alpha, Taj, Whiz, Komo, Kneesocks and a male Toledo. We saw a torn phallus on Kneesocks the other day which is kind of crazy because she is one of the old females that we call the ‘golden girls’ and has never been seen to have cubs while the hyena lab has been studying them. Maybe she always has still borns? I guess we’ll watch out and see if she has a live cub this time! We saw Komo’s baby at FML den so we’re not sure if she’s moved her baby over to Boone den or if she was just chilling there with her mom. Last we knew Java also had her baby at FML but maybe with Taj hanging out here Java and Komo both decided to move to Boone den. Whiz also had a torn phallus but this would be her first litter so it is not likely that they survived. This is Trumain’s second litter so we’re keeping our fingers crossed and thinking of dog breed names for her baby! Komo’s lineage is going to be spaceships and the cub that we saw head poke is going to be named Death Star. Drove around the rest of the territory and heard a few beeps from slinky but saw no one else, seems like this triangle of three dens is where EVERYONE is hanging out. 

Dave in camp!

Dave is back in camp! Picked up Emily a little less than a week ago and made it back to camp. After many dry days its finally rainy again but we still made it out for obs this morning. Its thanksgiving next week so we drove all the to talek to get Dave so that we could do a thanksgiving celebration with the talek folks. The road to talek has gotten horrible so it was slow going but we made it in time for talek evening obs which ended up being just a sundowner because it was already starting to rain by the time we left! Drank lots of wine (a record for me I think) and had lots of fun goofing around on top of this hill doing cartwheels etc. Had a big dinner celebration and Julie made a really really good pie that tasted just like pumpkin pie even though it was made with butternut squash. Next morning we went to the circumcision ceremony party for Lusingo’s (one of talek’s askaris) son. The actual circumcision was very early in the morning but the party went on all afternoon. We showed up and Wilson showed us around the manyatta and then we were invited inside one of the huts for lunch. Super delicious mashed potatoes, chapatti, fried cabbage, katchumbari, and fried goat. Wasn’t a fan of the fried goat but fried cabbage is sooo good. And soda of course! Dave brought me back the 2TB hard drive I ordered and a lens cap for my camera. So now I finally have space to take as many photos and HD video as I want! He also brought back some more camp supplies and US candy.. which is very bad. Trying to resist the urge to eat any of that candy. Anyway seeing the manyatta was really cool, the boma the cows and goats were in and all the different huts. A new hut was in the process of going up so it was really cool to see how that happens. Lots of dogs and puppies and little kids running around. I wore my maasai dress for the first time and it was super cool though apparently it was somewhat fancy for the occasion. Before we left we were given gifts of necklaces and bracelets… eeep embarrassing. But just like in India as white people we are special guests. Julie french-braided my hair so now I’ve decided to French braid it every day until I get really good at French braiding it. It’s just barely long enough for it so a few strands still fall out.. but still really cool. Braids! I haven’t had a braid since middle school.

Dave did his first north loop this morning while Emily and I went to south. We got somewhat stuck in the mud but I was able to coach Emily on what to do and she got us out! Some of the tracks were very slippery but nothing too bad, we even got south 1 prey transect completed!