Tumaren

Category: Introduction | Date: Mar 28 2007 | By: tumaren

For those Blog readers who would like to travel to our area via Google Earth, paste the following GPS coordinates into the search area. (Google Maps is a great program that users can download for free at http://earth.google.com/ ) .

This is the location of one of our camps on the Ewaso Nyiro River:

0°25′13.66″N
36°54′47.03″E

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Category: Issues | Date: Mar 27 2007 | By: tumaren

David Mech, the American Wolf Biologist once suggested that allowing ranchers to shoot and kill the occasional wolf predating their livestock would allow ranchers recourse to fix their own problems without resorting to poisoning, the more deadly and indiscriminate killer of predators as well as scavengers. I wonder if the same theory could apply to Lions. As social predators Lions might behave in some of the same ways as a wolf pack. Mr Mech has suggested that you can typically kill a couple wolves from a pack but quite quickly the remainder become very shy and refrain from the activities that brought on the trouble in the first place. I would imagine that Lions would behave in the same way.

I bring up this point simply as something to think about and discuss. We live in a part of the world where a large number of pastoral people must coexist with predators that routinely eat their livelyhood. Poisoning, a far more terrifying solution has been widely used in Kenya to Kill predators in the past. Through poisoning alone the American government was able to nearly eliminate the wolf population from the lower 48 and Mr. Mech has suggested that this would never have been possible if those predator control agents were only given guns. Have authors made similar suggestions when it comes to large predator control in Africa?

2 responses so far

Category: Birds | Date: Mar 26 2007 | By: tumaren

Down by our camp on the Ewaso Nyiro River we discovered yesterday a Pygmy Falcon nesting inside an abandoned White Browed Sparrow Weaver’s nest.

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Category: Mammals | Date: Mar 21 2007 | By: tumaren

Kerry and I just saw a baboon with a Cape Hare that it had killed. Our neighbor Sammy Jessel says that he has seen them on several occasions chase down and eat Hares. He said that they do not usually work as a team but rather it is usually just a large male that runs it down - Rather impressive since our dogs which are rather fast can’t seem to catch the hares they love to chase after. jamie

One response so far

Category: Mammals | Date: Mar 15 2007 | By: tumaren

We had 10 Oryx and a herd of more than 200 Zebra come through yesterday. The Oryx were associating with “Lefty” our resident male who has a broken left hand horn.

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Category: Birds | Date: Mar 12 2007 | By: tumaren

On a recent Birding safari we found this immature crowned eagle on the Ewaso Nyiro River at crocodile jaws.

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Category: Mammals | Date: Mar 12 2007 | By: tumaren

After a four month hiatus our elephants are beginning to return spending most of their time down on the Ewaso Nyiro River.

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Category: Issues | Date: Mar 12 2007 | By: tumaren

Allison and Art Daily, two guests that we had on a camel safari were kind enough to bring a large bag of school supplies and 2 beautiful footballs that we delivered recently to our local primary school.

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Category: Birds | Date: Mar 12 2007 | By: tumaren

We had our first rain last night. It has been two months since the heavy rains we received in January. Many Migrant birds have been around recently. On a recent birding safari we got a Booted Eagle, and hundreds of Whittethroats and Willow Warblers. In the past few weeks we have also had an Irania hanging around our security boma and 10 days ago about 60 European White Storks stopped in to spend the night with us on their way northward.

One response so far

Category: Reptiles | Date: Mar 08 2007 | By: tumaren

Last week on safari we saw a Blue Headed Tree Agama. This is the first time that we have noticed this spectacular lizard here in Laikipia. We saw a male in full breeding colours. He was bright turquoise under his chin and bright blue all over his body. When we tried to get closer he became duller and almost blended in the with tree becoming a mottled green/brown. Has anyone else seen this lizard in this part of Laikipia? Of course we did not have a camera with us but I will try and photograph him this week.

3 responses so far