With yesterdays visit to Ol Pejeta, today was a bit relaxed and this was signaled by some late breakfast meaning there was ample sleeping allowance given. According to the schedule, we took breakfast from 7.30 Am to 8.30 Am.(Kenyan time).
The morning was a bit chilly compared to the other days with short moments of fading away sunlight. After breakfast, everyone was busy doing the days readings with the discussion starting at 11.00 a.m. The discussion was on cattle-wildlife interactions in rangelands with a basic view on the effects of their coexistence.
In the afternoon, the weather was better and we thus went to the field for research on dung sampling to examine whether the glades are more utilized by animals compared to other sections of the land. Back to the camp site, the rain was on and it was thus time for doing our journals. – Dedan Ngatia, Junior Natural Resource Management Major, Karatina University
(Glades are open areas that were previously used as bomas (cattle enclosures). The cattle are kept each night in a fenced boma to prevent lions and other predators from eating them. This serves to deposit several feet of manure which dramatically enhances the quality of the grass. Wildlife are known to preferentially forage in these abandoned boma sites – another way that human activity benefits wildlife. Can you identify the dung shown?)
