Kenya Field Course blog

Friday March 4, 2022 I am writing from the Amani Gardens Inn in Nairobi. Today we made the trip from Mpala Research Centre to the big city to prepare for our flight home on Saturday. It was tough to say goodbye to Laikipia and the people we grew to know in these short 2 weeks. … Keep reading »

Tuesday March 1, 2022  Today was our first day of collecting data for our individual research projects. Mira is working on bird responses to smoke with Alex while Willow, Amelia, Jesper, and I are working on counting ants as an evacuation response to bucket burning. From this data we hope to gain insight on evacuation … Keep reading »

Monday Feb. 28, 2022 Today we had a much-needed day of rest after a week or so of intense work. While Ryan headed to Nanyuki for the day to get new tires on his Land Rover, the rest of us lounged around Mpala and focused on make-up work from the week of classes we missed. … Keep reading »

Sunday Feb. 27, 2022 After an intense week of burning, the Goshen team was ready for a relaxing day of fun. Naturally, that meant we woke up bright and early at 6:30 to head to Ol Pejeta, a ranch that specializes in conservation. After a bumpy ride, we were excited to see the first elephants … Keep reading »

Saturday Feb. 26 Today we finished the last of the 36 small 30m X 30m burns in the KLEE plots! I am thankful to all the students, Mpala Research Centre staff, and research colleagues. Asanteni! Here is a video of one of the burns. – Ryan Today in aiding with the burning, we collected data … Keep reading »

Friday Feb. 26 Today we got up early to burn and discovered that, as with most fieldwork, plans change. Our colleagues from Harvard were having trouble with some drone equipment they were using in the KLEE plots and we got started after giving them time to fix things up. We burned the ungrazed plots and … Keep reading »

This blog reports on the 2022 research trip to Kenya where I am collaborating with colleagues from various universities (UC Davis, Karatina University, and Utah State University) to implement prescribed burns inside the Kenya Longterm Exclosure Experiment (KLEE).  With me are 5 undergraduates from Goshen College who are assisting with the burning and they will … Keep reading »

Wednesday May 21st, 2014 After many hours of hard work, fun times, and great experiences, our journey together has reached it’s end. Today was the last day of class and it started out with some early morning studying. Our final exam was at 10:30 a.m. and the time for studying beforehand had been minimal. However, … Keep reading »

Tuesday May 20th, 2014 We woke up at 7:30 a.m. for our breakfast and after it we went to our various projects groups for data analysis. Tonight we shall be presenting our projects and so every group is rushing to complete their data analysis. At 10:00 a.m.  as other days we went for our tea … Keep reading »

Monday May 19th, 2014 Today was a day to work on our research projects, discuss readings, and perhaps most notably, to revisit the school in Lekiji (a pastoralist community located on a plot of land nearby to Mpala Ranch). Since our previous visit, ideas concerning ways in which we could help the school had been … Keep reading »