Today was the second day of us in Nairobi. It was cloudy and chilly. We felt rested after a good night’s sleep. Myriad birds flew around at dawn, chirping happily. Bugs sit on leaves in the lush gardens, tranquil and indifferent.

Colorful beetle at Kolping conference centre

Along with warm smiles from Eucabath and Mia, we had delicious cassava, custom-cooked omelets and fried mushrooms at 8am, followed by some free time discussing on debate and article assignments.

Dr. Stephen Lougheed gave us an introductory lecture on Geology of East Africa. His lecture included several interesting topics inc including plate tectonics and its relation to species distributions, the importance of soils (edaphic factors), and the formation of rift valley. These discussions set a foundation for understanding some key contributions to the biodiversity of East Africa. The most astonishing aspect of the geology of East Africa, the Rift Valley, formed by divergence between plates, is that it produces unique habitats such as soda lakes. Species such as flamingos come to these areas to feed on the algae that contains beta-carotene, which gives them their pink plumage colour. We also briefly touched on species diversity, and estimating global species richness.

Chatting about the importance of geology

Lunch was delicious as always with noodles, rice, a vegetable dish, salad and fresh fruits. The afternoon was warmer with the sun coming out from behind the clouds. We had time to work our assignments (and play a little hackey sack!).

A GPS tutorial was given by Dr. Yuxiang Wang, with a preliminary geo-caching activity. It was a fun and straightforward exercise preparing us for the geo-caching in Mount Kenya.

Yuxiang and an GPS exercise

Carol, an ecologist from Kenya and our teaching coordinator for the course, kindly offered us an open discussion on a wide range of topics including social, political, cultural, economical, and environmental aspects of Kenya. The talk was incredibly informative and offered us a better understanding of the history of 42 Kenyan ethnic groups and the independence of Kenya. We also learnt that the educational, medical and political systems are very different from Canada with challenges in poverty and equity. Culture differences occur among ethnic groups. For instance, in contrast to other groups, Kikuyu grooms typically give a warm coat to the bride’s mother when they get married because he is taking the mother’s warmth.

Carol chatting about the peoples and history of Kenya

We finished off the day with yummy chicken, mashed potatoes, chili and chapati for dinner. We went to bed with the sounds of crickets and frogs to rest up for a super early morning tomorrow.

After four hours of sleep, our first morning in Nairobi began with a hearty breakfast prepared by the wonderful Bunduz staff before we piled into the truck, en route to the Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS). While waiting in Nairobi traffic—an experience in itself—we saw our mammalian wildlife, a troop of baboons!

Carol, our teaching coordinator, welcomed us at KWS and led us to a classroom where Lillian and Abby, two KWS staff, gave an excellent presentation on what the KWS does.  Wildlife is critical to Kenya—48% of the GDP in Kenya depends on wildlife tourism. The KWS oversees 8.20% of the 516,000 km-squared of Kenyan land, protected as national parks, reserves and sanctuaries. The KWS functions to conserve and manage their lands, provide security of wildlife and conservation enforcement, promote conservation via outreach, and regulate research conducted in the reserves and sanctuaries.

There are myriad issues complicating wildlife conservation, despite its central role in the Kenyan economy. Human-wildlife interactions claim one human life each day; poaching and bush meat hunting threaten wildlife populations; habitat fragmentation and degradation devastate land used by wildlife. Despite protection for wildlife within KWS land, 65% of Kenya’s wildlife lives outside these areas.

With these perspectives on conservation and challenges in mind, in the afternoon we headed to Nairobi National Park. At 117 km², this park is the largest in-city national park in the world. Through our 2-hour game drive, we saw beautiful large mammals and birds, identified and narrated by Alvin, our knowledgeable tour guide. Of note, we saw:

• -A warthog, or “pumba”, in Swahili. Alvin described it as “stupid and ugly”, what with its 30-second memory, but still captivated us as our first mammal siting.
• Two brother lions taking a nap before it was time to patrol their territory.
• A common ostrich with her young. Ostriches mate for life, and a momma can lay 10-20 eggs but only a fraction will survive.
• A superb starling, the most widely distributed bird in Kenya but still incredibly beautiful.
• A pair of Secretary birds, which also mate for life. Their legs are scale-covered for protection from snakes. Secretary bird pairs hunt as a couple.
• Several herds of impala and hartebeests. Thompson’s gazelles occasionally joined impala herds, likely because they strayed too far from their own herd and were in need of protection.
• Water buffalo surrounded by cattle egret, a bird that feeds on the ticks and other parasites afflicting the buffalo.
• A speedy cheetah as it ran across the road.

Today was only a glimpse of what will be to come in the following fortnight, not only in terms of beautiful species sightings, but with respect to beginning to understand the complicated narrative of Kenyan wildlife conservation.

We all gathered at Pearson International Airport by 2:00 pm and proceeded to check our bags and go through security. Wandered around Terminal 3 for food and beverages preparing for our flight to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, with a five hour layover, and then another flight to Nairobi. Fun! As Kenya is 7 hours ahead of Kingston,