Another jammed-packed day at Moyo Hill Camp! First we had two classes this morning. The first was about primate ecology and the second was elephant ecology. In Kenya we spent a lot of time learning about large ungulates and plants so this was a nice change. Tomorrow we go to Lake Manyara National Park to observe baboon behavior for 2 hours. I have to admit I think it will take me awhile before I could say that I like baboons. They were a little too close for comfort at KBC and all of us were tired of poop in our sinks and our Tupperware getting stolen.  However, watching the babies play is pretty amazing.

Male yellow baboon that was following me one morning on the running track

This afternoon we drove to Lake Manyara National Park to get to look around. They have found in the past if they do not have a game drive just for fun first, the students aren't good at focusing on the assignments. 

But we were given a challenge for extra credit. If we could identify 20 bird species, we would get 1 extra credit point for Wildlife Ecology. Every single point in our classes is a percentage point so this was a big deal. Plus this was the first extra credit opportunity that we have been offered. So my car was very excited to get 20 birds as fast as possible. It turned out it was much harder than we expected. It didn't help that 1pm is not prime time for birds to be out. But it took us almost 4 hours to get just 20 species. There are supposedly 500 different species in the park, so 20 was not much to ask. But we saw some really beautiful birds and we did find 20 eventually, so it was definitely worth it!

Red and Yellow Barbet

Bee-eaters

Then I also got the chance to see (and take pictures) of some zeebs. So I was very happy. For some reason, I cannot get enough of zebras... I get excited every single time that I see them in the parks. They are as common as Illinos deer (or elk in RMNP) but I just love watching them graze and play.

Zeeb butt