Meet the Students

Academic and Student News

The students have just finished 10 days of field research known as Directed Research (DR). During DR, students break up into three groups, each working closely with their professors on various research projects. The three projects for this semester were: studies on human and elephant damage to woody vegetation, GPS/GIS mapping of wildlife abundance and human development in Mbirikani group ranch (a dispersal area for Amboseli National Park), and interviewing local community members on their views of community conservation. Each group spent many hours battling the harsh elements of the field to collect their data, braving thorns, rain, and the notorious mud.

Despite the many challenges, the groups have finished data collection and are now entering into the next phase, data analysis. In the remaining two weeks, students must complete their research, write-up the results from their findings and lastly, present these findings to the community. For the community presentations, the Center for Wildlife Management Studies invites government officials, group ranch officials, and many other community members to come learn exactly what it is the students have been doing in their backyards. Students give a twenty minute presentation on their research and then field questions and receive feedback from our guests. Through informing the communities about our on-going research projects plays the vital role of keeping them involved and aware of wildlife conservation initiatives in the region. Eric Buthmann, Student Affairs Manager

Student Reflections

It has been a busy week here in Kenya. On Friday the 17^th, we started fieldwork for our Directed Research. For my group, this has entailed long days of walking in a nearby area; using a GPS unit to map Maasai bomas (homesteads), wildlife, and livestock. A welcome break came on Wednesday when we celebrated Thanksgiving, Kenya style. There was cooking and baking all day long culminating with a delicious late afternoon meal. Our student cooks brought many of their traditional recipes from home including amazing stuffing, scalloped potatoes, meat pies, cornbread, biscuits, mashed sweet potatoes, creamed corn, and melt-in-your-mouth cheesecake. Our turkey was cooked over a fire, protected under a tarp from the impending rain.

We also celebrated the day with a friendly volleyball tournament. The teams were made up of members from each banda, the cabins we share. The competing teams remained determined, playing rain and shine. After starting out with six teams, the final game came down to the two guy bandas. The guys of Panya banda (rat in Swahili) were proclaimed the winners after a close game against Duma banda (meaning cheetah). While the cooks and volleyball players were busy, some of the students, including myself, set about decorating the chumba with festive decorations. We made some signs and used latex gloves to make blow up turkeys. As we celebrated this day with our friends, we also remembered our friends and family at home and thought about how thankful we were to be here.

This week we are also celebrating student birthdays including Stacy, my bandamate, Rachel, and myself. I am looking forward to celebrating my 21^st birthday with everyone here and know that it will be a day to remember. Karen Klinger, University of Vermont

For the last two weeks we've been out in the field completing our hands-on research for DR. Our DR project has exposed us to the different livelihoods of our surrounding neighbors; we've been squishing around in the swamps of Isinet where most farming occurs and also visited traditional Maasai pastoral areas. It has been interesting to compare what we've learned on this area with what we experience in the field. Through our interviews and observations we've been able to actually get a feel for the traditional Maasai way of life of nomadic pastoralism and how the area's migrants are typically farmers that rent the land from the Maasai. And it's also been interesting to discover the locals' true feelings on conservation and to see with our own eyes how conservation isn't benefiting most of them and is actually inconveniencing them. At the last boma (Swahili for house) we visited, the men weren't there and we got to see how the women interact with each other and their children. The day before I had just written my friend a letter about how rough and different the mamas (women) are here. But then at this boma all the woman were laughing and joking around with each other while they were making beadwork, and the children were all around, some laying in there laps, and I saw many similarities. This one little boy and his sister were bugging each other just like me and my sister used to do. And then this older mama was playing with this little baby just like any grandma in the states would do. It was funny and ironic that after I had just made up my mind about the women here and how different they were, I witnessed the nicer, more real side of these mothers and became aware of the convergences of women from two different worlds. So, it was nice to see how they really interact and what their days are like, and the experience was a good conclusion to a day of fieldwork. Erica Eng, Santa Clara University

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