After being delayed going up to Reteti due to the latest release, I took full advantage of my time in Nairobi to spend time with my family and go on new adventures. My Aunt Cynthia has been living in Kenya for 12+ years and has collected a menagerie of rescued animals including 12 dogs, 3 cats, tortoises, birds, and fish. I throughly enjoyed exploring her gardens everyday looking for the tortoises to bring extra food to. She has both hingeback and leopard tortoises that were once illegally removed from the wild to be kept as pets and then abandoned once their owners moved or were being mistreated. The oldest, who we lovingly call “Big Mama”, is well over 80 years old and has an old coin fused into her carapace where someone glued in there long ago. Others have had their shells painted in sports teams’ colors and then were attacked when the team lost, permanently damaging their shells. Tortoise shells are actually modified bone, composed of their ribs, spine, pelvis, and other bones. Shell trauma can cause severe damage or even be life threatening. Despite their storied pasts, my aunt’s garden is the perfect place for them to live out the rest of their lives, freely foraging on a plethora of plants, basking in the sun, going for walks, and “running” over to her for extra tasty snacks.
While in Nairobi I was able to meet with veterinarians from the Kenya Wildlife Service to go over my research and discuss current health records management. I also practiced my Kiswahili and purchased supplies for Samburu. I went to the West African Market for the first time and admired the beautiful beads and traditional art. I met with the director and head veterinarian of the KSPCA to discuss establishing an externship program for international veterinary students and offer ideas for what the program should entail.
One morning we got up early and took 7 of the dogs (Marley, Tana River, Luna, Nala, Roho, Prancer, and Zazu) up to Baridi Corner to hike the Ngong Hills. Made famous from the movie “Out of Africa” (“I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills” - Karen Blixen), the Ngong Hills are a series of 12 peaks that overlook Nairobi. The dogs loved running up and down the hills, playing in ponds, and digging up old spring hare burrows. We found evidence of Cape Buffaloes nearby at the start of the hike, but luckily we didn’t encounter any. We did spot a troop of baboons which sent the dogs into an excited frenzy. We carried lots of snacks and water with us on the hike, most of which went to the dogs. Towards the end of the hike we ran into a couple of Masai Moran (warriors) watching over their goats and sheep grazing on the hills. It took us just over 3 hours to hike all 12 hills and even the most rambunctious of the dogs were exhausted by the end.
Despite previously working at the Nairobi Animal Orphanage located at the main gate, I had never been inside Nairobi National Park. Established in 1946, the park is just 7km from Nairobi and fenced on 3 sides. The fourth side is meant to be open to allow animals to move between the park and the Kitengela Plains. However, recent development has made this passageway narrower and wildlife experts fear the park will become fragmented from other habitats. Animals will either be trapped in the park or face human-wildlife conflict by attempting to leave. Already incidences of HWC are on the rise, with lions leaving the park and killing dogs while I was in Nairobi.
My aunt and I spent a morning doing a mini safari, exploring the park from her 4X4. I got to practice my bush-driving skills, avoiding the more touristy parts. We spotted a crash of introduced Southern White Rhinos (the native Northern White Rhino is functionally extinct in the wild), lots of Masai giraffes, vervet monkeys, hippos, baboons, ostriches, and two elusive lions. I was pleasantly surprised to see many young Nile Crocodiles in different ponds and rivers throughout the park. On a guided walk to view the hippo pools, we were sadden to see so much trash on river banks, stuck in the bushes, and floating in the water. This spring Kenya experienced record amounts of rainfall, causes extreme flooding around the country. Many people in Kenya don’t have access to trash services as it is something you have to pay for. There is no where to put the garbage, so it ends up littering the streets and getting washed into the rivers during the rains. The recent flooding caused the large amounts of garbage and human waste to be washed into the park. This has negatively impacted the wildlife there, contaminating the waterways and causing crocodiles or other semi-aquatic predators to mistake the trash for prey. Our Askari (guard) said there have been talks of arranging a clean up, but it has not been planned yet. The lack of garbage services poses a real threat to One Health throughout Kenya.
We spent a few minutes watching an old bull buffalo amble down an isolated road. The poor guy got part of a bush stuck on his horn, but was managing just fine. It is wonderful to have a large national park so close to a capital city. However, careful management is necessary to ensure the park remains a haven for wildlife and it doesn’t become lost to development.
I loved getting to spend some unexpected time in Nairobi with my family and explore new areas. Next stop: Samburu!
I’m so happy the turtles have a safe and comfortable home to live in now.