Surrounded by KWS crew as I eat breakfast. Guns propped against chairs as they eat, one guy has his upright between his legs, barrel pointed as his cheek while he eats his toast.

In field, ants still sparse, so compare notes on US vs Kenyan marriage, religion, dancing. He mentions that “most people marry within 2 months, if you don’t another guy will come in and steal your girl.” Women usually marry by 20-22, men 24-27. Most folks in the area are Catholic, whose hour long church service is preferred to the traditional 8a-2p service. We both note how people have left the Catholic church after learning or watching church heads lose their desirability as role models. His village has traditional music with drums and guitar. He says that most children are not learning the songs because they feel it’s old fashioned and they want to be modern.

Find out that the fire wasn’t on Mpala, but on a neighboring ranch. Took most of the day to put out the fire started by some folks trying to smoke out some bees to harvest the honey.

At lunch I learn that the wild dogs were hunting around station last night. They make a “who-who!” call when one is separated from the pack and wants to locate its buddies. When friend was walking her dog in the morn, saw a bunch of tracks on the road by the station.

Organize data, shot off an email about some new ideas on a related project. Hear back and project manager is excited about the possibilities. Perhaps can get another project cooking out here.

Wild dog researchers had tracked the dogs during the day, and they were resting about two km from the station. So we grab some wine and have our sundowners watching the Wild dogs. The dogs rest all day in shade, then around sunset get riled up and start playing with each other, before they go off to hunt together during the night. We hope to see them playing with eat other, but they rest until after sundown. What we did see were two Spotted hyenas resting with the pack of Wild dogs. It was absolutely incredible how close we could get to them. The few times the researchers have seen the Wild dogs hunt they have spotted a hyena nearby; likely the hyenas scavenge the dogs’ kill, but uncertain. On drive to station, catch a giraffe in the remaining daylight. Once back at the station, we hear something rustle in the grass as we walk to dinner, and spy a hedgehog!