Hello all! It’s been a good week at Soysambu, and I’m finally starting to get somewhere on my giraffe project. It feels so good to feel productive! We’ve been out several days now, and I’ve been able to identify several new giraffe, including an adorable baby one that’s just a few months old. We’ve also seen about 8 colobus monkeys. 14 were translocated here a few years ago, and we need to find out if their population is stable. There’s also a possiblity that they are being poached by the locals to sell to the Asian market, where colobus monkeys, like most endangered animals, are considered valuable medicines.
Tomorrow hopefully going to go out to do a habitat assessment of the acacia forest on the lakeshore. The giraffe are stripping the bark of the yellow fever acacia trees, which is killing a lot of trees. We’re going to assess the extent of the damage, in order to get an idea as to if there are too many giraffe on the Conservancy. My friend Kendall leaves on Saturday, so that is going to be quite sad. That also means I’ve only got about 2 weeks left in Kenya! My how time flies.
Hope you all are enjoying the summer!
–Shalynn 
By: Sharon Schladow on September 21, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Hi – I am a college admissions counselor who works with high school students going through the college admissions process. I am also the wife of a UCDavis professor. I really enjoy your blog. I am currently working with a student who is very keen to study Giraffes in their native habitat and will be applying to Oregon State. Are you a grad student at OSU? In what department? She would enjoy emailing you I am sure. If you are interested my email address is collegepath@gmail.com.