I just got two emails from Amboseli this morning and wanted to share the news with you, I thought particularly Nico would be interested.
"It has been wet, and the lake is back. Lots of birds, even the flamingoes are back! The fields are green with lots of grass and vegetation. The elephants are many and they no longer have to come and break the fence since they have more than enough food. It is looking beautiful, and from the air when you fly you might not see the runway as it looks flooded, though the runway is fine."
From the elephant researchers, "we have had a crazy time with the elephants who are too many in the park because of the heavy rains that we got, though it is good for them since they have a lot to eat. We go to the field very early in the morning before families join together which normally makes our life very difficult because we cannot do a census, take ID photos, etc. (meaning when there are several hundred in a group - they need do do this with smaller family groups). It is very hard to know who is prsent and what they will do after maybe one silly young male scares the whole group - then they all panic and start running like crazy. It is so good to see them all happy."
"We think 1/3 of the park is under water so you can imagine how the situation is. The road to Oloitokitok was almost cut off and tour vehicles could not make it to Tsavo via Amboseli, the only road that was good is from Namanga to Amboseli. We have lots of water and lots of mosquitoes."
It will be so interesting for me to see this next week. The flamigoes I saw only in January of 2001. The rest of the time they were in Magadi or Nakuru.
What interests me about the above notes is that the Tsavo elephants disperse during/
after rains because they don't feel the need to stay close to the waterhole. Yet the Amboseli elephants are still coming to the swamps for water, despite the fact that there is water everywhere. Very intersting. Will try to find out from the experts what creates this difference.
