Like a lot of people, I'm always intrigued by the weirdos you encounter while on safari. I don't mean tourists dressed up all in pink or with three sets of binoculars hanging from their neck, though you certainly may observe such unusual specimens. I'm talking about wildlife sporting irregular appendages and individuals with no sense of symmetry.

The most common incidences are herbivores that have broken off one or more of their horns such as this old, old buffalo and this impala.

But every once in a while, you come across something a bit more odd, a genetic twist that leads to some disfigurement. We came across this elephant cow near the Mara river with a bizarrely twisted tusk. The elephant seems to be fairly healthy and has managed to reproduce. So whatever mutation caused the twist in her tusk may have been passed on to another generation.






Weirdest of all, however, was the fact that she was observed using her trunk to suck on her own teat! Has anyone seen that behavior before?

This is Matt. You usually find me blogging from Kiba Point down in the Selous Game Reserve, but this month I'm up in Lamai relief managing for Bas and Suzanne who are on a well-deserved vacation. It's great to spend some time up north at Lamai, especially now when all the mobile camps have moved south and we have the whole area, still teeming with resident game, virtually to ourselves. That said, my heart still lies in the Selous and at Kiba Point, with one exception; I cannot get over the office at Lamai.

One of the highest buildings on the kopje, the office has clear views of Kenya to the north, and great kopje habitat to the east and west. What follows is a collection of pictures that I took in 30 minutes yesterday morning.

First, to the north is the vista I see when I look up from my computer.

We also get some game running around the car park from time to time. One of the dwarf mongooses decided the dusty road actually made for a pretty soft spot to lie down and soak up the morning rays.

This one seemed to think we were hiding some tasty treats in the office and was getting ready to come right in.

Bas has written quite a bit about the the kopje's hyraxes who, just like the mongooses, like to warm up in the morning sun. This one spent five hours sprawled out on top of a boulder just out the east window.

We also have lots of Lion's Claw, a tall flowering plant, right around the office. It's pollinated by sunbirds, brilliantly-colored close relatives of hummingbirds. The kopje is full of Marico Sunbirds in particular. They are always perched or hovering around the Lion's Claw while they drink its nectar.

Best of all, we get them out both the East...

...and West windows.

A few other birds were hanging around this morning, including thisTawny-flanked Prinia.

Finally, I watched a European Spotted Flycatcher sally forth to catch some tasty insects.
 


By that point, the emails had started flooding in, but the work day isn't so bad when you have all of this to watch out the window.