The enigmatic Spotted Hyena - an experiment in developmental biology

This hyena was hanging around under the tree where the leopard had stashed his impala for safe keeping. Maybe the hyena will get lucky, should the impala fall?

A remarkable feature of Spotted Hyenas (but not Striped or Brown Hyenas; the Spotted Hyena is the only mammal known to sport such an anomaly!) is the elongated clitoris of females, roughly the size of the male's penis, through which she urinates, mates and gives birth! Check it out at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_hyena

According to Stephen Glickman, an integrative biologist at UC Berkeley, birth of a 3-pound hyena cub is a cringe-inducing process - imagine pushing a golf ball through a soda straw - makes the downside of the female hyena's strange anatomy abundantly clear (Greg Miller, Science, 319: pp. 722-723, February 8, 2008). Hyena moms typically have two cubs in a litter, and about 60% of cubs born to a first time mom are stillborn. Amazing!

A Nyala visits us in MalaMala Main Camp

No fence or other barricade means equal access for man and beast at the Main Camp.

Some of the birds seen in the MalaMala Game Reserve

The Yellow-billed Hornbill, aka "Flying Banana". During display calling pairs bow their heads and fan their wings.

The Pied Wagtail.

The White-fronted Bee-eater.

Giant Kingfisher.

Giant Kingfisher.

The Purple Roller. Their display flight involves spectacular aerial tumbling.

Tree Agama

Blue tailed skink

Blog update

In the meantime, enjoy a feisty humming bird we saw at the feeder in North Carolina. He very aggressively guarded the feeder, under assault from other humming birds.
Still not able to clean out the debris and ruined equipment from the lab fire on August 29. We have to get "approval" from the UF insurance officials before we can remove damaged equipment, etc. Slowly beginning to replace essential items, and continuing cell culture and experiments from colleague's labs.

If we don't find opportunity to post again from the Nepal expedition tomorrow, we will resume after returning on Oct.1 from a National Geographic safari to South Africa(We're outbound at 11:05 am, Friday morning).

Seen in the Chitwan Jungle, from atop an elephant

A Black Rhino


Another Black Rhino


A huge Python ahead!


Several peacocks in trees

Elephant safari into the Chitwan jungle

Having boarded our elephant we set out in search of Chitwan Jungle inhabitants, including Bengal tigers, black rhinos, pythons, and other assorted denizens, including spiders and ticks.

Eurasian Griffons feast on remains of buffalo carcass

Pigeonomics/pigeonology

Pigeons roost each evening at Hotel Vajra.
Prime single roosts (evidenced by droppings trajectories) are above and below windows.
Communal roosts (first come, first accommodated) are at a premium. Note that each are just outside a wing-beat from their neighbor, except an opening to the right, and an ongoing dispute to the left (blurred wing beating).

A "leaf" drops in for lunch

Lunchtime at Mike's Restaurant in Pokhara, Nepal


Sensing that the butterfly in disguise was after the salty, colorful catsup, Martha attracted the visitor to her finger.


She was right! You can see the catsup being sucked up into the proboscis. No doubt this "leaf" has dined on catsup at Mike's before.

This Rhesus Macaque (one of MANY), at the Swayambunath "monkey temple" has a commanding view of Kathmandu.