Samburu Monkeys

Category: Endangered Wildlife | Date: Sep 28 2007 | By: admin

As I promised you in my last post, there are many fascinating stories of my adventure in Samburu that I want to share with you, some of which don’t touch on primates. Let me start with this one of a buffalo stuck in a pit that we tried to rescue last December.


Buffaloes are known to relish wallowing in mud as a way of cooling from the sweltering heat of the savannah and to controls ticks and biting insects. But this buffalo in Mathews Range Forest Reserve was in for a surprise when the would-be wallowing pool turned out to be an 8 feet pit in the ground.

My research team found the buffalo in this predicament and tried to rescue it, though using only bear our bear hands and sticks as there were no other appropriate tools. Though we had little progress in our search for primates that day, we felt like heroes that night, having rescued a half ton beast.

However, our celebration was short-lived as the next morning we found the beast dead. The cause of death was most likely arising from the injuries sustained in the fall and probably pneumonia caused by spending several days in the cold pit in the cold tropical forest of Mathews range.

However, my adventure is not all about stories sad endings. Look out for upcoming posts.
Mwenja