Hello! My name is Brianna Zapata. I graduated from University of California, Santa Cruz this past June. I have lived in Kenya since August 1st. What an adventure it has been! Getting to know the individual hyenas has brought such a sense of wonder into my life, leading me to have more questions about their behaviors and how it correlates to human behaviors.  My hobbies include reading, rock climbing, and anything to do with nature. Four days before embarking to Kenya I finished traveling across Costa Rica into Panama via bicycle. These past six months have taught me, even more so, the i ..read more

Greetings from Fisi camp! My name is Maya and I’m one of the newest research assistants for the Mara Hyena Project.  It’s been wonderful to be here and experience the Mara. During our daily observational sessions, we drive to each clan’s territory to find the hyenas and observe their behaviors. During these sessions we record hyena behaviors and the presence of any charming mongooses, or other predators, that we see along the way. It has also been great to get to know the guys here at Serena camp: Philimon Naiguran, Moses Naiguran, Stephen Kimoine, and David Nchoko. They’ve been guidin ..read more

  Jambo! My name is Kayla Fowler, and I’m here to tell you a little bit about the time I spent this past semester with the Mara Hyena Project. I always knew I wanted to work with animals. Living in Chicago meant frequent trips to Brookfield Zoo, and I would spend the entire day just watching the animals do what they do (sorry Mom and Dad – I know you probably didn’t want to spend an hour watching the zebras!). I grew to love and appreciate the animals, especially large mammals, and it became my dream to see these incredible species in the wild. In high school, I wanted to become more in ..read more

And that’s a wrap! As of last weekend, I’m back in the States for my first semester of classes as a PhD student. I officially joined the Holekamp lab earlier this summer and will hopefully return to the Mara in January for my first round of fieldwork. Until then, David, our latest Kenyan research assistant, will keep an eye on the Serena hyenas to make sure they keep their shenanigans to a minimum. As I embark on my new journey, I can’t help but to reflect on my time in the Mara this year. Although being the only researcher in Serena was challenging at times, I am eternally grateful for this e ..read more

Over the last month, Happy Zebra went from my least favorite clan to my most favorite clan. From meeting the new cubs, to figuring out the hierarchy changes, to determining who has gone missing/immigrated while I was gone, there is always something interesting happening during an obs session in Happy Zebra. Last week, I also finally found the second Happy Zebra communal den. Happy Zebra has traditionally had two different dens at the same time: a relatively busy den with most of the high and mid rankers and a slower den with low rankers. Funnily enough, the hyenas are currently at Lugga Den a ..read more

Out here, we have a lot of time to appreciate the little things in life... a hot, indoor shower after 3.5 months of cold showers, the first post-supply trip breakfast with avocado toast, eggs, sausages, AND cheese, the first mile on a paved road after off-roading through the Maasai Mara for months at a time... After over a year out here, I can guarantee you that I will never take a hot shower for granted again. After mainly focusing on the Big Five while my visitors were here, this week has been incredible for small predator sightings: Does a hyena cub count as a small predator? Probably not ..read more

Hi all, Because we are working so far away from home for up to 12 months at a time, Kay encourages us to have family visit while we are here. Not only does this help them understand what our work is like, but it’s also a very welcome taste of home for us (often quite literally as they generally bring over some of our favorite snacks!). Plus, they often bring over supplies crucial to our research that we can’t get in Kenya. While here, they get to go out on obs with us, meet all of our hyenas, and experience the challenges (and rewards!) of work in a field station. For example, although the rai ..read more

Hi all, Serena has been incredibly busy this month – the migration is slowly starting up, with the first batch of zebras starting to cross into the Triangle; my new coworker finally arrived to camp last week; and I have lots of visitors coming for the rest of the summer. Nonetheless, I wanted to share some exciting news with our devoted hyena followers: after ~4 months of extreme den hunting (rock fields, swamps, wallows, mud… you name it, I drove through it…), I finally found our Happy Zebra communal den!! So without further ado, please meet the current residents of Eyrie D2 (named in honor o ..read more

Hi all, The Mara has been truly wild lately – crocodiles at the den, puff adders in camp, and leopard sightings galore! And of course, lots of hyena drama ? CAPE (Capellini) and I had a little photoshoot last week. North Clan JARO and LIZ causing mischief at the den while there was no adult supervision. In my mind, North Clan has always been our “stable” clan – during my time out here, we’ve never truly “lost” their communal den and we see most of the Northies on a regular basis. After almost two years at their Airstrip den, however, they finally moved to a new communal den ..read more

Here at the hyena lab, we look forward to Michigan State University's Science Festival every year. We get to play around with skulls, talk about hyenas, and share our enthusiasm for research with the public. This year things looked a little different, as MSU had its first-ever virtual SciFest! At first we weren’t quite sure how we would recreate the feeling of an in-person booth through our computer screens, but graduate student Olivia Spagnuolo stepped up to make sure this year’s SciFest felt just as engaging from home. If you missed us at MSU SciFest, catch Olivia’s talk here on her Youtube ..read more