Mombasa is a popular tourist destination along the Kenyan coast. It looked and felt unlike any of the other cities we had visited. Here Arabian architecture echoes the historic inter-cultural fusion of peoples that took place in Kenya.
Tiwi beach was an angelic place to enjoy the last few days of our journey. We set up our tents right on the sand. Falling asleep to the waves crashing in the Indian Ocean felt like a vacation paradise.
Unfortunately it was not all relaxation. Reaching Mombasa meant that we would soon be taking the final and presenting and handing in our papers. Through perseverance and lots of helpful advice, it all came together in the end. I felt releived because it would have been a disappointment to have traveled all the way to Kenya, gone through the lectures and field lessons and then not have been able to write about something that would reflect what I love to think about. That's just not what I'm about.
I knew I was interested in the ecology of habitat change and degradation, as it affects primates (this was
primatology field school after all). Along the way I realized that there was a greater ecological phenomena in what I was looking at, i.e., the capacity of primates to control and/or disperse invasive plant species by means of their foraging behavior. It was relevant to conservation, too, because let's say a scientific study can demonstrate that a species of primate is a natural biological control for invasive plant species in its habitat, that primate would be considered a keystone species and therefore would be much more likely to be granted legal protection.
Above all, evolution is what puts all of these ideas into context and explains why my research matters to the future.
On the bright side, this was where we took the final!
Then we went out to 40 Thieves cyber cafe and beach bar to celebrate
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