A Park is a Park is a Park … Or is it?

Picture A:  For the purposes of this post, I am withholding captions until the end.  A key is posted at the bottom of the post.

 

Growing up, my idea of what a garden looked like was fairly narrow.  There were really only two possibilities.  One genre was expressed in the form of my father’s and grandfather’s vegetable gardens, which were rows of edible potential – the list of acceptable vegetables was quite narrow now that I think of it.  Think of an illustration from Beatrix Potter’s  Peter Rabbit.  Cucumbers, cabbages, zucchini, beans were all common.  The thought of rhubarb, carrots, or melon while acceptably within the confines of a typical garden, were also extravagant.  Quite exotic and exciting. 
 

 

Picture B

The other genre was well displayed in my mother’s flower beds.  These were spaces on the edge of a lawn which were edge-to-edge color during certain seasons, and a strange array of greens and leaves during others.  The population of these flower gardens was far more diverse than the vegetable gardens.  Each year my mother would go to gardening centers, farms and other odd places to bring home something brightly colored with an appropriate seasonal match to what was already living in her garden space.  Inevitably she would have a mix of perfectly matching flowers and whatever was on sale that week.  In some cases whatever she had discovered in conversation or neighborly visits to other flower gardeners.  Thus the small gardens would be so choked full of plants and flowers that the weeds barely stood a chance.  At least, this is how it all seemed through the eyes of a 10 year old growing up in a place with an extremely limited growing season.  The mere thought that there are places in the world where you could plant corn more than once during a single season would have blown my mind!

 

Picture C

 

 

As I grew, and traveled more I learned that these definitions of “garden” were clearly not the only options.  In high school I visited Versailles and was excited to see vast French gardens, only to be horribly disappointed because … it's all dirt!  The idea that gardens, public or otherwise, would leave huge sections of their land exposed as a choice and a contrast to highlight the careful shaping of planted bushes and tress was both shocking and ugly to my undeveloped eye.  I still prefer a more filled garden to a sparse decoration of shapes and design, but there is beauty to be had in either setting. 

 

 

Picture D

 

 

On occasion though it still strikes me just how similar some gardens can be.  On a bright sunny day recently I sat in Boston’s Public Garden only to be struck by how similar that place was to Hyde Park in London.  The more I thought about it, the more it also reminded me of the small park in my home town, which despite the extraordinary differences in public funding, had similar ambience and a striking feeling of home. 

 

 

Picture E

Throughout this post I’ve sprinkled a picture or two of gardens, parks, and a few other locations that elicit a similar feel.  Although some of these places are so remarkably different that it would be like comparing apples and orangutans, they are also so similar that a jet-lagged traveler may, for a moment, forget where she is. 

Picture F

 

 

Picture G

Picture H

 

 

 

 

A:  Public Garden, Boston, USA; B:  Hyde Park, London, England; C:  Safari Walk, Nairobi, Kenya; D:  Central Square, Taboshar, Tajikistan; E:  The Road to Kara-Sakal, Tajikistan; F:  Hyde Park, London, England; G:  Khujand, Tajikistan; H:  Lincoln Park, Chicago, USA

 

Just to lighten things up a bit:

Warthogs!!!

(it's an older picture from Tsavo West, but still fun)

Simba! Simba Sita!!!!

I contemplated just posting that.  The picture with a caption “Six Lions!”, but Saturday deserves more than that.  A group from the research center that I’m sort of informally attached to (my professor runs it, but for this project I’m just a visitor and work more closely with the hospital); we went to Tsavo West National Park on Saturday and despite the density of wildlife being fairly low we saw quite a range of animals.   The goal of the trip was actually to see a lion and a rhino, but I’ll take 6 lions, and save rhinos, crocodiles, and wildebeest for another day. 

These lions seem to be particularly important because they are famous.  These are the Maneating Lions of Tsavo.  Well, not these lions specifically, but there is a possibility that these lions are related to the ones that were man eaters.  The story goes that in the 1800s when the british were building the railroad from Mombasa on the coast to the fertile pastures of the northeast where most of the Europeans settled, they “had to” build their railroad right through Lion country.  I put “had to” in quotations because I am a little skeptical of how necessary it was, although I will give them the benefit of the doubt and try to remember that Lions were not inhabitants of a park at that point, but wandering wherever the heck they liked, so avoiding Lions would not be so easy as it is today.  Anyway, as they were building this railroad, they got to Voi, and one night there was a Lion attack.  A person was killed and carried off by the Lions.  The railroad workers put up their guard and stood watch, but after a while nothing happened and they stopped keeping watch. …. aaaand another person would be carried off in the middle of the night.  Somewhere along the way I got confused, but apparently whichever side they say the Lions are from is actually where the railroad workers’ camp was, and the Lions were from the opposite side.  Tsavo park has been divided by both the railroad and a major road, so those Lions are now either Tsavo East or Tsavo West Lions.  Anywho, apparently these attacks carried on for a few years before someone finally decided to put in a concerted effort, protect themselves and take down the Lions.

Moral of the story:  The Maneaters of Tsavo were actually two very specific rogue Lions who had been kicked out of their pride.  They were killing and eating people not because it is in their nature, or human is a preferred prey but because rogue lions, who are male, have little hunting experience, and much of their prey are large and fight back, so they are too dangerous for a single Lion to attempt to take down, whether the prey is young, sick, alone, or not.  So these two rogue Lions were finding the easiest meals they could, fighting to survive.  It’s true, I feel a little bad for the Lions who were demonized, and the fact that they gave the rest of the Tsavo Lions a bad rap.  Point is – this is not typical Lion behavior …. But this is!!!:

It should be mentioned that there are other animals in the park as well.  Dic dics are among my favorites.  They’re cute little miniature deer, with very different lifestyles.  So start by picturing miniature deer, then go one size smaller.  That’s the size of a deer-like creature that exist here, but it’s still not small enough, go one size smaller to the size of a large beagle … THAT’s the size of a dic dic.

Supposedly they are called dic dics because they always travel in pairs.  If you see one, there’s always a second one around.  That was true when I went to Tsavo East, but as the guide explained Saturday, dic dics are also extremely loyal.  The two dic dics are not only travel buddies, but mates (in biological, not British English for friends).  If one mate dies, the other will never take another mate.  This of course was followed up by a long string of jokes about dic dics sacrificing themselves to the lions because they’re so distraught over the loss of the first of the pair, that life just isn’t worth living.  I don’t remember seeing any lone dic dics, but we did find more than one triplet, one of the three being offspring … which makes me wonder, how are they paired off?  Is this an arranged set-up, or is the young one simply kicked out to track down their life partner?  While they aren’t ever alone, you also rarely see pairs running next to or with other pairs.  Hmmmm. 

Aside from this there were hippos, elephants, giraffe, a pregnant giraffe – which was apparently ready to give birth at any second … we waited but apparently it needed more time, so we moved on, hornbills (think Zazu from the Lion King, only black and white … Zazu’s blue right?), ostrich, cox hart beasts, baboons, monkeys, lions… LIONS!, a puff adder, river rats, zebra, water buffalo, water bucks, impala, Kudu, a leopard – okay, I only saw the back half of the same leopard twice but since leopards are super rare to spot at all I’m counting it, rainbow fish, squirrels, warthogs, and perhaps some other animals that I’m forgetting, and a goat. 

               The goat was extra special … not because it was a particularly different goat from your average run of the mill goat, but because we slaughtered it and grilled it for dinner.  Barbequing seems to be a constant staple in most cultures for which I am very pleased.  After a long day of driving through the park and checking out almost every living creature in our path, we sat down to a great meal, shared with some of the local rangers (they cooked for us while we were driving around.  They’re so sweet!), and our guide, who used to work for Kenyan Wildlife Service as well.  I’m grateful to the group for including me, to my professor for organizing, suggesting, and subsidizing, and to the goat … someone should thank the goat.

On another note, this trip has made me sort of marvel at the fact that I have never really considered working with animals as a career.  I stumbled upon being a part time veterinary assistant and boarding tech for a summer, but have never thought that animals would be a part of my long term professional life.  Strange, cause I love the crazy things.  Anywho, hope you enjoy the pictures if I can get them to load :)

Love from Africa:  Rachel.