Monday, January 26, 2015

SOUNDS OF KENYA: Lions and vervets and calls, OH MY!

One of our concerns in using our stuffed lions on hyenas, is whether they will “take the bait.”  Are the stuffed lions real enough to fool them into behaving as they would in response to a real lion?  The jury is still out on the hyenas being fooled, but a couple of weeks ago, we inadvertently tested out another species:  The vervet monkey.

This is as majestic as vervets are capable looking.


In the process of unloading the lions from the back of the truck and putting them away in their tent (yes, the lions have their own tent), a single male vervet got a good look and immediately started alarm calling.  Keep in mind, we were carrying the lions at this time.  One would think that might clue the vervet in, but he continued to alarm call until we got both lions safely locked away into their tent with all of the windows closed.  Luckily, this gave me a great opportunity to get in close and get a good recording:

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