Titles and abstracts of field projects completed by participants in the fall 2000 ACM Tanzania Program. These papers are not available for distribution.

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The Maasai of Northern Tanzania: Death Practices and Rituals. Danika B. Grandkoski, Ripon College.

The primary objective of this project is to study death practices and rituals of the Maasai, who reside in Northern Tanzania.  This study was conducted by interviewing Maasai living in and around the Endulen area of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA).  To understand death practices and rituals of the Maasai, it was essential to determine not only the practices but the influences as well.  This information includes finding out religious beliefs, age, sex, economic status, and environmental conditions in the village they were from.  The results of this study show that gender, age, and position within society influence Maasai death rituals and practices.

Surface survey of later stone age artifact density and distribution in the vicinity of Ichumbe Rock, a kopje in central Serengeti National Park, indicates selective human occupation of particular parts of the landscape, namely kopjes and riverine localities.  Preliminary artifact analysis suggests patterned differences in the array of activities undertaken at various locations around Ichumbe.  The suggested pattern generally consists of more extensive and diverse activity closer to the kopje and near the Nyamara River.  Artifact assemblages include a limited ceramic occurrence in the immediate vicinity of Ichumbe rock.  Non-local material comprises a large portion of the lithic assemblages, including small quantities of obsidian presumably imported from Kenya.  Quartz, which may have been procured locally - in nearby river bed for instance, is also well represented in the lithic assemblages.

This study analyzes the opinions and attitudes of the Maasai regarding the traditional and western medical practices within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA).  Direct interviews were conducted with approximately 200 Maasai men and women over the course of four weeks.  The Maasai draw a clear distinction between physical and spiritual illnesses.  Physical diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis are caused by contaminated are, water or food.  Only western medicines from hospitals and dispensaries can effectively treat these conditions.  Spiritual illnesses are the result of curses and are characterized by a variety of different symptoms.  These are cured only by herbal medicines from traditional medical specialists called loibons.

There is currently little information available on interspecific dominance order and the effects that humans have on wildlife at waterholes in Serengeti National Park.  The purpose of this study is to determine the dominance order of two Seronera area waterholes during the dry season; and to determine the effects that tourist vehicles have on the wildlife that visit the waterholes.  Wildlife and human interactions were observed and categorized for three weeks at the end of the dry season.  Animal behavior and interactions were analyzed against rainfall, waterhole volume, and the presence of automobiles.  No correlation was found between rainfall, or waterhole volume and animal visitation, or behavior.  Despite a limited supply of fresh water, only 3% of observed interactions were classified as aggressive.  Humans accounted for more interactions than all other species.  Humans were involved in over half of the interactions that resulted in one species leaving the waterhole.  Elephants and cheetahs were the species most effected by the presence of humans at waterholes.  Despite the presence of a diverse and abundant array of wildlife in the Seronera region of Serengeti National Park, this study suggests that the survivorship of the wildlife is uncertain if tourist traffic remains unmitigated.  Further study is needed to determine the relationship between the seasonal fluctuations of environmental conditions and the dominance order and wildlife interactions at waterholes.

The objective of this study is to determine whether the raw materials used by early hominids to create stone tools at Laetoli came from the local area or were transported from a distant source.  The local sources considered were the Ogol Lava Beds and the streambeds in the area.  Results indicate that Ogol Lava basalt is too porphyritic and vesicular to have been used as stone tool raw material, but suitable material can be found in the streambeds near the Laetoli localities. However, this material is not abundant and does not account for all rock types found in the tool assemblage. Hominids must have been traveling outside of the Laetoli area in order to acquire rock that was suitable for tool manufacture. 

October 2000 marked the second national multiparty election to be held in Tanzania. The focus of this study was to assess and characterize the group political identity of the Ngorongoro Maasai, and the gauge the manifestation of that identity through participation in the October election. The information for the study was gathered through individual interviews with 77 Ngorongoro Maasai residents, and group interviews involving upwards of 200 Ngorongoro Maasai residents. The results indicate that while the Ngorongoro Maasai are very inclined to participate in the electoral process on a personal level, as a group they possess only a nascent stage of group political concerns, and do not possess a full understanding of the multiparty political process. The group political identity was not expressed in the electoral participation, despite the strong individual voter participation of the Ngorongoro Maasai. 

The objective of this study is to reconstruct the paleoenvironment of Laetoli 3.5 million years ago using the Upper Laetoli Beds. This was accomplished through habitat analogy and taphonomic analyses of fossil fauna. Our excavation yielded bones of giraffe, zebra, rhinoceros. Topi and oribi. Based on the particular ecological requirements of each of these species we were able to interpret the paleoenvironment of the Laetoli area. Taphonomic analysis included studying weathering stages, surface modifications and the surface conditions of the bones. 

The results of this study agree with Musiba's (1999) model and indicate that a mosaic-type environment characterized Laetoli's Pilocence paleoenvironment. This environment would have had areas of open grassland as well as areas of thicket and scattered trees. Certain species represented by the bones indicate that this environment had either a reliable water source or a distinct rainy season to provide water and green grass. 

The objective of this study is to determine the Pliocene paleoenvronment of Laetoli. This was accomplished through the analysis of large animal fossil remains. After four weeks of excavation during the October -December 200 field season more than fifty fossil specimens were recovered (fragment and large bones). Of these fifty or more fossilized remains, four families could be identified. The habits and niches of extant species from these families were used to reconstruct the paleoenvironment. After completing the analysis of the fossils and their counterparts, ti was determined that the paleoenvironment at Laetoli was most likely a patchwork of savannas, woodlands, and bush. It was also determined that Laetoli would have had one or more permanent water sources because of the presence of certain water-dependent animals

Over a period of four weeks in October and November, 2000, I conducted a taphonomic study examining the weathering stages of bones in five different microenvironments in Laetoli, northern Tanzania. The objectives of this study are to observe how watering stages vary in different microenvironments and to provide a data based for future studies of microenvironments. The five microenviroments studied were open grasslands, wooded grassland, open woodland, gully, and riverine forest. Transects of varying size were established in each microenviroment. Bones found in each transect were measured and the skeletal element, taxon, and weathering stage of each bone was determined. Surface modifications such as tooth marks or cut marks were also noted. Each bone's location relative to a transect corners or fixed point. I found that int the open grassland, open woodland and gully microenvironments a high percentage of the bones were in weathering stages 3 or above, while in the riverine forest and wooded grassland mircoenviroment most bones were in stage 0 or stage. This indicates that bones in open grassland, open woodland, and gully microenvironments tend to reach a higher weathering stage before burial than do bones in riverine forest and wooded grassland microenvironments. 

Anthrax is a disease, primarily of livestock and wildlife, caused by the grampositive, spore-forming bacteria Bacillus anthracis. Although, having been studied intensely for many years the ecological importance of this bacteria and the disease that it produces is relatively unknown. Anthrax has specific ecological importance in Serengeti National Park (SNP) because of the proximity of other susceptible species including humans. It can be hypothesized that three is a correlation between relative elevation and presence of B. anthracis, another suggests correlation between vegetation cover and presence of the bacteria in SNP and Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA). In order to test these hypotheses, samples of skin and bone from carcasses, as well as blood where available, were collected and tested for the presence of B. anthracis. Also, soil samples were taken from areas where other samples were gathered and from known areas of recent outbreaks in order to get an idea of how wide spread this bacteria is. Results of  this study show no significant correlations to a lack of completed comparison samples. Regardless, there is a trend based on the completed samples suggesting that the bacteria is becoming endemic to Northern Tanzania. It can be concluded that efforts to eliminate anthrax from the Serengeti ecosystems are epidemiology of the disease. In many ways anthrax is acting as a predator, keeping population sizes in check and enforcing the ecosystems carrying capacities.

Previous studies have established that the whistling thorn acaia (A. Drepanolobium) of Eastern Africa is typically colonized by the ant species Crematogaster. These ants feed off of extrafloral nectaries (EFNs) on the acacia's leaves and in turn protect the trees from herbivorous insects. Hte objective of the this study is to determine how this mutualistic relationship is affected by fire, which is a common antropogenic threat in this environment. It is hypothesized that fire would impair leafy growth thus reducing EFN secretion, which the ants depend on. Consequently the strength of the mutualism between the two organisms may be reduced, impairing the success of both. 

To determine if this is true, two burned and unburned transects were isolated in Serengeti National Park Tanzania fro research of ant activity and leafy growth (n=20 trees/transect). An ordinal ranking system was employed (range =0-4) to quantify these variables for the top, middle and bottom 1/3 of each tree's branch structure. Analysis for this data was unable to reveal a significant difference in the means of ant activity of leafy growth due to high levels of variance within each sample (Stdev 1.3) Moreover, the variance in ant activity could be correlated to that of leafy growth (r^2=0.48&0.53) This however may due to the low fire line within the selected burned transects. Within these transects the fire was mostly localized to the surface and thus had little affects on the leaves. Consequently it would be expected that ants activity is not impaired. 

The objective of this research is to examine the niche differentiation in sympatric bush hyraxes (Heterohyrax brucei) and rock hyraxes (Procavia johnstoni).  This was accomplished through an analysis of foraging patterns during the dry season.  Specifically, I compared the overall usage of vegetation types and the vertical distribution of browse activity of five populations of hyraxes.  The bush hyrax and rock hyrax inhabit many of the kopjes of Serengeti National Park.  These two species often live together on the same kopje and use many of the same resources, thereby occupying similar niches.  The application of the competitive exclusion principle to bush and rock hyraxes suggests that there must be niche differentiation to minimize interspecific competition. 

In accordance with previous research results, the observations from this study show the foraging patterns of bush and rock hyraxes are different. H. brucei tends to forage on leaves from bush and trees, and P. johnstoni consumes both grass and leaves.  In addition, qualitative observations supported differential use of bush and tree resources by H. brucei and P. johnstoni, although these differences are not statistically significant.  Variations in these patterns by hyrax age and study site suggest there are several factors affecting foraging patterns, including the available vegetation and the species ratio of the population. 

This study examines the relation of population dynamics and diversity to environment.  Four study sites were observed around the Seronera area of Serengeti National Park.  Number of flowering plants, diversity and density of vegetation, grass density and water resources of each habitat were recorded.  This was analyzed in conjunction with population size and species counts of butterflies  (order Lepidoptera).  The site with the most diverse and dense vegetation showed the highest population.  The site with the most flowers showed the highest diversity.  Number and proximity of water sources did not seem to correspond to either population size or diversity. 

This research examines the avian communities of kopjes in Serengeti National Park in northern Tanzania.  The primary objectives are to determine the absolute and relative abundances of bird species at eight kopjes in the Seronera and southeastern plains regions of the park, observe how birds use kopje microhabitats, and examine the effects of habitat variables on the avian communities of the study sites.  Both Timed Species Counts and ad libitum sampling were employed for counting birds on kopjes and in the surrounding habitat matrix.  105 bird species were observed on the eight primary kopjes, ranging in abundance from only being seen in one count to being seen in all 48 counts.  Contrary to the findings of many previous studies, there is no significant relationship between vegetation structure and avian diversity.  However, species richness is influenced by the total area of each kopje that was covered by vegetation higher than 5 m.  Though many species were present on kopjes and in their respective habitat matrixes, the avian communities of kopjes were distinctive in several ways from those of the surrounding environment.  Since neither kopjes nor birds have been intensively studied in Serengeti National Park, this research provides information that complements the existing body of knowledge of these subjects and may have implications for future management decisions regarding human development on kopjes. 

The Maasai of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area have a culture rich in tradition yet since the expulsion from the Western Serengeti western influences have been making small but lasting impressions upon the Maasai population.

Updated 5/25/07