Africam

I've talked about Africam before over at The Art and Science of Parenting. As part of our zoo studies, we have been watching Africam for the past few hours. Kira and I sat up until midnight watching the sunrise at the Nkorho water hole. Unfortunately, we only saw a few birds last night. Today we have been a slight bit luckier. Right now there is a night safari group in the camera's range. The group has been busy taking pictures of some sort of large cat - probably a lion - that is barely visible to the camera. The light from the safari group keeps glaring so all we can see is the outline of the cat. The way it is laying in the grass, though, leads me to believe that it is most likely a lioness or bachelor lion. Kira and I are both hoping the lion will venture to the water's edge where the camera can get a good look.

Night has descended swiftly upon the plains, as is common in Africa. There is little transition between night and day. Unless the animals come closer to the water's edge where the infrared light can illuminate them, we will simply have to be content with their sounds. I can actually hear a slight bit of rumbling that sounds like it might be from a lion. It isn't exactly a roar - just chatter.

Africam is such a cool website and resource. I discovered it some years ago when Angel was finishing the 9th grade and embarking on her home school journey. We spent many nights sitting up (sprawled on the couch...) watching the goings on at the watering hole. We were both somewhat obsessed with the camera that watched over the African Plains. We wondered every day what beasts might present themselves for our viewing.

Now, Kira is becoming just as captivated with the camera over in Africa. She sits for extended lengths of time just watching the screen and chatting with me about what we might or might not see. It took a while for me to get her to understand that the camera was watching something that was going on right this moment. After all, the time there is not the same as it is here. Sunrise there finds us cloaked in darkness of night. Sunset there finds us in the midst of our day. It's a difficult concept for a child to comprehend. She's learning, though.