Day 6 cont
Professor Abraham
After we were done with the aardwolves, the students expected that we were heading back to.the camp but we have a lot on our plate and the time frame is also closing in on us, not to talk there are a lot of places left for us to visit.
After I had made the announcement, they all started complaining but could you blame them, they had a whole day to rest yesterday and now, they have become lazy.
They also seem to have forgotten the fact that we are all going to trek to our destination, unless where cars were cars were necessary.
So, we decided to give them a thirty minutes break at most before heading to our next destination.
I pull out my radio and connected to the one I left at camp with Lily.
It's been long and I haven't asked her as to how Nina is doing now.
I just hope she gets well soon.
Her sickness is making me feel all guilty, that I didn't do enough to protect her.
After it has connected, she was the first to speak.
"I was actually thinking of calling you right now" she says.
"What, did something happen?" I ask, feeling scared.
"Yes sir, she just woke up not long ago" she answers. 
I let out a sigh of relief as I seat down. I really did thought that something bad has happened to her.
"Has she had any food yet?" I ask.
"No" she answers.
Well, she just told me that she woke up not long ago, I'm sure she'll give her something later.
"Please take good care of her, we'll be back soon" I say.
"Don't you worry, she is in good hands, I'll take care of her till you guys are back" she says.
And I do trust she will.
"Ok, we are leaving now, I'll check in later to see how she's doing" I say.
And with that, I end the call. I justed can't believe that thirty minutes have passed like breeze, it was like I haven't even rested a bit.
With that,we moved on to the next site up it was towards the camp and we are planning to end for today after this site.
As we were walking, we saw the animals that we were looking for, the warthogs.
I was supposed to to the one to give them the lectures but I feel rather tired and my voice has also become hoarse and so, my assistant offered to fill in for me which I gladly accepted.
"Ok everyone, I need your utmost attention so that we can wrap this up quick" she says, grabbing the students attention.
"Ok, lets begin" she says.
"The common warthog Phacochoerus africanus is a wild member of the pig family Suidae found in grassland, savanna, and woodland in sub-Saharan Africa" she starts. 
"In the past, it was commonly treated as a subspecies of P. aethiopicus, but today that scientific name is restricted to the desert warthog of northern Kenya, Somalia, and eastern Ethiopia" I say.
"So, in essence, we are talking about the former now since we are in the southern part of Kenya, right?" she says.
"The common warthog is a medium-sized species, with a head and body length ranging from 0.9 to 1.5 metres, and shoulder height from 63.5 to 85 cm and Females, at 45 to 75 kilograms, are typically slightly smaller and lighter in weight than males, at 60 to 150 kg" she says. 
"A warthog is identifiable by the two pairs of tusks protruding from the mouth and curving upwards and the lower pair, which is far shorter than the upper pair, becomes razor-sharp by rubbing against the upper pair every time the mouth is opened and closed while the upper canine teeth can grow to 25.5 cm long and have a wide elliptical cross section, being about 4.5 cm deep and 2.5 cm wide" she says.
"A tusk will curve 90° or more from the root, and will not lie flat on a table, as it curves somewhat backwards as it grows and the tusks are not used for digging, but are used for combat with other hogs, and in defense against predators while the lower set can inflict severe wounds" she continues.
"Common warthog ivory is taken from the constantly growing canine teeth and the tusks, particularly the upper set, work in much the same way as elephant tusks with all designs scaled down, tusks are carved predominantly for the tourist trade in east and southern Africa" she says.
"The head of the common warthog is large, with a mane down the spine to the middle of the back, a sparse hair covers the body and its color is usually black or brown and it's Tail is long and end with a tuft of hair" she says. 
"Common warthogs do not have subcutaneous fat and the coat is sparse, making them susceptible to extreme environmental temperatures" she added.
"The common warthog is the only pig species that has adapted to grazing and savanna habitats and Its diet is omnivorous, composed of grasses, roots, berries and other fruits, bark, fungi, insects, eggs and carrion, the diet is seasonably variable, depending on availability of different food items" she says.
"During the wet seasons, warthogs graze on short perennial grasses while during the dry seasons, they subsist on bulbs, rhizomes, and nutritious roots" she added.
"Warthogs are powerful diggers, using both their snouts and feet and when feeding, they often bend their front feet backwards and move around on the wrists and they have calloused pads that protect the wrists during such movement which form quite early in the development of the fetus" she says.
"Although they can dig their own burrows, they commonly occupy abandoned burrows of aardvarks and other animals and the common warthog commonly reverses into burrows, with its head facing the opening and ready to burst out if necessary" she says.
"Common warthogs will wallow in mud to cope with high temperatures and huddle together to cope with low temperatures" she adds.
"Although capable of fighting, as males aggressively fight each other during mating season, the common warthog's primary defense is to flee by means of fast sprinting and when threatened, Warthogs can run speeds of up to 48 km/h, will run with their tails sticking up and will enter their dens rear first with tusks facing out" she says.
"The common warthog's main predators are humans, lions, leopards, cheetahs, crocodiles, wild dogs and hyenas and birds of prey such as Verreaux's eagle owls and martial eagles sometimes prey on piglets as well" she says. 
"However, if a female common warthog has any piglets, she will defend them very aggressively and on occasion, common warthogs have been observed charging and even wounding large predators, common warthogs have also been observed allowing banded mongooses and vervet monkeys to groom them to remove ticks" she says.
"Common warthogs are not territorial, but instead occupy a home range and they live in groups called sounders" she says. 
"Females live in sounders with their young and with other females and females tend to stay in their natal groups, while males leave, but stay within the home range and Sub adult males associate in bachelor groups, but live alone when they become adults" she says.
"Adult males only join sounders with estrous females" she adds.
"Warthogs have two facial glands, the tusk gland and the sebaceous gland and common warthogs of both sexes begin to mark around six to seven months old" she continues. 
"Males tend to mark more than females, as they mark sleeping and feeding areas and waterholes" she says.
"Common warthogs use tusk marking for courtship, for antagonistic behaviors, and to establish status' she added.
"Common warthogs are seasonal breeders and rutting begins in the late rainy or early dry season and birthing begins near the start of the following rainy season" she says. 
"The mating system is described as 'overlap promiscuity' and the males have ranges overlapping several female ranges, and the daily behavior of the female is unpredictable and boars employ two mating strategies during the rut" she says. 
"With the 'staying tactic', a boar will stay and defend certain females or a resource valuable to them while in the 'roaming tactic', boars seek out estrous sows and compete for them, boars will wait for sows to emerge outside their burrows" she says. 
"A dominant boar will displace any other boar that also tries to court his female and when a sow leaves her den, the boar will try to demonstrate his dominance and then follow her before copulation" she says.
"For the 'staying tactic', monogamy, female-defense polygyny, or resource-defense polygyny is promoted, while the 'roaming tactic' promotes scramble-competition polygyny" she added.
"The typical gestation period is five to six months and when they are about to give birth, sows temporarily leave their families to farrow in a separate hole and the litter is 2 to 8 piglets, with 2 to 4 typical" she says. 
"The sow will stay in the hole for several weeks, nursing her piglets, a common warthog sows have been observed to nurse foster piglets if they lose their own litter and this behavior, known as allosucking, makes them cooperative breeders" she says. 
"Allosucking does not seem to be a case of mistaken identity or milk theft, and may be a sign of kin altruism" she explained. 
"Piglets begin grazing at about two to three weeks and are weaned by six months and piglets quickly attain mobility and stay close to their mothers for defense" she says.
"As of 1999, the common warthog population in southern Africa is estimated to be about 250,000 and typical densities range between one and 10 per km2 in protected areas, but local densities of 77 per km2 were found on short grass in Nakuru National Park" she says. 
"The species is susceptible to drought and hunting especially with dogs, which may result in localized extinctions but the common warthog is present in numerous protected areas across its extensive range" she says.
"Well, that's it, but I want to add ten fun facts and short cuts to reminding all that I've told you today" she says.
And with that, she begins.
"Number one, their scientific name is Phacochoerus Africanus also known as the common warthog" she says.
"Two, their name comes from their ‘warts’ or protrusions on the sides of their face, these protrusions are a combination of bone and cartilage and it protects their face when they fight" she says.
"Three, they sleep underground at night in burrows that they steal from other animals such as aardvark as they don’t dig their own"
"Four, warthogs mainly eat grass or will dig for roots and bulbs when it’s dry and if they have the opportunity, they will scavenge on meat as they are omnivorous" she says.
"Five, they like to roll in the mud to protect their skin from the sun and from parasites"
"Six, warthogs have litters of two to four piglets however, their mortality rate is quite high due to predators" she says.
"Seven, two or three female warthogs form small sounders with their young as they look after the piglets" she says.
"Eight, female warthogs let their babies go into their burrows first, then they back into the burrow so that if anything comes into the burrow as a threat she can run out and protect them" she says.
"Nine, they have tusks like an elephant, on their upper and lower jaws that they use to fight and defend themselves against predators and if the ground is hard, they use their snouts and tusks to lift the soil and they go down onto their wrists when they eat" she says.
"And last but not the least, ten, surprisingly, they can live for up to 17 years of age" she says.