By DEB WUETHRICH

“It’s easy to be brave from a safe distance,” goes an old Aesop story written in the 6th century B.C. The concept is just as true today. Another writer, Pierre Corneille said, “The greater the risk, the sweeter the fruit.”

Tecumseh High School graduate, Holly Mincks tasted some sweet fruit last summer as part of a Study Abroad program as a Michigan State University junior, giving nary a thought to any danger she might face, though her parents, Elaine and Bryan Mincks, were a little hesitant about the trip at first.

“I didn’t want to be an overbearing mother, but I wanted some time to do the research,” said Elaine after Holly first learned about the program as a sophomore. Then, for three weeks in May and June, Holly found herself on a plane headed for Nairobi, Kenya, where she would then ride into the African countryside to study animals she’d only seen on television as part of MSU’s Behavioral Ecology of African Mammals program.
“She’s always loved animals,” said Elaine, who said her daughter has worked locally with a number of vets, starting with Dr. Dennis White at age 15. She recently learned about large animals by shadowing Dr. Michael Herr on the Feight dairy farm in Tecumseh. “Her whole life has been about animals — and science.”

“It was just the experience of a lifetime,” said the recent MSU graduate who is currently applying for veterinary school. She’s spending her summer working for Dr. R. Dean Kirkland at Wayside Veterinary Clinic in Clinton.

Holly developed a computerized slide show of her favorite photos taken during her study period which included two research projects and twice daily safaris in the Maasai Mara National Reserve. She recently presented the program for Kathy Smith’s first grade class at Tecumseh Acres.

Kenya has experienced a good deal of unrest in recent months, but Holly said it wasn’t too bad when she was there.

“One thing that did strike me as interesting when we landed in Nairobi was there was this army guy patrolling a parking lot at the grocery store making sure people didn’t steal things,” she said. “He was in full army gear and carried a machine gun.” When she left the city, there were some checkpoints on the highways to make sure vehicles weren’t carrying explosives or contraband.

“I felt safe, because the people who surrounded us knew the ins and outs and precautions to take, even with the animals,” she said. That came in handy on one safari when an angry hippo, who had been picked on by another hippo, headed up a hill to where her group was standing. “Our driver told us, ‘get back into the car — now,’” she said.

Holly said the roads were a mess. “You couldn’t wear a seat belt because it would hurt as the vehicle bounced so much,” she said. They rode in open air vehicles and some animals would approach while others, like baboons and zebras, could often be seen lounging in or beside the road.

At their first stop for a few days at lake Nakuru, the students stayed in a fully equipped lodge, more like a resort.

“There was a baboon right outside the cabin door there,” Holly recalled. The area also is known as a birdwatcher’s paradise. “You can see thousands of pink flamingoes lining the beach where they make their nests,” she said.

Holly’s knowledge and interest in her field is especially evident as she describes the difference between a white rhinoceros and a black one (the black has a wider mouth), and could delineate types of animals as when she described a Rothschild giraffe that has white legs. She felt right at home being able to see and study the animals up close. She told of impala in herds, a cheetah trying to eat a gazelle in a tree with tourists all around watching, and a Maribou stork that pranced around like he owned the place. Vervet monkeys were common sights and ever present around the basecamp.

“It was totally amazing,” she said. “It’s not like anything you will see just watching TV on your couch,” she said, although Animal Planet and Discovery Channel programs are frequently filmed in Maasai Mara.

“Basecamp was more rustic than Lake Nakuru with tents on wooden platforms and a porch,” she said. “But we had real beds, a dresser and a desk.” She said it was an ecotourism camp with a compost pile and a process for separating human waste. Holly said Kenya is in a position where tourism is its biggest industry but the more tourists who come, the more development that comes with it. “So it’s important that people choose to stay in ecotourism camps.” She said she found it more comfortable than the resort. “I really loved it. I would go to bed and hear hippos and hyenas. Nature just came to life at night,” she said. “I just loved hearing all the night life.” They were told to keep their tents zipped up to keep the animals out but sometimes they forgot. One day she saw a baby monkey peeking in her tent, but by the time she got her camera it was gone.

The group also got to visit local villages and attend market days. Holly said the “Maasai Mamas” would sell colorful beaded bracelets for a couple hundred shillings at the Reserve’s gate. She brought several home. Students visited a primary school and gave the children soccer balls and Frisbees to play with at recess, because they had so little. The students were mostly boys because girls are expected to take care of their siblings and are married off at young ages. Holly said she sponsored some Kenyan girls for a time as part of an organization a fellow MSU student started.

“The kids loved technology,” Holly said, telling how one boy was fascinated by her digital watch, and all liked to see their pictures on the digital camera. The study group also visited a Hyena Research Project that a MSU professor oversees on the Reserve. “We got to dart a hyena,” Holly said. “We named her ‘Exotic Lola’ and returned her to the wild after studying her.

Holly said she came to love warthogs while she was there, becoming fascinated with how they would watch people for a long time then “decide they don’t like you and shoot off through the grass with their tail in the air.” She conducted a research project on their tail raising behavior.

She said she didn’t have time to miss many of the comforts of home. Coca-cola is popular there and readily available. There was one thing, however. The students were given a little packet of biodegradable detergent to take to the river to launder their clothes.

“Then you’d spread them out on the porch to dry,” Holly said, “and hope a monkey isn’t wearing your underwear when you come back.”

Holly said she would go back “in a heartbeat” and would encourage other people to follow their dreams as she did in making the trip.

“I think it’s important, especially for college kids, to get involved in something they love. If you want to go somewhere — go!” she said. Her sister, Abby, took a study trip to London last year. “I think there’s never a better time in your lifetime than when you’re in college and so many places are available with study abroad opportunities and kids your own age with similar dreams.”