Vaccination season 2013 is off to a running start! We kicked off the process in Loliondo District east of Serengeti National Park. Our Serengeti Health Initiative team is vaccinating domestic dogs and cats there for rabies, canine distemper and parvovirus.

Samples sorted, equipment stowed away, bags packed and I’m suddenly finding myself back in Chicago after almost five months in Tanzania. Watching the snow falling as I eat Chicago deep dish pizza, I can hardly believe that just a few weeks ago I was in the rural villages west of Serengeti National Park.

Field work isn’t just hiking around and playing with puppies. There is a little talked about dark side to field work that many researchers love to hate—organization and paperwork!

Last month I had the great pleasure of traveling to northern Tanzania to visit our amazing work with the Serengeti Health Initiative, which works to protect the Serengeti region’s people, pets and predators by vaccinating domestic dogs against rabies and canine distemper.

Thorns, bushes and boulders were the theme of the day as we set up “camera traps” in Nangale Village. These automated, remotely triggered cameras will be used to validate and quantify the presence of wildlife in our study villages.

The dry golden grasses swayed elegantly in the breeze, stretching for miles as far as the eye could see. The air was hot and dusty as we scanned the horizon looking for telltale signs of animal movement among the grasses. At times the Serengeti National Park seemed to burst at the seams with wildlife—herds of zebra, cape buffalo, wildebeest, impala and all manner of other hoofed and winged species. Other times we drove for hours with barely a glimpse of these magnificent creatures. Wildlife was out there, no doubt, but camouflage is an amazing thing.

“Gari imearibika kabisa” (the car has broken down completely)…words you never want to hear when you’re on a lonely stretch of road in the middle of the Serengeti with no telephone signal.