Glossary
Curriculum key terms and definitions
Explore →Watch wildlife in Kenya's Laikipia, day or night. Step into 48,000 acres of working savanna through live cameras, the field guide, bush stories, and classroom resources.
Listen as field biologists share the research underway at Mpala Research Centre.
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Curious about Mpala's animals? Use our Field Guide to meet them, hear their calls, and identify their tracks and scat.
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Downloadable lesson plans and activities for teachers to connect students with classrooms near Mpala and around the world.
Explore →Mpala Live brings you a video documentary series produced at the Mpala Research Centre and starring Laikipia's wildlife. Drop in for short videos that connect who works in this living laboratory of discovery and field science.
The Princeton Zebra Project is a long-term research initiative at Mpala. Researchers identify zebra individuals by their unique stripe patterns, track movement across the landscape, and study social structures across decades of fieldwork.
The work helps explain how a fragile population responds to drought, predation, and shared range with livestock, and how that knowledge can be returned to communities living the same land.
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Tracking elephant movement across Laikipia's shared landscapes.

Invasive ants reshape the savanna's most iconic tree.

Behavior, territory, and the cost of being the dominant male.

Why a small bird builds the savanna's largest apartment block.
Get to know Mpala's wild citizens
Curious about the animals roaming the landscape? Use the Field Guide to browse their profiles, hear their calls, and learn to identify their tracks and scat.
Curriculum-aligned lessons rooted in real Mpala field science. Designed for educators in Kenya and the United States, free to use across primary and middle grades.
Five units rooted in the Kenyan landscape: The Living World Around Us, How Animals Work, How Plants Work, How the World Works, and How Grasslands Work. Lessons connect students to the wildlife and ecosystems on their doorstep.
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Five units aligned with U.S. classroom standards: The Living World Around Us, How Animals Work, How Plants Work, How the World Works, and How Ecosystems Work. Place-based science paired with NGSS-anchored learning goals.
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Where animals live, how they move through habitat, and how to start noticing the ones nearest to home.
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What lives where, and why. Students map a habitat near their school and compare it to the savanna at Mpala.
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An introduction to local animal life and how observation builds the foundation of biology.
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Drought, fire, and animal pressure reshape the savanna over time. Students model the changes through a year.
Learn more →Access our comprehensive resources to support your teaching