Printed on August 27, 2007 National Geographic Channel

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A purrrr-fect place to film

June 6, 2008 1:09 PM

Jennifer Kurushima

National Geographic Television

Luxor is a beautiful city, and has a completely different atmosphere than the crowded streets of Cairo. The Nile is full of ferries, small boats, cruise ships, and of course falukas. Tall elegant hotels and restaurants along with the sites of Luxor and Karnack Temple line the East Bank of the Nile while across to the West we can see lush farmland and the Valley of the Kings. After our success in the Cairo market, our plan of action was to try our hands at catching cats in the marketplace of Luxor. We decided that the team should breakup into smaller groups with the hope that this would reduce the possibility of drawing a crowd, and frightening away the cats. One team was to stay along the main strip of the tourist market, while the other would search the areas surrounding the local’s market.

Photo: Dana Kemp

I was teamed up with Dr. Nashwa Waly from Assiut University and Dr. Susan Little from the Winn Feline Foundation to scour the streets and alleys behind the marketplace. I quickly came to appreciate Dr. Nashwa’s fluency in Egyptian Arabic as we were able to knock on people’s doors and simply ask if they owned any cats. T his was much easier than chasing them through the streets! I am impressed by the hospitality and friendliness of the Egyptian people we met. More than once, after we explained our research, they would invite us in for a cup of tea or a meal. As word spread children came running with their cats held out before them. A quick swab along the inside of the check, a photograph, and a tuna treat, and the cats were returned home, relatively unperturbed. The children seem to be exceptionally amused by our efforts and are eager to help find us cats, however, we did have to refuse the occasional puppy. Later this evening we will be riding a ferry to the west bank of the Nile to hunt for cats in a slightly more rural setting. We are expecting the cats to be more active in the dusk. I hope our good luck holds!

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Searching for felines in Egypt

By explorer

June 2, 2008 8:57 AM

Leslie Lyons

Geneticist

Our arrival into Egypt is uneventful. This is a small miracle as little does the Nat Geo production team know that one of us is afraid to fly, one of us broke down in tears when we learned about all the vaccinations we needed, two of us have never left the western United States, and I am more used to traveling alone than taking care of others on a fairly complicated expedition. I am deathly afraid of someone getting a bad scratch or bite and having to seek medical care.

Photo: Dana Kemp

It is not until the morning that I steal away to the roof of the hotel to see my first glimpses of the pyramids, through the morning hazy and fog. I am really here, a lifelong goal, to see Egypt! Coming from a small south western town in Pennsylvania, Uniontown, I never thought I would have these opportunities, I never knew scientists got to do things like this. And, all over cats! The first encounter with the cats is on the back streets of Giza, the pyramids are in the background, how totally awesome. Ha, I was a bit worried that we would not find the cats, perhaps we would have to wait until dawn or dusk, but no, they are everywhere! Look any directions and there they are, part of the background, and important part of the ecosystem as well. We are dressed in black, little scientist ninjas. We start our first approach of the cats. The children of Giza have surrounded us, we have a big camera and a big stick with a big club attached to it (the boom), 2 producers and 4 cat catchers. The cats see us stealthily approaching like a herd of elephants, they hunch-up, hiss, and run, kicking up dirt as they go. The flight instinct of the cats is strong here, we need cats that are used to people. This is not going to work, panic! How are we going to film, but really collect the samples we need for the study? Let’s start easy, let’s go to the tourist market area to start. Tune in to the premiere of Explorer: Science of Cats on June 10 at 10p to find out exactly what Leslie found while searching in Egypt.

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A purrrr-fect place to film

Searching for felines in Egypt

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