Privileged Observer: Safari time!

July is a great time to be in the Selous. After the rains, the landscape is still pleasantly green and the wildlife is looking fat and happy. And, amazingly, it is cool! I slept under a blanket and almost needed another.

This is walking weather and we were rewarded with fascinating sightings: a freshly-disembowelled monitor lizard, stashed under a bush; and we watched as a young bull elephant shook a Desert Date, the tasty fruit raining down around him, bouncing off his back. He then collected the bounty, sweeping up the pickings with deft strokes of his trunk. A great tool, the trunk – you can tear down a tree, pick up an acacia pod, squirt water into your mouth, detect faint scents or reassure a baby. Everyone should have one.

Over at Tagalala, we found a pride of lion on the hunt. They were led by a rangy, battle-scarred old female who was absolutely intent on finding breakfast. The others were looking sleeker and less committed. They stalked a sounder of warthogs who got wind of them and fled and then startled some impala rams, with similar results, before settling on a bluff overlooking a well-trodden game trail leading to the lake. There we left them – bon appétit.

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Tarangire: this is the time of year when migrants make their way back into the park from the calving grounds. We have had decent rains this year so Silale Swamp was still wet and green, criss-crossed by herds of peacefully munching elephant & buffalo. Many of the seasonal pans still hold water so there’s little pressure, as yet, for game to congregate along the river and at Minyonyo. Plenty of elephant as usual, entertaining us with their antics, playing in the water.

We had a beautiful sighting of honeymooning leopards in a sausage tree. The female was very relaxed, but the male glared balefully, despite the distance (we must have been 100 m away) and soon flowed down from his perch. She followed and we soon heard the snarling and yowling of big cats mating.

Further on, we found a juvenile Martial Eagle, feeding on what appeared to be a steenbok, his crop full to bursting. An adult bird (presumably a parent?) sat in a tree nearby.

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The Serengeti is in flames.

It’s always like this in the early dry season – fires set by TANAPA to burn off the dry, fibrous grass and promote sweet new growth. Swirling flames and smoke, flocks of birds patrolling the leading edge to cash in on insects fleeing the holocaust. Antelope feed nonchalantly nearby, then pick their way through the flames, apparently to eat fresh ash – a source of minerals in concentrated form maybe?

The subject of controlled burning always causes heated debate (excuse the pun). There is a whole spectrum of opinion, from ‘if you see grass – burn it’ through to ‘burning is always wrong.’ I feel that fire is an vital feature of natural systems in Africa but a little goes a long way.

We are in north Serengeti, and it is interesting that across the border, in the Maasai Mara, KWS (the Kenyan version of TANAPA) has a no-burn policy. The Kenyans watch in bewilderment each year as the fires start on our side.

You hear all kinds of claims: the loss of grazing bulk hastens the departure of the migrant herds; lack of grass cover reduces the soil’s ability to retain water; frequent burning actually changes the character of the vegetation, reducing bushland to more open grassland; small creatures are incinerated (rodents, ground nesting birds, reptiles and non-flying insects); and other larger animals that depend on these are compromised – think of a serval hunting mice in tall grass. I would love to see a comparative study looking at 2 similar areas: one in Serengeti and one in a neighbouring (unburnt) part of the Mara, to see if there are differences in biodiversity.

What I find odd is that the grass doesn’t last long anyway, once the voracious herds arrive. Look at the Mara in September – the grass has been flattened or eaten, so the result is pretty much the same but one involves quite a lot of human interferance and trauma.

You will probably have gathered that I am not a huge fan of ‘controlled burning’…

We saw excellent game up here: wildebeest crossing the Mara River, which is still running high; huge crocs, mouths agape as they basked on a sandbank; a pride of lion on the river bank, watching in fascination as a swollen wildebeest carcass turned slowly in the current while a croc nuzzled lovingly at it, clearly too full to eat but nonetheless reluctant to let it go.

And there's a certain young lady who knows a whole lot of stuff about a whole lot of stuff. She knows what a praying mantis egg mass looks like; what governs the sex of crocodile hatchlings; what 'cuckoo spit' is; and how to catch lizards, without their losing their tails.