And so to Serengeti once more, where the green flush brought on by heavy rain a few days earlier was already beginning to wilt under the onslaught of strong winds and the January sun. Wildebeest were still around in good numbers but already heading west in great, looping, school-crocodile lines.
We're having a La Nina year again, so it is pretty dry. Isn't that ironic, with stories of catastrophic flooding in Australia, Brazil and elsewhere?
Wildebeest on the move
Vultures and Golden Jackal on a kill
We're having a La Nina year again, so it is pretty dry. Isn't that ironic, with stories of catastrophic flooding in Australia, Brazil and elsewhere?
The first babies were already staggering around on wobbly legs - and we were lucky enough to witness a gazelle birth.
Grant's Gazelle with lamb
Beginning of January is very early for wildebeest to be dropping their calves. Were these Ngorongoro animals (they tend to calf earlier than their Serengeti cousins)? Or just unlucky early arrivals? Either way, their future looks bleak. The Serengeti wildebeest breeding strategy involves flooding the market: nearly half a million calves born in the course of a few weeks. With the best will in the world, the predators can't hope to keep up with those numbers. But the few early arrivals will be real targets. A case of the early worms being caught by the bird...
The real stars, I think, were the cats: Ndutu was pumping, with cheetah highly visible. We spent a lovely couple of hours watching a mother with her 3 cubs, all obviously hungry. She ignored a long straggle of wildebeest and zebra filing past – they were all too big for her to handle on her own, she dare not risk damage from a flailing hoof or horn.
Beginning of January is very early for wildebeest to be dropping their calves. Were these Ngorongoro animals (they tend to calf earlier than their Serengeti cousins)? Or just unlucky early arrivals? Either way, their future looks bleak. The Serengeti wildebeest breeding strategy involves flooding the market: nearly half a million calves born in the course of a few weeks. With the best will in the world, the predators can't hope to keep up with those numbers. But the few early arrivals will be real targets. A case of the early worms being caught by the bird...
The real stars, I think, were the cats: Ndutu was pumping, with cheetah highly visible. We spent a lovely couple of hours watching a mother with her 3 cubs, all obviously hungry. She ignored a long straggle of wildebeest and zebra filing past – they were all too big for her to handle on her own, she dare not risk damage from a flailing hoof or horn.
She watched a distant herd of gazelle for a while. Then she started towards them, in classic stalk mode to begin with, but soon abandoning any pretence of stealth to run at just under full throttle to catch something that we had all missed: a suckling lamb.
Cheetah with kill
We waited as the cubs went to join her, but oddly, they didn’t feed. Why would a family of hungry cheetah NOT eat? It's agonising, because cheetah are such vulnerable animals, often losing their hard-earned prey to competitors, especially spotted hyena. Every hunt (often unsuccessful) involves enormous expenditure of energy and failure to eat can slow her down on the next hunt, if she's just not getting enough calories. And with young to feed, she needs to hunt that much more often.
We couldn't help wondering whether they were just too stressed. She was quite easy to find and several vehicles approached far too close, despite the cubs showing considerable agitation. In one instance, cars even blocked her way as she set out to hunt.
To my relief I heard from a friend that she killed again the next day, an impala – and this time they all fed happily. Phew!
Cheetah with kill
We waited as the cubs went to join her, but oddly, they didn’t feed. Why would a family of hungry cheetah NOT eat? It's agonising, because cheetah are such vulnerable animals, often losing their hard-earned prey to competitors, especially spotted hyena. Every hunt (often unsuccessful) involves enormous expenditure of energy and failure to eat can slow her down on the next hunt, if she's just not getting enough calories. And with young to feed, she needs to hunt that much more often.
We couldn't help wondering whether they were just too stressed. She was quite easy to find and several vehicles approached far too close, despite the cubs showing considerable agitation. In one instance, cars even blocked her way as she set out to hunt.
To my relief I heard from a friend that she killed again the next day, an impala – and this time they all fed happily. Phew!
Not far away was a pride of fat-bellied lions, lounging in the shade. 2 cubs were squabbling over access to a nipple; the mother too full and lazy to swat them into good behaviour.
Nursing lion cubs
One of our most intriguing sightings was of a Fiscal Shrike feasting on a frog it had just caught. It started off by impaling the unfortunate amphibian on a large thorn, and then tore off bite-sized pieces, which it swallowed with obvious gusto. This is what earns them the nickname of ‘butcher birds’, but I’ve never seen them in action before. There’s always something new going on out there…
En route to Kakesio, a flash of crimson and green: a Narina Trogon! He sat and posed for us beautifully, before flitting away like a gorgeous butterfly. Now, some of you already know what I'm on about but for the non-twtichers among you, trogons are birds found throughout the tropics and they are always spectacular. Perhaps the most famous is the Quetzal, the national bird of Guatemala. They have a wide gape, reputedly enabling them to swallow small wild avocados - whole.
En route to Kakesio, a flash of crimson and green: a Narina Trogon! He sat and posed for us beautifully, before flitting away like a gorgeous butterfly. Now, some of you already know what I'm on about but for the non-twtichers among you, trogons are birds found throughout the tropics and they are always spectacular. Perhaps the most famous is the Quetzal, the national bird of Guatemala. They have a wide gape, reputedly enabling them to swallow small wild avocados - whole.
A couple of days later, over in the western Serengeti, we watched in awe as a herd of 300 elephant came out of the bush and ambled over to splash and play in a waterhole not far from where we sat. Baby elephant, in particular, are a joy to watch at water. They have so much fun, playing with complete abandon while their mothers stand sedately nearby, squirting occasional trunkfuls of cooling mud over their bodies.
Elephants enjoying a bath
We also caught a rare glimpse of a black rhino, part of an ongoing project to re-introduce these prehistoric behemoths and bolster Serengeti numbers. Rhinos were poached in their thousands in the 70's and 80's. Rhino horn is prized for its supposed medicinal value in the Far East (presumably marketed under the catchy phrase 'Nothing makes you horny like horn') and also in the making of dagger handles, the must-have coming-of-age accessory for young Yemeni men.
Elephants enjoying a bath
We also caught a rare glimpse of a black rhino, part of an ongoing project to re-introduce these prehistoric behemoths and bolster Serengeti numbers. Rhinos were poached in their thousands in the 70's and 80's. Rhino horn is prized for its supposed medicinal value in the Far East (presumably marketed under the catchy phrase 'Nothing makes you horny like horn') and also in the making of dagger handles, the must-have coming-of-age accessory for young Yemeni men.
The endangered Black Rhino
In a tree, later in the day, we found this lion cub, looking as if he had just enjoyed his Christmas dinner. Not elegant, perhaps, but whatever works.
We finished off the safari in style - an evening following a pair of mating leopards. The male was relaxed but his young consort was very wary of safari vehicles. She would hide in a bush, then sneak over to join the male for a brief copulation, before fleeing to safety 100 yards away. The whole performance was repeated every 10 minutes or so until the failing light forced us back to the lodge and our waiting G&T’s.
When the going gets tough…
- - - - -
Bat-eared Fox, Ndutu
Colobus Monkey, Grumeti Reserve
Greater Flamingo, Lake Ndutu
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