Safari Animal List
The amount of birds and animals we saw on safari was truly amazing. Some of the birds are probably new to you, but most are really quite beautifully colored. Here is the list of what we saw, some entries with notes:
Mammals
Predators and scavengers
Lion (singly and in prides, hunting and feeding, nursing, mating, and heard in camp)
Leopard (infrequently seen)
Cheetah (stealthy and infrequently seen)
Serval cat (http://www.sierrasafarizoo.com/animals/serval.htm small and rarely seen)
Spotted Hyena
Silver-backed Jackal
Crocodile (up close and personal)
Browsers
African Elephant (400, at the least)
Maasai Giraffe
Grazers
Black Rhinoceros (a tiny spot in the distance)
Hippopotamus (nearly submerged in ponds, they just looked like boulders)
African Cape Buffalo
Blue Wildebeest (in large herds)
Burchelle Zebra (in large herds)
Antelopes (in increasing order of size)
Kirk's Dik Dik (at 14” tall, the smallest of the African antelopes)
Thompson’s Gazelle
Impala
Reedbuck
Waterbuck
Hartebeest
Primates
Vervant Monkey (black faced monkey)
Baboon (everywhere…in camp and on the roadside)
Ugly!
Warthog (probably the ugliest creature you are to see in the bush!) http://www.africaelephants.com/gallery/warthog.htm)
Birds
Marabou Stork (with a bigger wing span than me!)
Tawny Eagle
Helmeted Guinea Fowl
Splendid Starling
Lovebird
Vulture
Blue and Red cheeked Cordon-bleu
Ostrich
Secretary Bird (this one is weird but beautiful)
Gray Heron
Sacred Ibis
African fish Eagle
Long Crested Eagle
Kori Bustard
Black Crake
Night Heron
Plover
Saddle back Stork
Lilac Breasted Roller
Black Winged Kite (one took Fran's sandwich!)
Flamingo
White Neck Raven
Safari
The excitement about going on a five day safari had been building for some time. We made arrangements with Safari Makers (http://www.safarimakers.com/intro_page.htm) in Arusha to visit Tarangire National Park Serengeti National Park
Joseph, our driver, and Mushaka, our cook, picked us up early for the two hour drive to Tarangire. Early on, Joseph showed that he earned the "best guide in the world" title. As we drove through the countryside, he told of the history of Tanzania and of the local tribes (see the "Masai Tribes" story). When we entered the park he identified wildlife at a glance and was able to tell of their habits and reproduction. His knowledge and the love of the outdoors were truly amazing.
The variety of habitats in the park allows great diversity of birds and animals. The animal count is staggering...30,000 zebra, 25,000 wildebeest, 5,000 buffalo, 4,000 elephant, 2,500 Masai giraffe and over 1,000 fringe-eared oryx (gemsbok). With such abundant food sources, predators include lion, leopard and cheetah.
The park is most well known for the herds of elephants. Those beloved (but at times aggressive) pachyderms remain our most vivid memory of the park. For our luncheon entertainment, they bathed and strolled in the river below the picnic ground. We delighted at seeing, not one or two shy creatures, but a queue of 100 streaming into the river. They rolled in the mud, feet up (elephant acrobatics is amazing when you consider the tonnage prancing blithely about.) They sprayed each other, bellowed and jockeyed for the favored location. The pecking order was very clear, and if a higher-ranking elephant moved to the mud hole, then the rest just had to get out whether they were done or not. Babies stayed close to mom, sometimes trying to nurse.
Elephants are also quite intelligent. We saw one group poke holes in the mud near the river which would fill with water. They would then suck up the water with their trunks… creating a water filtration system!
Later in the day we met one group of elephants at a river crossing. There were two young and three older elephants. The largest, by the length of her tusks, was quite old. She faced straight towards us and stood her ground…then started to walk our way. Joseph gunned the motor of the jeep, the sound intended to make her turn. We breathed again when she rejoined the group, the elderly protectively encircling the young. They stopped at a patch of grass 20 meters from us and ate, cleverly knocking the dirt off the roots!
The zebra were also quite prolific in the park. They traveled in lines across the grassland, heading for the river. We were barely into the park when we saw our first zebra crossing. At long last. We saw signs in London warning of zebra crossing but never saw the animals.
When the zebras stopped to rest in the shade they would pair up with the head of one at the tail of the other. Thus, they could keep a lookout in all directions for predators. Joseph said later that the stripes are also a perfect camouflage from predators. When the big cats hunt, they sit patiently and single out one animal for the kill. They will watch that one until it is time to pounce. When the zebras run, though, the stripes confuse the cats. They can’t tell any longer which one they were watching and may give up the hunt!
Impalas, a type of antelope, were also quite common in Tarangire, but less so in the other parks. We saw mating groups of one male and his harem. Around the perimeter of his territory were the bucks in waiting. Joseph said that it takes so much energy for the buck to maintain his territory and keep the females interested, that he doesn’t eat. After about a month of this he is weak enough that another buck comes in and takes over his territory. He then goes off to eat and recuperate.
We saw the first of what would be many lions early the first day. (It would get to the point at the end of the safari that another pride eating lunch was just a ho-hum event!). This lone male lion was sitting in the sun waiting for the females to feed him. Yes, male lions have quite the life. They are too impatient to hunt so depend on the females for food. When a kill is made, he is the first to eat, getting his fill before the dominant female gets her share.
At the end of the day in Tarangire our patience was rewarded. We saw a rarity…a leopard sleeping on the ground in the shade of a baobab tree. Usually, if you are lucky enough to spot one, you will see it high in a tree. We watched quietly as she groomed herself, her powerful tail twitching. Every so often her yellow eyes alertly looked in our direction. Joseph and we agreed that we could not have shared a more perfect day in the Tarangire!
We met up with the three other members of our party early on the second day and began the long drive to Serengeti National Park Northern Tanzania . It has three distinct eco-zones: treeless, flat plains; rivers and mountains. Check out this link to the park: http://www.serengeti.org/.
The park is perhaps best know for the wildebeest migrations during the wet seasons...a time when over a million (literally) wildebeest and 200,000 zebras blanket the plains and rivers. As we were entering the park in the dry season, we knew the migratory herds were considerably north (in Kenya ), and did not know what to expect.
We did not find great numbers of zebra or wildebeest, but did find that the lion population is quite large. As we were entering the heart of the park, we found a pride polishing off a meal of a large animal. All that was left was the rib cage, so it was hard to tell what creature met its fate that day. At 20 members, the pride was quite large. The dominant male and female both wore radio collars, a sign that their habits are being monitored by scientists.
We saw lions in every imaginable way...17 or so females sleeping in a mass, young cubs nursing while sheltered in the middle of the pride, lionesses hunting in groups of two with the male watching in the distance, the dominant male and female mating. Later, some people even heard the lions breathing and growling as they chased the hyenas out of the center of our camp at night! Rod and I were both disappointed that we slept through the excitement.
The lions did not seem at all affected by white cars with people popping out of the tops driving within meters of them. They just went about their business. We were told, though, that it would be quite different if we were to step outside the car. We didn't test that statement, naturally. Being at the top of the food chain with no predators seems to have left them with an attitude that fears nothing.
We saw so many lions that by the end of the trip the sight of a pride of lions polishing off a warthog was "oh, just another lion"!
Among the cats we also saw cheetahs hunting....ah, the power and speed of their stride! They can reach speeds of 120 kph. That compares to doing the 100 meter dash in 3 seconds or more than three times faster than the fastest human in history! We also saw a leopard sitting in a tree. When they make a kill that is where they drag their prey. They cache the food there, safe from lions, hyenas and other predators, so that they can eat their kill over the span of a full day or even two. The cheetah made a quick exit when a group of elephants strolled by. It seems that they are afraid of the power of elephants that can be rather aggressive when angry.
Elephants are by far the most destructive force in the parks. They break branches to eat the bark, smashing trees to smithereens. We listened to a herd of elephants feed on one grove, and it was the sound of branches crackling and snapping. They destroy whatever is in their path and are not too concerned about the concept of no-trace-camping. They create great mud holes in the stream banks. They are also a huge nuisance outside the parks, destroying whatever structures are in their way.
The giraffes, with their long necks silhouetted against the horizon are a common vision of the Serengeti. We saw one female with her twins, one reaching up to nurse. They browsed the acacia, leaving few leaves low on the trees.
Of the antelope family, we saw so many gazelles bouncing through the grass that we almost forgot to take a picture of them. We also saw topis, hartebeest and reedbucks.
Hippos, oh so many hippos, looking just like big rocks in the ponds. It was an event when one of the rocks slightly moved and grew a mouth and ears right before our eyes. They stay submerged by day and come out only at night. Joseph said that they can be quite vicious if you inadvertently block their path back to the water. We found it surprising that such docile looking creatures kill many people annually.
After Serengeti, we traveled to Ngorongoro Crater. The mountain was once as big a Kilimanjaro but left a vast crater when it erupted millions of years ago. http://www.pbs.org/edens/ngorongoro/ The caldera has lakes, marshes and plains and is the home to quite a diverse population of animals.
Here we finally saw the wildebeest, their shadows emerging from the dust of the windswept plains. They approached the pool where we were sitting watching the pink flamingos. The numbers of the herd were not great...most of them had migrated to Masa Mara in Kenya . They traveled with zebras, a safety measure for both. Wildebeest have poor vision. They depend on the zebra’s sense of sight to protect them from predators. In the migration, the zebras go first eating the tall grass and the wildebeest follow eating the low grass.
We saw many beautiful birds. One in particular is unforgettable...the black winged kite. As we approached the picnic site, we saw them circling in the air above. We marveled at how they maneuvered. We sat down with our lunches and Fran bit into the great tasting chicken that Mushaka had prepared. On her second bite she felt a rough bump to her hand, a sharp pain in her finger and the chicken disappeared. She never did see the kite that stole her lunch, but Rod sure had a good time bandaging the bloody gash it left behind.
After spending 5 days bumping along rutted roads, coping with the heat and dust, we looked at each other and said....yeah, it was an amazing experience
Thanks Joseph and Mushaka.
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