We spent a little time birding around the Tortilis Ngorongoro camp before heading out; the woods around the camp were noisy with bird calls, and on our way out we saw more along the road.
After leaving the Tortilis camp we headed towards the Ndutu Game Reserve. From the Ngorongoro crater road you cross over a divide and head down from the highlands to the Serengeti plains. As we headed up over the divide we came to a Maasai boma clearly set up as a tourist attraction. We had a bit of a debate over whether to stop or not; in the end we stopped, and three of us paid and "visited." On the one hand, it was interesting to see their dancing and learn a bit more about their culture, although much of what they told us we already knew. On the other, it felt like a ploy to suck money from tourists.
Unfortunately, this is like a job for them, and a job they probably get tired of doing since they aren't doing things for the reasons handed down in their culture. So the enthusiasm level was rather low.
They started out with everyone singing and the men marching in two circles with their spears; then the men did this dance where they each tried to jump as high as they could. While the men jumped, the women sang. One man helped out with a horn; in this case it was just a piece of PVC pipe, which was kind of a disappointing touch; traditionally it was probably a cow's or buffalo's horn. With all their cattle and all the buffalo you'd think they could come up with one of those. The interesting thing to me was they launched from a standing position, without any big squat to get more push. And two of them could jump really high. It was kinda cool, like they had a spring all coiled and they just let it loose.
Then they showed us how they started a fire with a hand drill. Dona and I had seen this before when we visited the Hadza, where they actually needed to start a fire. I can start a fire with a bow drill, but I've never done it with a hand drill, and it's always impressive to see. Like the Hadzabe, they put the drill on their knife so it's easy to pick up / transfer the hot coal.
After the fire starting lesson we were invited into one of their huts. It was pretty dark and smokey inside. There were a couple of cots built along the walls, and a fire pit in the middle. I think there was a small smoke hole in the roof, but it wasn't very big and obviously didn't work real well. On the other hand, all that smoke probably helped keep the bugs out.
We left the Maasai and headed up over the divide and down towards the Serengeti plains. As we descended we stopped to check out the giraffes and any new birds we encountered. We were headed for the Ndutu area on the south edge of Serengeti National Park, just outside the park. It's known as a great place to see large cats this time of year, as the Wildebeest and Zebras from the Great Migration are in the area calving.
As we came down towards the plains, the ground was covered with purple flowers.
As we crossed the Serengeti plains we came across a huge congregation of Abdims and Marabou Storks. I haven't a clue why there were so many of them; Douglas didn't say.
As we got into the Ndutu area, it was soon obvious it had been pretty wet. We came across another vehicle mired in the muck. We all piled out and Douglas checked out the situation and then figured out a way to pull the vehicle out.
We got to our lodgings, the Flycatcher Tented Camp, just in time for dinner. We've learned it's a custom to provide guests with a "welcome drink" when they arrive at a hotel in many parts of the world, and our tented camps were no exception. They really were welcome, after a long day in the vehicle.
We were pretty tired and were getting up early, so we ate and crashed, but not before enjoying the sunset.
During the night we heard snorting and "big chewing" outside our tent. It wasn't elephants, and we were too far from the water for hippos; the consensus was it was warthogs.
We were up at 05:30, breakfast at 06:00, and on our way by 06:30. We were going to see the big wildebeest herds, hoping to see some large cats, but birding along the way.
Dona and I had seen Wattled Starlings (Creatophora cinerea) before, but never in large groups. Out on the Serengeti plains we saw big flocks of them overloading some of the few shrubs available.
Even when you've seen it before, the giant wildebeest and zebra herds are mind-boggling. As far as the eye can see, there is nothing but animals. Hundreds of thousands of them. It is truly one of the unforgettable spectacles of our amazing world.
Wildebeest are herd animals, and their safety is in numbers — in a herd, the likelihood of a given individual falling prey to a large carnivore is small; the larger the herd, the smaller the odds. But herds are on the move constantly, as they can strip an area of usable forage quickly. When disturbed, they move off as a group. So newborns have to be up and about quickly. Wildebeest calves can walk and then run within minutes of being born, a very necessary survival trait.
Not all wildebeest take part in the great migration; there are substantial populations that make smaller migrations and which spend their lives in a relatively small area. The Smithsonian Conservation Commons, a branch of the Smithsonian Institution, has some interesting graphics showing the variation in individual migration paths for one of these smaller populations.
With all those animals, there has to be a lot of ... dung. But it's not all over the place, the way it is with a big herd of domestic cows, partly because the dung beetles are always hard at work. One nocturnal species, Scarabaeus satyrus, navigates by the sun, the moon, and even the Milky Way! The dung beetles we saw during the day were from the group known as rollers, which roll dung into a ball, lay eggs in it, and bury it.
With all the rain, the grass was abundant, in spite of the thousands of animals eating it. We thought there had to be cats hiding in there somewhere... and there were.
We found a cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) sticking its head up out of some low shrubs. When it lay down it would disappear. The herd was moving, so new animals were continually passing by; if it was laying down they would be unaware of it. We watched this guy for several hours to see if a wildebeest with a calf would stray too close but none did. We left and drove quite a ways across the plain looking for more interesting things, but eventually turned around and headed back. Some of the group were pretty exhausted and wanted to get back to camp for a nap. We found the same cheetah again on the way back, although it had moved.
When we got back Douglas talked to another guide who had been headed more or less the same direction we were when we turned around; they had continued on and seen some African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus). Dang, I would have liked that.
We found a mom with a cub with faces smeared in blood, hiding in some tall bushes. The mom had made a kill earlier. Larger predators will often chase a cheetah off its kill, so hiding while eating is a good strategy. They would stick their heads up and look around pretty often to make sure all was ok.
I'm always excited to see a Secretarybird, hoping someday I'll get to see one fighting a big snake. They kill them by stomping them to death, or at least until stunned so they can be swallowed; although they also hunt by running prey down and striking with the bill. Apparently the stomping routine is now viewed as one of the potential feeding mechanisms ancient dinosaur-like birds used. These birds are big, with a winspan up to 2m.
While the others rested, Ram, Sid and I went out again. We wandered around the woodlands and found some elephants as well as birds.
We ran across another party heading back to their camp and Douglas learned they had seen a leopard in a tree about 10 km away. We really didn't have time, but we took off heading that direction. The leopard wasn't in any hurry, it was just dozing in a tree, maybe waiting for dusk to arrive. Leopards have an advantage hunting in the dark, as this article shows in a link to a Smithsonian video of a leopard hunting baboons in the dark.
The leopard was rather anti-climatic, much like the other large cats when they aren't hunting. We were overdue back at camp so we headed back and got there in time for a dinner of traditional Tanzanian food.
The next day was full-up. We started at Ziwa (Lake) Ndutu, where we found some nice birds.
Despite the nice water birds, we spent quite a while watching a back-and-forth between a Black-backed Jackal (Canus mesomelas) some Marabou Storks, and a White-backed Vulture (Gyps africanus). There was a dead wildebeest in the water at the edge of the lake, and everyone wanted a part of it. Various parts had been dragged off the carcas, and it seemed like everyone wanted to have it all, so no one ended up with much for long.
While watching the stork - vulture - jackal show we still got some good bird action in the surrounding shrubs.
We left the lake and headed through the woods back towards the plains.
We found a lioness lounging in a tree. We watched for a while to see if she would get up and go hunting but she was not so inclined. The wildebeest migration is a time of plenty; her mouth and paws were pretty bloody, so she wasn't exactly hungry. We headed off to find more interesting things.
Ram and Dawn and Uri were seriously into vultures and flesh-tearing, and we spent a lot of time watching big flocks of vultures tearing up carcasses. It was pretty cool watching them all come in for a landing, then bicker about who was top bird. They were big, and when they spread their wings and give a meanacing look one would certainly think twice about the next move. There were so many vultures it was often pretty difficult to even see the carcass they were arguing over.
One of the coolest things we saw was a huge herd of Wildebeests coming from someplace southeast and going someplace northwest. The extended as far as the eye could see in both directions, and the entire herd was going single file in a long snake-like path. Why do they go single file? Why do they take a snake-like path? Does it give them better look-out / sentry abilities, so they can detect predators more easily?
We headed cross-country to what Douglas called a "hidden valley" where we found a pack of Spotted Hyenas and a large herd of Zebras. The hyenas were wallowing in a muddy waterhole, while the Zebras were milling about grazing and generally stirring up dust. There were also a few wildebeests with calves, but while they seemed like obvious targets, apparently they were far enough from the hyenas to be safe for the moment, or else the hyenas were just plain stuffed and needed to sleep some of it off.
These were Plains Zebras (check the link in the paragraph above for how to differentiate Zebras by their stripe patterns).
As we were heading back in the afternoon we came across a dead lion being feasted upon by Ruppells Griffon vultures.
We surmised the dead lion may have been challenged and defeated by a group of three males we came across at the side of a large pan. They had blood all over their faces from the kills they had already made, but it's pretty hard for a lion to resist an easy meal if one shows up.
We stopped nearby to watch, as we had seen a some young wildebeest nearby. Soon enough a pair of very young wildebeest started wandering across the pan. They were clearly lost and bewildered, separated from their mothers; perhaps their mothers had been killed earlier.
Two of the lions were too full to pay much attention, but the one nearest us couldn't let such an easy meal go by. He hardly had to work at it — he loped over and grabbed one by the neck. The other one stood by looking bewildered and then took off running. But then it stopped and ran back. The lion stood there with the one wildebeest in its mouth, staring at the other one like he was trying to figure out how to catch it too without losing the one it already had. He decided against that and carried the one back to his shady spot under a tree and lay down with it. Vultures started chasing the remaining wildebeest baby trying to bring it down somehow. It eventually ran clear back past the lions and out the other end of the pan. The two other lions never even got up. I tried to video the whole thing but unfortunately my camera didn't focus. Grrr.
The lion with the young wildebeest was hunkered down in the brush near us. We soon became aware that the wildebeest was still alive. It bleated in panic a lot, and once or twice stood up and tried to suckle on the lion. The lion played with it for about 20 minutes before finally killing it.
The lion clearly wasn't hungry, and more or less ignored his captive, injured prey. The wildebeest attempted to get up and escape; the lion easily caught it again.
We headed back towards camp and on the way checked out the first lioness we had seen, the not particularly interesting one in the tree. We discovered she had three kittens wandering around near the base of the tree.
There were some Fischer's Lovebirds nesting near the lioness; they were much more entertaining than she was.
Some of the crew needed their afternoon nap, so we headed back to camp. When we got to Ziwa Ndutu we found another vehicle stuck in the mud. We stopped and Douglas suggested they shove rocks and logs under the wheel, then they were able to get pulled out.
We also came across a baby giraffe and its mom. It's a good thing his/her mom has long legs, or the little guy would never get a drink!
We dropped off Uri and Dawn and headed back out. We were all tired, but didn't want to waste any opportunity to see more.
We had barely left camp when we came across a really cool Vereaux's Eagle Owl.
There were quite a few Dik-Dik around, but they usually scurried off into the brush before I could get a picture. The Impala were more cooperative.
We spent most of our time scanning the Acacia trees looking for tails hanging down. I expect that's something you get pretty good at if you spend much time looking for leopards.
We found small herds of giraffe, zebra, and occasionally wildebeest in the forests. It seems like a dangerous place to hang out for zebra and wildebeest, given the cover it provides for hunting lions and leopards. Especially when the grasslands are as lush as they were at the time.
The oxpeckers feed almost exclusively on ticks and other small insects living on the skin of large mammals. Until recently it was thought this was a mutualistic relationship, benefitting both species. However, new research hints that it is a parasitic one.
The next day we headed out on the vast Serengeti plains again. We found a family of Cheetahs down in a draw, hiding under a tree and feeding on a young wildebeest they had killed earlier.
The cheetahs didn't seem to be set on doing much besides eating and sleeping, so we headed off. We soon found large numbers of vultures feeding amongst the huge herd of wildebeests. As before, we spent quite a bit of time watching the birds coming in from all over, then arguing over the spoils.
We continued out onto the plain, where we stopped and tried to just comprehend all the animals. As far as we could see in all directions, the plains were covered with wildebeest, interspersed with occasional herds of zebras. We were surrounded — by approximately 1.7 million wildebeest. It's hard to imagine that many animals wandering over the earth as one big herd. That must be what the Bison on the American Great Plains must have looked like before they were slaughtered. The things we have lost due to human cruelty and avarice are unforgiveable. Click on the long skinny image below, then if necessary click again to expand it to full size to get an idea of what this was like.
On a couple of occasions we scared up a hare. It would jump up and disappear in the nearby brush, which is why I only have a picture of the rear end of one. I think Douglas called them an African Scrub Hare, but as nearly as I can tell the Scrub Hare (Lepus saxatilis) only lives in South Africa, and the one in the Serengeti is the African Savanna Hare (Lepus victoriea).
We found a Kori Bustard here and there, displaying to impress the ladies.
When searching around the vast plains, we came upon a few Spotted Hyenas, usually only one or two, which surprised me. Since they are very social animals and live in a matriarchial society, I expected to see them in larger packs. They are the second largest carnivore in Africa after the lion, something of a surprise; and are accomplished hunters, despite their reputation as scavengers.
As we headed back towards camp, we came upon a mother cheetah and her youngster. We watched them for some time — they seemed hungry and motivated to go find a meal. But there were not meals readily available at the time.
We found another lioness in a tree, and an African Harrier Hawk in the tree behind her harassing some Fischer's Lovebirds in a nest. I don't know if it got the birds or not, but it sure was trying hard. It had to hang upside down because the nest was on the underside of the branch.
We found some weaver nests which seemed to be occupied by both weavers and Cordon Bleu. It wasn't clear which nests belonged to which species; or at least it wasn't clear to me. I think the Cordon Bleu were using old Weaver nests, but I'm not sure.
The next day we packed up and headed north; we did a little birding around Ziwa Ndutu on our way out.
As it turns out, we really lucked out time-wise in the Ndutu area. It had been raining before we arrived, and it started raining again after we left. In the days after we left it was difficult or impossible for people to travel around and see things because of all the mud.
We were headed up to the north-eastern Serengeti, where we hoped to do a lot of walking.
