The Serengeti is amazing
Large ungulate mammals love grazing
Gazelles prance and bound
And run all around
To care for cute calves they are raising
We woke up today at 5:30 for an early breakfast (with tea, of course!). The sunrise over the gorge was so lovely, with the full moon setting over the mountains. We drove to Serengeti National Park (I was so very excited), an approximately 1.5 hour drive with many roadside gazelle spotting – including nursing calves. I think there is nothing cuter than a gazelle baby, with their spindly little legs and giant eyes and tiny little snout. West of Olduvai the mountains are left behind and the flat grassland stretches out into the horizon, both awe-inspiring and slightly unnerving.
After we got through the gate into the Serengeti Park itself, I was very diligent about recording every animal sighting (paying special attention to the birds), but for the sake of brevity I will only include the highlights (of which there were many).
The Great Migration had already moved through the Serengeti by now, but there were still many large herds of resident ungulates! Shortly after entering the park, we saw a huge herd of Thompson’s gazelle, at least 50 individuals, a little ways from the road grazing. Shortly after we saw the largest herd of Cape buffalo we had yet seen in a wetland depression with water and green grass. Amongst the buffalo were cattle egrets, which eat the insects disturbed by the grazing of the ungulates – these large birds even perch on the buffalos’ back to stay with the herd! There were also a few large zebra herds, with zebras clustered together laying their heads on each other’s backs in a cute little anti-predatory horse hug.
One of the coolest animal behaviors we witnessed was the mating display of an ostrich pair! It all began when the drabber colored female began waving her long-feathered wings in the direction of the male, who quickly approached and began his own dance, which can only be described as exceedingly strange. He kind of squatted down, stretched out his wings, and waved his neck back and forth hypnotically. It was very cool to see this use for the flightless wings of ostriches, especially because a prominent theory in the evolution of bird flight theorizes that feathered dinosaurs evolved larger arm feathers as a result of sexual selection for display.
Hippos! There were lots and lots of hippos in the Serengeti, clustered around two water sources – we saw a hippo pond with maybe 15 individuals wallowing in the water and occasionally rolling over to evenly distribute mud. Near the pond was a huge nesting sight for black headed herons – their nests were very large and all clustered near one another in the acacias near the water’s edge. There were also mongooses! And a black crake, a small round bird on long legs that likes to skitter near water sources!
The excitement of the day which was just so cool I was losing my mind is when we saw an actual lion pride munching down on an actual very dead animal. A large pride of around 10 lionesses (presumably a male as well, but he was off somewhere else) had taken down a Cape buffalo and dragged it into the middle of the road. The lionesses were resting in the shade of the tree while taking turns having a bite to eat. The site was surrounded by safari vehicles, about six of them, but the lionesses didn’t seem to mind – some had rested in the shade of the landrovers, even. It was so amazing to observe this window into the behavior and structure of the pride – the asdolescent cubs ate first, going for the face, throat, and (for some reason) anus of the buffalo. The cubs were followed by the lionesses, two at a time, who seemed to really enjoy the intestines. Those who weren’t eating were resting together, sleeping or cleaning themselves or each other, in the shade of a larger acacia. It was probably the coolest thing I have ever seen but for sure it enforced my vegetarianism. For sure.
A quote from the old field notebook: “We have broken down in the middle of the Serengeti”. Luckily our driver is super smart and capable and we got on the road again just enough to make it to our lunch spot and get the landrovers properly repaired. We also had a flat tire. Adventure was promised, adventure was received.
Lunch was great! We had our wee picnic out in a tourist picnic point and were surrounded by the opportunist birds, which I was all for. We also caught a glimpse of a rock hyrax up in a tree – a cute and chubby little critter who stared at us unapologetically.
We were on our way! Zooming through the Serengeti, the highlight on the way back home was the largest elephant herd we had yet to see – 50+ individuals off in the distance, maybe a mile away, heading to some unknown location. I suppose sometimes animals in the savanna must meet up and decide some things and maybe plot world domination, who knows? Maybe they know something we don’t. Definitely they know something we don’t.
We scooted back to the Olduvai camp, I drifted in and out of a light doze on the bumpy roads and listened to the entire How to Train Your Dragon soundtrack because that music is quite the bop and kept me sort of awake to watch for night critters, which included black backed jackals, and African wild cat, and an owl!
After dinner we had our last two modern ecology presentations! Small Felids and Hyenids by Vivian, and Reptiles by Enoch. Both excellent, as always.
Takeaways from the Serengeti landscape:
- Grasses are taller there, due to the lack of overgrazing – domestic herds are prohibited from grazing in the park
- Greenness and tree density increases with proximity to water, hills, and kopji (rocky outcroppings which I really wanted to climb but didn’t because they sometimes have lions and usually have scorpions)
- More burn marks are in the Serengeti grasslands, due to increased grass biomass (because no overgrazing), and also the installment of controlled burns for ecosystem health.
- Termite mound density is reliant on soil type
As of now, there are only maybe 4 of us have been tummy trouble free. The straights are dire. Our list of allies grows thin. I fear for my digestive future. Vegetarianism and avoiding sink water may be the only thing between me and breaking out the anti diarrheal pills.
Sincerely,
Caroline the Bird Person
An adolescent lioness contemplates the kill
