Elephants and Hyenas

Friday, September 2, 2005

It was perhaps hard to top the excitement of seeing a lion hunt first thing in the morning, but by late morning we had also seen a large herd of elephants moving along the horizon and had strategically followed a system of the reserve's roads until we were much closer to them.

There were perhaps thirty or more animals in this group and some were babies! one or two wild elephants is a magical enough sight, but seeing so many together under the sky is inforgettable.

At another place, we saw more elephants grazing among a herd of African buffalo.

We also encountered a pair of hyenas who trotted through the grass right up to our vehicle, sniffed around a bit, crossed the road in front of us, and trotted off into the savanah again. We got a really close look at them.

I was very glad to see hyenas--they are one of the animals I was most interested in. I've seen some really good documentaries on their hunting skills and social lives. They seem to have a bad reputation, but after seeing the real animal close-up many people in our group decided that they had been misguided in their judgement. Perhaps hyenas were not so evil and ugly after all.

They are certainly interesting looking creatures--a bit like a bear and a bit like a dog and a bit like something else with hunched shoulders and spotted coat, big round ears, and a surprisingly-intelligent looking face.

Later, one night around the campfire, Pete told us the African legend about how the gods had made the hyena from the mis-matched parts of different animals. It would explain a lot.

Pete can also do a mean hyena impression. "Once you hear one, you will never forget the sound", he told me.

The first hyena we saw today was sitting in the muddy shallows of a small pool of water, resting on his spotted rump with his hind legs stretched out in front of him. I have seen bears sitting like that. He looked quite comical.

We also saw more bird life this morning, including the cory bustard, which is Africa's heaviest flying bird, and a large speckled bird of prey, which was likely either a thorny eagle or a Marshall's eagle.

The beauty of the Serengeti landscape is really affecting too.We stopped at one watering hole surrounded by lush fern-like plants. Hippos swam in the water. Storks flew overhead, and baboons sat in the branches of an over-hanging acacia tree. It just struck me as a beautiful scene. It felt like it could be a scene from thousands of years ago, peaceful and wild.

Lions

Friday, September 2, 2005

The Serengeti is a magnificent place to wake up. The dawn this morning was red and fiery and the most beautiful I've ever seen.

Everybody in our camp were all up shortly after five. Our friends Liz and Jo had to get up even earlier because a jeep (from the lodge we'd seen the night before) picked them up at an ungodly hour to take them on their hot-air balloon ride over the savannah. It sounded like a wonderful experience, soaring over the Serengeti in the fresh early morning, seeing the animals from above. But at the price of $400 US per person for an hour's ride, it was a little too dear for Jeff and I to budget. Throwing in a champagne breakfast once on the ground again is a nice touch, but...no.

As it ultimately turned out, there would have been no room in the balloon for us anyway, and others from our tour who had planned on going were disappointed. I'm glad I didn't have my heart set on it.

As we chased the gorgeous rising sun on our drive this morning, we sometimes caught glimpses of our friends' balloon, floating in the distance along the horizon.

One of the first thing's we saw this morning was a magnificent male lion, posing majestically atop a kopje . He was a truly regal sight, sitting there in the pale dawn light like a living sculture.

The kopjes, rugged rock formations that rise out of the ground here and there like tall stone islands in a yellow sea of grass, were ideal places to spot lions. They made good look-out points for predators to survey their territories.

We spent a good part of the morning carefully circling likely rock formations and keeping our eyes peeled.

The next lions we saw were also males, although these had give up any pretenses to majesty. They were sprawled near one another in the grass, bellies up in the sunshine. Their massive golden paws lazily twitched in the air.The lions occasionally interrupted their nap to scratch themselves, but ignored both our presence and the two giraffes grazing peacefully nearby.

We also came across two lionesses roaming about on the lower slopes of a rocky hill cloaked thickly in vegetation. To our delight, a young cub accompanied them, although it was hard to see its antics as it kept gambolling about behind the bushes.

The most thrilling moment of this trip (and perhaps my life) came when one of the lions threaded its way down to the ground near our truck. She was a beautiful animal, lithe and muscular, and we could tell she was going to come very close to our truck....

All of a sudden the lioness catapaulted through the air towards us! In the blink of an eye, a reedbuck exploded out of the grass, literally right beneath us, and fled down the road in front of us with the lion in hot pursuit.

That moment when I saw the lion's shoulder muscles bunch before she jumped is frozen forever in my mind. Such speed and power! If a human had been her intent and not a deer, that person would not have had time for a full thought before they were caught. Incredible!

None of us noticed the reedbuck before she ran at all. She must have been snugged up right against one of our wheels.

And although most of us had been leaning expectantly out of the open windows with our cameras in hand, not one of us captured a picture of the hunt. It happened much too fast. Although someone's photo captured someone's face in the rear-view mirror with such a wide-eyed and startled expression on it that someone said it could be used in a safari-safety brochure.

The deer got away, by the way. After chasing the zig-zagging animal for a hundred yards or so, the lion gave up, and came trotting back.

The Serengeti Loo Song

Friday, September 2, 2005

As I've said before....here's the thing about glow-in-the-dark eyes:

If they are yellow or green you are probably okay.They probably don't belong to a predator, although it still might be something large and cantankerous and dangerous like a buffalo or hippo. But if the eyes reflect red you should back away slowly and NOT run away because that would make you look like prey.

Yum yum.

Okay, so there we were in the early morning hours. The sky is beginning to glow in the east but it's still dark out and Nature is calling.

New skill learned while on this trip: the art of holding your flashlight in your teeth while using the loo.

The three of us (Jeff's mom and Jen and I) have just finished in the lovely squat toilets that are located far away from the tent area for a reason, and Jen has just finished being surprised by a bat that flew OUT of the toilet-hole.

We have just started down the trail back to the tents, giggling about the bat, when we swing our flashlight to the side and there are GLOWING EYES right nearby.

Quick, quick, what colour?

Ah, green. Probably okay.

But it is impossible to see what sort of animal it might be, hidden in the shrubbery as it were.

....Er, let's walk away...casually..

So we do. We giggle, a bit nervously as we do, and one of us pretends to whistle.

Just then a little tune pops into my head and out a song springs fully formed. The inspiration of nervous adrenalin. (cough cough)

Ahem.

The Serengeti Loo Song goes like this:

We're casually walking away
We're casually walking away
So we don't look like prey
We're casually walking away

And if the eyes are yellow
We breathe a sigh of relief
Cuz if they're red
I guess we're dead
We're casually walking away

We all want to see a lion
But not on the way to the loo!
In fact we're happy to see nothing at all
Except maybe some animal poo

We're casually walking away
We're casually walking away
So we don't look like prey
We're casually walking away!


Well, it's not Andrew Lloyd Webber, but it DID fit the occasion.

And it has a catchy tune. :)

Spaghetti on the Serengeti....and Some Bugs

Thursday, September 1, 2005

As evening fall on our first Serengeti game-drive, we must head for our camp-site. We must be off the roads before darkness falls.

We make a quick pit-stop at a large luxury safari lodge that suddenly looms out of nowhere. It looks very modern, with lots of wood and glass. Impala graze just outside the edge of the parking lot.

I wonder aloud how much it costs to stay in such a posh-looking place, but from my pre-trip research into safari options I am quite sure I don't want to trade my cozy sleeping-bag for a frighteningly-expensive bed. No, all I want out of this lodge is to sneak in and use their toilet facilities.

The line-up for the Wanawakes (Ladies) is too long so I make myself into an honourary
gent.

We are bush-camping at Ngiri Campsite tonight. There is a grass-thatched shelter there for cooking under in bad weather, but that is as close as we get to the amenities of a luxury-lodge. The loos are pit-toilets located a short walk away down a trail from our tents.

We pitch our tents to form a horse-shoe shape, the truck forming another side to the circle and our camp-fire in the middle. Once again we are cautioned about the do's and don'ts of bush-camping.

Remember... be careful where you spit your tooth-paste and NO food or toiletries in your tent. Pee behind your tent if you must get up in the night. If you spot animal eyes, that are green or yellow, it's probably not a predator but move slowly away just to be safe. And if you see the reflection of red eyes, do not run away and act like prey. Ah, all good safety tips .

We gather around the camp-fire to eat as Pete works his magic and makes the spaghetti fabulous. I coin the phrase Spaghetti on the Serengeti which is gleefully passed around.

After dinner we stay around the fire to talk. I am sitting on a camp-stool writing in my journal when I notice a scuttling motion near my feet. There is a large odd-looking arachnid of some kind trundling around in the dirt. I fetch my camera and follow it around trying to get a good picture until it scampers away into the grassland around our camp.

Yes, I'm interested in bugs. :)

Nobody was able to tell me what it was at the time, but from some internet research I believe it was a solufigid of some sort. The members of the genus Solifugae include some pretty scary-looking arachnoids, like the infamous camel spiders, but they are non-venomous and quite fascinating. Their Latin name means "flees from the sun" because they are nocturnal and can apparently dig some impressive burrows. They are also known for their impressive hunting abilities and their ability to run at enormous speeds.

One of my fellow campers studied the weird-looking critter I was trying to photograph, and noticing my sandal-clad feet inquired : "Thinking about a change in footwear?"

Soon after this sighting, there was a loud whirring sound to my left and then a THWACK as an enormous beetle crashes like a miniature helicopter into Helen as she sits peacefully by the fire. She was most unhappy about it!

But (lucky for me) it's something I've been wanting to see: a scarab/dung beetle! I scoop it up in my hand for a closer look. It's quite a big and heavy insect and clings to my fingers with a strong grip. It has a hard and shiny black body. There is a mixture of interest and polite revulsion as I bring it around for everyone to have a look.

Helen probably thought I was crazy, but I'd be feeling poorly towards any creature that hit me in the head like that too.

Wayne says its nice when campers are interested in wildlife other than the bigger animals.

We retire to our tents somewhere around nine o'clock. Bedtime comes early on this trip.

The Last of the Big Five

September 1, 2005


By mid-afternoon we reached a central area of the Serengeti known as the Seronera Valley.

It is here we see our first lions---two males hidden in the long grass. It is not a very good view of them unfortunately. Pete, with his animal-radar vision, somehow spotted yellow ears twitching among yellow grass. His animal-spotting abilities were downright spooky, but without them we would have missed seeing wonderful things on this trip.

Binoculars are passed around. It is still thrilling to see wild lions, even at a distance.

Seeing lions means we have now officially seen The Big Five : lion, buffalo, leopard, rhino, and elephant. Traditionally, these were the animals Victorian big-game hunters would brag about coming to Africa to kill because they were supposed to be the most dangerous to hunt....

Yes, travel to exotic, faraway places and see magnificent creatures--then stick their head on your living-room wall or make a rug out of them. That kind of travel philosophy just boggles my mind...

Wayne admitted that although he doesn't like to emphasize sighting these particular animals, he, like most safari leaders, heave a big sigh of relief when their group has seen them all. I suppose it happens that one might come to Africa and never spot a lion or elephant at all. It's not a zoo, after all, and the animals don't appear on cue. But we were fortunate. I don't think anyone went home disappointed.

This afternoon we saw a lot of wildlife: giraffes, several different species of antelope and deer, hyena, jackal, zebra, wart-hogs, baboons, and a wonderful variety of birds, large and small , including a sleepy owl peering down from a tree.

(By the way, the pictures of the small birds on this page are a result of Graham's infinitely superior camera and excellent ornithological photography skills. Thanks for sharing them!)

I think the true highlights of this afternoon were our encounters with elephants.

One elephant decided to slowly lumber down the center of the dirt-track our truck was on. There was another smaller safari vehicle further along. Both vehicles slowly and respectfully made way for the massive animal to pass by. Close encounters between stubborn cars and elephants can end poorly, I've heard.

Elephants weigh between 7,000-13,500 lbs. (3, 000-6, 250 kg) and don't like to play chicken.

Another elephant entertained us by pausing for a dust-bath in camera range, scooping up trunkfuls of dirt and dumping it over her shoulders onto her back. Tail and trunk swished back and forth energetically as she enjoyed a good dusting. Her broad grey back was soon covered in a layer of reddish-brown clay, causing a significant cloud of dust to hover in the air around her.

As afternoon faded to evening, we also came upon more animals which didn't mind a little dirt: several hippos, caked comfortably in mud, reclining in a shallow pool. One of the younger hippos lolled so that its head rested on another's back, a contented expression on its broad face. They looked totally relaxed and at ease with the world.

On the Serengeti

Thursday, September 1, 2005



The Serengeti was huge under a vast open sky. I folded my arms on the window-ledge of the truck and rested my chin on them, dreamily watching as the truck rolled quietly through the yellow savannah.

Acacia trees grew here and there, landmarks in the waving grasslands. We are here in Africa's winter, the dry season, and sometimes we saw areas of scorched earth, evidence of grass-fires. Here on the edges of the Serengeti, we did not expect game to move in big herds, especially as it is not the annual migration season.

But there was still lots to see--zebras, kicking up their heels in a cloud of dust as we passed; ungainly wildebeest and graceful impala; a lone hyena loping along.

There were twittering trees with colonies of birds' nests, and tall trees filled with hunched and grotesque marabou storks. There were the rust-red pointy hills of termite mounds, stately ostriches, and families of roving baboons.

And when we turned off the main track to take a detour down to the forested banks of the Grumeti River, we let out gasps of excitement as we sighted our first African elephants.

There were three of them, moving slowly through the shrubby woodland. At first, it was hard to see them, camoflauged behind the trees. Although they are massive animals they move extraordinarily quietly and their dusty grey hides blend surprisingly well with the subdued colours of the landscape.

Then they moved into the open and came quite close to us, swaying gently as they walked, before turning and retreating back into the acacia woodland. Jen was so thrilled! Out of all the animals she'd wanted to see on this trip, it was elephants that were special to her.

As we travelled across the Serengeti, we would often see evidence of tree damage caused by elephants. They consume a massive amount of vegetation daily, and often simply break a tree by pushing it to get to the tastiest parts.

We moved further along the dirt track, down towards the Grumeti.

As we rounded a corner the water came into sight and we were rewarded by the sight of an enormous pod of hippos soaking in the river. There was probably as many as thirty of them, maybe more! It was hard to tell because some animals were almost completely submerged, showing only eyes, tender pink ears, and massive flared nostrils. It was a lumbering river of grey and pink bodies, grunting and sighing and jostling.

There was even two amorous hippo friends, an educational sight to be sure!

We followed the river around a bend, and shallow river-pools revealed more hippos wallowing in the murky water. It was amazing to see so many of them together.

We also spotted a crocodile, our first and unfortunately the last in the wild on this trip. (Although we did meet our share of crocodiles, as I will tell you later). The Grumeti River is famous for particularly large crocodiles, but they were shy and retiring today. Our lone crocodile floated very quietly, regretfully hard to see, like a bumpy brown log with unblinking eyes.

Apparently, during the rainy migration season from May-July, the banks of the Grumeti are often the scene of dramatic struggles between the gigantic crocodiles who lie in wait and the hapless zebras and wildebeest who try to cross the swollen river.

I suppose a bloodthirsty part of me would be thrilled to see that hunt take place, but I am just as happy today to be amused by the grunting hippos and not see any poor ungulate become a reptile's lunch.

Running the Tsetse Fly Gauntlet

Thursday, September 1, 2005



Anybody who knows me will probably not think it's very strange if I say that I'm a little disappointed that I didn't see more strange insect-life while I was in Africa. It wasn't just the four-legged kind of wildlife that I was hoping to see.

Upon reflection, it was probably because I was personally repulsive to them. Me and my buddy DEET made sure I wasn't going to have many close encounters with my LEAST favourite beasties, mosquitoes, and who knows what else took offense to my Eau de Bug Repellent. (Well, for instance, Jeff had to share a tent with me, poor fellow...)

But when our truck entered the Western Corridor of the Serengeti, a wild vast plain, we had to run a six-legged gauntlet of testse flies who drank DEET for breakfast.

Wayne, our driver, told us: "The best thing to do if a tsetse fly lands on your friend is to slap them hard. You're doing them a favour."

He told us he was going to drive as fast as he could through this particular area where the flies always hung out and he would just ignore any screaming he heard coming from the back of the truck. It would just be the ruckus made by us running around and slapping one another.

Tsetse flies are a scourge in Africa. They cause fun diseases like sleeping sickness (trypanasomiasis), are largely immune to insect repellent, and can inflict a bite through multiple layers of clothing with a long, stinging proboscis. They look quite a bit like the Canadian horsefly, but with none of a Canadian's politeness.

We prepared for battle.

Off we went, hair whipping in the wind, red dust swirling in our wake, vigilant for the flies that blew willy-nilly into the back of the truck through the open sides. It's probably sad that I felt so exhilarated by swatting insects, but I did.

Loud shrieks and giggling mixed with cries of triumph as the little blighters met their ends at the ends of rolled-up magazines. They were hard to kill though and they reminded me of Freddy, Jason, and that guy in the hockey-mask in the Halloween movies: you THINK they're dead, but they come back....

But we made it through the Corridor with only a couple of us bitten. Though many of us got slapped. What's a little pent-up aggression between truck-mates anyhow? :)

Don't Sit Under the Monkey Tree

Thursday, September 1, 2005



After leaving Musoma we did not stop until we'd reached the very edge of the Serengeti.

As our entrance fee only allowed us exactly twenty-four hours within the Serengeti Reserve, we stopped for a picnic lunch in a shady grove of acacia trees outside the Ndabaka Gate.

There was a cheerful wooden sign tacked to a tree: "WARNING! ANIMALS MAY ATTACT HUMAN BEING!"

As we were just outside the gates to the Serengeti National Park where lions and hyenas roam freely, I don't suppose the sign was misplaced, but I wasn't expecting the attack to come from such a cute little creature as a vervet monkey.

And I wasn't expecting the attack to come from above!

Yes, be careful when you are sitting underneath trees and monkeys are about. They laugh like crazy when they find somebody to pee on.

Pol, sorry about the shirt I borrowed. I washed it three times but the back of it was just never the same again.

By the way, the monkey momma and her baby pictured are totally innocent. It was one of her evil friends in the next tree who did it as I sat peacefully eating my lunch.