Another season of poor rainfall, and the Serengeti Plains were dry and already a tawny brown colour. Herds of Thomson’s and Grant’s gazelles grazed the plains punctuated by the odd small herd of zebra. This was quite a contrast having just been down in the Ngorongoro Crater, where green grass ...
The wildebeest migration was in full swing, with animals moving every couple of days because the lack of rain was forcing them to look for grazing and water. This amount of herbivores together provide a glut of food for predators, who hunt both day and night. As it was the ...
We left camp at dawn for an early morning game drive in an area of woodland near the edge of the vast Serengeti Plain. Next we spotted a young striped hyaena moving away from us in the grass. He had been disturbed by a passing vehicle. He stopped about a ...
So, Wild Dogs hunting on Day One at Vumbura. Could Day Two possibly come close to that? The following afternoon we had planned a mokoro (dugout canoe) ride in the Delta. We set off from the camp after tea, heading in the direction of the place in one of the ...
A contrast to the scenario from my previous post was to happen a few days later when we found two hungry sub-adult cheetah attempting to hunt in an area further west of the Serengeti Plains, where the migratory herds are unlikely to arrive until June. They were young siblings about ...
Throughout the morning we had driven across the Plains through herds of wildebeest and zebra. Day and week old wildebeest calves were everywhere. Prey was so abundant and widespread that it was hard to imagine any predator going hungry. We came across a mother cheetah and her four large cubs ...
As the crew went about their work preparing the balloon, a lone wildebeest ran up to within about fifteen yards of it before running away again. This happened two more times. Then a solitary hyaena started chasing the wildebeest all over the plains, following behind at a distance of about ...
By the end of the third day, these lions had full bellies, and all that remained of the carcass was the bare skull, spinal column, rib cage and the skin, stretched out like a picnic blanket.
As we sat watching her, one of her young cubs approached us in a manner that indicated he had an unusual fascination with the vehicle.
There seemed to be pups everywhere, often approaching the vehicle very closely to investigate. This all seemed very endearing until it was time to drive away.
While driving along the edge of the Ruaha River during a mid-morning game drive we came across a pride of lions fast asleep in the shade of an acacia, and decided to wait in the hope that a suitable animal would come down to drink.
Large predators always have an ability to evoke primaeval feelings of fear, respect and intrigue.
