More Photos: Serengeti & South Luangwa National Park

I have enjoyed so many wonderful sightings across my four weeks in the Serengeti and the South Luangwa National Park. Although I’ve put some photos into the earlier blog posts, I thought it would be fun to include some additional ones in this last post – together with brief comments.

THE ANNUAL MIGRATION

It is the time of year when zebra and wildebeest come together in Tanzania as part of their migration north. They were certainly gathering in great numbers, older animals, young ones and some very young. The numbers grew just in the 3 days I was in the Namiri Plains area, and day by day, they slowly moved north west.

GIRAFFE CLOSE-UPS

LEOPARDS

Up A Tree With Its Kill.

Not only is there a leopard up in the tree with its kill (a dead impala), but a hyena is waiting below, hoping for something tasty to fall nearby. It went away hungry.

A short while later, the leopard opened its eyes (below) - such a beautiful colour.

Stock Still For 90 Seconds

We mistakenly interrupted a leopard hunting impala. We didn’t see her at first, just the herd of impala tripping over each other as they raced away from us - at least, that’s what we thought they were doing.

Once they’d disappeared into the tall grass beside the track, we saw this young leopard standing absolutely motionless as she watched three impala, also motionless, behind us. This leopard had two characteristics that stood out - the dark “necklace” of colour around her neck and a very short tail, possibly bitten off my another animal.

The only movement came from us watching the leopard, then quietly turning to watch the 3 impala. All the animals stayed absolutely still for about 90 seconds.

Then the leopard slowly walked into the grass and disappeared … well almost. Her body shape is just visible - can you see her in the centre towards the front of the grass. The impala moved away, safe for now. And we felt very, very bad for getting in the way.

Leopard hiding in a tree hollow

The leopard had scampered up the tree to be away from a lion mother with two cubs. The tree is in a termite mound; a small lizard is on the main trunk behind the leopard’s left front leg.

A slightly different angle with its beautiful eyes showing.

Lucy Snoozing

What’s there to do on a warm afternoon when your tummy is filled? Snooze!

CROWNED EAGLE WITH KILL

The African Crowned Eagle is a large bird with sharp talons and a wingspan of 1.5 – 1.8m. It’s regarded as one of the most powerful eagles and is known to attack and eat small mammals. We came across this one after it had killed a vervet monkey.

My photos aren’t absolutely clear because of the grass around the site, but it was amazing to watch the interactions.

The crowned eagle noisily squawked and used its sharp beak to defend its kill from a second vervet monkey, perhaps a “rescuer”. Part of the eagle’s “crown” is visible above, as it drives the other monkey away.

Two hamerkops flew in. Perhaps the crowned eagle was near their nest, or they were being opportunistic - they’re not overly large birds and do eat meat. The beautiful plumage of the crowned eagle became visible as it fended off the hamerkops.

And then, having had enough of the intruders, the eagle flew off, showing its beautiful wings. The remains of the monkey are in its claws including the monkey’s long white tail.

KORI BUSTARD

We came across this Kori Bustard in NW Serengeti. It is Africa’s largest flying bird - an adult can weigh up to 19 kgs. They spend much of the day on the ground, foraging in low bushes and trees, and being omnivores, they eat a mix of reptiles, mammals, seeds, berries, and even other birds.

LIONS

We had many, many sightings of lions in the Serengeti and South Luangwa, and I started to learn more about the way they behave in their prides. Frequently 2 or 3 males will form a “coalition” and will work together to defend their territory. They might be brothers or half brothers – they will usually stay together and hunt together.

Females can be very sociable within their own pride. Lactating females will feed cubs that are not their own, and will look after all the young as they grow. Of course it’s not always that straightforward, but I certainly saw examples of this.

Taken in the Serengeti, Tanzania – these 7 cubs are not all hers. There were two other female lions sleeping nearby, and they each shared feeding duties. It’s not unusual for one cub to go from one mother to another.

So how close to the lions were we? The answer is “very close” as these two photos (above) show.

The photo below shows one of these lions with the early morning sun causing the shadows to “play” across his face.

ELEPHANTS

I’ve described how elephants keep their babies away from harm, often hiding them amongst the herd. We saw this a number of times, often on the bush tracks when they would move away from the 4WD tracks and disappear into the bush.

These first four photos (below) were taken from my cabin at Kapamba Bushcamp, where I could sit outside and watch the goings-on from a comfy chair, camera at the ready!

The baby in the middle of this small herd of elephants was exploring fallen tree trunks in the shallow Kapamba River, as you do when you’re very young and inquisitive.

A couple of minutes later, it decided that milk from its mum was a good way to go, so over it went to suckle.

Once satisfied, it started using giant strides (well, it’s all relative …) to walk further upstream to be with the other bigger elephants.

And in less than a minute, all the other young and older adults had moved to shield it from my view.

“Dust bathing” in the Serengeti: although this elephant had caked itself in mud, it still needed to add layers of dirt to protect its skin from the strong Serengeti UV light. It was fun watching them sniff dirt up their trunk and then expel it over their bodies.

In the Serengeti, this young male elephant came quite close to us while he enjoyed munching the delicious green grass.

Below, the a close up shows the texture of his skin on his trunk and leg – I imagine that this is relatively soft to touch.

CHEETAH

The Serengeti is one of the African homes to cheetah – there are none in Zambia at this stage, although that could change in the future.

We had wonderful sightings in Namiri Plains, starting with the three brothers that walked the path one behind the other (see the 10 June post), then a single mother that Hatibu knew had cubs with her days earlier, and a;so a mother with five gorgeous young fluff balls.

The cheetah that was looking for her cubs (above) walked for many kilometers. We stayed with her for nearly two hours but she didn’t seem to be able to find them. Coming back the following day, we found her, but still without cubs.

This mother (above) had her paws filled when dealing with her cubs – they had minds of their own, and were enjoying themselves running ahead and hiding in the long grass, their furry coats helping them hide very effectively. One would lead, staying in front of the other four, then would come back to its mother (mostly) when she called.

Thank you again for reading my blog posts, and for your comments – please keep these, and any questions, coming!

I look forward to sharing photos from the next trip with you.