Northern Serengeti: Lions, Beautiful Lions

Location: Mila Tented Camp, Serengeti, Tanzania

2°10’43”S 34°24’47”E (MAP)

Altitude 1260m (4,134 feet)

11 June 2024

What an amazing morning it has been watching lions interacting.

But first a shortish catch-up: it was a wonderful 3 days at Namiri Plains in the southern part of the Serengeti. With a simply fantastic guide, Hatibu, I learned about the Serengeti Plains and many of the animals that call this home. Cheetah were definitely about, including a mother with 5 small cubs that looked like fluff-balls and were hard to see in amongst the grasses. She really had her paws filled trying to keep them reasonably close by.

Lions, giraffe, baboons, thousands of zebra and wildebeest, birds and elephants including a couple in musth that we kept well away from, and a young male elephant that stayed close to the 4WD track munching on the grasses, and was very comfortable with us watching him and taking photos.

You’ll see that leopards are missing from the list – they remained elusive, both here and at Mila Tented Camp.

My last night at Namiri Plains included dinner with Kelvin Munisi who works with the Serengeti Cheetah Project. They’re responsible for ensuring the numbers of cheetah are increasing, at least in the Serengeti. They are now looking to expand to other countries. I can provide more info for anyone who is interested in learning more.

In the darkness of yesterday morning, as we left Namiri Plains for the long drive to Seronera airstrip, two lions walked along the edge of the track/road fare-welling us – I say us, because it was Hatibu’s last day there. He is now in Arusha ready to build his own business.

Soon we were saying our goodbyes (I hope he keeps in contact), and I was on the Cessna Caravan with two other couples, for our milk-run to Grumeti, my next stop in the Serengeti. We had 2 stops along the way to drop-off and pick up other passengers.

At our 2nd stop the pilot managed to get the plane bogged in the soft dirt at the “take-off” end of the airstrip. This was not his fault – it’s a result of lots of rain on a dirt-gravel runway that needed to be packed down a little more. With help from local rangers who did the hard work pushing, and our 9 passengers cheering on from the sidelines, they managed to get it unstuck.

The trick, should you ever need to unbog a Cessna Caravan: push, push, push and push some more!

Next stop 10 minutes away, was the Grumeti airstrip where Isack, my guide for the 3 days here at Mila Tented Camp, was waiting patiently.

My bag and camera bag were soon loaded onto his Toyota 4WD and off we went on a game-drive to see what/who we could find before arriving at Mila for a late lunch. With Isack, I’m able to sit in the front seat, so I’m closer to the ground – closer to eye level with most animals. Of course if the animal is a giraffe, I’d need a ladder, or probably a scissor lift!

Mila is another delightful place: as I write this, I’m looking out at the grassy Serengeti Plains stretching in all directions, hills and mountains in the distance, the sun shining, and puffy white clouds dotting the sky.

We came across a cheetah with her cub hiding in long grass under a shady tree, numerous antelopes of varying kinds, masses of large and small birds, and a grunting hippo that it seems, would have been happier not seeing us.

Then we arrived at Mila, met the staff that are looking after me wonderfully well, and after having a yummy lunch, it was time to go back out for the afternoon game drive and try to find the lions that Isack had heard were in a particular area.

Off we went, the sky clouding over and smoke from controlled burns filling the air. We drove across the grasses, staying on 4WD tracks where possible. But since wildlife doesn’t follow roads, we were soon off-road and on a gentle grassy slope, trees and dense shrub behind us and far ahead.

Isack was about to move to the trees ahead, when he stopped and said: “there!”

And there they were, tiny little heads much the same colour as the yellowed grass, and two adult lions … wait, no it’s three adults, stretched out on their sides fast asleep.

We drove closer and 10 little heads popped up – lion cubs. So cute!

We stayed with them for probably an hour, with no other vehicles coming near. A wonderful encounter, just watching them sleeping with a few cubs going over to one of the mothers to suckle - the mothers share the feeding “duties”.

We had massive amounts of rain last night, and although I know that lion mothers know how to stay safe in amongst the dense bush, I did wonder how they were coping – those cubs are very young.

And now to today – Lion Day!

We left Mila at 6:15am (first light) and the sky was clear. As we drove to an area that Isack had heard had another group of lions, the sun rose and I managed to capture sunrise over the Serengeti.

Soon we were off-road and looking at three male lions and one female. One of the males was next to the female, the second was further away, and the third, further away still. Isack explained that the three males are a “coalition”, and are probably brothers - they patrol and guard their territory, fighting any other males that stray in.

The #1 male was aware of us, and would open his eyes, move around a little and go back to sleep. The lioness barely moved. A few 4WDs came and went – we stayed put.

Then #1 got up, went to the tail of the female, sniffed, lifted his head and opened his mouth to breath in the taste/smell to determine if she was ready to mate. This is fascinating to watch – I had no idea that lions did this.

He tried a second time. But this time it was one move too many. She jumped up and swiped at him with claws out. He leapt vertically, and continued to “taste/smell”, before lying down close by.

Within the next hour, another female emerged from the bushes with cubs following along. The female lying next to #1 went towards them – these cubs are likely to be hers and have been looked after by other female lions in the group.

We stayed there for about two hours watching all of this, including the arrival of another mother with two cubs. The interactions are fascinating, including the way in which cubs are looked after by various mothers.

There is so much more to describe including an “ambush” tactic by a young cub. More on that in the next post!