Serengeti: Lions in Love

After four weeks in Africa, I'm in love with this place.  I can't believe I ever had doubts about going to Africa, but I did.  This trip was number 1 on Susan's bucket list, but I wasn't sure how much I was going to like it.  It surprised me once we got started on safari just how interesting and exciting each day could be.  

And this day was no exception.  

We started the day off motoring north towards the Kenya border in search of the Wildebeest migration.  The terrain changed from dry savanna to a mixture of grasslands and woodlands once we crossed the Grumeti River.  We came to a fork in the road; one way leading deeper into the woods, the other followed the edge of the woods, presenting us with open grasslands on one side and woods on the other.  

We rounded a thicket of brush to discover a magnificent male lion doing his best impersonation of the MGM logo.  We came to a stop not more than 25 feet away from this bad boy.   

We admired him for a minute...

    

...when to our complete surprise...this female emerged from the bush and presented herself to the King. 

The King didn't waste anytime seducing his Queen...

Nor did he score any points for gentleness.

But as we learned, when the King has his Queen in estrus, he'll remain with her for 6 or 7 days, doing the deed every 5 to 15 minutes.  I guess after that demanding performance, you could expect a little drop-off in finesse.

Now I know how he earned the title "King" of the jungle.  

I think I mentioned surveying the trees becomes second nature.  While we were watching the King and Queen, our Guide Steven was glassing the nearby trees and spotted not one, but three cats.

We motored over to get a closer look.

As these lioness make obvious, lions can climb trees.  In this case, according to Steven, they climbed up the tree to escape the nasty bites of tsetse flies.   Susan could attest to why that was a good idea too, as she got bit by one through her shirt and had a nasty, dime-sized bruise for two weeks. 

 We thought maybe we had attracted the attention of this lion as she came down and started walking right towards us... 

My pulse went up 20 RPM as this lioness walked right in front of us.

 ...but no, she walked right past us, headed for the King!

The King looks to be a little less than delighted to have the attention of this second female, which as Susan commented is acting kittenish towards him.  (Hard to tell what he is really thinking, so may I suggest you make your own caption.)  My favorite so far is "...you're killing me, twice every 5 to 15 minutes for 6 days!"  Moments later, both lions disappear into the bush, presumably joining the other female for a threesome.  See some of the lioness' kittenish behavior on this YouTube video.  http://youtu.be/rsqO-2Nj2l8

And come back to my blog often for more on Africa.

Serengeti Day 2: Leopard, Lion and Cheetah

I had a feeling this was going to be a special day.  The air felt crisp, the sun brilliant in a cloudless sky, birds chattered at us as we walked to the dining room of the Serena Lodge.  The Lodge provided a strong WiFi signal, which allowed me to start working on the post titled "The leopard strolls..."  It was fresh in my mind...

... the lion and leopard sightings from the Botswana safari. We met up with our guide, Steven Mziray who seemed just as charged up as we were.  I think maybe being in the Serengeti does that to people.  Steven's plan for the day was to head to the Seronera River, where we had seen the pride of lions the previous evening.

It    

The umbrella thorn trees mark the course of the river.  In this dry landscape, everything is going to be drawn to the river eventually.

From smiling giraffes

...hiding among the trees

to hippos hiding from the sun

in liquid Bandini.

Mom and dad Egyptian geese take their brood out for a swim...

and this pair of Fischer's Love Birds drop by for a drink.

Yellow-billed Storks and a Black Headed Heron hunt for food...

...as this Common Fiscal looks on.

A little further downstream we interrupted a pair of male hippos fighting over territory.  As they rampaged outside the hippo pool they nearly stepped on a lioness hiding in the grass.  You can watch the hippos stomping around and startling the lioness here in this You Tube video, just click the link to view:  http://youtu.be/FMx1zzvqx6Q

The lioness was laying in wait for anything to approach the watering hole, but once the hippos disturbed her, she turned her attention to a small herd of Wildebeest that suddenly came trotting towards the river for a drink.
They paused before moving closer to the river, scanning their surroundings for danger.

The lioness was in the right position down wind of the Wildebeest, who never showed any sign of being aware of her presence.

We watched for several minutes as the lioness slowly crept closer to the Wildebeest.  They finally made a dash for the river.  The lioness closed the distance between her hiding place and the Wildebeest in less time than it took for my camera to focus on the unfolding chase.

My only record of the kill...one flailing leg of the downed Wildebeest.

The lioness smothers its prey by crushing the prey's airway.  Once all signs of the struggle were over, the lioness dragged the Wildebeest into the bushes meaning the show was over.

Elephants were plentiful in the Serengeti.  Susan enjoys baby animals so I made that one of my priorities this day.

So naturally, when this hippo family waddled into view, I had to get a close up of the baby.  The adults seem to know when you are interested in their little ones and try to keep themselves between you and your target.

Sweet baby hippo...

...almost let me get a good shot.

And then what should come into view but another elephant family unit.

The matriarch, two young adult females and their babies...

the youngest one was less than a year old, according to Steven.

Elephants are just so darn likable, you could watch them for hours.  The adults so attentive and protective, the babies and adolescents enjoying themselves, jockeying for position, playing tag.

Never straying too far from mom.

It becomes reflexive, you look at every tree hoping to see a leopard.

And sometimes you get lucky and actually find one.  Of all the empty trees and the few we saw in trees, we understood how lucky we were to see one in broad daylight walking around.  (If you haven't found the leopard in this tree, look to the right side of the main trunk, above the first branch.)

Continuing on our drive we just missed seeing a Cheetah come down off this Kopje and dash off into the flats to disappear from sight briefly.  

Our Guide decided a little off-roading was in order as several safari trucks gave chase to the speedy Cheetah.

We had seen some Cheetahs from afar through our binoculars, but this was a good close-up.

And I kept taking pictures...

...until of all things my cell phone rang.

I had been carrying the phone for weeks without a single call.  What bad timing.  By the time I could dispense with the caller, who was calling to relay information about Susan's lost suitcase (another story for another day)... 

the Cheetah had disappeared into the tall grass.

We all had to agree, it had been a fantastic day of game viewing, thanks to Steven's talent for spotting game and maneuvering the truck.