Serengeti Sublime; #1 landscapes and mammals

I suppose every naturalist has a wish list of places we really want to see elsewhere in the world. Mine began to develop at a fairly young age, and is pretty predictable, fuelled by wildlife documentaries (thank you Sir David!!) and books. They include the Galápagos, Amazon basin, Pantanal, Borneo rainforests, Madagascar, Okavango Delta, central African rainforests - and the Serengeti-Ngorongoro Crater-Masai Mara system of Tanzania and Kenya. Over the last decade or so I've been incredibly lucky with this list, and just last year we got to spend some time in the last of them. 

The Serengeti - usually translated from the Masai as meaning 'endless plain' - is a vast park of rolling woodlands and grasslands in northern Tanzania. In 1981 it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It covers some 1.5 million hectares but, with the connected parks, this becomes three million hectares of protected land, supporting one of the greatest wildlife concentrations, and thus spectacles, in the world.

This (fairly low resolution) map, courtesy of the excellent Natural World Heritage Sites website,
indicates the location of Serengeti (red) in Tanzania and in Africa.

This map (courtesy Mahlatini) shows the entire Serengeti ecosystem of parks and 
the annual route of the great permanent circular migration of large grazing mammals,
dominated by Blue Wildebeest, following the rains and the grasses.

Blue Wildebeest Connochaetes taurinus and calf, with a glimpse of part of the herd behind.
Figures vary with sources, but UNESCO reports some two million wildebeest, 900,000 Thomson's and Grant's Gazelles,
200,000 Plains Zebras and (relatively!) smaller numbers of other herbivores walk the 1,000km circuit every year.

Inevitably the herds are accompanied by large numbers of carnivores, including
3,500 Spotted Hyenas Crocuta crocuta (according to UNESCO, though other sources
cite figures of twice this). These were part of a larger group which was showing a lot
of interest in the passing herds.

But before introducing more of the park's animals to you, let's set the scene by looking more at the landscapes, which are truly grand, and a very brief history. The Maasai people arrived from South Sudan and northern Kenya in the 18th century, displacing existing inhabitants. They were herders, with cattle being (then and now) fundamental to their culture and economy. Maasai villages are scattered in the Ngorongoro Conservation area (see map above) and cattle, goats and donkeys are herded on the hills there. 

Perhaps surprisingly the first European in the area was the impressive young Austrian explorer and map-maker Oscar Baumann as late as 1892. (He later also became the first European to enter the Ngorongoro Crater and climb Mt Kilimanjaro.) He was followed in 1913 by a very different person, US novelist, spiritualist (he reckoned the spirits sent him the ideas for his books) and enthusiastic slaughterer of wildlife for entertainment, Stewart Edward White. On his first trip he marvelled at the abundance of mammals (or 'game' as he preferred); his great realisation from this wonder was that "no sportsman’s rifle has ever been fired" at them. He hastened to rectify that omission.

The country near Seronera, much as White saw it.
The dominant trees here are Fever Trees Vachellia (Acacia) xanthophloea.

In the following decade he returned with equally enthusiastic friends, and proceeded to wantonly kill over 50 lions just in the area around Seronera, now the park administrative and interpretive headquarters. This amusement became so popular that the British Administration eventually stepped in (presumably to ensure there were still some lions for them to shoot) and declared a 'partial game reserve' - though what 320ha was going to protect is not at all clear.

In the end a full national park was declared in 1951. The Ikoma hunters were moved to the north of the park where they became farmers and are seemingly not too dissatisfied. The Maasai on the other hand were moved to what was promised as good grazing lands, but instead turned out to be hard arid country around Oldupai Gorge to the east. Their situation is not so good, as we observed ourselves. I am not qualified to comment further on this but it would be remiss to ignore this aspect.

Mention should be made of the Grzimeks, German zoologists and conservationists, father and son, Bernard and Michael, who studied and made pioneering documentaries about Serengeti and introduced it to the world. The park, as I mentioned earlier, was declared a World Heritage Site in 1981.

It comprises woodland and grassland; we spent most of our time in the south-east of the park where the short grasses dominate. 

This was taken from the moving vehicle; the wildebeest and hyena photos above probably
give a better idea of the short grass plains.

Acacia thorntree grassy woodland. If you expand the photo by clicking on it you can see
the big herds in the distance.

Fever Trees again; I'm a fan, probably sparked by reading Kipling all those years ago.
(And if you don't recognise the reference, have a look at The Elephant's Child.)

And an important habitat component, though quite a small one in area, are the koppies, huge tumbled piles of igneous rock that rise from the plains.

Koppie with Candelabra Euphorbia C. candelabrum in the foreground.
And spot the Leopard!

To make it easier, here's a closer photo of this magnificent male, resting but very aware of his surroundings. 

Not my first Leopard, but by far my best ever view.
There an estimated 1,000 Leopards in Serengeti.

Interestingly he was sharing the outcrop - more of a small mountain really - with a big male Lion; we found it hard to imagine that they were unaware of each other but they were a couple of hundred metres apart. While Lions can do kill and eat even adult Leopards, they both probably knew that he couldn't get near the Leopard undetected.

Adult male Lion in the sparse shade of a small fig tree.
While we didn't see many lions on this occasion, there are reportedly some 3000 in the park.
This would represent about a third of Tanzania's population, which in turn holds
perhaps half of the world's wild Lions.

Even this wasn't the end of the cats however, including two of the rare and difficult to see ones.

In the end we saw Cheetahs in four parks across Tanzania and Kenya, but none better than this lovely male.
He is one of about 225 Cheetahs in Serengeti.

I'd never seen a Cheetah before, but an even rarer sighting is the smaller long-legged Serval, a hunter of rodents, birds and reptiles in long grass.

Serval Leptailurus serval taking a break from stalking lunch.

Even smaller hunters were out and about too, mostly after insects, spiders, scorpions, rodents and small reptiles.

Dwarf Mongooses Helogale parvula, only about 25cm long, hunt in families.

But of course there are many more herbivores than carnivores in Serengeti, as everywhere. Elephants are evident on the plains.

This was part of a file of 11 Elephants marching calmly but purposefully across the plain,
led as usual by an old cow...

... with an even older one with big tusks, one at an angle, bringing up the rear.

And I know it's absurd, but here is an elephant's closest living (non-elephant) relation - along with manatees and dugongs! OK, they haven't been connected for about 50 million years, but they're still closer to each other than to anything else.

Rock Hyrax Procavia capensis relaxing in the shade on a hot day.

Giraffes - here the Masai subspecies (or maybe even species, see here) - are spread throughout the park.

Masai Giraffes are characterised by 'splintered' spots that extend down the legs.

Their lips and tongue are seemingly impervious to acacia thorns, which can be wicked by our standards.

There are hippos in the waterways, though we didn't see many compared with other mammals, and with other places.

Male hippos can do appalling damage to each other in conflict, but these two weren't very serious -
possibly young males practising.

Antelope are the most conspicuous mammal group in the park, not only because of the huge numbers of wildebeest mentioned earlier. Here are a few more of them.

Topi Damaliscus jimela (sometimes still regarded as a subspecies of Tsessebee D. lunatus).
A big quick antelope found across central east Africa.

Female Waterbuck Kobus ellipsiprymnus; this is the northern subspecies known as Defassa Waterbuck.
While they will readily take to water to avoid predators, it's not otherwise part of their habitat.

Thomson's Gazelle Eudorcas thomsonii, one of two abundant gazelles in Serengeti,
and an important part of Cheetahs' diets.

Bohor Reedbuck Redunca redunca, a small antelope found across central Africa.

Kirk's Dik-dik Madoqua kirkii, a tiny antelope (though the largest dik-dik) widespread in the Serengeti.
This one was seen from the balcony of our lodge room.

Male Vervet Monkey Chlorocebus pygerythrus flaunting his most striking attribute.
An abundant ground-foraging monkey found throughout East Africa and much of South Africa.

A seemingly more demure Vervet, though this one was plotting how to get into our room.
Fortunately we were onto him.

Another appealing feature of our lodge accommodation was the colony of little Wahlberg’s Epauletted Fruit Bats roosting in the low trees in the courtyard.

And I know these last two beauties aren't mammals, but I couldn't very well leave them out, could I!?

Young Leopard Tortoise Stigmochelys pardalis; when it's older its lovely shell will become duller.
A large tortoise found across much of eastern and southern Africa.

Nile Crocodile Crocodylus niloticus (with Three-banded Plover); the Serengeti rivers
run ultimately into Lake Victoria, and I don't doubt that crocodiles move to and from
there on occasions.

So, there's a brief introduction to one of the world's great parks; next time I'll introduce you to some of the numerous and wonderful birds of Serengeti. And when we can travel again, you really should move on from just thinking about going there...

NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 14 MAY.
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