Hello from the Serengeti!

Hello from Serengeti National Park! Here are two of the winning shots of the past 4 days. More to come when I eventually make the Tanzania video!

A lioness on a kopje (huge rock - granite intrusion that's been eroded from the earth) in the Serengeti. (I took this picture with my point and shoot through binoculars!)

Lions' Eyes: A Second Trip to the Serengeti

This week I'm in the Serengeti for a few days as a respite from life at the Children's Village, and to indulge myself with some more Tanzanian wildlife. This is my second trip to the Serengeti, and already I feel like I've seen twice as many animals. The highlights this time have most certainly been the wildebeest migration and the resident lions in the park.

The migration is everything it is touted to be, and then a whole lot more. The animals stretch as far as the eye can see--literally millions of them (1.6 to be exact), all moving along the Serengeti Plains in search of fresh water and grasses. When they're close you can see how many of the mothers have newborn calves, hungry for milk; when you look out into the distance you get an impression of utter enormity--countless dots (each a single animal) line the horizon.

As incredible as the migration was, the lions are really the stars of the show. Though we haven't seen any kills, we've seen lions almost 10 times over the past 3 and a half days. Two groups of lions sleeping on kopjes (large granite intrusions that litter the Serengeti), and two lions in trees (that's relatively rare to see!) I was on safari with another volunteer, Alanna, (who is 26 and about to get a joint degree, MBA and teaching, at Stanford). We had pretty similar animals observing/scientific inquiry habits, so we spent about 3 hours one day watching one of the groups of lions--6 full grown males, 7 females and several cubs. The dynamics of a lion pride are absolutely fascinating - the interactions between the males and females, the way the females watch over their cubs, the way the cubs nudge the mothers for milk and the annoyed growls and snaps the females often give, how at least one member of the pride keeps a constant, confident look-out.