Category: Big Game

More Poaching Evidence

More Poaching Evidence

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Photo courtesy of INTERPOL.
Photo courtesy of INTERPOL.

European governments have joined Kenya to keep pressure on the Obama administration to end its silence on supporting continued protection of elephants during the upcoming CITES convention in March.

Today, officials from Kenya’s police and army, led by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), released photographs and other details of a huge inter-country sting operation against illegal poaching, initiated by INTERPOL in July.

More than two tons of ivory was displayed as Kenyan officials described the operation, code-named ‘Costa’ in recognition of former Tanzanian wildlife director, the late Costa Mlay. The international sweep also resulted in the seizure of “huge caches” of firearms and ammunition, vehicles, cat skins and other contraband wildlife products.

It was the largest international action against wildlife crime ever, according to INTERPOL.

“We in KWS strongly believe that ivory trade fuels illegal killing of elephants,” said Kenya Wildlife Service Director Julius Kipng’etich who again appealed to the Obama administration to support a Kenyan initiative to keep elephants listed as an endangered species when the CITES convention convenes in March.

There has been growing frustration among conservation organizations at what seems to be the Obama Administration’s reluctance to stand with the Kenyans against Tanzania and other countries lobbying for a downlisting of elephants.

The operation began in July 2009 and was coordinated by INTERPOL’s Wildlife Crime Working Group based in Lyon, France.

With Kenya as the coordination center, sting operations in five other countries began simultaneously. Most of the individuals targeted by the operation, as well as associates who were trying to flee Africa, were successfully stopped at Nairobi airports.

KWS Deputy Director in-charge of Security, Peter Leitoro, said six foreign nationals were among more than 65 still being held in Kenyan jails.

“The success of Operation Costa is notable not only for the sheer volume of illegal ivory which has been recovered, which is among the biggest-ever hauls recorded, but because it also clearly shows the ability and will of law enforcement to effectively tackle wildlife crime,” said Peter Younger, manager of INTERPOL’s Operational Assistance, Services and Infrastructure Support (OASIS).

Mara Magic

Mara Magic

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Our three days in the Maasai Mara enjoyed incredible game viewing that amazed even me, and proved that the Mara – despite its congestion – is a phenomenal way to end a safari.

Except for the much shorter December holidays, this is the end of the heaviest booked season in the Mara. American families had already left, but our Governor’s Camp was still full with many Europeans and Americans without school-age children.

The veld was crowded compared to our Tanzanian experience. I couldn’t help but thinking of the Gary Larson Far Side cartoon of the “migration” : minibuses in a line jumping into the Mara river!

But I hasten to add that it didn’t seem to matter all that much, especially because our safari had experienced in Ndutu and Tarangire a vast wilderness that at times we had all to ourselves.

There are things magical about the Mara. Its grassland plains are more hilly than further south in the Serengeti, so there is more definition to the landscape under the big, endless skies. The river was up, near normal, (and so radically different from my safaris just 6 weeks ago), and it is beautiful river filled with wildlife and wrapped in thick forests.

And there was no drought. It was dry, probably dryer than normal, but not terribly so. When it’s normal, the Mara is the wettest place on the East African circuit. This is the reason there are so many animals, so densely packed, and one of the reasons that off-road driving is still allowed despite such heavy use. The wetness provides a foundation for relatively quick topographical regeneration that a normally dry Amboseli or seasonal Serengeti lacks.

The highlight of our time here for a few of us was a migration river crossing at what Governor’s staff call “the main crossing point.” It’s not far from camp, down river within view of Serena Lodge on the opposite side.

Gene Antonacci got an incredible series of photographs, including the labored take-down of a full grown wilde, and its near successful struggle to free itself from 3 or 4 crocs that ultimately won the battle. We also watched two easy take-downs of yearlings. It was interesting to note that the yearling take-downs, which happened first, didn’t slow the race across the river at all.

Whenever the line of wilde was interrupted by crocs’ open jaws, they simply jumped over them. The crocs didn’t seem to be very good at the hunt, actually. Several times it seemed that wilde were actually trampling a croc underwater.

The crossing had gone on for about 12-15 minutes when the full grown wilde was taken. Just a few moments later, the crossing stopped as the wilde hesitated then retreated. I can only think it had to do with the vocalization of the full-grown wilde in its struggle to free itself, something that didn’t happen with the quick take-down of the younger ones.

In addition to Gene’s fabulous series, video master Dave Koncal got it all, adding to his remarkable earlier scenes of the lion jumping into the air capturing a vulture, the big tusker that poked its way through crater hippo, the several great elephant encounters in Tarangire, and also in the Mara, the unrequited battle between the marsh lion pride and a large family of buffalo.

That to-and-fro between the lions and the buffalo was great fun to watch! Irritated by a young male lion that dared challenge them, the buffalo charged the lion pride, and the pride retreated. When the buf stopped the assault, the lions turned around and charged them back, and then the buffalo retreated for a short time, before regrouping and recharging the lions! The comic to-and-fro ended when the lion pride ran onto the slightly dry marsh – enough to support them but a sure trap the buffalo understood and had to avoid.

There was so much to the Mara: elephants with really small ones, and warthogs with day-old piglets running all over the place! We saw hyaena that had just robbed an abashed cheetah of its gazelle, and beautiful eland up close. Zoo director, Steve Taylor, estimated that we saw more than 35 lion in our three days, here, and his wife, Sarah, told the group it was the best game viewing she had ever had (on her ten safaris).

Yes, in the season the Mara is crowded. But as you get drawn into these remarkable wildlife encounters that just don’t seem to be effected by the tourists watching, it doesn’t seem to matter at all. So ending here was the icing on the cake of a fabulous safari! (Yes, it was Jeannie Antonacci’s birthday our last night!)

Tarangire Zebra?!

Tarangire Zebra?!

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Our experience in Tarangire with elephants was nothing short of fantastic. But Tarangire is morphing: there’s much more, now, than just ele.

Our two days with the Cleveland Zoo safari in Tarangire probably encountered as many as 800 elephants. On our second day alone we counted upwards of 500, and it was extremely exciting. Ele in the northern end of the park are more accustomed to visitors, and so we were able to get quite close. But those we found in the center to the south, especially around the Silale swamp, have seen many fewer visitors, and they were very wild. Several times we left the track to give wide reign to these wild, southern ele in the road.

It used to be that Tarangire was just an “elephant park.” But as we would learn on the second day that the Cleveland Zoo spent in Tarangire from the eminent researcher, Charles Foley, the 6% elephant population growth over the last decade or so is transforming its landscape.

We saw thousands of zebra. The number of zebra rivaled some of the congregations I’ve seen during the Serengeti migration. And they, too, were healthy, enjoying the mostly dead but considerable grass that was found throughout the area.

And… yes, hundreds maybe a thousand, wildebeest. So Tarangire is morphing: from what I remember as a dense forest to a mixed ecosystem. And for us that means the excitement of the world’s best elephant sanctuary is being complemented by a growing diversity of plains game.

Zoo director, Steve Taylor, had arranged a visit during our time in Tarangire with the eminent elephant researcher, Charles Foley, at his research camp in the park. Foley explained that the forests are being leveled by an increasing elephant population, and that has opened up large areas of savannah grasslands for other animals like zebra and wildebeest.

I’ve heard Foley explain this before, and although he expresses a noninterventionist conservation policy, I’m not sure whether he thinks this is good or bad. But for us in tourism, and at least for now, it seems to be good.

True to our expectations, by the way, Tarangire was dry but not in a drought. In fact, as we left, there were raindrops on our windshield. The park was a quilt of some very dry areas with some green areas, and the swamp was much dryer than in year’s past, but the river was running well and the animals were mostly healthy. Only once or twice did we encounter elephant families that were physically stressed. And even the buffalo populations – which are often the first to show food deprivation – were grand and healthy.

Crater Surprise

Crater Surprise

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It’s dryer than normal, and this is the driest time of the dry season. Normally, there would be around 4000 animals in the crater. Was I surprised!

The Cleveland Zoo safari went from the Serengeti to Ngorongoro, via Olduvai Gorge and Shifting Sands. We had two game drives in the crater, and they were absolutely fabulous.

I had been worried. In July the crater was already dustbowling, and we just didn’t see very much. When we flew into Ndutu for this safari, we flew right over the crater and from the sky it didn’t look promising.

Our first afternoon began at the bottom of the down road with our picnic in a lush swampy area with great birding, including grossbeak weavers and the somewhat rare crimson-rumped waxbill. We then hit the western lake track and immediately encountered quite a few wilde. I’d told the zoo director, Steve Taylor, not to expect more than 2,000 wilde. Fortunately there was a kiosk selling humble pie.

We found lion, hyaena, jackal and all the other usual suspects in numbers I hadn’t expected. But the constant numbers of wildebeest, which grew even greater the second day, was truly surprising. I studied these guys very hard and I hope I’m not just hedging my mistake, but I do think they’re 60-70 pounds underweight. What I wonder is if the crater, like Ndutu with its unseasonable although very light rains, staved the drought.

That would have kept the wilde there with the new grass. Then, as things truly did dry out completely, they would have met the real desert we saw around Olduvai Gorge, and that might have sent them back into the crater.

In any case, the highlight of the day came at the hippo pool. We were watching the big collection of hippo with relish when in the distance one of the crater’s famous tuskers could be seen in the horizon ambling towards us.

Years ago during the height of the poaching, some of the largest tusked elephant in Africa descended the crater and stayed there, despite the crater being a poor habitat for elephant. But it saved them from being poached, and today they represent some of the finest tusked elephants on the continent.

They’re very old now, of course, and dying quickly. But probably a dozen or two remain. So we watched the ele I call “Righty” come straight towards the hippo pool. He gets his name because while he sports two great tusks, the right one is much bigger.

It was a blast. Righty trounced into the pool scattering the hippo helter-skelter and starting a vocalization that was incredibly comic. When a hippo didn’t move, old Righty stuck him in the bun with his tusk. That’s all that was needed to clear a path to the delectable watercress Righty was headed for.

Gene Antonacci was in the closest vehicle, looking right over Righty. Multiple times he turned away from the incredible scene towards our vehicle, dropped his jaw and mouthed what was an unmistakable, “Wow!”

And the next morning Dave Koncal topped that! We were hardly a few minutes on the crater floor when we came upon a lion kill that had only recently been abandoned to the hyaena, jackals and vultures. We stayed long enough to watch several lionesses return, and Dave was filming it all. He has captured one of the most incredible videos I’ve ever seen on safari.

As the lionesses returned, the birds exploded off the carcass. Then, as shown on Dave’s video, one of the lioness leaped into the air. (There is great debate as to whether she leaped five feet or ten feet; I’ll say seven and a half.) She then literally wrapped the vulture under her belly and plummeted to the ground. Amazing!

All in all I figure there was around 8,000 wilde, and a total animal population approaching 10,000, or roughly half of when the crater is at its peak in March and April. That’s remarkable. Why it’s so much better now than it was hardly 8 weeks ago, I can only speculate must have something to do with erratic rains. I must have last visited the crater as many of the wilde had just left, and they’ve returned.

They don’t look so bad. They aren’t at their prime, but it’s a pretty good situation. And for us, it was remarkably wonderful!

Dry Season Serengeti

Dry Season Serengeti

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I usually don’t visit the Serengeti in the dry season, but the drought in Kenya made it a practical alternative. We weren’t disappointed!

The director of the Cleveland Zoo, Steve Taylor, said at the end of our time at Ndutu Lodge in the southwest Serengeti that it was the best game viewing he’d ever had there, and one of the best first game drives.

I don’t think I can disagree. In the first two hours that the zoo group was in the bush, we saw 10 lion (7 of which were cubs, and 3 of which were eating a warthog), a mother cheetah with two three-month-olds, and the most classic leopard I remember ever seeing.

This extraordinary bang-bang-bang of the big cats just doesn’t usually happen. Only about one out of three of my safaris finds leopard at all. Part of the reason is that this is the dry season, there’s less foliage to obscure game viewing, and it’s easier for the predators to hunt.

It’s easier for the leopard and lion, because they can hang around the known water sources and wait for the animals that must ultimately come down to drink. It’s easier for the cheetah, because the grass isn’t as high and they can see so much better.

In fact, the grass was very, very low. This wasn’t a drought as is the sad situation in Kenya, but it much dryer than normal. I must admit that I was worried having been here only two months ago and having watched the steady drying up since January.

But the veld is amazingly resilient. Lake Masek was completely dry and there was only a tiny sluice of water in Lake Ndutu. But at the end of Lake Masek the swamp was pretty healthy and there were several sections of open water.

Every once in a while we could see swaths of green, and the Ndutu manager, Colin, confirmed there had been short periods of rain at unusual times. This very slight greening had provided enough fodder for the impala, which didn’t look too bad and which were having fawns.

We saw quite a few elephant, also fairly healthy looking. The Masek swamp is an important elephant corridor between Ngorongoro and the Serengeti, and we have always found transient ele there. And we saw just as many, if not more, than usual.

On the upper plains behind Lake Ndutu we saw tons of Grant’s gazelle, and that wasn’t surprising. Even as Samburu turned into a desert, we’d fine Grant’s. But with them on the high plateau were a few zebra and lots of Thomson’s Gazelle, and that was unusual for such a dry time. And finally, we encountered a dozen or so giraffe, mostly male, very large and dark. I’m not sure what this means.

Because the area of good game viewing was limited to the swamp, we kept going back there each time. But the marvelous thing about doing this is that you start to get to know the animals. Jerry Wagner was intrigued about how there seemed to be only 7 cubs on the first game drive, and then suddenly two more appeared on the next drive!

There’s never a certain answer to such wonderful mysteries, but I explained it could have been that the two had got lost, or that they had been on the kill still eating which I suspected the pride had managed not long before we arrived the first time. Or, maybe, we just didn’t see them the first time!

And everyone enjoys Ndutu Lodge, especially me. The mornings are so beautiful. And what a treat to sit down to breakfast as a 5-gallon bucket of water is poured over the bird bath drawing down at least 500 brilliantly colored Fischer’s Lovebirds.

What a way to begin!

Mara Family

Mara Family

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Family safaris usually occur at a difficult time for optimum game viewing. But the Mara won that game for us!

Understandably, most family safaris are scheduled for the summer school holiday. Spring break is often too short, and there are often kids in the same family with different spring breaks. And with U.S. schools starting earlier and earlier, especially the sports programs, the family safari usually takes place from the first of June through the end of July.

That’s not at the optimum time for game viewing. I still maintain that the game viewing in East Africa at any time of the year is better in East Africa than at any time of the year elsewhere, like in southern Africa. So for game viewing, in a sense it doesn’t matter.

The optimum game viewing in East Africa occurs in March and April (in the Serengeti) or in September and October (in the Mara). Variances in weather can extend or contract these windows. Our safari – like many family safaris – is happening in early July.

Quite apart from the anomalous drought that is happening, this is a tough time for experiencing the big herds East Africa is known for. No problem with elephants, but wildebeest, zebra, and the many other ungulates and antelope are widely dispersed as they navigate the end of a rainy season searching for better grasslands.

The best place to end a safari at this time is in the Mara. We ended it by exclusively occupying a wonderful luxury semi-permanent camp right on the Sand River. I’ve only been going to Sala’s Camp for several years, but it’s quickly becoming my favorite family safari camp for this time of the year.

Consider this. On our way from the Keekorok airstrip at around 430p, Monday, we managed to have a lovely tea stop on a hill overlooking vast stretches of the Mara, find six lions posing for photographs, plus find three cheetah on a recent Tomie kill beautifully framed by a dramatic sunset.

The cheetah kill was particularly fascinating. There were at least 150 vultures which had dropped out of the sky and were menacing the poor cheetah. Vultures hunt by sight, and this was their last opportunity before dark.

Cara Hopcraft, the camp host, was ready with a special welcome of hot towels, fresh lime juice, and hot water for showers! The camp is mildly lighted by solar, so as dark as it was, the tent was warm and welcoming.

Each tent is beautifully furnished and includes flush toilets. I especially like the little touches which I feel might not be so expensive or difficult to arrange, but indicate a care that so many camps lack. There was a little vase of local wild flowers on the vanity counter, the water bottles were beautifully beaded, and the clothes organizer was a simple drop-down canvas box considerably more useful than a huge chest. Flashlights, bug spray, and three kinds of shampoo and conditioner! Most importantly, for those of us who shave, the mirror was perfectly placed under the solar light to avoid before dawn lacerations!

“I really didn’t expect this,” young Dillon said, truly on behalf of everyone. But as I explained to everyone, “camping” in East Africa has morphed into something else. Part of the reason are the extraordinary fees that the park authorities demand for the right to camp in any fashion. So once that expense is incurred, the upmarket becomes the only reasonable demographic.

We stayed in the Mara for three days and nights. The first two mornings we had an early breakfast and then took a long 6-7 hour game drive. Our location right on the Sand River couldn’t be more beautiful, but it is somewhat compromised for optimum game viewing in the Mara. So the longer drives were necessary.

At this time of the year in the Mara, it is very cold. Ari and Hayley wrapped themselves in several Maasai blankets. The gloves that are on our preparation list, appeared at last.

We had fabulous game viewing. For one thing, the migration was arriving. Two weeks ago I greeted the first wave at the Sand River, and now more was on the way. It’s still very much the beginning, and the herds won’t concentrate until August, but everyone was very impressed. “I never expected this!” Leo told me waving his Tolstoy hat at a line of running wilde.

I was especially surprised and overjoyed to find rhino! Yes, authorities have been trying to reintroduce rhino to the Mara for years and years. We found a mother and calve who were very leery of us and disappeared after a few minutes in deep brush. We also found the tracks of another single rhino. This is impressive and certainly a highlight of this southeast area.

Add to the rhino a bevy of lion, cheetah, and for Carl and me, some very impressive birding. We definitely (I stand by it, fellow birders) found the black coucal and banded snake eagle, two extraordinary finds.

But probably for the family, as successful as was our game viewing, the volleyball games with the camp staff on the Sand River, and the trampoline antics in the afternoon were just as memorable. I sat one afternoon with Grandma Marian on the cliff above the river watching the kids (and their parents) having extraordinary fun. But we all stopped short of insisting that Conor perform his famous break-dancing; he was, after all, a few years out of shape having joined his folks on safari from the boondocks of Guinea where he is a Peace Corps volunteer.

It was hard ending the safari. Everything seemed to have worked so well, and the two families who didn’t know one another before the trip had now become very close. As a last hurrah and fabulous surprise, Irene had carved out of the river sand two remarkably realistic crocodiles! We’d seen them on the Mara. At first glance it was kind of scary!

A good vacation anywhere broadens beyond its theme into memories that could be created anywhere in the world. A good family safari must have the wonderful game viewing we accomplished, but it doesn’t have to be the best game viewing of the year. Good lodges and camps, memorable occasions like sundowners and relaxing conversations around an isolated camp fire, and the warmth of new friendships might occur anywhere in the world. But when it happens in East Africa, ending at a place like Sala’s Camp in the Mara, it ranks right up there with the best family vacation possible anywhere!

Crater of Cats

Crater of Cats

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This is not the best time to visit Ngorongoro, because so many of the animals have left during the dry season. And that meant for us, lots of cats!

Travel brochure description is a communication form that is often low on truth. And economies often motivate the travel companies to use the same description of a place – like Ngorongoro Crater – regardless of when during the year a visit might occur.

That might be understandable, given Americans penchant for exhaustive competition for the best price in travel, but once unmasked the reaction is often just as wrong. You can’t go on safari at any time of the year in East Africa and be visiting the many places you should each at their own best times.

Ngorongoro and the Serengeti have their lowest animal concentrations in the last half of the year, during northern Tanzania’s single one long dry season. But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad time to go. If you also visit the places that are at their best when you go (as we did in the Mara), you’ll find that even the less-than-best times elsewhere can be lots of fun!

Many animals don’t leave. Like the cats. Our visit to Ngorongoro started as we drove up the driveway to our lodge, Sopa, on the west side of the crater. We were greeted by two young male lions walking down!

Their bellies were empty and they looked a bit disgruntled. Their new manes were yet to color, so they had an appearance almost of being angel lions! Clearly, they had been recently kicked out of their pride, and they apparently were contemplating becoming the new pridemasters of Sopa Lodge!

Our game viewing in the crater was truly wonderful. It was cat dominated, although we did see several rhinos, many resident wildebeest and had a beautiful picnic breakfast beside a lake filled with hippo. In fact, the lake was so beautifully filled with hippo that Bill tried to capture the whole scene by stepping further and further away until we had to corral him back.

Even as we ate breakfast, a cat hunt unfolded within view! We watched several females who may have been hunting zebra and buffalo that were hardly 150 meters away.

We also found one of the big tuskers near the forest, which I regret to report is diminishing so quickly that I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s gone in just a few years.

And the scenery of the crater, of course, never gives up its premier position in our memories. Chris is a painter, and her sketchbook start to fill with several pages of beautiful crater landscapes.

But the cats abound! Males on kills, females with cubs, disgruntled youngsters… it was truly a crater of cats.

Fabulous Tarangire

Fabulous Tarangire

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While much of the rest of East Africa is suffering in the midst of a serious drought, Tarangire though dry is still fabulous.

We entered the national park in the late afternoon at the northern gate, and we’d traveled hardly three minutes before we encountered the Watermelon Club.

The watermelon club is composed of 20 or so magnificent and giant elephant bulls that in a truly wild situation would not be hanging out, together. Now mind you, I think Tarangire is one of the wildest parks in Africa, but inevitably the park ends and civilization begins.

Tarangire’s civilization is composed of a lot of watermelon farms. We know from the elephant dung that a lot of these watermelons are ending up in the bellies of 6-ton tuskers. During the day the hang around the northern edge of the park and don’t seem to mind the thousands of photographs that ensue. They sleep, meander a bit, knock down a few trees, and wait for sunset.

Then, they raid the area’s watermelon farms. It may seem comical to us visitors, but it’s anything but funny to the farmers. It’s become a serious regional issue. Researchers like Anna Estes are trying to document the incidents and figure out what to do.

Everyone loved the encounter and we headed a bit more quickly than we intended to down to the river. Like all the freshwater rivers I’ve seen in East Africa this year, it’s flowing well. This one is born in the Silale Swamp, which the next day we would find appearing dry. Yet it’s flowing well. Similar to Mzima Springs and later, the streams that run into a now nearly completely dry lake in Ngorongoro Crater. Is this late rain? Or more ominously, the slow desertification of East Africa?

We continued along the river and encountered huge numbers of zebra, beautiful light, many giraffe, more ele and buffalo. The park was fabulous for both our days, here. It was also, VERY COLD. People don’t think of Africa as cold, no matter what our preparatory literature might tell them, and the truth is that it isn’t snowing. It’s more like the upper 50s. But without the air-conditioning and heating that we’re all accustomed to at home, the upper 50s feels like it’s snowing!

Pulled into Sopa at 7 p.m. Gathered at just before 8 p.m. and had a wonderful debriefing and then a pretty simple if awful dinner. Afterwards, Conor wanted to talk, so I did, including learning about his proposed bike trip across Mauritania. Didn’t get to bed until 10:30p and slept like a log.

Our second morning we were out at 6 a.m. in the BITTER COLD. But what a reward we had at the Silale swamp. Before we returned around 1 p.m. we’d seen about 200 elephant and as many buffalo. I was with Carl, Tim, Marley and Conor, and the others really empowered Carl and I to bird, so we found chinspot batis, red-faced crombec, crowned hornbill and all sorts of other things.

For “team mammal” we saw honey badger, not an easy find.

In the afternoon we were going to take it casually and end up on Tarangire Hill for the sunset, but as I was riding along in Tumaini’s car, we got word that a leopard was on display at Silale – exactly where we’d been that afternoon. We raced over the Boundary Hill Ridge and sure enough, a beautiful big female leopard was on display in classic pose on a lower branch of an acacia. It was stupendous. Charles raced back then again to the lodge to retrieve Hayley, who had stayed behind, so that everyone finally got a view of this most elusive of the cats.

We then completed our plan, perhaps faster than we should have, but there was time for everyone to stick their head into the hollow trunk of the Poacher’s Baobab, and to click quite a few pictures of a beautiful landscape and sunset from Tarangire Hill. That should have been it, but it wasn’t.

The road off the hill is tangled in high now leafless bush. It’s a narrow road, and we found that dusk was a time that the elephants used the road to climb the hill for the night. We waited in my car a long time before coasting silently down the road, but it didn’t work. One large female trumpeted and charged, stopping just meters from our car.

Tarangire’s wooded landscapes are beautiful. Its elephants are unbelievable and exciting, and the terrain including Silale Swamp one of the most magnificent on the circuit.

Tension in Tsavo

Tension in Tsavo

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Tsavo is much drier than it should be, and coming now right after the last drizzles succeeded in falling, the veld is anxious and full of danger.

My second family safari of the season began with our arrival at Kilaguni Lodge in Tsavo after dark, and we really couldn’t see much on our drive into the lodge. No worries. After dinner, 30 elephant came to the floodlit water hole!

In this cold season it’s unnecessary to take a dawn game drive; almost unproductive. The advantages of waiting until after breakfast include not just that the animals and birds become active, again, but the majority of tourist vehicles are then off the road!

So we left Kilaguni at just before 9 a.m., and after a brief stop to view an ostrich, I saw lion up the road to the left. As we moved towards them, they raced away. That’s unusual for a Kenyan game park. Something was up.

We got close enough to see the entire pride of 7 adult lion skulking through the heavy bush, and even occasionally seeming to stalk a huge herd of buffalo that had crossed the road behind us. On closer inspection, though, there was no chance the lion were hunting.

Their bellies nearly touched the ground, they were so full. There was blood on their faces and thick red dust all the way up to their armpits. One female had an open wound on her left jowl.

Clearly, they had succeeded last night in a hunt of something big – maybe, a buffalo. Because even the gargantuan male (despite having hardly any mane on the top of his head and back) was totally full. They were all hyperventilating, and clearly, they needed water. They were heading to either the Kilaguni water hole, or another one nearby.

And probably so, were the buf. Therein was the true tension. Whether they had killed a buffalo or not from this family, there would be no love lost between these two competitors for Tsavo’s dwindling water.

Tsavo is probably one of the better parks for weathering the reverse of a storm, a drought. Because even as the grasses implode to dust, the many water sources usually flow to some degree, because they are fed by water off Mt. Kilimanjaro. Kili has benefitted from normal if better than normal rains this season.

But as we proceeded on our game drive, we could see the effects of no grass. We saw lots of hippo, including one in the Kilaguni water hole, but they were all dying. The buf looked weak, although I concede I would have expected them to seem weaker. Several reedbuck that we found at the now dry depression at Rhino Valley were limping, not as a result of being hunted, but the result of a pond animal’s joints hardening.

And there was not a single non-social weaver to be seen. Tsavo is generally filled with a dozen or more varieties of weavers, but they need fresh grass for their nests. We did see two social weavers: the white-headed and red-billed buffalo, but these weavers are messy house builders and comfortable with using dry twigs.

But everyone in Marion’s and Bill’s families were ecstatic, because the game viewing was so extraordinarily good. We must have encountered two dozen lesser kudu, many male, when usually we see none. Perhaps, this is because the thinning vegetation gives us the openings to see these diminutive creatures.

Zebra and impala still seem OK. Impala is a browser, and zebra will eat dead grass. Hopefully, they will continue to survive until the next rains.

Basically, anything fully reliant on grass might be doomed. I often remind my clients that it’s food – not water – which is the main arbiter of life on the veld. I counted 18 dead hippo during the day.

The water at Mzima Springs is only 6″ below normal, the normal at the underwater tank being just over 5′. It seems that Kili is still doing its thing. But the vegetation at this world renown place had been completed decimated. The bush was gone. Yellow-barked thorntrees were down and thinned out. We saw many crocs and monitors hovering around the dying hippo.

Later in the evening from Poacher’s Lookout we could see that the veld was beautifully green around the river that comes from Mzima and into the adjacent swamp. And lo and behold, in the same direction, it was thunder storming over the distant Chyulu Hills! Typical of this “drought”, there are areas getting very good rain.

It’s very hard to say what the threshold is here in Tsavo. I know from my last safari that the threshold in Samburu has already been exceeded. But here, where so much water remains available, it’s more difficult to judge.

Mind you the water is much less than normal. The Rhino Valley depression, the falling pools at Ngulia, Mzima as discussed above, and even Kilaguni’s own water hole are much lower than normal. But I doubt that like in Samburu, they will dry completely.

It is a time of predation, which for visitors is extremely exciting. And because of the thinned vegetation, the quantities and varieties of animals and birds that we saw on the first game drives was truly astounding!

But my heart aches for the veld.

Dream Crater

Dream Crater

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The crater just never fails. Even now when drier than normal, we had the game drive of our lives!

As usual, we were first down. Which is a substantial effort, especially now in the cold season when three sweaters and gloves barely keeps you warm. The rim was shrouded in thick cloud and there was mist.

When we got down on the floor and headed towards the Mugie River before the ranger mound, it was still pretty dark.

I saw a lot of hyaena. Too many hyaena for there not to be a kill nearby. We moved further down the road, and hardly 100 meters of the road were nine lion in a food feast.

They had killed a young wildebeest and were dispatching it with great efficiency. One female had had her fill and walked away with blood on her chops. She got another 100m away and started to call for her cubs, who seemed to pop out of the tall grass. She took them further away.

But the remaining eight went at it with vigor. A yearling wildebeest is not enough for a pride this size, so they ate much more of the kill than they might normally. Before it was over, younger cubs were taking legs away.

Towards the end of the feast, we saw a magnificent male with a huge mane appear from the Mugie River and start towards the kill. The lions on the kill seemed nervous, and the male stopped several times, as if he were being very cautious about approaching.

At first I thought it was one of the brothers who live together near the river. If so, there would be, as Ari put it, a “rumble in the jungle.” We all got very excited, and the cubs seemed to move away from the kill as he approached.

But I was wrong. His belly was full and he must only have gone down to drink before returning. There were some grumbles, but he was licked by the youngsters that he would have killed had he not sired.

That was only the beginning of a fabulous crater game drive! I was with Nicky and Ezra. Ezra went nuts at the kill and Nicky went nuts later counting wildebeest! We saw a lot of wildebeest, zebra, gazelle, another lion with very young week-old cubs, two big tuskers and a cheetah!

The crater just never seems to fail. It’s drier than usual, as everything is, but there are good fresh water streams into the central lake. Despite it being very small, there were still flamingoes.

Our experience in Tarangire, Manyara and Ngorongoro, suggests that there were heavier than usual and later than usual rains, but that there is a still a serious deficit of rainfall over the last several years. Let’s hope it improves.

Lion Failure

Lion Failure

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There’s an impression from TV that lions are perfect hunters. We discovered otherwise!

On our day driving from Tarangire to Ngorongoro, we did the mid day game drive in Lake Manyara National Park. More than any other park, I love the forests here and would visit it even if there weren’t a single animal.

The forests contain a huge number of tree species, many towering into the sky and many wrapping around themselves like strangling figs. The leaves on many plants are huge, and Sykes monkeys and silvery-cheeked hornbills are everywhere.

We go here to see the hippo pool, and we weren’t disappointed. Clearly, all of East Africa has not had good rainfall, but this is not an area in drought. The streams are running well through the park and everything is green. Yet the lake is remarkably small, and there are even grasslands growing at places that use to have water. I hope this isn’t a long-term permanent phenomenon.

But there was plenty of water where the main stream meets the lake, and lots and lots of hippo. When I was here in March, it was parched, and there were very few. So there was a bit of recovery.

Afterwards we went towards lunch and stopped before the Msassa turnoff on the cul-de-sac that sweeps onto the plains. They were filled with wildebeest, zebra, and a line of giraffe walking slowly along the lake shore.

Then, we saw the lion. Lion in the grass. I was with our only real photographer on the trip, Michael, and he pulled out his long lense. Soon, we realized the lion were hunting.

Later we would learn that there were four mature lion downwind from the lead hunter who was crouched in the grass. This is a pretty standard hunt for lion: one places itself really close to the oncoming prey and will chase it into the others.

We were some distance from them, and so in binoculars and through long lenses it looked like a huge female giraffe walked right over the lion in the grass! Why didn’t she spring?

Because coming right behind was her teenager. Had the lead lioness waited all of three more seconds, I’m sure she would have pulled down the youngster, but she sprang too early.

The youngster bolted away, and mother came running back, her feet kicking before she even found the lioness. Other giraffe joined here. The mature lioness waiting downwind got up, dejected, and the lead hunter headed back to her cubs who were waiting patiently under a small acacia tree much nearer us.

The veld now knew the lions were there. Wildebeest and zebra ran way. The lions walked somberly back towards the cubs. They’d be able to do nothing, now, until dark.

Michael took 198 pictures of the event! How sweet is digital photography?

Bingo at Tarangire

Bingo at Tarangire

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Yes, it’s dry, and that’s when Tarangire really performs. And boy, how it did on this safari!

We flew into the Kuro airstrip after several event less flights from Samburu, arriving in mid-afternoon with my Tanzanian crew waiting patiently. When we were flying in, I noticed a huge number of elephant at the Silale swamp, so about half of us went straight there.

No disappointment doing so. We saw about 250 elephant, and on the way back to Sopa Lodge there were a few charges, a couple hundred buffalo, untold numbers of impala, and in the fading light of the day, a mother lion with two cubs!

Tarangire is becoming a better and better park. Once thought to be extremely seasonal, good only when the dry season attracted the large number of elephant, it’s really matured into an all-year park.

Despite the guidebook remarks that it remains seasonal, I’ve seen hundreds of elephant here in the middle of the rainy season. But yes, in the dry season it’s unbelievable! We saw perhaps a total of a thousand elephant during our two days, here.

Ellery, Zancy and their mother, Joannie, and I were with my driver, Winston, for the next morning when we explored the northern half of the park. I can’t say a lot for the quality of Sopa Tarangire, but its location is the best of any lodge or tented camp in the park. It allows us to explore both the southern (Silalae) and northern halves in two days. It really isn’t possible to do so at any other lodge or tented camp.

We left at 630a with a box breakfast and headed along the eastern river road. Later, when the group visited the famous elephant researcher, Charles Foley, at his camp in the north, we’d learn that there is really a division between the elephants in the north and south, and that they rarely intermingle.

We had seen quite a few elephant before turning down the Lemiyon circuit onto the black cotton soil plains in the northeast sector. There we encountered large numbers of zebra and wildebeest, and then, 19 lion! Tarangire has only recently begun to support such large prides.

We then headed down a gully road and I saw a massive bull elephant coming down the road towards us at the top of the hill. We stopped under a tree, fully shaded. The wind was with us, off the ele. Ellery, Zancy and Joannie were terrific. There wasn’t a peep or a movement.

The ele came lumbering towards us unaware of our presence and stopped only about ten feet away. After a moment’s hesitation he drew nearer.

Zancy was standing up through the open top of the Landcruiser opposite the driver, Winston, and I was right behind him. The ele came up to the rover and put his trunk on the hood. I could no longer see the sky. All I could see was elephant.

Zancy didn’t move or utter a sound, but his eyes popped out of his head and his jaw dropped to his already very low Bermuda shorts. None of us moved. The ele scraped around the right side of the car and snorted. Ellery’s massive curls got a moment’s unexpected spa-like blow dry. Then, he went away.

Old bull elephants are always easier to encounter like this than younger ones, or females, or any in a group. But it’s not something you do casually, and it’s not something to be done without the utter discipline that my wonderful clients exuded on this terrific morning with the ele!

Dry Samburu

Dry Samburu

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The weather in the Northern Frontier continues to tease us in a mean way, and I fear that a real drought has taken hold.

It use to be that droughts came about every ten years, were horrible for about two years, then quickly faded into memory. The last 4-5 years in East Africa has not seen the devastation of the last real drought of 1992-94, but more agonizingly, has hit certain areas even worse, while flooding others.

This extreme patchwork of weather is a blessing on the one hand, but is beginning to foment real fear among the local population that farming can no longer be planned. Northern Kenya starting around Mt. Kenya has been hit pretty hard since the heavy rains of 2003 flooded much of the area. And year after year since then, there are sections that have been utterly devastated.

This year it appears that one of those areas will be Samburu and Buffalo Springs national parks. Even as we watched heavy rains on Mt. Kenya to the south, the angry winds were creating dust storms in the parks.

From the Aberdare we headed to the Equator and stopped for the great fun demonstration of the coriolos effect. Then, to bargaining! Tourism is way down and prices are too, and India in her endless quest for all things orange, picked up a beautiful beaded shawl for ten bucks!

We then stopped at the Nanyuki Weavers for a full tour and the kids took time to disrupt the school day of the local primary school. As I’ve written before, I discourage “charity” of the sort most tourists would like to evince, (see blog of February 20 of this year), but on-the-spot generosity is heart warming.

The kindergarten kids literally mobbed Nicky, Phoebe, Emma, India, Ellery and Zanzy. They grabbed their hands, wanted rides on the shoulders of the older boys and posed for many of Ellery’s photos. Then towards the end of the “gathering” Nicky asked his mom, Hillary, if he could give them his football.

As the blue-and-white slightly undersize football soared into the playground to endless cheering, I think, too, a few of my clients souls soared just as high.

We continued on the Chinese road, a most amazing story that I wrote about in the blog of March 15 of this year. Its rapid development has slowed slightly, and so there are deviations along the way that take us back to the old road. Nicky delighted in these “bumpy” times!

For the time being, anyway, game viewing isn’t so bad despite the drought. In fact, there were some very unusual sights that worry me, but very much pleased my clients.

Grevy’s zebra is an unusual species found only in the northern frontier. It is seriously endangered even though its numbers have increased nicely in the last 4-5 years. There are now about 2700 individuals. In Samburu park, there would normally be around 200.

We saw at least 400, and in truly analogous behavior, they were herding. Grevy’s are normally solitary. This could mean that they are trying to migrate out of the dry area into the fresh and well watered areas of Mt. Kenya and Meru. On the other hand, it might just mean they’re all coming to the dry river’s edge, because that’s where the last grass is found.

I think they’re trying to migrate. But they’re going to have a difficult time this time, as the Chinese are completing construction of a main road from Isiolo north into the desert, and there is increased traffic and a lot of heavy equipment commotion. It’s still possible, but will undoubtedly confuse them.

Vulturine guinea fowl are the beautiful cousins of the very common helmeted guinea fowl, but this time we saw dozens more vulturine than common! In fact, we estimated seeing nearly 2000 vulturine guinea fowl. These are a desert species in the best of times, and their unusual congregation must mean that the drought is deepening.

We also encountered good numbers of oryx, Grant’s gazelle, lots of impala and baboon, and reasonable numbers of elephant. On the east side of the park, the Isiolo river continues to flow pretty well, actually creating a flowing stream under the Archer’s Post bridge and keeping alive the Lorian Marsh. The river is fed by underground streams and aquifers created by Mt. Kenya, an indication that the rains there weren’t completely bad.

And the wildlife in that area is wonderful. We found three cheetah on a Grant’s gazelle kill, and many beautiful reticulated giraffe.

But east of there, where our Larsen’s Camp and most of the other lodges and tented camps are located, the river is completely dry, since this area is fed by the Aberdare, and the rainfall there has been sporadic. Where elephant have dug wholes in the now dry Ewaso Nyiro River, the lodge staffs are beginning to. It’s the only way to save most of the animals.

Normally Kenya’s Long Rains end in June, but it continues to rain on parts of the Aberdare and Mt. Kenya. It won’t be able to break the dust of the drought of Samburu, but if it can restart the Ewaso Nyiro River, total devastation might be avoided.

Never to worry about the monkeys, however! India and Anne’s tent was invaded early one morning by the ever present vervet. The early morning cookies were taken, but according to India, Anne’s demonstrative screams saved them from further monkey destruction!

Forest High

Forest High

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The Aberdare Forest is the perfect way to begin an exciting safari. There is a lot of game and beautiful scenery.

Most visitors to the Aberdare National Park travel only to one of the famous tree hotels, which we did on our second night. But our entire first day was spent deep in the park all the way up to the spectacular Karura waterfalls.

The Aberdare is a huge park, stretching almost 100 miles from Thomson’s Falls (Nyauhuru) in the north to east of Naivasha in the south. About 50 miles of east-west tracks link the west side with the east side, and the habitats traveled over this route are astounding.

We didn’t traverse the park, but rather entered from the east at around 7000′ through the Moi Nyayo Tea Estate into the middle forests just below the bamboo line. There was a lot of evidence of elephant, but we saw none.

We climbed through the bamboo forests, which were horribly dry and brittle, and encountered our first family of elephant at around 9,000′. The family of eight individuals was literally encased in white flowering bush shrubs that must have hidden a small marsh.

We continued onto the moorland bumping into Jackson’s francolin all along the way, but it was very dry and we didn’t see the mountain reedbuck as we usually do. Instead, we encountered bushbuck above 10,000′ which is rather odd. Once again, I think the unusual weather is contributing to the unusual animal situations we’re finding.

Near the top of the road, though, rain had fallen and it was quite green and lush. So the waterfalls were lovely, and it is a welcome half-hour trek from the carpark to where several viewing stands have been constructed. On the way back we had our box lunch.

The kids were much more adventuresome with our lunch than their parents! I showed everyone how to bite off the top of a passion fruit and suck in the seedy fruit, and India fell in love with the taste. She began trading parts of her lunch for fruit from others.

Ada remarked on how beautiful the park was, and that’s half the reason for the day’s outing. Peter said it was the most beautiful place he had ever been. It was a bonus when we descended into the heavy forests near the park’s edge and began seeing great game. We encountered several elephant families, a lot of buffalo, and more bushbuck and baboon.

But the highlight of the whole day was seeing several families of colobus monkey. The first sight of a colobus brought screeches of delight from Emma and Phoebe. Phoebe immediately pronounced the monkey the best animal in the world! They are truly striking, thick black coats covered with a long white manes. Their very long, bushy white tails fly among the forest as they leap from tree to tree.

We got to The Ark tree hotel just as a number of elephant arrived. After Zanzy got his requisite tea down, we went immediately to the bottom turret and watched fabulous elephant encounters as multiple families came to dig for salt.

Later, in fact, more than 30 elephant congregated on the salt lick at the same time, with remarkable behaviors as certain families met or remet others. There were very young babies, and the mothers combined to try to keep all the males away.

Until super-Ele arrived! One of the largest male elephants I’ve ever seen, he must certainly have approached six tons and stood 11-12′. The females didn’t try to move him out of the salt lick, and he went politely among the different families introducing himself to the special delight of the youngsters.

The day ended after dinner with giant forest hog and hyaena. Everyone left their buzzers on, which awakens you to anything special, but the day had been so exciting, not a soul stirred the whole night long!

Elephant Dilemma

Elephant Dilemma

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Elephant encounters are one of the most exciting and memorable of all safari events. But they’re getting harder to manage, and maybe, dangerous.

I’m certain that elephant poaching has begun, again. Last week in the Serengeti my heart dropped when unexpectedly I watched two families of around 20 elephant run for high heaven away from us when we were noticed.

We were on the backside of the Moru Kopjes just before the Kusini road junction. It’s one of the most beautiful places in Africa because of the density of giant kopjes, massive granite outcroppings now radiantly green with the scrub bush and candelabra blooming with the rains. But for a giant tusker it must be somewhat confining, since the passageways between the kopjes are often narrow.

Years ago in the 1970s I remember that every time we encountered elephants in the Serengeti, they ran away from us, just like these did, their huge backsides swinging opposite their flopping tails like a fat circus lady can-can dancer. This time they stopped after 300 yards were placed between us. That’s different than in the old days, when they didn’t stop until they couldn’t be seen. So I guess we’re at a real decision point, right now.

Last October 7.2 tons of ivory were sold to two Chinese and two Japanese businessmen on the first allowed sale of ivory since 1999. (The 1999 sale was a single auction to a Japanese businessman and the first since the ban on ivory sales adopted worldwide ten years earlier.) Opponents of the sale warned at the time that it would spark new elephant poaching.

The sale was the culmination of years of wrangling between the southern and East African countries within the CITES convention. CITES (the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) is the world’s most subscribed treaty: more than 200 countries bound together in the 1980s to end the decimation of elephants by banning the sale and transport of ivory.

The southern African countries are much more developed than East Africa. Their national parks and reserves have been well managed for nearly 100 years. Poaching was never the problem with them that it was in East Africa. In Kenya, 95% of its elephants had been wiped out by poaching; Tanzania had a nearly 80% loss.

So East Africa’s elephant fate was saved when the convention was adopted. By ending the trade in ivory, there was no value to poaching elephants.

And for the 15 years thereafter, southern African countries continued to stockpile ivory. Elephants die and throughout Africa, especially in East Africa, elephant hunting is allowed. In southern Africa especially, elephants are regularly culled to maintain what local scientists believe is a better natural balance in the protected reserves. Ivory built up in warehouses that cost a lot just to manage. But the ivory couldn’t be sold.

A large portion of the conservation efforts in southern Africa was lost when the ivory sale revenue was ended. In Zimbabwe, 95% of the ministries revenue for administering the national parks came from the sale of ivory.

The businessmen paid $1.3 million for the 7.2 tons, or about $75/pound. Today, most elephants carry tusks weighing about 70-100 pounds, valuing each animal at around $10,000-15,000. A senior park ranger in the Amboseli Game Reserve makes approximately $3,000 annually. A starting ranger can earn as little as $100/month.

The Amboseli Trust for Elephants now reports that poaching is definitely restarting in Kenya. As many as a dozen elephants have been killed recently in their area, their tusks removed.

China has been actively rebuilding Kenya’s roads. Most suspect this is because they soon will announce having found oil in Kenya. But recently the roadbuilding was suspended after the Kenyan government expelled several Chinese road building managers for having been discovered with new, raw ivory.

A happy elephant is relatively easy to approach. An angry elephant, or one that feels it is cornered, is incredibly dangerous. Must we now “back off” our elephant encounters on safari?