Bird In Lens
Yesterday a good friend reminded me how much of my skills I’ve lost. As I approach my 50th year as a professional safari guide the horrors of sentimentality led to outright embarrassment: it’s not really my age, it’s Alexa.
Search Results for: elephant
Rivers of Lie
Who cares that an elephant eats 150 pounds and not 250 pounds per day; or whether the peak of the dry season somewhere is October not September; or whether the start of a river is some unknown spring in the wilderness rather than a branch of hundreds of springs or rivers; or whether a huge…Continue reading
Thank You, Covid?
Poignant insights about the wild revealed in my two “post-pandemic” East African safaris, last November and this month, suggest a tiny silver lining in the pandemic: The wild flourished.
OnSafari: Bingo Beast
So by the end of our 5th day in the Serengeti we topped 30 lion including three kills, 3 cheetah, thousands of elephant and literally tens of thousands of gazelle. Oh, and a python, serval cat and an absolutely wonderful chocolate cake presented to us with song at our last camp! But remember this safari…Continue reading
OnSafari: Gun Fire
I haven’t delayed telling you. It’s just been an awfully busy time. Our two days in Samburu were cut short by automatic weapons and mortars. Everyone is fine, excited to keep going, we immediately returned to Nairobi and I’m infuriated that the Kenyans have wrapped this up. After one day of oblique reporting, the trouble…Continue reading
Klassy Kruger
Kruger National Park in South Africa remains the best managed large wilderness on earth. (Yellowstone is close but suffers from too little regulation because consumer demand is so high and ranchers so powerful.) But “best managed” does not mean most “spectacular” or “awe-inspiring” and definitely not “wildest.” Those attributes belong absolutely to the Serengeti. And…Continue reading
OnSafari: Rain
The rains start north to south, and we traveled north to south and always seemed to be just a day or two ahead of the rains. It was so dry and dusty in Tarangire when we got there Monday that the interior of my room was 105F and my hands were dry after washing my…Continue reading
OnSafari: Ele Revelation
There are so many difficulties with protecting African wilderness but the biggest single one is elephants. Sunday gave me a surprising new insight. Crushed into a smaller and smaller habitat between the sheering cliffs of the Great Rift Valley and the increasing girth of Lake Manyara, I expected the few remaining overly docile ele of…Continue reading
Single Signal
I’m often asked but I have no favorite animal. The Serengeti doesn’t attract me because of magnificent lions or angry elephant or dainty dik-dik. No single tree or bug or animal has any attraction at all except when you think of them all together. So all together is the most wondrous, my favorite, place in…Continue reading
Dawn Drive
The temperature in my tent as I woke at 5 a.m. was 62F and it would undoubtedly go down a few more degrees until just after 9 a.m. Dawn over the Serengeti doesn’t bring immediate warmth with its brilliant light. It rained last night and the evaporation into the still dry air actually cools things…Continue reading
OnSafari : Manyara
The menacing sky peeking through the opened roof above Steve in the land cruiser said it all. Those stringy clouds at 7:30 in the morning foretell a massive thunderstorm this afternoon. Yesterday afternoon we had the most extraordinary thunder imaginable, as if you were in the gods’ bowling alley during a weekend tournament. It’s Day…Continue reading
Too Many
There are too many elephants. So says, among others, the CEO of Elephants Without Borders, Mike Chase. “Too Many” is awfully subjective. But many countries share Kenya’s just published wildlife census confirming its population of elephants increased 12% in the last seven years, Zimbabwe has revealed plans to cull up to 50,000 elephants, and Botswana…Continue reading
Cat Comp
Does anybody in America realize that an elephant trampling to death a child on her way to school might be more tragic than a coyote eating a schnauzer or a bobcat taking a goldfish from the deck pond? Bobcats are being widely hunted in America and I’d characterize it as outright slaughter with 10-15% of…Continue reading
Lion Love
One of the hunter’s best friends on the African continent has been the South African Government. Until last week. You might remember the dentist from Minnesota a few years back who shot the famous lion “Cecil” in a private Zimbabwean reserve. The outcry was profound, the ramifications wide. South Africa kept trying to sweep it…Continue reading
Pandemic Power
The pandemic’s effects on Africa’s wildlife is curious and surprising. Later this year I’ll be returning to the Serengeti and areas nearby to see for myself the reports I’ve compiled. Last week I reported on how the lack of tourists seems to have altered big game behavior. So what has that meant and what will…Continue reading