Snapshot Serengeti Talk

One of moderators going to safari to Serengeti for 12 days

  • maricksu by maricksu moderator

    Hi All!

    Next Sunday I will travel to Tanzania. It is so wonderful to be able to go there again. I am going to visit both Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Serengeti. As we all know, Serengeti is unique and one of those last places in the world, where we still can see plenty of wildlife.
    And with the valuable work that we all do here in Snapshot Serengeti, we are helping to save that wildlife-heaven for future generations.

    Half of the nights are spent in small tents. I really love that, listening all the sounds of night, very possibly also lions. Last year about this time lots of migrating wildebeest were already around Seronera, spectacular sight. I was also lucky to see e.g. serval and caracal by the road-side before Naabi Hill and e.g. oribi pair in Lobo area in north Serengeti. I am really looking forward what secrets the magnificent nature will show this time, I will tell you later.

    During my safari time (13.-24.11.2016) I am not able to be here on site, but you all, keep up your good work here and I will join you as soon as I come back! 😃

    Maricksu

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  • tillydad by tillydad moderator in response to maricksu's comment.

    Have a great time ! Hope that the safari Gods are on your side 😃

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  • maricksu by maricksu moderator in response to tillydad's comment.

    Thank you Tillydad! 😃

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  • Babyballerina by Babyballerina

    Wave to us, you're on camera! Have a fabulous time.

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  • maricksu by maricksu moderator

    Hi All! Back from Serengeti!

    Absolutely great safari, the safari Gods were present and showed lots of animals! All those smells, sounds, views, sunrises, sunsets and nights with stars were just as magnificent as everyone can imagine. I think I saw so many of the daytime animals (except not rhino) that this would be so long story, that I try to tell here some of the highlights.

    This safari included Nasera Rock in NCA , Ndutu in NCA side, Musabi Plains in west Serengeti, Lobo in north Serengeti and Moru Kopjes in south Serengeti.

    Serengeti is still waiting for the rains in middle and south, just sporadic showers yet. But in north was already fresh green grass and also in wetter, green west Serengeti and lots of migrating wildebeest and zebra were present in those places. However, cheetahs were absolutely the stars on this safari. I actually saw 15 cheetah, 9 of them young. Many lions had cubs and I saw one absolutely gorgeous black-maned male lion in Lobo sleeping on a high rock under the tree. Saw 3 times leopard in Seronera, one of them very close walking on the ground, 2 others were resting in trees. Topis, hartebeests, buffalos, zebras and elephants also had young ones.

    Nasera Rock is a magnificent, remote place in NCA at the foot of Gol Mountains. First night in camp was spectacular with bright full moon. Also visited Ol Karien Gorge, where the Rüppel´s Griffon Vultures nest high on cliffs (not nesting time now, but they were present). In Ndutu the first cheetah sight, beautiful mum with 4 cute, lively young. Bat-eared-fox family with young ones were basking and playing in warm sunlight. In Ndutu Safari Lodge quite tame genets are visiting regularly the lodge in the evenings, they also had now young ones.

    Musabi Plains in west Serengeti was the next place to camp. Lots of wildebeest. There I saw a handsome male cheetah up on a branch of a big tree, beside the road when heading to Grumeti River where were big crocodiles. ( I think not very usual to see cheetah in a tree ). He was clearly sniffing the tree and mark it also himself.

    On the way to Lobo in north, one cheetah was resting in the shade of a tree. Zebra family was standing very close to it, looking and keeping an eye on it, though a alone cheetah is not a threat to them.

    In Lobo I saw one oribi pair and a beautiful female lion with 3 small cubs. One black-backed-jackal had a hole young impala kill that it tried to carry away (not sure how had got it, was alone at the scene) but it was very heavy, so tried to eat it to smaller pieces.

    On the way to camp in Moru, what an extremely great luck! Near Seronera witnessed a male cheetah succesfully hunting a younger thomsons-gazelle. Saw the hole thing. He was lying head up in high grass, staring at thomsons-gazelle herd grazing on the plain a bit downhill about 300m away. He was totally concentrating and selecting the target. Then he stood up and in full speed managed to get his meal in a few seconds. He carried it into the shade. We left then, so he could eat his meal in peace. While driving further towards Moru, female cheetah with 3 young were resting under the tree.

    Near Moru in one marsh area was resting a beautiful lion pride with young ones.
    In Moru saw more lions, 2 eating zebra kill and also a very big buffalo herd with calves. When heading back to Arusha, near Naabi Hill, one more female cheetah with at least 2 young were resting in the shade of a tree. Great ending for an amazing safari. 😃

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  • davidbygott by davidbygott moderator

    Welcome back, and the trip sounds wonderful! I am glad you got "off the beaten track" and went to amazing places like Nasera and Olkarien. Thanks for sharing your highlights...will we be able to see any photos? 😃

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  • maricksu by maricksu moderator in response to davidbygott's comment.

    Thank you David! I try to pick up some photos in a few days. I took many but I am not at all good at taking photos 😃

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  • Babyballerina by Babyballerina

    Welcome back and thank you for the report. Sounds amazing! I am so jealous. Good news about there being so many baby cheetahs.

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  • maricksu by maricksu moderator in response to Babyballerina's comment.

    Thank you Babyballerina! Happy to share good news with all of you about the wonderful Serengeti 😃

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  • tillydad by tillydad moderator

    Really pleased that you had such a great safari . Welcome home 😃

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  • maricksu by maricksu moderator in response to tillydad's comment.

    Thank you Tillydad! You all were there with me in my heart! 😃

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  • maricksu by maricksu moderator

    I collected some photos of my safari here into this link

    Serengeti Nov 2016

    Please let me know if it is not working, 213 photos should be seen so give it a bit time to load. Forgive me, I am not at all experienced in taking photos, most important for me has been trying to save some of the fascinating moments I see.

    One of the lion prides has collared female so we may have seen some of them also in SSS, they live in Seronera 😃

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  • tillydad by tillydad moderator in response to maricksu's comment.

    The photos are all there, I will have a good look at them now . Thanks for sharing 😃

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  • davidbygott by davidbygott moderator

    Wonderful, you really saw everything, and much better than on many of my safaris! You were especially lucky to get the cheetah hunt. Nice to see a couple of pics of you too 😃

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  • maricksu by maricksu moderator in response to davidbygott's comment.

    Thank you so much, yes I agree I was very lucky to see all that! Happy to share these with all of you! 😃

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  • AowlanCrystal by AowlanCrystal moderator

    Wonderful photos! As a big and little Cat fan, I really enjoyed seeing those ones! I loved the Male leopard walking from you, where you can see his front paw pads! great shot. Lions doing what lions do best, lounging about. Loved the Cheetah and Lions cubs and the hunting cheetah photo sequence too.

    What was the little animal having a rest under the wooden pole with the sign Do not feed Animals and Birds?

    I loved the interaction shot between the two young Giraffe too.

    Looks like you had a really lovely time and got to see a good variety of species.

    Thanks for sharing the photos.

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  • davidbygott by davidbygott moderator

    My turn is coming up soon - spending Xmas on a plane to Tanzania, then safari to Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro and Serengeti. It's been dry on the plains, locals tell me, so I just hope it rains soon and brings the big herds out of wherever they are hiding.

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  • tillydad by tillydad moderator in response to davidbygott's comment.

    Enjoy yourself and let's hope the safari gods are kind to you 😃

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  • maricksu by maricksu moderator in response to AowlanCrystal's comment.

    Thank you AowlanCrystal, so great to hear you enjoyed the photos! Yes, safari was amazing, so grateful for all that luck to see all those animals, happy to share those moments. Never seen before so many cheetahs on one safari. When I came back, the first news I saw and read here on site, was Ali's Blog post about the research results (thanks to Snapshot Serengeti) how well cheetahs cope with the big lion population in Serengeti. Great news, and yes indeed, they definitely seem to be doing great 😃

    The little fellow, resting with the smile on face on picnic table under the sign, is Hyrax in Serengeti Visitor's Center in Seronera. Almost sure this one is Rock Hyrax, there are group of both Rock and Bush Hyrax living on kopje next the Center. There are also Dwarf and Banded mongoose pack often on the picnic site lawn, real fun to watch their activities so close, they are quite habituated to tourists visiting the place. 😃

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  • maricksu by maricksu moderator in response to davidbygott's comment.

    So happy for you David! Wish you the best Xmas time there! Great to hear all the news when you come back. 😃

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  • davidbygott by davidbygott moderator in response to maricksu's comment.

    I had a good visit (how could it not be?) to Manyara, Ngorongoro and the southern Serengeti. It had been rather dry, then we got some rain, which brought large numbers of gnus and zebras out on the plains. This time we never went far enough north to be in the SSS study area.
    I posted a few photos here:
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidbygott/albums/72157679339283835
    I will be doing more of these NG trips in July-Aug and Dec-Jan-Feb - may try to organize a relatively low-cost safari myself in mid Jan 2018 or early Feb.

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  • maricksu by maricksu moderator in response to davidbygott's comment.

    Thank you David for your safari-news from Tanzania with these wonderful photos and big welcome back!!

    Very happy that you had great time there again and also great to hear that some rain finally came.

    I love all your gorgeous and also funny photos, e.g. the baboon heading to toilet-direction is superb, great stalking caracal photo and what a view of Kilimanjaro and of course that one of you with Santa Claus.Thank you for sharing these moments with all of us.

    Happy that you saw also rhino on your safari.
    P.S. I have read news on the internet about the mysterious ’missing Rhino John-case’ in Ng Crater, still investigations ongoing as far as I know.

    I can’t help thinking that it might be possible that you saw the same cheetah mum with 4 cubs near Ndutu Marshes that I saw there in November (17.11.2016). The family of mum and 4 cubs was then near the Marshes and I could imagine those cubs would be about that size now, about 2 months later. Did I interpret right that also here 4 cubs ?

    Another, funny detail, I also saw and took picture of that nice 'H.Clinton & M.Obama mobile shop' in Karatu.

    Absolutely great to hear about all your planned trips for the future! 😃

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