This was certainly my best African safari yet though I say that each and every time I return from the bush.  I am continually enchanted by the Serengeti in particular and always surprised and amazed on every safari there.  The ebb and flow of the great herds, the predators in pursuit, the resident animals and the great jig saw puzzle of life called the Serengeti Ecosystem continually fascinates me. I find myself in awe on just about every day in the Serengeti as I recognize a new species, witness a new behavior or visit a new locale be it a mysterious kopje on the eastern plains or a hidden river valley in the remote northern woodlands.

To kick things off, I took a 7-hour scenic safari flight of the Serengeti Ecosystem in East Africa to survey the migration and some of the more remote inaccessible areas.  10,000 square miles is a massive area and its hard to comprehend just how big this is until it takes you 7 hours in a small plane just to circle a portion of it!  We entered the Serengeti from the East via the rift valley that marks the extreme eastern boundary of the Serengeti.  Here lies Mount Lengai at about 10,000 feet, which is the last active volcano in the chain of extinct volcanoes that forms the Ngorongoro Crater Highlands.  It is these volcanoes and their ash that blew west that formed the nutrient rich Serengeti Plains.  It is this unique geological feature that set the stage for the greatest concentration of wildlife in Africa!

After circling Lengai, we rapidly descended to floor of the rift and Lake Natron to fly just above the surface of the Lake and the surrounding dry lake bed.  Lake Natron is home to approx. 300,000 flamingos during certain times of year and the sight of them on the 'martian' landscape of Natron is a sight to behold.  From Natron we continued west to the Serengeti and then proceeded with our survey flight by flying in a circular fashion around the ecosystem while at the same time zig-zaging to make sure we covered most of the national park.  One of the highlights of the flight was flying low over the Mara River in the Northern Serengeti and seeing the enormous Nile crocodiles lined up along the banks waiting for the famous wildebeest crossing.

The pattern and timing of the migration in Tanzania, East Africa is constantly evolving in response to various factors.  Their northward movement has been effected this year by controlled burning conducted by TANAPA.  We flew over several large tracks of land (up to 2,000 square miles) that had been burned. Why these fires are set is unclear but it has a very positive effect on the herds.  The scorched plains when they receive just a few drops of rains produce highly nutritious fresh green grass that the wildebeest and other antelope prefer.  The result has got to be more then a 10-fold increase in food for the herds.  This is great for news for wildlife viewing while on an African Safari.

In any event, the wildebeest herds had been delayed by about 1-month this year.  We spotted approximately 20 - 30 large herds or concentrations of wildebeest as follows (note this was as 01-July-2005): medium herd just north of Seronera in the Central Serengeti, small herd to the east of lobo in Loliondo in the north Serengeti, large herds in the western Serengeti at Musabi Plains, Grumeti and Mbalageti and a massive herd (one of the biggest I have seen in quite some time) just outside the Serengeti to the north of the Western Serengeti by Fort Ikoma.  This large herd outside the park stretched for about twenty miles in every direction...absolutely incredible!   The latest wildebeest census in Tanzania East Africa just came out and the estimate stands at 1.4 million. Africa Dream Safaris will now be conducting regular survey flights of the Serengeti to census the location of the migratory movements.  

I spent about a week in the Serengeti on safari and besides the mundane task of revisiting each and every lodge and camp, my focus for this safari was on lions, lions and more lions.  I spent a few hours meeting with the director of the Serengeti Lion Project in Seronera.  As many of you know, the Serengeti Lion Project was started by in the early 1960s by George Schaller and since then, the twenty or so prides in their study area have been continuously studied (I highly recommend Schaller's groundbreaking book entitled 'The Serengeti Lion'.  This is an amazing record and the data produced has provided great insight on pride society and lion behavior.  The current census in the entire Serengeti is 3,000 lions.  This is the highest it has ever been so very good news indeed.  An interesting note is that the census in conducted by sending hundreds of people into the bush to count lion roars at night and then extrapolate the results.  The current study population is made up of 25 prides with a total of 355 lions.  The study area ranges from Seronera in the Central Serengeti to the Gol Kopjes in the east, Moru in the West and Naabi in the South.  The largest pride numbers 42 lions and they range just north of the Seronera Wildlife Lodge.  The dominant pride male is named 'Psycho' and apparently he has been causing quite a bit of trouble this year.  If you happen to notice a radio collar on one of the lions, this is one of the study prides.

One of the biggest potential risks for lions is catching canine distemper and other diseases from domestic dogs along the periphery of the park.  Africa Dream Safaris will now be supporting the Serengeti Lion Project in combating this problem by providing funds to help vaccinate all the domestic dogs around the park.  If your safari is coming up and you would like to help, you can donate $500 to this project and we can arrange a field talk for you at the lion research headquarters in Seronera.  You can learn first hand about their work and they will also provide a lecture on lion behavior and share other interesting items like their lion ID cards and you can have a look at the life-size fake male lion with different sets of wigs they use to study responses to different colors and length of manes.  This was in attempt to learn why male lions have manes.  Learn why directly from the field biologists while on an Africa Safari! 

We had several excellent safari experiences with lions that I would like to share.  The first was just west of Seronera down the corridor at a watering hole.  We came across a sub adult male hunting wildebeest.  It was quite an exciting 5-hours as we sat on top of our land rover and watched this inexperienced lion hunting.  He would hide in a bush next to the waterhole and when the wildebeest would come to drink, he would dash out and try to grab one.  We watched 5 unsuccessful attempts.  The wildebeest would flee and he would return to his bush completely discouraged with this regal look of embarrassment.  Wildebeest have such short memories and about 30 to 45 minutes after an attempt, they would be back at the waterhole and he would come charging out yet again.  Finally, on the sixth attempt and after 5 thrilling hours, he finally pulled one down.

Another wonderful African safari experience with lions was at Sametu Kopjes in the Eastern Serengeti.  This is the home base for the famous Sametu Lion Pride.  Sure, the going is good in the green season when the wildebeest are in town but during the dry season it is very difficult and they have to subsist on hunting warthog, gazelle and the occasional topi that wanders through the dry plains.  The Sametu Pride was the subject of a great book called 'Lions Share' by Jeanette Handy.  The Sametu pride is doing very well and consists of two handsome males, six adult females and nine cubs.  These plains pride are incredibly tough...very different from their lazy neighbors in Seronera which lie by the rivers all day with plenty of resident year round food. 

 My favorite part of every safari to Africa is always private camping. It’s an unbeatable way to experience the bush.  It’s not for everyone but most seem to really appreciate the solitude and intimacy and it always makes for a great story.  On this safari, I was able to spend two nights camping in Seronera at a new spot very close to Maasai Kopjes.  On my second night, I was awakened at about midnight by loud giggles, whooooops and shrieks from a very large group of hyenas.  They had taken down a zebra (found this out in the morning).  The commotion had attracted a scavenging lion and a struggle must of pursued as I heard the lion growling intensely.  The lion must have retreated to just a few feet from my tent as I could hear the low grumble sound that they make when they are extremely upset.  At all times this was accompanied by a chorus of whooops from the hyenas. 

For those that have been to the Serengeti on an African Safari, I sincerely hope you enjoyed it in all its splendor and I hope that it calls you back one day.  For those of you with an upcoming safari, I wish you a wonderful and safe journey.  
 

 Safari Njema!