With my granddaughter--lions, leopards and cheetahs!

cheetahs surveying the savannah

Our second day in the Serengeti was what an animal-lover and tourist can only dream of.  We began with watching a lioness resting in the tawny grass, taller than her reclining body so that she was only visible when she moved or stood up, which she soon did.

Cape buffalo mom with her baby

Next were 2 gorgeous cheetah brothers sitting atop an old termite mound surveying the savannah for a future meal.  Later in the day, we came back upon these two cheetahs when they were hunting Thompson’s gazelle, their preferred food.  They were unsuccessful in their hunt, which was disappointing since we’d hoped to watch their spectacular speed as they chased down their prey, but it was a pleasure just to watch them move through the grass so gracefully.

cheetah brothers resting after unsuccessful hunt

In the midst of the cat-watching, we looked at elephant families, full of new babies, huge giraffes, thousands of antelope, herds of Cape Buffalo, Secretary Birds prancing across the landscape and the incredibly beautiful birds, the Lilac-breasted rollers.  Hippos and crocodiles basked in the sunshine until it got too hot and they slithered back into the water (not the hippos—slithering doesn’t quite describe their lumbering, but still rather speedy, movements).

Secretary bird, named for the quills behind its head

The Serengeti is dotted with kopjes, large rock outcrops that are a haven for leopards.  We visited a kopje the day we arrived and saw a leopard hidden behind a cactus high up on the boulders.  But, this day, we watched her for over an hour as she taught her remaining cub (the other one was killed by baboons who eat anything they can get their hands on and prefer to kill baby leopards before they’re big enough to eat the baboons) to climb up the steep rocks.  The two of them perched on top of the highest pinnacle before leaping down to rest on some slabs below.  Such incredibly beautiful animals. 

the beautiful lilac-breaster roller

Later in the day, we saw many more lions—2 males with distended bellies sleeping under an acacia tree, 2 females with even more robust bellies, paws up to the sky, asleep not far from the hippo they’d killed and partially devoured earlier in the day.  My granddaughter had regretted not photographing the remaining 4 legs of a zebra killed by lions in Masai Mara, so she happily took photos of the half-eaten hippo. 

The lioness we had seen earlier in the day was off hunting when we came upon her again.  These are patient hunters, surveying their prey (a herd of Thompson’s gazelles, in this case) before slowly making their way towards the herd.  This lioness walked stealthily, stopping often, sometimes lying down in the tall grass, as she moved towards the gazelles.  Soon, the sentinels noticed her and all the gazelles stopped grazing to watch her approach. 

2 lions eating a wildebeest

It’s unusual for a lioness to hunt alone, so perhaps she had her pride nearby, but we didn’t see any help coming her way.  The nervous gazelles moved about restlessly as she circled them.  Suddenly, there was a stampede of gazelles with the lioness in their midst.  Amazingly, she didn’t get one of them.  Our guide said that lions prefer to stake out one animal and chase down that individual.  If the herd of gazelles or zebras or wildebeest all runs at once, the melee is confusing to the lion, who then has a hard time targeting one to take down.  This lioness seemed trapped in that confusion and missed her opportunity to eat. 

elephant family

Incredibly enough, at the end of the day, we found one of the few black rhinos that are kept in the Serengeti in hopes they will breed and begin to rebuild a black rhino population.  These few animals are closely monitored 24 hours a day by rangers, but are able to roam a large area of the Serengeti.  They are very difficult to find, partly because there are so few of them, partly because the Serengeti is so big, but mainly because they tend to hide if they think anyone or anything is watching them.  This rhino spent most of her time in the deep grass in a river bottom, but we were able to watch her walking through the reeds several times and to clearly see her 2 horns and enormous body (grey, not black).  What a thrill to actually see one of these rare and weird animals.

black rhino (this one in the Ngorongoro Crater)

White rhinos are actually darker than the black ones.  Their name is derived from the Masai word, weit, meaning square lips.  The white rhino’s head is long and looks a bit like a ski jump, with a rectangular mouth that aids its grazing.  The black rhino is really gray and has a shorter head, more pointed, with a rounder mouth better designed for browsing on bushes and low trees.  Both have 2 horns.

hippos sunning themselves