Lake Manyara Safari

 

Over the past couple of days, we ventured into the Lake Manyara National Park to make behavioural observations that we will use for our research article. I really like this sign because it touches upon all of the gifts that humans receive from the wild, in contrast to the common perception that nature is something we can claim, exploit, or dismantle. 

We rode in pop-top safari vehicles in which we could stand on the seats and peer out the top to get a good view. I look super silly with two hoodies on, but it gets breezy when you're going however many miles per hour over rough terrain.

The first animals I saw were blue monkeys, verbit monkeys and baboons in the groundwater forest. There were soooo many primates. Blue monkeys are very quiet, and spend most of their time lazing about or climbing trees. This one looks particularly sad. One blue monkey hopped across the street on his hind legs - so adorable!

 

Vervet monkeys also liked to hang out in the trees, and are known for their 'blue balls' (males obviously). 

 

 

The baboons travel in massive troops (top) most of the time and groom each other. Often the babies would get their fill of bugs by grooming their parents (middle). One very small baby was distressed (probably because it was being harassed by other baboons) let out a big scream, ran across the road and hopped into the arms of its parent (bottom). Very small wrinkly baboon babies hung from the bottom side of the mother's torso, looking rather disoriented and clinging on for dear life.

 

I also was lucky to see some amazing birds! Frequently, I saw some solitary blue kingfishers perching on branches near the road (top). A Hammer cock, seemed to be lacking confidence in direction, and finally crossed the road after seconds of contemplation (middle). Also, a family of crowned cranes sauntered along the grassy plane (bottom). Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a decent photo of them.

Last but not least, I saw a large female ostrich for the first time. The way she moved was so interesting - she took a few careful 'ballerina' steps, tilted her head down to graze for a second, took a few more steps, grazed a bit, and then ran with incredible speed.

There were many ungulates in the park as well: zebras, wildebeests, warthogs (no pic), buffalo, giraffes, impala, bush buck, and dik-dik (in order below).

To end on an exciting note, we saw a family of elephants that have been tracked for over 20 years in Lake Manyara National Park. This heard is particularly interesting because some of the females lack tusks as a result of genetic mutation (top). There were a few very young baby elephants in this family as well, about 2 weeks old (middle). Since elephants are very charismatic and cool creatures, many safari jeeps with students and tourists quietly gathered around them, causing some of the females to get very stressed. When this happens, they are more prone to charge (run at and pummel) a threat, especially when young ones are around. We were leaving the area when a big female cut us off on the other side of bush, and apparently trumpeted (everyone in my vehicle was so scared that they don't remember the momma voicing her distress, but other students heard it and viewed anxiously from behind us), and took two quick, sure-footed steps towards the car and was less than 2 meters away from my open window. The driver floored it, and if we hadn't of gotten out of there fast, she would have charged us rather than merely just intimidated. You can see that she stirred up a lot of dust, and was in the middle of a head swing in the bottom picture...super angry momma. This is why it is very important to be as quiet and unobtrusive as possible when viewing these majestic creatures so closely.

We saw very few carnivores. One truck was very lucky to see a leopard lying in a tree. By the time we got to the location however, it ran away (probably because everybody in the lucky truck was yelling 'OMG, a Leopard!' I did happen to be the first in my truck to see a lioness lying in the grass by Lake Manyara, however, I could only see the top of her head behind a bush.

Altogether, I saw 3 of the 'Big Five': Elephant, Lion, and Buffalo. One park down, three more to explore!!!