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October 10, 2 pm:
Had a rough night last night. Both Deb and I woke up around 2:30
and couldn't get back to sleep. Not too many night noises. We did
hear the occasional baboon, but even the wind died, leaving only
African Silence.
We got up at 6 am.
Mostly cloudy skies, so we didn't see the classic African sunrise
that I was hoping for. Started our first game drive at 6:30. Just
outside of camp we had a real treat - four lionesses. They were
interested in some impala at the edge of the ridge, and they even
crouched as if preparing to attack. The 2-3 ft impala antelope can
jump 10 ft high, or broad jump 36 ft, but they are said to have
little endurance. Within a minute or so, however, the lions sat
right down again, the conditions for some reason not perfect. Lions
sleep 20 hours a day, and so hunt very little. As powerful as these
500 lb cats are, they're only successful on 30% of their chases.
 In
the strong light of mid-day, under an achingly blue sky, the bright
yellow grasses glow as if you're staring at a field of the sun's
rays. Blinding. The rest of the scene is composed of various shades
of green in the umbrella acacias, mahogany, and sausage trees, the
silver of young acacias, their thorns reflective in the sun, charcoal
gray baobab, and giant termite mounds running from dirty gray to
burnt red. Primordial colors of the earth.
Saw three different species of vultures
(spotted, white-backed, and rapt-faced) picking the remains of a
downed wildebeest, the bloody rib cage clearly visible. A lone hyena
(perhaps a scout), dirty brown coat, scampers away, clearly outnumbered.
In a mahogany tree, a four meter long tree-climbing
python is perfectly camouflaged against the bark. It is only due
to the all-seeing eyes of Tobias that we see it at all.
A baobab stands, against gravity's pull.
The elephants have attacked it so mercilessly over the years that
it appears Paul Bunyan took an ax to it, removing over half its
massive girth in one mighty blow. Tobias shows us another baobab,
its entire insides hollowed out. This particular baobab used to
be a hiding place for poachers. An industrious bunch, they dug hand
holds up the interior walls of their Trojan horse, to hide 30 feet
up in the darkness. Now, fortunately, the cavern is occupied only
by bats, hanging upside down from the ceiling. The stench is fairly
powerful.
A troop of vervets (monkeys) feeds at the
base of a nearby sausage tree, snacking on flowers that have dropped
or were knocked loose. Baby vervets cling to their mothersí bellies,
nearly hidden from view. A male vervet, his bright blue scrotum
clearly visible, stands on his hind legs, scanning the horizon for
danger. Nearby, vultures circle effortlessly on thermals of heat
rising from the dusty savanna, scanning the horizon for the dead.
Blacksmith plovers peck at the mud in shallow pools along the river,
busy and single-minded in their search for food. Both rock and wood
hyraxes blend with their respective environments, making them hard
to see. Some scientists claim they have some physiological traits
that make them related to the elephant, but a marmot seems the closer
relative.
We've had two great game drives so far in
Tarangire, and we've seen new animals each time - a variety that
I didn't expect. The flies were somewhat obnoxious in this morning's
light breezes. We ask Tobias whether the tsetse flies here carry
sleeping sickness, but he says there hasnít been a recorded case
for a long time. For a long time the tsetses have stalled the expansion
of humans into interior Africa, because domestic stock are highly
susceptible to the sleeping sickness that they carry. Recent programs
designed to eradicate the tsetse promise to open up new areas to
human habitation, and therefore threaten the existence of wild animals.
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