Serengeti (day 2)

     We had two game drives today.  Most of the animals we saw we had seen before, but the landscape was very different, and the animal behaviors are always unique. 
     In the morning drive, we had four lion encounters.  Two were very close-up in the grasslands with female lionesses, one of which was calling for its clan.  We also saw elephants, including an infant - probably 1-2 months old.
     In the afternoon, we went to a hippo pool.  Hippos are huge - up to 3 tons.  Babies can be very small (comparatively), we saw one that might have been as little as 300 pounds.  They also stink.  They graze absolutely huge amounts of grass to maintain their mass, which means they are constantly fouling the waters where they congregate.  You can smell the pools long before you arrive.  They are also very territorial - they are one of the top killers (of people) in Africa.
     We also spotted a number of birds, our first Tanzanian dik diks, oryxes, impala, gazelles, and an enormous number of zebra and wildebeests. 

     This is the first place we have stayed that does not have an electric fence.  That means that after dark we are required to get an escort between the lobby/dining-hall and our tent.  When we returned from our morning drive, we could not get to our rooms because there was an elephant at the entrance - it would not have been safe to leave the car.  On the grounds we have spotted numerous hyraxes, klipspringers, and baboons.  A semi-infinite number of zebras are adjacent to the camp.  At all times of day and night there is a continuous symphony (not to mention critters skittering across the canvas roof of the tent).

Pictures of the day:

Many of the animals have moved from the grasslands to the woodlands of the Serengeti, where there is still greener grass.  When this dries out, the great migration toward the Mara will begin.  An impala harem below in the woodlands (this is also where most of the zebra and wildebeest are).

 So many zebra.

 A pair of Maasai giraffes browsing the trees.

Maribu storks can be very ugly.  They are scavengers and have no feathers on their heads so that when they really dig into the guts of an animal, less debris will stick.  These animals are so ugly that sometimes it is difficult to tell if they are alive or corpses.

 This one, for example, is a corpse.  Zoom in on the head.

 Just kidding.

 Funny joke.  Ha ha ha!

Baboons grooming

Long-tailed starling

A particularly picturesque umbrella acacia tree.  The winding of the branches caught my attention.

White-headed shrike

 A lioness in the grass.  Only her tail is visible in this image.

A lioness climbing a small hill and calling for her pride.

This baby elephant is probably 1-2 months old.  There can never be too many baby elephants.

Zebras entering the riverbed as far as the eye can see.

Grey-headed kingfisher.  Very colorful.

Baby hippo!  Probably still over 300 pounds, but looks tiny compared to mom.

Yawning hippo.  Big teeth.  Hippos are very territorial and kill more people than any other large animal in Africa.

Dik dik.

Baboon babies riding bareback.

Our first Serengeti topi.

Our first Serengeti Oryx.

This is the entrance to our compound, looking backward.  Again, there are no fences between the compound and the outer world.

Baboon outside our tent.  One pair of campers got trapped outside of their tent when an elephant started browsing the tree above their tent and had to wait it out.  They have lots of nice video.  Our video was of a hyrax snoring outside of our tent.  Since the two animals are cousins, I will declare the videos to be equivalent.