The animals of Ndutu

I've already blogged lots about my experiences in Ndutu, but it's often very focused around the cheetahs and lions there. This posts highlights a few of the other delightful animals seen around the area.

Jackals are one of the few animals that still look cute with the entrails of a carcass in their mouths. 
This one had just manage to snatch a mouthful under the gaze of several Tawny eagles, 
which explains his smile.

A leopard tortoise which had wandered onto the road didn't look too impressed when I lay down in front of him.

I love watching giraffe eat, because they have such long tongues!

Another Jackal also looking pleased about his scavenged lunch. 

A pair of giraffe walking across the marshes of Ndutu.

On our way from Ndutu to the Ngorongoro crater we saw the beautiful sight of a new born zebra foal,
 trying to walk just minutes after birth.

Cheetah cubs in training

From a young age cheetah cubs learn to hunt by shadowing their mother. This means that often young cheetah cubs will chase other animals around the plains, just to gain experience, whether they would be considered prey or not. In one morning in Ndutu we witnessed a 7 month old pair of cheetah cubs chase zebra, wildebeest, warthogs, a jackal and several species of birds. Finally their mother caught them a Thompson's gazelle fawn to allow them to fine tune their tripping techniques. Even once they had succeeded in tripping the fawn the cheetahs looked confused as to what to do next. Mum came to the rescue, biting the fawns neck, so that they could enjoy lunch.

An over-exited cheetah cub chasing part of the migration.

The same cheetah cub bravely chasing a Jackal.

The cheetah cub looking a little less brave as the Jackal turned around and barked at him.

One of the cubs successfully tripping the fawn. 

The cheetah mum and gazelle mum watched on as the cheetah cubs chase the fawn.

The lions and the buffalo

One morning in Ndutu we came across the large pride of lions who appeared to be having a staring match with a Cape buffalo. The Cape buffalo was significantly outnumbered but he knew that he couldn't turn his back otherwise he might find a hungry lion on it. The lions were attempting to spread out to surround the buffalo, however the buffalo charged at any lion that strayed too far away from the group. Eventually the lion pride wandered off towards the marsh area in search for a less experienced buffalo.

The staring match between the lion pride and the Cape buffalo.

A lion running from the charging buffalo.

A female lion being chased by the buffalo.

One last look from the large Cape buffalo, which indicated to the lions that their meal was elsewhere. 

Ndutu - Nirvana?

After a few fantastic days in the Serengeti I was a little sad to leave, especially after the amusing antics of Poser Leopard. However my group had promised me that the next stop on our trip; this amazing place called Ndutu, was simply nirvana. I was happily imagining a place where the sun was always shining, the migration was passing through and leopard cubs were playing with cheetah cubs. My group had neglected to mention that we would be catching the start of the rainy season and the chance of thunderstorms was reasonably high.

Sheets of rain moving across the plains in Ndutu.

 A tawny eagle taking off in the sunshine against the dark backdrop of storm clouds

The storm clouds being photographed by my Dad who was enjoying the challenge of the ever changing
weather.

A surprise leopard sighting as leopards usually keep to themselves in Ndutu.
This one was chased up a tree by a large female lion, but still looked great against
the storm clouds.

Judging by the look on this little guy's face I'm not sure he enjoyed the rain much!

I would still have to agree that my week in Ndutu was an amazing experience and the 4 or 5 rain storms that we had only added to the experience. My previous blog post Cheetahs in the rain features more examples of the photographs to be had if one braves the weather.

Our close Cheetah encounter.

One morning in Ndutu at the crack of dawn we came across a Cheetah family with 3 young cubs. It looked as though Mum had just caught a young Thompson's Gazelle for breakfast. Despite the fresh meat in front of them one of the Cheetah cubs got distracted by a lone wildebeest calf. Soon all three cubs were darting through the safari trucks before chasing the young wildebeest across the plains. Unfortunately the cubs were not yet old enough to understand how to trip prey, so were hopelessly chasing the wildebeest in circles until Mum came to the rescue, sprinting across the plains and tripping the wildebeest in one swipe of the paw.

It wasn't until after their second breakfast that the Cheetah cubs noticed us and came to say 'hi!'

The 3 cheetah cubs tucking into their second breakfast

 

The cheetahs playing tug of war over the wildbeest calf

Cheetah cub portrait

Cheetah cub checking out her reflection on the side of our truck
(probably my favourite iPhone photo)

World lion day

Apparently the 10th of August is world lion day so in anticipation I'll share some more of my lion images. All of these lions have been photographed in Ndutu, Tanzania.

Peekaboo! A young lion cub peering around a tree

A tree climbing lion. For some reason the lion thought they could climb
 trees as well as the leopards.. 
and then looked very confused when they couldn't.

A portrait of a young lion cub.

Bedtime! The three young lions taking a mid-morning nap.

The lions and the spare wheel cover

One morning, while in Ndutu in Tanzania, we came across a large pride of lions, about 20 in total including cubs. They mischievously stalked around our truck, peering around the exhausts and through the muddy back windows. A male started tugging at the spare wheel cover, deciding it would make a good plaything. We followed the lions and our spare wheel cover from the plains towards the marsh area, where we had a wonderful view of them breeching the top of a hill. Eventually the lions stopped on the bank of the big marsh, half resting on the short grass the other half playing hide and seek with the spare wheel cover. Eventually one of the older female lions snatched away the spare wheel cover and hide it in the long reeds of the marsh, causing the restless lions to find trees to climb.

 

The pride at first light

Lionesses, with a golden hale from the morning sun

A cheeky female lion peering around our exhaust

The male chewing at our spare tire cover (shot through our back window!)

The Male lion proudly walking away with his prize

A young lion cub gazing over the marsh

Mum and lion cub playing with the spare wheel cover

'Help I'm not sure I'm supposed to climb trees!'

Sorry for the long blog post, but it was a great morning, and I wanted to include enough photographs so that they could tell the story.