Serengeti National Park

Our second expedition to Serengeti National Park was even better than our trip to Tsavo. Sorry it has taken me so long for the update; the internet hasn't been very reliable lately. We returned back to camp from Serengeti on Sunday. Last week we camped out in the park for five nights. This trip was very different from our trip to Tsavo. It felt like we were in actual wilderness in Serengeti because we could hear hyenas around camp every night. We also heard the occasional lion. We had armed guards every night again so we were safe, but they had to chase hyenas out of the camp on three of the four nights!

On our drive to Serengeti we stopped at an overlook of Ngorongoro Crater for a quick view of the 250 sqare kilometer protected area. The crater was just an open grassland with a large lake, and is the home to lots of wildlife. We actually had a day trip back their today and we saw tons of animals...including: lions, cheetah, elephants, rhinos (which are highly endangered), hippos, gazelle, impala, hartebeest, wildebeest, flamingos, storks, zebra, giraffe, hyena and buffalo. The drive down into the crater was a little scary because it was pretty steep at some points, and always very bumpy. It was definitely worth it though; we had a great safari day.

So back to expedition...after our stop we continued on towards Serengeti, but first we made another stop at Oldupai Gorge. There is a picture below of the gorge and of the layers of rock that make up the area, along with a brief explanation of what we were looking at. It was one of the coolest things we have seen so far. Fossils of footprints from human ancestors were found in the area that date back to about 3 millions years ago. The gorge is a piece of the evolutionary puzzel. It was really cool to be there and to hear about how they know the small gorge used to be a lake because of all the fish and reptile bones they have uncovered in past years. The human ancestor footprints that were found were preserved in damp volcanic ash that was covered in mud. They have a replication of the prints, and the fossils show two human like creatures walking side by side, with a third, smaller individual following the first two and stepping in their footprints. I have some more pictures that I will hopefully put up soon.

So after our stop we made it to Serengeti. We set up our tents before dark and just relaxed until dinner, campfire and bed. Our four full days at Serengeti were spent mostly out on safari. The environment and habitats were very different, and were exactly how I had pictured the 'Serengeti Plains'. There were times when we were driving that all you could see was grass in every direction up to the horizon except for a few hills here and there. It was beautiful. We saw our first leopard and cheetah on the first day driving in to camp, and then saw a few more throughout our stay. We were very lucky because the group that was in Tanzania first never got to see any cheetahs, and we have seen about six since we've been here! We have had unusual luck.

During our safaris we collected animal counts and habitat data to complete class exercises on habitat preference and species diversity. The exercises didn't feel like work because we got to game drive all day which was a lot of fun. During one exercise my group saw a lion walking through high grass. She ignored us and just walked toward our car until she was less than 15 feet away, and then just walked along side us for at least a minute. Next she went out in front of our car and crossed the road to the grass on the other side, where she walked toward a tree and then jumped into it to get a nice vantage point over the plains. She was so close that we could see she was lactating, which meant she was probably out hunting for her cubs. It was the closest we have been to any predators, and she was so gorgeous up close. There is a picture of here below.

Another exciting event in Serengeti happened one day while we were all out on safari. A cheetah chased and killed an impala IN our campsite. Some of the school staff were at camp when it happened and saw the attack. There is a picture that one of them took below of the cheetah in the grass right on the edge of our camp. You can't see the impala carcass in the picture because the grass is covering it, but you can get an idea of how close the cheetah was to us. It was a little intimidating to know that a cheetah and other predators would be hanging out in camp that night fighting over the remains of the kill (but again, we had armed guards and were very safe).

On the last day we got to go to a lodge again. We all enjoyed the lunch buffet, and would have swam but it was raining. The trip was a lot of fun. We got back to our regular camp on Sunday and had the afternoon and night off.

On Monday we went into town for the first time and went to a place called Happy Days for lunch. We all had cheeseburgers and pizza that were deliciousss. The food was the most American food we have seen since we've been in Africa so we all really liked it. We hung out there for a few hours and then went into town to look around and shop. The town here is VERY different from the town we were in in Kenya. The area here has a lot of tourists because we are so close to Serengeti and Ngorongoro, so the town was much more developed and modern than in kenya. All of the shops are acutal buildings and not just huts made of dirt and metal. We even see the occasional white person around!

Tuesday we went to Lake Manyara National Park which is less than ten minutes down the road from our camp. We saw flamingos for the first time! There were a lot of baboons in the park, along with most of the other species we usually see during safari. This national park was different though because the vegetation was very jungle-like. I felt like I was in a rainforest in South America. There were lots of palm trees and trees with huge, flat, green leaves, and also a bunch of trees that grew straight up with no branches until they passed through the top canopy of leaves. It was really pretty. We also saw vervet monkeys and sykes monkeys because there were so many trees for them to live in. We get to go back a few more times before the semester is over so I'm looking forward to those trips.

Wednesday we had a day of classes, and then yesterday we went to Ngorongoro crater as I already mentioned. The crater was very cool, and I will hopefully post some pictures of it soon. We spent the whole day there and had one lecture when we stopped for a picnic near a small hippo pond. Today we just had classes. All of our exercised are due tomorrow and our final exam is Monday. Once thats over Directed Research begins. DR is going to be a lot of work. We asked the student affairs manager how long the final papers are and she told us they are usually between 50 and 80 pages. Sooo that will be interesting. There have been a few papers published in past years though, so it would be really cool for any of us to get published. I'm hoping I'll get to do the DR on baboons but I still don't know yet. Next week is for DR preparation, then the two weeks after that will be field work and data collection, and then the week after that will be for writing up our papers. Once they are done we will get to present our findings to the professors and to any locals who want to come watch our presentations. We've been warned the DR is rigorous and tiring but I'm happy to end classes and get started.

I should be posting more pictures soon. Sorry again for the delay! Hope all is well at home!
xoxo