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Your wildlife experience in Tanzania, Africa
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@Pckts
One more last question, What is the cost of the visiting park and staying there ? I mean, guide charge, vehicle charge, camp rent etc? Not exactly but a rough figure will do fine. This will help all forum members to calculate the expense of visiting these beautiful places. After seeing and reading your trip experience, I am getting so excited. I also think one must carry a good camera and lens with them to bring the memory back of lifetime. 
That's a harder question @sanjay
It very much depends on where you go, how long, how many people, what accomadations you want and so on. For my trip, which included 5 days, food and beautiful lodging, a single guide and private jeep it cost 3,000 usd per person, flights were separate and from what I gathered that is a very good deal. If someone is truly interested in going please, please, please get in contact with 365 safari and ask for Romy, your guide request should be "SP" and I'd be happy to give you my name so you can tell them I recommended you. Remember, this is Tanzanias bread and butter, they have many tour companies who can accomadate you but I definitely feel as though we got an unbelievable deal to go along with meeting some great people.
When looking for lions in the serengeti, Usually look for a large rock formation. Lions prefer these areas for a few reasons.
One, it gets them higher off the ground and relief from flies and the second is because the rocks offer protection to their cubs and youngsters, It's easy to hide there. Last is because it allows them to have a higher vantage point. This pride was here each day but the males were off patrolling so we could only snap the females.  *This image is copyright of its original author Crocodiles aren't as prevalent in the parts of the serengeti where we stayed but that doesn't mean they aren't there  *This image is copyright of its original author This guy was probably a juvenile but I saw a much larger one on the bank, I am looking for the shot now.
Big boy Rhino and habitat shot.
 *This image is copyright of its original author Crater Hippo with her Calf  *This image is copyright of its original author
All of these Taken on my Iphone
Famous Hippo Pool in the Crater  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author African Sunset  *This image is copyright of its original author
Kanwar made a nice edit on my male leopard full body photo that he did in 2 seconds...
 *This image is copyright of its original author Obviously I need to learn how to edit next
The best I could find of the large croc out of the water...
 *This image is copyright of its original author This picture doesn't do it justice, this was taken on my GF's phone, it was a very large croc, the largest I saw in the Serengeti. It's in the lower right side of the water bank. 
Here's a photo of the large croc taken with my camera
 *This image is copyright of its original author This pride was just off from where we saw the oasis pride, it's amazing how close each pride were to each other. They couldn't have been more than 1km away from each other.  *This image is copyright of its original author This is the male of the pride above, he was about 30 meters off by himself.  *This image is copyright of its original author We spotted this Serval between the Two Prides in the Oasis Area  *This image is copyright of its original author
@Pckts Since you are the one who have seen lots of photos of Lion, leopard, elephant, Hippo, rhino, buffalo and other African animals from the AVA days and now you have seen them personally in their natural habitat. So,
1. What do you think about the size of them when compared to photos that we have seen here and other places (and keep fighting for these trivial things :) ) ? 2. What do you think about photographers statement regarding size of animals ? Do you think they give correct information? Or it is exaggerated ? I know you have just made one trip and it may be too early to give a proper answer on this, but still we think you can tell us what to you think about these things ?
@sanjay
"1. What do you think about the size of them when compared to photos that we have seen here and other places (and keep fighting for these trivial things :) ) ? " I think you are able to get a decent idea of size from photos but definitely not the whole story. Some photos will obviously flatter an animal more than others but when comparing my elephant photos I think you can tell the crater elephants are larger than the serengeti elephants I saw, but remember that is from the same camera taken by the same person. But trying to compare one cat to another without seeing it in person is extremely difficult, like most of us already know, there are many factors that come into play when comparing cats or animal that is. But there are some cats/animals that are just freaks... I think you look at a cat like Jai or Waghdoh or Some Kaziranga males for tigers or Ceasar or Scar Nose or Some Crater males and you can just tell they are large cats. Do you know which is larger than the other, of course not, you just know they are large. "2. What do you think about photographers statement regarding size of animals ? Do you think they give correct information? Or it is exaggerated ?" In my opinion this is the more reliable option, but remember that even this option still offers contradictory information. But I know from experience that if you see lions you can usually tell which MAY be larger or smaller but even this comes with contingencies, Like @Shardul said, the first time he saw T24 from a distance he didn't seem that large but once he saw him up close he knew he was a large Tiger. So if you see a lion and he's laying down or hidden behind bushes or far off he will obviously not look as large as a lion who is standing up right in front of you with no interrupted line of sight. One of the male's I saw standing right in front of me was large and I estimated him to be 190kg, but the oasis male looked to be larger than the standing male but I never got to see him stand so I don't know for sure. That is where you have issues, unless you see each animal from the same distance, in the same position and angle you're always going to have an error. But I still think that asking photographers (experienced ones) or the Guides, which are even better than photographers (when discussing specific locations) is your best option when determining size. But if you're trying to determine from a picture which is larger, Lion or Tiger, that is impossible. They are very different in the way they carry their weight, move and camouflage. I have spoke to a few well known photographers in my day, I have received contradictory information from them on some points and the same info on others. I suggest to anyone that tries to compare image to image of different species to just stop, you will never know until you see them in person. It's like trying to compare a rhino to a hippo, both are huge, some are bigger than the other and when they are close, you can make arguments for either one. But there is no way you can say one is larger or smaller unless its obvious. But all of that being said, when you see a wild animal, a big herbivore or carnivore, it isn't like anything you see in captivity. Their muscle mass, battle wounds and attitude ooze confidence and caution. I've never seen a leopard in captivity that comes even close to the male I saw in the tree, I've never seen a lion in captivity that comes close to the males I saw in the wild and the list goes on. Some captive cats may be larger than wild counterparts, The mirage secret garden male lion is said to be 250kg but when I saw videos of him he looks nothing like a wild male and I don't care what he weighs, he would not be close to a wild male in attitude, muscle mass and battle experience. He may be larger than some but it's just different. Remember, Iron sharpens Iron, wild animals live by different laws, their captive cousins are great to study up close but they are not wild animals, they are captive animals. I'm not saying they're not extremely dangerous, but their "wildness" is lost in their captive prisons. I hope this helps... Also, I don't want it to seem as though I'm taking away the peoples hard work who have studied captive cats, like @peter or @Amnon242 I certainly know for a fact that Peter is one of the most knowledgeable people about big cat morphology and wild cats to go along with his immense knowledge of captive cats and measurements. I'm just saying that captive and wild belong in different classes and using one to make a rule for the other is not the way to go. Better to distinguish them, which most of us already do. 
Thanks @Pantherinae
We were extremely lucky, we spotted him right before dark with his fresh kill then he was still there in the morning after he patrolled his territory that night. What a beast he was. Good to have you back on the forum. |
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