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09-22-2016, 06:51 PM( This post was last modified: 10-29-2017, 04:27 PM by Ngala )
The purpose of this thread is to tell people of WildFact forum about your visit in different national park and wildlife reserves of Tanzania, like Serengeti, Tarangire, Crater etc. If you have ever visited these beautiful place please share your experience, photos, videos with other people and inspire them to visit it.
Rules:
1. You are not allowed to post visit of unknown people, you can only post your, family, friends and relatives photos and experience.
2. Do not post images and video from internet. Only post images and videos which belongs to you and taken by you during your visit.
Ok guys, since I have over 400 images to go through I'm going to break it down by Place.
First on my list is the Tarangire Park
This park is absolutely Gorgeous and a Must for any travelers going to Tanzania. It is filled with Baobab Trees and every animal you can think of. They have lions, leopards, cheetah, painted dogs, hyena, elephant, giraffe, warthog, zebra, wildabeast, baboon and more...
*This image is copyright of its original author
*This image is copyright of its original author
Baobab Tree
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*This image is copyright of its original author
This was a watering hole covered by plants, when we arrived it had Giraffe, Ostrich, Baboon, Warthog and Zebra all there at once then a pack of female elephants joined the group... One of the best sights of my life
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*This image is copyright of its original author
The tallest and Heaviest land mammals on earth in one frame
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*This image is copyright of its original author
This was a group of Bachelor Male elephants walking through a dried out river bed.
In the front of the Group was a massive male and bringing up the rear of the group was another massive male, once the male from back got to the front, the front male established dominance and gave the back male a jab with his tusks, It was awesome.
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*This image is copyright of its original author
All of the images were taken by me, I have so many more but I'm trying to keep the posts as small as possible. I'll continue to post some here and there but right now I'm going to break it down into 3 parts.
Tarangire,
Serengeti,
Ngorongoro Crater
The serengeti is a massive amount of land, you will drive and see open plains, then rocks and dry forest, then dense forest, then oasis and so on... You never know what's around the corner so you must always be prepared.
I was screamed at by a elephant mother for using flash on my camera, we had another elephant charge at us but we were driving to fast, she charged cause we startled her. Cape buffalo are the most skiddish of all the animals I encountered, the cows will run but they always stop and look back at you just to let you know what they're capable of. We saw a bachelor group of males that meant business, they weren't running anywhere. The elephants rule all, they run out every animal, its not even a question. Zebra are by far the most alert and when they run you can feel the power in their hoofs, they are larger than wildabeast by a bit of a margin.
This guy is the Rarest of the Rare, we had to track this guy for a mile until we circled back around and let him walk right past us, and only us. What a Sighting!
Black Rhino
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*This image is copyright of its original author
This HUGE boy dragged his Water buc kill up into the tree, he had fed and was now resting. His head and paws were just massive, WHAT A MALE!
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*This image is copyright of its original author
Full Body
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*This image is copyright of its original author
Horn Bill
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*This image is copyright of its original author
Massive Cape Buffalo herd we saw as we were leaving the serengeti and heading to the Crater
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*This image is copyright of its original author
This guy was part of the huge heard and never took his eyes off of us, check his horns out. He was so captivating
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*This image is copyright of its original author
Big Mamma Showing her uneasy feeling towards us with her calf so close
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*This image is copyright of its original author
No intro Needed, this was my favorite shot of a Hyena, they are so cool, their babies look like little bears.
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*This image is copyright of its original author
This was the leader of the Bachelor Group of Buffalo I was talking about, he never stopped looking at us. He was an absolute monster, I can't imagine how a lion could take him on, only a pride. He was in his prime and confident, he was the king of his domain.
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*This image is copyright of its original author
Now for the King...
This male and female along with another female were breeding and another male and female were off a bit breeding as well until elephant interrupted them and forced them to come closer to us
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*This image is copyright of its original author
*This image is copyright of its original author
*This image is copyright of its original author
Same Guy, he was a big boy. I'd estimate him to be 180kg or so, he wasn't very long or extraordinarily tall but he was thick and had a full belly.
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*This image is copyright of its original author
The largest female, the guy above was with her and one more
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*This image is copyright of its original author
Some more of the pride
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*This image is copyright of its original author
This was the 2nd male who was off breeding with another female until an elephant forced him towards us
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*This image is copyright of its original author
As we sat watching these guys for an hour this big boy showed up!
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*This image is copyright of its original author
As we were leaving to head to the crater, we drove through the serengeti and ran into this monster!
Elephant are right or left handed, you will usually see one tusk more worn than the other because they are dominate in one side or another.
*This image is copyright of its original author
*This image is copyright of its original author
So as we are leaving we start driving through this Oasis, like I stated the Serengeti is ever changing landscape, there was a pride a lions here and this male was with in a foot of us, probably the largest male I saw but he never stood up, but what I shot I got of him. I have the rest of his pride as well, but not worth posting, they are further off.
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*This image is copyright of its original author
Like I said, it was an Oasis!
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*This image is copyright of its original author
Beautiful Secretary bird
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*This image is copyright of its original author
The very hard to spot, Serval... Our guide was the main reason we spotted these guys a few times.
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*This image is copyright of its original author
Tomorrow I'll do the crater and add any other pictures I missed today. I hope you all have enjoyed so far...
The Crater is a 19km x 21km Crater with in the much larger, Ngorongoro Conservation Reserve, it has a very unique eco system.
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Although being direct neighbors to the Serengeti z(the serengeti begins on the upper left just outside the white line), it is at least 10 degrees colder, much greener year round and the soil is rich with volcanic nutrients not found elsewhere.
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*This image is copyright of its original author
Now to the info on animal size...
In the crater the soil is rich with minerals, which means the animals that eat the plants grown from the mineral rich soil are healthy, possibly more healthy than anywhere else.
How is this shown?
Elephants: Male Elephants in the crater are noticeably bigger and their Tusks are much more dense. They are much harder to spot though, I saw the female group in the denser forest portion of the crater and they didn't appear any larger but elephants travel in all shapes and sizes, usually there are only a few full grown adults and the rest are a bit younger from what I've seen.
Cape Buffalo: Although they were a bit further off, I could see the male group looked very healthy and large, at least as large as any I saw in the serengeti.
Zebra and Wildabeast: These are the most abundant prey species for lion and to me they didn't seem any larger or smaller compared to else where.
Now onto Lions: Lions that I saw in the crater were a coalition of 5 3.5 year old males on a buffalo cow kill and 3 lioness drinking water then possibly waiting to start hunting but we didn't get to stay long enough to see.
The lioness I saw were no larger than else where and the young males where healthy, but not larger than lions I saw in the serengeti. That being said, I asked my guide about this. If any one is qualified to speak on it, he is. He worked in the crater for 5 years and has been a guide for 10 plus, he said and I quote "lions are mostly the same size throughout africa, some are big and some are smaller, but the largest lion I have ever seen in my life was from the Crater." he also said "in the crater, lions manes are a bit longer and they usually cover the shoulder (he says that very rarely do manes cover the shoulder and its a sign that they are the healthiest when their shoulder is covered.)"
What I took away from that is this... The crater will breed the best of the best, if your genetic makeup means that you'll be a healthy creature in the serengeti, the Crater offers you the opportunity to be even healthier than elsewhere which in turn means that the freak specimens may be even more noticeable in the crater.
Another thing to note that is unique about the crater is this, inside the crater you have between 4-5 different lion prides but something is odd about these ones, they don't live by the territorial code as we are accustomed to seeing in lions. This prides will travel freely through each others territories with no sign of aggression towards one another.
Now, onto the photos from the Crater
The first animal we encountered in the crater was this healthy male warthog
*This image is copyright of its original author
as we begin our journey, Zebra are the first to greet and your breath is taken away from the sights of the craters landscape
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Notice a juvenile will still have a bit of brown in its coat
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Wildabeast and Zebra together which is very usually, they seem to enjoy each others company.
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This was the first Male elephant we saw, he was far off but his size was immense and check out those Tusks!
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This was the 2nd Bull we saw on the other side of the Crater near the Hippo Pool. This guy was as large as the other one, but check out is tusk. Like I was saying, elephant are "right or left handed" you'll usually see one tusk more worn than the other.
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Same bull with some friends... Largest Land Mammal on earth and the Largest Bird on earth.
Not a bad shot
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These bachelor capes were just outside of the shot off to the east of the elephant and ostrich.
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It's ostrich breeding season right now and this guy was being pushed off by another male ostrich that was claiming his female. They are beautiful up close and those talons are no joke!
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In the crater they have a pool filled with Hippo, its quite famous for sightings and I spotted this mother and calf leaving one pool that was getting a bit to aggressive and was taking him to other side where it was a bit calmer. To see hippos outside of the water during the day is very rare and I was super proud to spot her and snap a few shots before she disappeared back into the pool.
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Now onto the Lions
This was the coalition of 5 males on the buffalo cow kill, they had already eaten their fill and were being lazy, I was able to snap a few full bodies though so you guys could compare. They had between 5-8 hyena around but the hyena were patiently waiting, they dare not challenge these boys.
09-22-2016, 10:25 PM( This post was last modified: 09-22-2016, 10:28 PM by Pckts )
Cont'd
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Lioness resting at the edge of the Hippo Pool
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Lioness wondering off to meet up with her two sisters for a lounge until its time to hunt.
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One of my favorite Birds, the Kori Bustard
This bird is very large, active and so cool. Apparently its one of the heaviest flying birds on earth
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*This image is copyright of its original author
He's got a grasshoper in his mouth, thats why it's a bit blurry.
What a magical place, Africa is a must for any wildlife lover and it's impossible to see all at once so it will keep you coming back time and time again... at least I know I will be.
I hope you all enjoy, I'll continue to post images as I feel it, but these were some of my favorites.
09-23-2016, 03:46 AM( This post was last modified: 09-23-2016, 03:54 AM by peter )
Very informative posts and nice pictures, PC. My favourite for now is the cloud of dust of the bull elephant announcing his arrival. I also liked the Serengeti Oasis male. The young male Crater lions seemed to be very healthy and those interested in leopards also were served.
(09-23-2016, 03:46 AM)peter Wrote: Very informative posts and nice pictures, PC. My favourite for now is the cloud of dust of the bull elephant announcing his arrival. I also liked the Serengeti Oasis male. The young male Crater lions seemed to be very healthy and those interested in leopards also were served.
Many thanks on behalf of all.
How about the best of both worlds....
Heres the Big Bull giving himself a little dust bath
*This image is copyright of its original author
Something else I haven't discussed is this:
I had the privilege of going to a Maasai Village and speaking with one tribesman who had been selected to go to school and learn English and let me tell you something, that may have been one of the best parts of my trip. What an incredible experience, I'd be happy to discuss what their life is like and how they continue to thrive.
I also had got to go to Oldupai Gorge, that is correct, it's called Oldupai not Olduvai. This is the birthplace of man, and the oldest fossil is from here not ethiopia (lucy isn't the oldest known fossil)
I was lucky enough to have a professor give us a private education on the gorge and why it's the birthplace of man kind, any questions on it I would be happy to discuss as well.
09-23-2016, 04:18 AM( This post was last modified: 09-23-2016, 04:19 AM by Pckts )
Maasai Images
Getting ready to draw blood, they do this as a ritual, they believe the blood makes them stronger. The cow is fine afterwards, they need these cows, they make sure they are healthy and happy.
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*This image is copyright of its original author
*This image is copyright of its original author
Oldupai Gorge
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Here you can see the gorge, notice the different colored layers, each layer from a different eruption, two layers are missing from the top.
09-23-2016, 09:40 PM( This post was last modified: 09-23-2016, 09:45 PM by Pckts )
Because you are so close to the equator the sun is magnified. It's not hot in a dry way, like a desert which I think is a more manageable heat, the sun is very sharp, your skin burns if it's not covered, especially around the mid afternoon. If you have a tented jeep, short sleeves are fine though.
The actually temp isn't bad though, if you're in a covered spot it will be quite pleasant.
They also say to not wear black or blue, they have these flies out there called "zetsy flies" and those suckers will bite you. They have a long proboscis that can even go through your jacket. But it doesn't matter, if you go to the Serengeti you're going to be attacked by these guys so you just have to sack up. Where you will get most of the attacks consist of wooded, dry forest areas. In very rare cases these flies carry a diesease, "sleeping something" I forget. But that is 1/1000000 rare.
The crater is extremely pleasant.
It's always cooler, a bit more cloud cover and more moisture in the air. There are no flies and it bordered on "chilly" when we were there.
Just bring sunscreen and you'll be alright. The lodges will have mosquito nets and during the dryer season (now) they aren't nearly as bad. Not one person in my group suffered a single bite.
