Serengeti National Park was our fourth safari stop. We arrived in the Serengeti as experienced "game hunters" with a specific target in mind ... we wanted to see a leopard. We had brief sightings of leopards in Kenya but no really good views and no blog-worthy photos.
Leopards are reclusive and there aren't many of them. There are only 1,000 leopards spread across the 15,000 square kilometers (5,700 square miles) of the Serengeti.
Lucky for us we had an excellent guide named Jacob and here's what he found ...
One animal that isn't hard to find is the hippo. Every day you find them in large numbers in the same place - the "hippo pool" which is a shallow part of a river. They stay in the water during the day to keep their body temperature down and keep their skin from drying out. It's great to watch them but the smell is awful - they don't get out of the water to do a #1 or #2 and there's very little current in the water to take the waste away.
We have posted a few photos of giraffes in earlier blog posts but haven't said much about them. Here's one interesting thing - males fight by "necking". They swing their necks to crash their head and horns into their opponent's neck. We watched a couple young males practicing their necking.
Here are a few more sights from the Serengeti.
Safaris are addictive - the animals provide new experiences every day and the people are wonderful. We've already decided to do more safaris in the future and we'll be back to Kenya and Tanzania.
Vanessa and Blake
Leopards are reclusive and there aren't many of them. There are only 1,000 leopards spread across the 15,000 square kilometers (5,700 square miles) of the Serengeti.
Lucky for us we had an excellent guide named Jacob and here's what he found ...
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| Can you "spot" the leopard? |
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| Relaxed cat |
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| Very relaxed cat |
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| Waking up |
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| Ready to go |
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| Strolling through the tree and checking out new smells |
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| Sharpening claws |
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| Out of the tree and on the prowl |
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| Having a look in the short grass |
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| Heading for tall grass |
One animal that isn't hard to find is the hippo. Every day you find them in large numbers in the same place - the "hippo pool" which is a shallow part of a river. They stay in the water during the day to keep their body temperature down and keep their skin from drying out. It's great to watch them but the smell is awful - they don't get out of the water to do a #1 or #2 and there's very little current in the water to take the waste away.
We have posted a few photos of giraffes in earlier blog posts but haven't said much about them. Here's one interesting thing - males fight by "necking". They swing their necks to crash their head and horns into their opponent's neck. We watched a couple young males practicing their necking.
Here are a few more sights from the Serengeti.
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| Serval - medium sized cat |
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| Two lion cubs soaking up the sun on a rock |
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| Mr. and Ms. Lion |
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| Mr. and Ms. Vulture |
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| Male elephant |
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| Elephant doing a #2 (look close) |
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| Zebras having a drink |
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| Serengeti plains in the background |
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| Us with our guide Jacob |
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| Sun breaking through the clouds |
Safaris are addictive - the animals provide new experiences every day and the people are wonderful. We've already decided to do more safaris in the future and we'll be back to Kenya and Tanzania.
Vanessa and Blake
