Finally got the pictures on a CD and the time to put them on the blog. And just a side note, the title does not mean that the animals were caged and then release for our photographic pleasure, it simply means I finally have the pictures to release to my blog.
This is Ngorongoro. It's a caldera created by tectonic movement, meaning that tectonic plates moved apart from each other creating a crater and since it can support life it's called a caldera. Ngorongoro collects a large amount of water and has a cooler temperature due to it's lowered elevation and surrounding mountain range.
We're pretty sure that the vultures are eating the baby wildebeest's mother. Its very sad but that's how things are in the wild.
Me chilling with the lions in the background. Within the safety of the safari jeep of course.
A flock of ostriches. The males are black and white while the females are gray.
I have no idea what these are called by they are a brilliant, shinny blue. But they also crowd around you while you're eating outside, similar to pigeons.
This is a puff adder, a highly venomous snake. Also a snake that was right in the middle of a hiking path at the visitor's center.
This bird is about three feet tall and looks like it should be hanging out with dinosaurs.
The Swahili word for hyena is Fisi. In America you hide your food from bears, here you hide your food from hyenas.
You can't see it, but there's a leopard up in that tree. It was scoping out the land trying to find prey. Once a leopard catches a meal, they're strong enough to be able to pull the carcass up into a tree, thus keeping the food for itself and away from hyenas and vultures.
Sunrise on the Serengeti.
We found this lion, still panting from recently killing a zebra. She was dragging the carcass to a rock formation that was likely how to her pride, much like Pride Rock in Lion King.
Rock formations like these. Not only are these home to lions, but occasionally they can be home to large pythons.
Of in the distance are five cheetahs, one of my favorite African animals.
This was a herd of migrating wildebeests that ran right in front of our jeep. The sight was just breath taking.
A family of warthogs. Everyone on the safari kept calling them pumbas, you have no idea how much you think of Lion King while you are here.
This was a very touching scene. We came upon a dying elephant, the one you can see lying down on its side in the middle. When elephants are dying the rest of their herd and some times even elephants not in the herd will gather around and comfort it as it dies. You can see in the picture there is a young elephant stroking the dying one with its trunk.
I have no idea what this thing is called, but it looks so cute and goofy. It reminds me of a wombat and is about the size of a small cat.
So we came to this pool that was absolutely filled with hippos. The whole time there were sounds of hippos grunting, blowing bubbles in the water, and farting. If you look very closely you can see some alligators in the back of the pond near the rocks. Hippos and gators have a symbiotic relationship; hippos come out of the water at night to graze and while they do so the gators help prevent any other animals trying to move in and the gators feed off of the hippos waste, which as you can see there is a lot of.
These elephants walked right in front of the jeep ahead of us, it was crazy how close they were.
The view as we descended into Ngorongoro, right before it started to rain.
Wildebeests and zebras live a symbiotic relationship as well. Zebras eat the top of the grass, while the wildebeests eat the bottom half. In addition, zebras have better eye sight that wildebeests and so they can get a heads up when danger is near, plus wildebeests are easier to catch than zebras which is an added security for the zebras.
We found yet another hippo pool, this one not nearly as crowded, plus I got a great picture of one of them yawning.
This male lion is sprawled out from what would be a lion's equivalent of a honeymoon. He had apparently recently finished with mating with the female of his pride every few minutes for six days straight.
I absolutely love monkeys. I would love to have one as a pet some day. But they're also the reason you always need to close all the doors and windows to the jeep.
These are my absolute favorite pictures. You think the other elephants were close, this elephant was just on the other side of the road, couldn't have been more than five feet. Not to mention this is the oldest elephant in Ngorongoro, a seventy year-old male. You can tell the age by the length of the tusks. Only males go down in to Ngorongoro, there isn't enough shady areas for females to protect their young. We started to refer to Ngorongoro as the "elephant resting home."
This bird was just an amazing shade of yellow and it had a song that was almost like sound effects for a science fiction movie. But like the brilliant blue birds they were just as much trying to get the scraps of whatever you were eating, much like pigeons.
Water buffaloes are highly aggressive, so it was a good thing that we had plenty of distance away from him.
One last look at Ngorongoro as we drive up and out of the crater.
And as we left the wildlife preserve, we were lucky enough to see a family of baboons playing in the parking lot.
This is Ngorongoro. It's a caldera created by tectonic movement, meaning that tectonic plates moved apart from each other creating a crater and since it can support life it's called a caldera. Ngorongoro collects a large amount of water and has a cooler temperature due to it's lowered elevation and surrounding mountain range.
We're pretty sure that the vultures are eating the baby wildebeest's mother. Its very sad but that's how things are in the wild.
Me chilling with the lions in the background. Within the safety of the safari jeep of course.
A flock of ostriches. The males are black and white while the females are gray.
I have no idea what these are called by they are a brilliant, shinny blue. But they also crowd around you while you're eating outside, similar to pigeons.
The Swahili word for hyena is Fisi. In America you hide your food from bears, here you hide your food from hyenas.
You can't see it, but there's a leopard up in that tree. It was scoping out the land trying to find prey. Once a leopard catches a meal, they're strong enough to be able to pull the carcass up into a tree, thus keeping the food for itself and away from hyenas and vultures.
Sunrise on the Serengeti.
Rock formations like these. Not only are these home to lions, but occasionally they can be home to large pythons.
Of in the distance are five cheetahs, one of my favorite African animals.
This was a herd of migrating wildebeests that ran right in front of our jeep. The sight was just breath taking.
A family of warthogs. Everyone on the safari kept calling them pumbas, you have no idea how much you think of Lion King while you are here.
This was a very touching scene. We came upon a dying elephant, the one you can see lying down on its side in the middle. When elephants are dying the rest of their herd and some times even elephants not in the herd will gather around and comfort it as it dies. You can see in the picture there is a young elephant stroking the dying one with its trunk.
I have no idea what this thing is called, but it looks so cute and goofy. It reminds me of a wombat and is about the size of a small cat.
So we came to this pool that was absolutely filled with hippos. The whole time there were sounds of hippos grunting, blowing bubbles in the water, and farting. If you look very closely you can see some alligators in the back of the pond near the rocks. Hippos and gators have a symbiotic relationship; hippos come out of the water at night to graze and while they do so the gators help prevent any other animals trying to move in and the gators feed off of the hippos waste, which as you can see there is a lot of.
These elephants walked right in front of the jeep ahead of us, it was crazy how close they were.
The view as we descended into Ngorongoro, right before it started to rain.
Wildebeests and zebras live a symbiotic relationship as well. Zebras eat the top of the grass, while the wildebeests eat the bottom half. In addition, zebras have better eye sight that wildebeests and so they can get a heads up when danger is near, plus wildebeests are easier to catch than zebras which is an added security for the zebras.
We found yet another hippo pool, this one not nearly as crowded, plus I got a great picture of one of them yawning.
This male lion is sprawled out from what would be a lion's equivalent of a honeymoon. He had apparently recently finished with mating with the female of his pride every few minutes for six days straight.
I absolutely love monkeys. I would love to have one as a pet some day. But they're also the reason you always need to close all the doors and windows to the jeep.
These are my absolute favorite pictures. You think the other elephants were close, this elephant was just on the other side of the road, couldn't have been more than five feet. Not to mention this is the oldest elephant in Ngorongoro, a seventy year-old male. You can tell the age by the length of the tusks. Only males go down in to Ngorongoro, there isn't enough shady areas for females to protect their young. We started to refer to Ngorongoro as the "elephant resting home."
This bird was just an amazing shade of yellow and it had a song that was almost like sound effects for a science fiction movie. But like the brilliant blue birds they were just as much trying to get the scraps of whatever you were eating, much like pigeons.
Water buffaloes are highly aggressive, so it was a good thing that we had plenty of distance away from him.
One last look at Ngorongoro as we drive up and out of the crater.
And as we left the wildlife preserve, we were lucky enough to see a family of baboons playing in the parking lot.
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