September102007

Nature Photos of the Week

September 10, 2007

Tantalizing Tanzania!

Our fine tuned tour to Africa is as you’ve always imagined it to be: the magic of a Serengeti sunset, the teeming wildlife of Ngorongoro Crater, the elephants, hippos, and some of the most wonderful bird life you will ever see. A safari to Tanzania is a special adventure into the premier game-viewing country of Africa. Tanzania’s great game parks and reserves are unsurpassed anywhere in the world. One should expect to see all of the major plains animals, zebras, giraffes, impalas, gazelles, and other herbivores. There are baboons and monkeys, herds of elephant and buffalo.

Enjoy these photos from tour participants Mary and Dick Cuyler

who went on our tour in January 2007.

A safari is scheduled again for January of 2009.

Ngorongoro Crater is the world's largest unbroken volcanic caldera. The Crater, which formed as the giant volcano exploded and collapsed on itself around 2 million years ago, is 610m deep and the floor is 260km². The steep sides of the crater mean that it has become a natural enclosure for a very wide variety of wildlife, including most of the species found in East Africa.

A population of about 25,000 large animals, largely ungulates along with the highest density of mammalian predators in Africa, lives in the crater.

The Kori Bustard, Ardeotis kori, is a member of the bustard family. It may be the heaviest bird capable of flight, although this title may also belong to the similarly-dimensioned Great Bustard.

Like all bustards, Koris have polygynous breeding habits, where one male displays to attract several females and mates with them all. He then leaves the females to care for the eggs and young by themselves. The females build a nest on the ground and incubate the eggs, foregoing eating for days. When the chicks hatch, the mother brings them a steady stream of food, most of it soft so the chicks can eat it easily.

Barbets are a group of near passerine birds with a world-wide tropical distribution.

The barbets get their name from the bristles which fringe their heavy bills.

The Serval's main habitat is the savanna, although melanistic color forms are found in mountainous areas. The Serval depends on watercourses within its territory, so it does not live in semi-deserts or dry steppes. It is able to climb and swim, but it seldom does so.

It has now dwindled in numbers, due to habitat loss and hunting pressures.

The Serengeti herds of Wildebeest are purely migratory and abandon the usual plains after the rainy season has ended in order to seek new grasses in wetter areas. Herds may be mixed gender with a dominant male, female only, or bachelor only groups. Sometimes Wildebeest graze together with other species such as Plains Zebra and can co-exist nicely with little competition.

Tarangire National Park is probably one of the least visited of the northern Tanzanian game parks, and retains a real air of undiscovered Africa. The park is a nice addition to Serengeti and Ngorongoro in the itinerary.