Ndutu-Lions, Leopards and Lost Wildebeest Calves

There are some photos and videos that some people may find disturbing or just icky. (Lions and their prey.) You have been forewarned!

 With a couple of more days in astounding Ndutu, we knew we could take our time and enjoy the encounters when they came up. 

We came across our happy lion family (at least, I like to think it was the same pride) and they'd had a successful night's hunt. I guess I should preface this with a warning that there are photos and footage of the pride with its kill and a cub eating. We thought it was actually fascinating and it really challenged how I imagined the cats consumed their prey. The pride had taken a wildebeest and had cleaned it down to the bones pretty well. It was pretty funny seeing them wallowing around with full bellies.

 

Little did we realise that they'd had an extra successful night, as they had another wildebeest stashed a little way from their resting spot. 

We went back to visit the leopard and she'd mostly polished off her kill. I was wondering where the carcass was, but then I noticed a hoof hanging down off the branch under the leopard's body and realised she was laying on the remains of her vanquished prey, like the queen that she was. (So very Game of Thrones, I think.)

Yeah, that's a leg she's laying on

 We frolicked with the zebras and wildebeest, checked out the vultures and Maribu storks, gawped at the various eagles and generally enjoyed all that the conservation area had to offer. As we loaded up and got ready to drive off, the truck's engine wouldn't start. All it did was click. Jacob asked me to pass him a bottle of cola, which I thought was pretty chill, considering we were in the middle of no where with no vehicle. To my surprise, he used the Coke on the battery connections, to clean up the connections and our trusty safari jeep started up like there was never an issue.

A trio of cheetah brothers seemed to have had a successful hunt previously, as they were happily snoozing away, occasionally irritating each other, as brothers do. They were quite committed to their morning siesta and acted like our intrusive cameras didn't even exist. 

At the end of the day, as we were arriving back to camp, I got to see a dung beetle. I know, not everyone's cup of tea, but I thought it was pretty awesome. I have to say that she was fast! I could barely get a photo of her. Here's a general photo dump of some of the animals we'd seen during our stay in Ndutu.

 

A cute little Cerval hiding in the grass

This rather spectacular gentleman

He doesn't have a bad side

This guy, awkwardly trying to eat
something low to the ground

A Steppe Eagle

Herd of elephants, post mud bath

Pair of cheetahs, hunting

A hyena, just trying to snag a nap, nothing to see here

Zebra skull

My elusive dung beetle

At dinner that night, Jacob (our guide), asked if we'd let a baby wildebeest stay in our tent. As he was quite a joker, we laughed, but as we left the dining tent, Ron was approached by a tiny little wildebeest calf, who had mistaken Ron's camel coloured legs for those of his mother. He bleated rather piteously (calf, not Ron) and we had the unusual experience of being able to pet him, in an attempt of solace. The staff assured us that they would look after the little guy over night and try and get him reunited with his family the next day.  His fur was so very soft and we felt really bad for the little fellow. We saw him later, playing with the staff, chasing after them, as they'd obviously fed him. We hope that he made it home safely.

The following day, we took off, so we could wash our clothes, take a breather, just to reset from the over-stimulation of seeing so many amazing things and get ready for the next point of interest. We were amazed to realise that we were coming to the end of this epic adventure that had been a year in planning.

The next day would take us to a new camp, located near the Ngorongoro crater, which would be our very final day of the animal drives. We still had one more day to enjoy the animals of Ndutu as we made our way back towards the crater and finally Arusha in just two more days.

Up next: Ngorongo Crater