This post shows some of the scenes we were fortunate enough to witness while wandering around the Western Corridor of the Serengeti. We were based at the Grumeti Tented Camp and were privileged to be able to shoot from a CNP/&Beyond 4×4 vehicle specially adapted for five photographers.

“Whatever we are waiting for – peace of mind, contentment, grace, the inner awareness of simple abundance – it will surely come to us, but only when we are ready to receive it with an open and grateful heart.”
~ Sarah Ban Breathnach

The grandeur and space together with an abundance of wildlife make the scenes in the Serengeti breathtaking. One of the unanticipated benefits were the building rain clouds. The rains start in the Western Corridor in late March and April.  The migratory herd follows the rains so they were making their way north from the southern part of the Serengeti toward the Western Corridor in early March. The great migration should reach the Western corridor around May on its way further north towards the Mara. Much of the wildlife synchronises with the rhythm of the region. Lions though breed all year round. This pair of mating Lions are likely to produce the next generation of cubs just after the migration has passed through this area, as the gestation period of a Lioness is around 100 days. 

A small herd of Zebra was moving north through the red oat grass with a darkening afternoon sky as a backdrop. The atmosphere prickles with excitement when the African sky darkens like this, heralding an impending storm.

Generally, Zebra are peaceful but every now and then males decide that they have to sort out their differences and establish the hierarchy. This fight started with a little pushing and kicking but surprisingly developed into a full on battle where each fighter was trying to bite the other and not on the flanks or legs but each other’s neck and throat.  The fight eventually broke up but it was one of the longest fights I have ever seen between two Zebras.

Family treehouse! This pride of Lion seemed to be very comfortable up in an expansive Balanite tree. The Serengeti is known for this kind of Lion behaviour. Higher up, these Lions catch any passing breeze. The Tsetse flies are less troublesome and the Lionesses adults can get away from their demanding small cubs. The trees also provide good lookouts. The Serengeti is flat so that a little elevation combined with excellent eyesight is an advantage.

Morning lounge! This pride had finished feeding on three Zebra which the adults had killed the night before. All of the pride members were just relaxing after what must have been a busy night of dining. There are not many waterholes around in this part of the Serengeti but there is the Grumeti river, and just to add to the excitement it is full of massive crocodiles.

“Not what we have but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.”
~ Epicurus

An afternoon view while looking for Lions. March is the month before the  rains begin in earnest in this part of the Serengeti. The clouds built up every afternoon creating a wonderful dramatic blue background to the red oat grass.

Dawn on the Serengeti. I am not sure why but the dawn and dusk phases are characterised by a yellow-orange which looks yellower than we are used to in South Africa. There was a reasonable amount of moisture in the air so there was also mist in the low-lying areas at dawn. As the sun rose , the heat quickly removed the mist.

“To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one’s own in the midst of abundance.”
~ Buddha

One of the attractions in the Serengeti is the abundance of Lions. On this occasion, we found two Lionesses with their new-born cubs. It was the last light of the day and the grass was lush and long. The cubs could only see above the long grass by climbing up on their mothers. Great maternal patience was exercised when these needle sharp teeth and claws dug into their necks.

This was not the main migratory herd but an advance column of Zebra and Topi. There is something very spiritual about seeing such abundance! 

“Abundance is not something we acquire. It is something we tune into.”
~ Wayne Dyer

It had rained the night before. Now it was breathless, cool, quiet and fresh at dawn on the Serengeti plain.

Predator gaze! A lioness peers over the long grass in search of prey.

Late one afternoon gazing across the golden grass at the storm brewing in the distance, we treated to an incredible display of light and colour.

“I’ve always been one to love a good storm
The warmth of the air when a storm is brewing
The look of the clouds when they come rolling in
The rushing of the wind passed my ears
The feeling of rain falling on my skin
The sound of thunder and the flash of lightning
The warmth you feel when the sun finally comes out and life is calm again
How fast it can come and go …….”
~ Unknown

A “tower of Giraffe” making their way down the hill towards a broad valley with many trees to browse on. You often see family groups but this was an unusually large herd of Giraffe  at around 07h00.

Another afternoon storm where the cumulonimbus were releasing their bounty. Somewhat surprisingly, we heard little thunder and did not see much lightning. This was unusual given the size of those cumulonimbus clouds.

One afternoon, while we were watching the Lionesses with their very small cubs, we looked behind us and there was a build up of massive cumulonimbus formations which were pouring down on a section of the Serengeti way off to the west of us.

“Wind’s in the east, a mist coming in
Like something is brewing and about to begin
Can’t put my finger on what lies in store
but I feel what’s to happen has happened before.”
~ Bert in Mary Poppins

Another golden dawn across the Serengeti. It was a gloriously colourful start to the day. You have to pinch yourself because it is hard to believe you are bathed in this wonderful light.

A “wade of Zebras”.

A “tower of giraffe” wandering off at dawn. 

Yet another afternoon looking off to the west. The colours were soft with diffused light after a rain storm a long way off to the west of us.

A herd of Zebra and Topi making their way slowly northward. There were plenty of Hyaena around but there were also many eyes.

We often got back to camp at last light. This was the view from my tent at dusk – paradise!

Given that the migratory Zebra have to contend with crocodiles in almost every river they have to cross, I would have thought this group would have been conditioned to be very wary of wading into the water. Somehow they knew there were no crocodiles in this waterhole.

The Grumeti river was wide at this point and bubbling with Hippo and crocodiles.

I saw more Eland (together) on this trip than I have ever seen before. On a few occasions we saw herds of over a thousand. Normally we would see small groups of up to 20 in South Africa. Like all Eland, these were very skittish so they did not allow us to get close.

Red dawn with the sun just starting to peek above the horizon heralding a new day on the Serengeti.

“Gratitude is the open door to abundance .”
~ unknown

An air-borne Impala ram racing between the towering Giraffe.

All girls! This was a large “waddle” of Ostriches and there was not a male to be seen. Nature invariably offers more questions than answers.

A large group of Topi and Zebra mingling together on their migration north following the rains.

A gorgeous start to yet another amazing day in the Serengeti where you are able to feast your eyes on such natural abundance.

This is a small selection of the scenes we were privileged to photograph. I wish more people could experience this incredible beauty, wonder and abundance because perhaps then there would be more appreciation for what we already exists and more readiness to preserve and cherish it.

“The universe operates through dynamic exchange… giving and receiving are different aspects of the flow of energy in the universe. and in our willingness to give that which we seek, we keep the abundance of the universe circulating in our lives.”
~Deepak Chopra

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its interconnectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike

After finding the large Lion pride in the area around a dam the previous afternoon, first thing the next morning we headed off west back to that small dam. The earth ridge around the west side of the dam was ideal for the morning directional light. We found the pride of 24 Lions had draped themselves along the ridge behind the dam. This pride comprised females and cubs. The male was off with one of the females, privately working hard to increase the pride.

“A world without the distant roar of Lions at dawn as the mist starts to lift would be too terrible to contemplate.”

~ Derek Joubert

This pride of 24 Lions excluded the mating pair and also excluded two females with three cubs which had separated from the pride while their cubs were too young to join the pride.

While the large pride of Lions lay along the earth ridge, we were hoping for some great portrait shots. It had rained the night before so many of the cubs looked bedraggled and as you can see in the next image the clouds still hung heavily in the sky.

The size of this Lion pride and the number of cubs of different ages suggests that the structure of the pride has been stable for some time.

“Stop and unplug,” say I; “look around you, at the vastness and greatness of the natural world.” Some stop. Others need binoculars to tie their shoelaces.”
~ Fennel Hudson

These two mischief makers came down to the water’s edge for a drink.  All their “rough and tumbling” had made them very dirty and what they saw reflected in the water worried them. You will notice how full both cubs’ bellies were, full of Zebra.

Other cubs just relaxed. It must have been busy the night before as you can see from the cub at the back soaking up all the sun’s warmth on his tum.

Two cubs came down off the ridge with their mother to drink at the water’s edge. The water surface was still with their reflections only broken by the ripples from them lapping up of the water. The Lioness had been kicked in the face by a Zebra the night before which is why her right eye looked swollen and bruised. The one thing you will never see is a Lion looking sorry for itself.

This cub was very wary of his reflection in the water.

You can see how easily a little mud can turn those beautiful tawny coats into dirty bedraggled looking ones.

The beauty of the ridge was that when the Lions walked on top of it, the background was far behind creating perfectly blurred backdrops.

On this particular morning, the Lions were relatively inactive so we did not get any real action like play fighting.

It is interesting to see some cubs, just like human children, like to watch all the goings on from a distance.

This shot was taken of one of the Lionesses after just having had a drink of water.

After their usually busy nights, Lions rest up for most of the day. They also spend time re-affirming their bonds with the pride through touching, head rubbing, licking and purring. When it comes to feeding, it is every Lion for itself and biggest first. Growling, snarling and paw slaps are common around a kill, where ranks are enforced, with adult males usually eating first, followed by the females and then the cubs. It is probably necessary for both the cub and the Lioness to re-affirm the bonds the next day.

One of the Lionesses got up and had a good stretch before wandering down to have a drink from the dam. You can see from the shape of this Lioness she was a powerful killer.

This cub was snarling at its own reflection in the water.

Later on that day we found the same pride of Lions some distance from the dam lying in the afternoon shade provided by a large Balanite. The next image is a panorama which shows the environment which suited the Lions perfectly. There was open space with relatively long red oat grass which Lions could just disappear in when they lay down.

Real family time. The cubs  bonding with their mothers and aunts. The Lionesses do not seem to get much peace with all the cubs around. The younger ones are very demanding, wanting to suckle frequently.

A day later, in the same area, when found the pride on the move. I liked the image of these two Lionesses, alert and looking for prey in long grass.

Early one morning, we found these Lionesses lying in a patch of short grass as the sun was just starting to rise. The colours look strange but at first light with lots of dew on the grass that was the colour of the light they were bathed in.

A hour or so later when the sun was higher in the sky and the colours turned to something we were more familiar with. One of the Lionesses got up and started to walk off. On her way she stopped to sharpen her claws on these tree trunks. A few minutes later the cubs followed suit.

For me, this is an iconic image of Lioness in a sea of grass, ready to crouch down and disappear into the sea of tawny grass as soon as she could see prey.

One evening, we found the two Lionesses with very small cubs. The cubs might have been small but their demands were big. This Lioness was grimacing because two cubs were trying to suckle and fighting over one of her teats.

This was one of the causes of her grimace – cuteness with sharp teeth and claws.

This family was lying in the cool, long grass. The only way the cubs could get any perspective was to climb on top of their mother. “While you are climbing you should also attack the neck – just in case!!!”

These images were taken in the last light of the day and are testament to the incredible low light capabilities of Nikon’s D4s camera.

The cubs were not sure about this big green thing (our vehicle) which had moved in quite close, so the cub was hiding behind its mother.

Once they relaxed with us around, the cubs were very playful so we had to wait to get a gap in the grass to take a shot.

Already all the signs of a “lionheart” were developing.

Populations of African Lions have declined by 42 percent over the past 21 years, according to data from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in July 2015, with fewer than 20,000 Lions remaining. The latest update to the IUCN Red List continues to identify Lions as “vulnerable to extinction” (one level above endangered).

According to Scientific American, the African Lion is not classified as endangered mainly because conservation efforts have resulted in an 11 percent growth in lion populations in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Most of these southern populations live within fenced reserves which have reached their carrying capacity and can not support additional lion numbers. Outside of those four nations, the situation is altogether more serious. Lion populations have fallen in most other countries, with an average decline of 60 percent. The worst hit has been the West African population of lions, which has now been classified as critically endangered. A study published in 2014 found that only about 400 lions remained in the 17 nations of West Africa.

“Where did we human beings get the idea that we have the right to commercialise everything we come across in nature for our sole benefit. With our lack of awareness we have no conception of how we upset the interconnectedness of nature through our ignorant, selfish interference. Canned Lion farming for hunting purposes is just one horrific example.”

~ Mike Haworth

Serengeti is one of the major African National Parks where you can see Lion in vast unfenced areas. Swelling population pressure and loss of habitat is unrelenting. Even in National Parks long known for their conservation efforts such as Kenya’s Masai Mara, the Lions are under threat. The Marsh pride became well known through the wonderful BBC series “Big Cat Diary”. In December 2015, a number of Lionesses in the Marsh pride were poisoned by herdsmen for interfering with their cattle. The poisoning does not stop at the Lions but also impacts others in the food chain from Hyaena and Jackal to Vultures and Eagles.

“Here is your country,

Cherish these natural wonders,

Cherish the natural resources,

Cherish the history and romance,

as a sacred heritage,

for your children,

and your children’s children.

Do not let selfish men

or greedy interests

skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance.”

~ Theodore Roosevelt

At the current rate of destruction, I wonder how many more generations are going to have the privilege of seeing these magnificent beasts in their natural, uncontained habitat – wild and free.

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its interconnectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike