International Experiences
Weblog of the Organization of International Health
Lena: Safari
Posted 03:18 AM, July 03, 2006, by lenawineAnd now, the moment you've all been waiting for: pictures for the animal parks. We went to Lake Manyara and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Conservation areas allow human habitation while providing protection status for wildlife.
Here you can see a Masai herdsman running along his cattle inside the crater:
Ngorongoro Crater, which is the world's largest unbroken caldera, was formed by the collapse of a volcano into itself. The crater is 610m deep and there are an estimated 25,000 animals within the crater (see below). In addition, it has the densest known population of lions numbering 62 in 2001.
We must of seen at least 12 of the 62:
Lake Magadi in the centre of the crater is a soda lake supporting flocks of flamingo:
We also visited Olduvai Gorge (Oldupaai as it's called by the Masai, after the sisal plants that abound there). For those, who like me aren't anthropology buffs, this is where the Leakey's did the majority of their work: here they found Australopithecus boisei, Homo habilis, and Homo erectus. Also nearby they found a famous set of hominid footprints, the discussion of which I found fascinating because of the role anatomy can play in anthropology. The arch as well as the position of the big toe distinguished these footprints from those of apes and suggested that hominids walked upright habitually.
I wonder how they picked this spot to make all these important discoveries:
Tembo:
Twiga:
Kiboko:
Baboon:
Swala:
Punda milia (striped donkey):
Bloody lion among the cars:
Comments
Comment by: JoAnn at July 5, 2006 09:25 AM
Not to worry, the lion most certainly did not get hit by a car. She was bloody from killing/eating lunch (which I also have pictures of). For some reason she decided that she wanted to come rub up against one of the cars and then lounge around in the road for awhile... I've never seen anything like it in all my safari-ing days.
Comment by: Lena at July 5, 2006 10:47 AM
Very cool animal life. The she lion doesn't look very afraid of the cars, does she?
Comment by: Dad at July 15, 2006 09:37 AM
lions, tigers, and bears, oh my! Awesome pictures lena. If you have a link to the rest of the set id love to see them. Safe travels!
Comment by: SonnyB at July 18, 2006 01:09 PM
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Wow Lena! Awesome shots. Did that lion get hit by a car?! How sad!