Vast herds of wildebeest and predators in abundance are what make Ndutu special at this time of year. The Southern plains are full of wildebeest, zebra and herds of eland this week. The wildebeest calving was late this year, starting in the last week of February and continuing into March.
During the calving period thousands of calves are born daily and it’s easy to see a wildebeest birth. The tiny tan coloured calves are very quickly onto their feet and they have to be, to survive in an environment with so many predators. One guest timed a new born calf that took two and a half minutes to get up onto it’s feet then walked away with it’s mother after only five minutes.
Another amazing spectacle last month was the huge number of European and Abdims storks roosting on the Northern end of Lake Ndutu. During the day they spent their time feeding on insects out on the plains and spent the nights around the lake. At times it seemed every tree had storks in it’s branches. The last time we had so many storks was the El Nino year of 97/98 which was very similar to this year in rain fall. Although there are still plenty of storks to see it’s nothing quite like the numbers there were a few weeks ago.
Another interesting thing happening at the moment is sightings of Ruppells vultures wearing identity tags. These birds were tagged by scientists working in Kenya’s Maasai Mara. They are hoping to learn something about these birds habits as no one really knows how long they live for or how far they range? Two of these birds were seen at Ndutu in February feeding on a wildebeest kill. We’ve asked guests to keep a look for these vultures and any sightings are passed onto the researchers.
Red-necked falcon was added to the Lodge bird list in February by a group of keen bird watchers.
Lions, cheetah, leopards and caracals have been seen regularly this month. Lots of lions have been seen in trees. Maybe they’re trying to catch the cool breeze or just avoid biting flies but whatever, they make for a grand sight when looking down from the branches of an acacia tree. Cheetahs have been seen regularly, even one female cheetah that jumps onto cars. Always a treat when an animal walks out of their way to see you and a surprise when an animal like a cheetah jumps onto the vehicle.
Researchers working with the Serengeti Cheetah Project are currently collecting dung samples from known cheetahs and by using DNA they are hoping to determine paternity of cheetahs born in the Serengeti. They would like to know if it’s the territorial males that father the most cubs or the roving males without territories that do so. To collect these samples is much harder than it sounds as it can take a long time to collect a sample from a particular cheetah, sometimes months. It amused me when I heard that this particular female jumped up onto the research vehicle and pooed on the roof leaving her steamy calling card for easy collection, although I guess they had to wash the roof afterwards?
I asked friends that visit Ndutu annually what they would most like to see on this year and Caracal was their answer. This lynx like cat is by far the hardest cat to see and you can go years between sightings, you need lots of luck to catch just a fleeting glimpse. They didn’t get a fleeting glimpse but spent four hours with a pair of them!
This time of year anything is possible at Ndutu. I counted 70 giraffes on a recent game drive, someone saw striped hyenas chasing guinea fowl, serval cats hunting mice, elephants in the Lodge waterhole, zebra grazing around the rooms at night and best of all watching the new moon and the planet Venus in the east while enjoying a cool drink around the campfire and listening to lions roaring from the distant lake shore, perfect!
Paul,
Ndutu
March 2007
