When wildlife moves into the game reserves in the West they are at risk of wire snares. These snares set by poachers hoping to catch buffalo or antelopes for their meat are hideously cruel and indiscriminate. Hyenas and lions attracted to the snare lines in hope of an easy meal can also fall prey to them. Even animals such as elephants are at risk if they get their trunks caught in them.
Sadly this is what happened to a bull elephant seen by guests at Lake Masek recently. He had a wire snare wrapped around his trunk that cut deep into the flesh, it looked very painful. He had obviously used a lot of force to snap the cable that would have been tried to a tree. Sadly we couldn’t find him again for some weeks, until guests found him near to 3 trees with another bull. He’d found an idyllic spot out on the plains by a small rain filled water hole and lots of green grass. I drove out at first light to try and find him but it was the mistiest morning that I can remember at Ndutu. I sat there freezing for two hours, waiting for the fog to clear but luckily he hadn’t moved very far.
We called the Tanzanian Wildlife Research institute (TAWIRI) vet who is based in Seronera 80 km away in Serengeti. He flew himself down to Ndutu in the TAWIRI plane and with the help of the NCAA rangers darted him with a tranquilizer. After 10 minutes or so he went down and the vet was able to cut off the snare using bolt croppers. The wound was thoroughly cleaned and disinfected, fly repellant was liberally applied and the reversal drug to the tranquilizer was injected into his ear. Because the drug is injected straight into the vein, it took effect immediately and within a few minutes he was up on his feet. I’ve seen him several times since and the trunk is healing very well, he will always have a scar but this is preferable to losing half of his trunk. At least this will make him easy to identify!
A young male zebra that I called Penfold took up residence in the Lodge recently. He was very tame and could be seen grazing or dozing around the rooms. He was obviously a little under the weather because his mane drooped and you could clearly see his backbone. 
It was a very clever move to come into the Lodge as this gave him some protection from lions and hyenas. He would often sleep in the workshop area at night amongst the vehicles. I’ve no idea what was wrong with him but as the days wore on he started to put on weight and become more active, rolling in the dust or jumping the ditches. There was definitely nothing wrong with his digestive system and he provided plenty of fertilizer for the grass and things to step in. The short green grass around the rooms must have helped his recovery and he started to spend days away from the Lodge and stay close to the ranger post. And after three weeks he disappeared, hopefully with one of the zebra groups that had been moving through during that time.
The rains seem to have come to an end and everything is starting to dry out. The two lakes though are full and look magnificent. There are respectable numbers of flamingoes on Lake Ndutu, not so many on the deeper Lake Masek although groups of pelicans can be seen there from time to time. Due to the heavy rains we received earlier in the year there is a lot of cordifolia this season.
The purple flowered cordifolia looks great now but not so pleasant when it dries out. It’s not so good for cheetah watching either but great for the small rodents and the smaller cats that hunt them. It seems to agree with the guinea and spur fowls because every track seems to have dozens of tiny chicks on them.
Another phenomenon is the huge numbers of giraffes in the woodlands at the moment. On a recent drive we counted over eighty of these beautiful creatures, they seem to be behind every bush. 
Lots of strange elephants around the Ndutu area this month. They aren’t aggressive but it’s obvious they’re a little nervous when they bunch up and test the air with their trunks. Maybe it’s all the controlled burning in the Serengeti and the game reserve, which has brought them here and maybe it’s the same reason with the giraffes?
There are still pockets of wildebeest around but the main herds are North of Naabi at the moment. Although the wildes are going, there are still lots of zebra on the plains south of Twin Hills but the most remarkable thing is the large herds of eland. One guest amazingly counted a herd of over a thousand on a recent game drive.
Last weekend we had a party for our staff. We also invited old members of staff and various people who have helped Ndutu over the years. It was fun to see so many familiar faces from the past. Some of them haven’t been back to Ndutu for many years since retiring from the Lodge. We had to hire two small buses from Arusha to transport the guests and their wives to the Lodge and I was amazed that we had enough chairs in the Lodge for everybody to sit on let alone enough crockery.
We spit roasted 3 goats along with many other goodies and had an enormous dinner for over a hundred people. Two of our chef’s made 500 chapatis for the occasion, quite a mountain. After another enormous feast at the breakfast the following morning the visitors went on a game drive and what luck they had.
The office staff from Arusha and many of the wives and suppliers don’t get out in the bush very often, if ever, so it must have been a special treat for them to see lions, elephants and a cheetah that morning. I’m sure I’m at least a two kilo’s heavier after the weekend but it was great fun.
Also over the weekend Aadje on one of her rare early morning drives spotted a very strange looking bird on Lake Ndutu. Luckily she managed to get some great photographs and thankful for digital photography was able to down load it immediately. It turned out to be a Long Tailed Skua, which is an Arctic bird and looked quite out of place in the Serengeti.
It was only the third sighting ever from East Africa and only the second for Tanzania.
Magic!
Paul,
Ndutu
May 2007
