February 6, 2011
Serval in Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania

This was the first day of my safari in Tanzania, and it was spectacular!

We left our hotel in Arusha after breakfast and drove to Ngorongoro Crater. Along the way, we saw some giraffes out in the distance and some olive baboons near the road. Ngorongoro Crater is the remnant of a large volcano that has collapsed, so technically it's a caldera rather than a crater. The floor of the circular crater is about 100 sq mi (260 sq km), and contains one of the greatest concentrations of animals in Africa.

After lunch at our lodge, we descended into the crater around 2:00 for our first game drive. We saw and photographed olive baboons, then saw cape buffalo, zebra, and wildebeest near the road. By about 3:00, we saw and photographed our first lions: a big male, a young male, and two females! What a great start to the safari!

We continued into the crater and found a serval near the road busy hunting (above). Servals are small cats, about twice the size of a house cat, and it's rare to see, much less be able to photograph, them, and I was thrilled to have found one on our first day. The environment was a bit messy, but I was able to get some nice images.

After the serval started heading away from the road, we left to explore some more. We saw a spotted hyena den with several adults and pups, but it was too far away from the road to do more than observe it with binoculars. Then we went by some Thomson's gazelles and Grant's gazelles, and came upon a group of female wildebeest with new babies. This safari was timed around the wildebeest birthing season, and it looks like the wildebeest are giving birth a bit earlier this year than usual. So, while we might not get to see a birth, we should get to see some predation of the fresh, and vulnerable, food source.

On our way back to the lodge, we stopped at the lions and four young cubs were out playing near their mother. It's a always great to watch and photograph their antics. A second big male was napping near the other big male.

We exited the controlled area of the crater around 5:55, shortly before the 6:00 closing time. We are located near the equator, and sunset is around 6:55.

We went by a Defasa waterbuck buck on the road to our lodge, adding another great species to the list of sightings today.