Calving Season in Southern Serengeti Kusini & NCA Ndutu: Predator Action

[ricmiles]

I have concluded a memorable safari in the Serengeti and NCA. I am still in camp and will be flying out tomorrow. 

 

This national park never ceases to impress me and always ends up going beyond my expectations. Having been in the north and eastern side of the park, I was missing the southern part during the famous calving season. I had never been excessively lucky in witnessing successful hunts in the past and decided to go on this trip knowing that the many wildebeest and zebra calves would offer spectacular predator-prey interactions. Serengeti did not disappoint. Cheetahs were the super stars of the trip and gifted me some of the most special sightings of my safari career. Lions showed very unusual and fascinating behaviour by often roaming around alone and not as a pride, I suspect due to the abundance of prey which seemed they could never kill enough of. I also had the chance to finally witness hyenas hunting. 40 of them tearing an adult wildebeest into pieces that disappeared in short of 5 minutes. On top of the predator-prey interactions I was also lucky with many other special sightings, including tree climbing lions, 9 lion cubs and 4 cheetah cubs. Keen to work on my photography, I travelled with Andrew Beck of Wild Eye. Andrew has been an amazing teacher and being guided by him has been an honour. I have learnt a tremendous amount on photography, wildlife and much more. 

 

Below a photo teaser of the trip and will follow up in the coming days. 

 

 

 

Edited March 14 by ricmiles

[Galana]

A promising start. It looks like our tracks may have crossed.

[Atravelynn]

Beautiful intro photo!

[ricmiles]

@GalanaThanks!

 

I assume in Ndutu? I was in an Asilia car with Andrew. I've noticed he said hello to a few vehicles. 

[ricmiles]

@AtravelynnThank you very much, it's one of my favourites from the trip!

Edited March 20 by ricmiles

[ricmiles]

As I downloaded all of my images and started playing with them on lightroom, I realized editing is no easy task. However, going through all of the photos was such a great way to relive the whole experience that it made the struggle and time worth it. 

 

What really attracts me to the Serengeti is the diversity of each sector. It really is like visiting completely different destinations. With wildebeests giving birth to 500,000 calves within a three weeks period in the southern sector, it is a feast for predators. I wasn’t interested in seeing them giving birth per se, but more so seeing them on the move with as many calves as possible. Therefore, I tried timing the trip for the end of this stage in the migration and we got very lucky. During our stay the herds were moving from Ndutu into Kusini to then leave the south for good. I originally had two main goals, seeing the huge herds in the open plains and witnessing as many predator-prey interactions as possible. When I decided to get a photographic guide, improving my photography became the third goal for the trip. I think I can confidently say all three goals have been achieved. Although, my photography level was and still is quite low, with still lots to work on, which I don’t mind at all. At the end of last summer, I came to the forum for some advice on a photographic guide and ended up hiring Andrew Beck of Wild Eye. I couldn’t be happier of the choice made and have to thank all contributors to my post, but especially @Athene (hope you don’t mind being tagged). She advised Andrew specifically because of his teaching skills. She was on point, as Andrew always found the right way to convey concepts in a way that I could understand and implement. Andrew is not only a very talented teacher, he also is a prepared guide and more importantly a genuine and incredibly passionate person. During our stay we had the chance to engage in many deep conversations ranging from business, to commercial hunting as a conservation tool, to the future of wildlife in many fast growing African economies and many more. I also had the chance of receiving his input in my many future planned itineraries around the continent, which I’m always more excited about. 

 

Now going into the itinerary, following some research, I came to the conclusion that there were two main areas of interest for this phenomenon: Ndutu in the NCA and Kusini in the Serengeti. Other less known options are the Maswa Conservancy and the Kakessio Area. The former has camps operated by Legendary Expeditions, the latter I know of an Alex Walker camp. Being a loyal fan of Asilia, I decided to go for 3 nights at Olakira in Ndutu and 3 nights at Ubuntu in Kusini. Both Olakira and Ndutu are migrational camps that move between their northern and southern locations following the migration. I had already stayed at Olakira in Kogatende in the north and had found the camp to be of my taste. This time around it also did not disappoint:

- The tent is very comfortable. It isn’t a fully traditional mobile camp. I love full mobile tents, but the added comfort while maintaining the same rustic feeling has its own benefits. Always available shower, flush toilet and wooden pavement.

- Food was excellent. Wine selection was decent. 

- Exceptional guiding by Emanuel Qamara, head guide at Olakira. Qamara and I have been in touch for sometime through instagram. (@qamara_wild). He has been an outstanding guide in every aspect. On top of that, he is a photographer himself which proved to be very helpful for the purpose of this trip. 

 

Ndutu has a mix of different habitats: woodlands, marsh and open plains. The area around the marsh can get quite busy. The amount of action there is impressive, but we tried to stay away as much as possible. In the open plains we barely saw any vehicles during our three days stay. I assume this is because guides with daily drivers don’t want to work for their sightings, so it’s easier to just stay in the marsh area as there always is loads of action. It’s basically a predators’ playground. All in all Ndutu is an incredibly productive location but you will have to deal with some traffic. 

 

Being my first time in Ubuntu, I had very high expectations and was really looking forward to going to a full mobile camp. Unfortunately, for the first time, Asilia left me slightly disappointed. The tent looked quite old and dirty. It needs to be changed. The furniture planning isn’t the best and the light positioning in the tent isn’t well thought out. It just felt like there is a lack of attention to details. To be fair, the pricing is considerably lower than higher end options, but I always felt Asilia offers better products than higher priced competitors and this time around I really can’t say that was the case. While the camp lacked in accomodation, it definitely didn’t in location. This was the view from my tent at arrival:

 

 

Kusini is an aesthetically beautiful area, with a combination of woodlands and open plains, where privacy and exclusivity is guaranteed. During our 3 nights stay there I don’t remember us seeing more than 3 vehicles in total, 2 of which being from our same camp. Although the area was not as productive, to me not having to share sightings, with the associated noise pollution in the background, is invaluable. While game in the area is slightly more dispersed, we still had numerous incredible sightings I will get to later on. 

 

I should have touched upon all the information about the itinerary, camps and guiding but should anyone would like to know anything in more detail please ask with a comment or via DM.

 

Edited March 20 by ricmiles

[ricmiles]

Day 1:

Flew into Ndutu airstrip and then drove directly to camp for lunch. Once settled in, I had a catch up chat with some staff members I met in October at their northern location and then set off for my first game drive. It didn’t take long to find 4 lionesses up a tree. Most of our first afternoon was spent understanding the very basics of photography, so not many good photos were taken. 

 

 

The sleeping position of this last lioness I found to be quite funny. 

 

We then waited hoping to see them descend the tree with still a good light hitting it, but the shadow slowly creeper up the tree. Once down, one of the females started calling for her cubs. It didn’t take long for them to appear while playing on top of a log. 

 

 

This was only one of two times during the entirety of the trip where we saw more than one lioness together. I suspect this was due to a combination of two factors: the first being we saw a number of females with small cubs. The second is we witnessed many females hunting wildebeests calves alone. My personal explanation and interpretation of this phenomenon is that given the high abundance of easy prey, these lionesses don’t wait for the whole pride to be hungry prior to looking for food and will set off when they feel like hunting.

 

We were already quite late and headed back to camp.

 

Edited March 20 by ricmiles

[ricmiles]

Day 2:

 

We left camp at 6am sharp. Didn’t take us too long to find a big male. Qamara informed us this guy was part of a coalition of 4 males. 

 

 

Moving on, we then found a lonely female. 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, by that time, the area gets quite busy with vehicles, so I asked Qamara if we could head out to the open plains. 

 

It wasn’t long before we found the first herds. I quickly learnt how it is incredibly hard to portray the sheer size of these herds with a photo. 

 

 

Notice the hyena walking through the herd. 

 

We looked for cheetahs for a few hours. During our search we found a lioness on a zebra kill. Unfortunately the tall grass prevented us from taking any decent photo. We kept on looking for some cheetahs, until it was time to head back for lunch. On our way back we saw that same lioness from early in the morning. 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 20 by ricmiles

[ricmiles]

On our afternoon game drive lions were the protagonists once again. First, we saw a lioness up a tree with a wildebeest carcass below her. These trees and patterns are so aesthetic. 

 

 

 

Didn’t take much for a bunch of vehicles to spot us and join the sighting. Given we were in an area that looked very good for leopards. We decided to go look for one. During our search, we found two young giraffes.

 

 

After looking for more than an hour we gave up and went back to the marsh. There we found one big male lion:

 

 

Not too far from him we could see a female lioness. We went closer and then a couple of small cubs popped out from behind another vehicle. 

 

 

 

We stayed with them for the rest of the afternoon. When we left, we also noticed the mum had a kill hidden in the bush. It was very clear by now that lions in the area were literally around every corner and more often than not having a kill stuck somewhere. The following day we were determined to look for cheetahs. 

 

Edited March 20 by ricmiles

[Atravelynn]

Your many perspectives on lions in the tree are enlightening.  Lion cubs, always a treat.  Thanks for pointing out the hyena in the never ending herds.

[Galana]

9 hours ago, ricmiles said:

I assume in Ndutu?

I never got that far south so maybe not.

 

Some great photography there. thanks for sharing.

Edited March 20 by Galana

[ricmiles]

@AtravelynnThanks. If lion cubs are your thing, you should wait until I get to the second part of the trip in Kusini! Still in awe of what we saw...

 

@GalanaThank you for the compliment. Where were you exactly? 

[ricmiles]

Day 3

 

Following my trip in Namiri earlier during the year, cheetahs really grew on me. Knowing the open plains of Ndutu and Kusini are a great location to spot them, I asked Andrew and Qamara if we could spend the whole day out to look for them over there. The plan was agreed on and off we went at 5:55am. Little did we know we were about to witness a rare sighting, a memorable experience and an incredible photographic opportunity.

 

On our road to the plains, we passed by the cubs from the prior afternoon. One was playing on a tree:

 

 

 

We could have stayed longer, but I really wanted to get to the plains as quickly as possible and just focus on cheetahs, with the hope of witnessing a hunt. 

 

As we were driving through the long grass, we first saw some ostriches: 

 

 

Not too far, we then spotted a lion in the distance. Once we got closer we realized it was feeding on an adult wildebeest. 

 

 

 

We barely stopped and kept on looking for spotted cats. As time passed we got hungry and decided to take a break for breakfast. Chef always cooked delicious food for us. 

 

Once well fed, we focused back on our mission and after a short while, we found our cheetahs. A big female first, and her three youngsters in the distance. We decided to move directly to them as they looked more active. The fun was about to start as the next hour and a half would be packed with action. 

 

 

Edited March 21 by ricmiles

[ricmiles]

A herd of wildebeest and zebras wasn’t far from where the youngsters were chasing each other and one of them kind of took the lead and started stalking it. We were somewhat surprised the mum looked like she wasn’t going to join. We suspected it was time for them to become independent, even though they looked quite young to take that step. 

 

They slowly got closer and all of a sudden started the chase: 

 

 

Hunt failed. They didn’t look very happy, and kept staring at their missed lunch. 

 

 

Didn’t take long before they went back to being cubs and started chasing each other. 

 

 

Then they reunited with mummy: 

 

The mother quickly headed to a spot with some tall grass and started to sniff around. At that point we had the feeling that she made a kill while we were distracted by the youngsters but now couldn’t find it anymore. 

 

 

And then, something popped out of the grass.  

 

 

At this age, cheetahs have to learn their basic hunting skills to become independent. Skills such as stalking, chasing and killing. To do this, mothers usually keep preys alive so that they can develop such skills in a safe environment. To us, it may look like cruel playing, but actually it is a vital growth step in the lives of these animals. 

 

 

We sat still and witnessed this impactful scene unfold. My favourite shots of the sequence are the following: 

 

 

After almost a full hour of this going on, the subadults went for the gazelles’ throat with the mother watching closely, and finally put an end to its life. 

 

 

Such a small prey for four cats didn’t last long. They then helped clean each other:

 

 

As that was going on, they saw some zebras in the distance and before we knew it, they looked like they wanted some more food. 

 

 

They were soon spotted by the zebras. We decided we had enough time with this little family and it was our cue to move on. Being able to witness this scene and critical step in the lives of these cats has been one of the most special sightings I ever had. Such an intimate experience to share with my favourite cat, I will definitely carry the memory with me for a long time. 

 

[ricmiles]

Ndutu still had more to offer…

 

We headed back towards the marsh as the heat in the grass plains area with no shade cover was becoming unbearable and we needed a shady spot for our lunch. I hadn’t had a full day out on safari in years and I forgot how hot it can get sometimes. 

 

On our way we saw another female cheetah on a kill with her little cub. Light and positioning didn’t work, however, it wouldn’t be our last time with these little two and will share some photos. 

 

Full belly and ready to look for more cats on the hunt, we started driving around the marsh area, taking advantage of the absence of vehicles as most would have gone back to rest for lunch. 

 

We spotted an eagle and I tried taking a few photos as it took off from the ground. 

 

 

We then got to a picturesque scene of a male lion sleeping beside a stream of water with the beautiful forest in the background. This stream of water has provided so many cool photographic opportunities during my stay in Ndutu.

 

 

After a while we noticed some herds running towards us in the distance and decided to quickly head there for a look. Once we got closer, it didn’t seem like there was anything else other than wildebeests behaving as such. 

 

 

 

However, we then spotted a lioness not too far from them stalking the herd. We positioned the vehicle to capture the hunt attempt. Unfortunately, a pair of jackals also spotted the lioness and started the alarm. The herd panicked and they made the worst possible mistake. They started running from out in the open marsh towards and in the bushy woodlands. The lioness couldn’t have asked for any easier meal. We saw her run inside and by the time we reached her she had a calf in the grip her fangs: 

 

 

As she was killing it more and more wildebeests were passing fairly close to her. As soon as the calf was dead she dragged it in a bush and quickly started running after the herd. A few seconds passed and when we reached her again she had already got another calf. Two kills in two minutes. 

 

 

The calving season rally offers predation at its best… These cats are very much aware that they have to take advantage of the season with calves being so easy to catch, and they jump at every opportunity. 

 

Having seen two out of the 3 big cats hunt and being still early in the afternoon we thought looking for a leopard in the forest made sense. So we drove around for more than two hours. We must have checked out every tree in Ndutu and there was no sign of one. I was honestly surprised we didn’t see one. The area just looked like the perfect habitat. The lion density must be one of the reasons there might not be as many as one would think. Another reason could be that with the area being used by maasai and their cattle herds during the off season, they might be quite shy and elusive. 

 

The day was coming to an end. We were exhausted and headed home. I was wrapping my head around the amount of action we saw in just one day. I never experienced anything similar before.

 

Edited March 22 by ricmiles

[madaboutcheetah]

Did you look for Caracal that is supposedly seen very often there ? 

[ricmiles]

@madaboutcheetahWe only looked for it once and gave up the search pretty soon. But I can confirm it is seen very often, a friend of mine saw it 3 days in a row

[Atravelynn]

You are right about predation at its best--for the predator.  I like the 3-in-a-row photo.  Baby gazelle, cheetah, cheetah.  Many great action shots of the hunts.

[ricmiles]

@AtravelynnThe whole scene was hard to watch, the foam was clueless on what was happening. Our assumption was that it must have been just born when the cheetah scared the mother off and found it laying on the grass. What was surprising is she was confident enough to leave it there and go pick up her youngsters, which were quite far away, to show them to it while knowing she would still find it there.  

Edited March 23 by ricmiles

[ricmiles]

Day 4:

 

After some well needed rest the prior night, we left camp at 6am sharp, aware we only had the morning drive left prior to crossing the border and moving into the Serengeti side, where Ubuntu is located. One thing I might have forgotten to mention is that NCA and Serengeti are managed separately and have different rules. 

 

The morning would be as action-filled as the prior days. On our way to the marsh we saw our first elephant of the trip. 

 

 

 

Elephants in this area won’t allow vehicles to get too close. Qamara just told us the previous day of a bull that charged the car a couple weeks prior. We decided to keep some distance, but it’s always good to see some elephants. They are my favourite animal, although it’s always somewhat sad for me to see such small tusks. But then again, easy to understand why when as soon as tuskers from Kenya cross the border they are shot dead. 

 

Moving on we arrived at the marsh and noticed two adult wildebeests carcasses under a tree. Didn’t take us long to find who the culprits were. 3 big male lions, enjoying the first rays of sunlight. 

 

 

Then the superstar of the morning appeared from behind the trees and gifted me with such an incredible photographic opportunity: 

 

 

Perfect light and such an elegant lioness. She stopped for a drink, jumped over the water stream and then walked past one of the males: 

 

 

 

 

She walked towards the opposite side of the marsh and into the woodlands, with the male following just behind her. 

 

From where the lioness first came from, the lioness mum and two cubs appeared shortly after. They kept their distance from the males, not sure if on purpose or not. 

 

 

Funny how the one in the back tried tripping his brother over.

 

Edited March 23 by ricmiles

[ricmiles]

Our time with lions had been great, it was now cheetah time though…. So off we went towards the grass plains. 

 

We had several cheetah sightings in a sequence. 

 

First, a lonely and young female. She looked skinny and seemed like she was looking for a meal. 

 

 

She spotted some thompson’s and stalked them for a while, getting surprisingly close. Unfortunately for her, she was noticed before she started sprinting and lost the opportunity. We moved on to have our bush breakfast. 

 

We then kept looking for spotted cats in the open plains and Qamara spotted two big cheetah brothers. 

 

 

These guys also looked like they were scanning around for food and we followed them for a while. Not much activity around and then all of a sudden Andrew noticed quite far behind us some gazelle running away from something. The two cheetah brothers noticed too. 

 

We left them there and rushed to the scene and found the same family from the day prior with a thompson gazelle, an older one than the foam shown before.  

 

 

Today the ‘lesson’ was less than 10 minutes long. The mum interrupted it to put an end to the gazelle’s misery. We did not wait long to go back to the brothers that were still looking towards the scene. 

 

I was quite surprised to see they didn’t intervene. The two together would easily take over a kill from the mum and cubs, so why give away free food? 

 

 

We waited hoping they would get on the move again, but our time was up and we had to leave towards the border with Serengeti to meet our new guide.

 

[ricmiles]

We got to the border and met our new guide for the next 3 days, Festus. As we drove to the camp the area looked very quiet, with no herds around, not promising. The only moving thing around were giraffes, I actually had never seen so many giraffes all together. 

 

 

I counted over 50 giraffes at once. My previous record was at Ol Donyo Lodge in the Chyulu Hills, I was very excited to see so many. 

 

We had our lunch, enjoying the insane view Ubuntu offers, and then took off by 4pm. Luckily, we received the best possible news. We were told the herds were moving from Maswa and it didn’t take us much to find them. I had never seen so much wildlife all together. It was a very different experience from the river crossings in the Mara because of how open and flat the plains in Kusini are. It must have took us more than thirty minutes to drive through the herd. We tried estimating the number of wildebeests and we came to the conclusion they must have been at least 100,000. (Our reasoning might have been flawed, but still, it was a fun activity). 

 

 

A random elland within the mega herd. 

 

 

A ray of sunlight hitting a zebra's tail:

 

 

Andrew taught me how to take a silhouette:

 

 

[ice]

On 3/20/2024 at 2:22 PM, ricmiles said:

Day 2:

 

We left camp at 6am sharp. Didn’t take us too long to find a big male. Qamara informed us this guy was part of a coalition of 4 males. 

 

 

not sure where you found that lion but if it was in the Ndutu area, your guide was wrong: that coalition consists of five males and is called "Team Tano" which afaik translates to "Team of the Five" from Masai language. They arrived in the area in October 2022 and have since dominated three prides (or what is left of them): Masek Pride (most likely the tree climbing lionesses), Marsh Pride and Thin Pride (which technically is not a pride anymore, because there is only one female left and her two cubs). 

 

 

[ice]

On 3/20/2024 at 2:26 PM, ricmiles said:

 Not too far from him we could see a female lioness. We went closer and then a couple of small cubs popped out from behind another vehicle. 

 

 

 That lioness is called "Cassandra", member and former leader of the Marsh Pride, now by far the oldest lion in that part of the NCA. In December she had three cubs. 

[ice]

btw: you seem to have found pretty much the same cheetah I did during my recent stint at Ndutu (March 10th - 22nd). We were also incredibly successful: 16 different high speed chases by cheetah, hyenas and lions, with a total of 6 cheetah and 1 lion kill.