Southern Serengeti plains – Feb. 2014 – Part 01

After an horrendously long delay I am finally back to writing. I have been back in Nairobi from Tanzania for more than a month now, but I have been taken up by a couple of major photography-related activities which have taken all my attention. I apologize for the late reporting from the three safaris we ran in the Southern Serengeti plains, in Tanzania, between end of January and early March. All three safaris have  had extraordinary highlights and excellent photo opportunities but as usual, all three were absolutely different from one another.

While the Southern Serengeti plains are beautiful at any time, during the wet months from November to March the presence of the migrating Wildebeests make a really stunning spectacle. Hundreds of thousands of calves are born within a few weeks in February, and this attracts intense predator activity.

On our first trip in late January, very few females had already given birth. Unfortunately, the early calves’ survival rates are very low, as they are targeted heavily by the hungry predators. One afternoon, a Lioness from the Big Marsh pride hunted the only calf in a herd of Wildebeest. The whole pride rushed in to feed but she wasn’t willing to share the small meal with the cubs and the other females.