Get Out and Walk

Today we went to Manyara Ranch. It is a protected area where people can graze their animals but can't hunt. The morning wasn't very interesting. We saw a few cool birds, including a go-away-bird, but not much else. The afternoon was awesome though. I was on top of my spotting game.

The first thing I spotted was mostly an accident. I thought it was a waterbuck. Waterbuck are common and that wouldn't have been all that exciting but upon closer inspection we found that it was a lesser kudu. Kudu are very rare in this area and Manyara Ranch is pretty much the only place you can find them. They are large antelope with big twisting horns, thick stripes down their throat and thin stripes on their sides.

The second animal spotting was also an accident. I spotted a pile of bones on the ground and I asked Christian if he could back up a little so I could see what animal it was. He said no, but I could get out and walk over there to check it out. I was shocked because we're hardly ever allowed out of the cars but I wasn't going to miss my chance so I hopped out of the car. The pile appeared to be a dumping area for the maasai boma; it had an equine skull as well as a lot of miscellaneous bones. I was almost done looking at it when I spotted a spotted turtle shell. I thought that was a weird thing to be in that pile so I picked it up. It was alive! It was a leopard tortoise less than the size of my palm (maybe a year old). Christian told us that it was probably eating some of the bone pieces because tortoises require a lot of calcium as they are growing.

The third thing I spotted was the best. I saw these rounded ears sticking out of the grass and I knew that it was some kind of predator. I exclaimed "hyena! no, lion. hyena... predator!" It turned out it was a lioness with 3 cubs. They got up and walked away from up when we stopped but since we were in Manyara Ranch we were allowed to follow them. Christian drove after them and we watched them climb around on the edge of a ravine for a few minutes. It wasn't very good conditions for pictures but it was still awesome to see lions on the move- especially cause I had spotted them!