The Ngorongoro Crater lived up to its billing today, with animals everywhere, nearly all of them habituated to safari vehicles and thus not running away as we drove by. The highlight of the day was a pack of hyenas taking down a zebra, and while the feeding frenzy afterwards was impressive with hyenas pouring in from all corners of the park, the death of the zebra took a long time and was a really tough thing to watch – it was too brutal for photos, and convinced me that I most definitely never want to be out on foot while hyenas are about.
The crater itself is one of the largest intact craters in the world (like Crater Lake, the crater walls do not have a break in them) and the eleven mile diameter depression is the result of a volcanic eruption one million years ago, after which the ground collapsed over the empty magma chamber. Animals within the crater have plenty to survive on, so zebra and wildebeest are everywhere, over a hundred lions have made it their home, nearly 400 hyenas roam about, a small herd of black rhino remain, etc, etc. At one point today we stumbled upon a lioness lying in wait in the grass, and waited some time for a line of zebras to walk by her. Safari vehicles kept stopping to see the lion and redirecting zebra out of her path in the process, but when finally a small herd crossed within a few feet of her she never moved from her hiding place in the grass – the guide said that a single lion hunting during the day won’t charge until she gets exactly the right situation, and apparently none of the zebra she saw met her standards.
The other unusual sighting today was a hippo pool that was about three feet deep, and the hippos were rolling in the water to rub their backs in the mud. We would see a huge hippo in the water slowly turn, and then its stubby legs would be shaking in the air before it would finally manage to rotate its huge body back upright – not something I ever expected to see, but hugely amusing to sit and watch.
Tomorrow morning we get another visit to the Crater before heading off to Tarangire National Park for a couple of nights, after which the Tanzania portion of this odyssey will sadly come to its conclusion.
ICK!