This is a letter report on the
Ngorongoro Crater in Africa from Al Sears who
is engaged in an extended tour mixing business and pleasure. These types of
natural refugia are well worth paying attention to as the geographic boundaries
prevent overwhelming shifts in the animal density that often disturbs the
greater environment.
There are plenty of other wild
places on Earth. It is just that most are
not as accessible as this one obviously is.
Recall the Great Bear Rainforest whose access is at best a trip onto the
beach or a passage through a forest road that is better described as a tunnel
it you are in the truly wild parts. The
Amazon is little different.
I wonder how a large lion would
handle a full sized grizzly? They are
both huge and formidable and I am sure that the Mega Lion of the Ice Age confronted
the Kodiak on the Bering Plain. The
advantage for a Lion is that they are generally protected by a pride and have
plenty of options. Yet Rogues have to
face a Grizzly head on and it will also be often because of the high density of
bears generally.
The fact that they successfully
coexisted suggests that they simply stood down more often than not as most
other carnivores do.
Ngorongoro
Al Sears, MD
11903 Southern Blvd.,
Royal Palm Beach
The Ngorongoro lions are huge, with big, thick, dark, puffy manes. The
darker the mane, the more mates a lion will have.
March 13, 2012
When I first got to Ngorongoro, my eyes deceived me.
From the lodge, you can see Lake
Mugadi
I was surprised that the lions appeared totally indifferent to my
presence. I couldn’t get as close as I wanted, but seeing them was not
disappointing at all. The lions were incredible, just to be near them in
person.
The Chief Director told me there are five prides of lions in the
Ngorongoro wildlife conservation area. A total of about 100 lions. And these
were huge lions.
The biggest lions I’ve ever seen. They looked markedly bigger than any
I’d seen in a zoo. Especially this one male we saw. And there was a young male
that was also just huge; big-boned, bulky... stocky.
And they’re very well fed there. They looked very nourished. I’d never
seen a lions mane like this. Really big, puffy, lustrous mane, and it went all
the way down his back. The mane didn’t stop on the back of his neck. It went
halfway down his back in a strip.
But it’s not only lions in Ngorongoro. There are almost every kind of
African plains animal in there. But they’re kind of trapped in a way. They
could walk up the steep hills but they don’t.
The elephants you see are only the big bull rogue elephants. There are
no herds of elephants with the mothers and their babies. They’re around the
outside of the preserve like the giraffes, but not inside.
And giraffes can’t get in there. Even though there are giraffes outside
of the crater, they can’t manage the steepness of the slopes. So there’s
everything except giraffes.
Here are some of my thoughts on Ngorongoro...
Notes From My Journal
I can hardly believe I’m really here....
Ngorongoro!
Maybe the wildest place on Earth. Untamed. Fierce. Primal.
The jungle rules here, and it is a jungle. I expected a
savannah when I went to see the lions. But I’m on a cliff on the side of a
mountain in a dense rainforest.
I’m sitting on this mahogany balcony with my leather notepad. My staff
gave it to me as a going away present for this trip to Africa .
I’m thinking I’m a lucky man.
Jungles sing at night. Every jungle has its own song.
This jungle has rustling of canopy trees in the wind coming up the slope
from the crater far below. And I’m surrounded with chirps and hoots and
whistles and howls. Signals to something out there somewhere. I don’t know the
language. But I could be lulled into thinking that I used to. Then, all of a
sudden... What is this round of screeching about?
I stare into the pitch black. Now the jungle grows quiet.
Are there lions looking back at me from the dark? Licking their lips? I
reckon they would have to lick their lips delicately. Lions rip the skin off
their kill with their tongues.
Ngorongoro has the largest and fiercest lions in the world. Could they
have their nocturnal eyes fixed on me? And their feline brains fixed on licking
my skin off?
You know, it’s getting late. I’ve got a big day with the Chief Director
of Conservation tomorrow. Can’t be dilly-dallying out here all night. And, I’ve
got a bottle of Patron on my desk. It will do just fine to hold me over… until
my courage comes back.
9:37: One foot on the brake. Stop. Lurch forward. Adam, my driver,
eases us down the steep descent into the crater. Today I will have my day with
the lions I’ve been waiting to meet.
11:32: The lions are here and I am here, but we do not meet. They
have important previous engagements with the sun, the grass, active lion cubs,
mates, and their game.
12:45: They totally ignore my arrival on their scene. They’re just
doing what they do. Stalking the wildebeests and the zebra. They were
interested in them. they’re just lying around in the sun. The most they’ll do
is occasionally roll over on their back and put their paws in the air.
Except for the leader of the pride. There was a lioness in heat that he
had sex with about five times. Very violent, dominating kind of thing that,
like chimpanzee sex, lasted about six seconds. Just turn your head and you miss
it.
And I did see one funny sequence ... the lions got chased by
another animal. Usually it's the opposite. Remember, these were taken from
pretty far off. Here's what I saw:
In fact, I’ve seen so many animals in my travels in Africa ...
I still have to show you photos of my safari drive, my trips to Rwanda and The Congo
To Your Good Health,
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