Trail Log 1995-1997 - Lamar at Colorado State University

15
francolins
egret, unidentified
eland
zebra
helmeted guinea fowl
ground hornbill, a big one with red face and throat wattles.
The wild dog is extremely rare here, and any sightings are to be reported.
June 27, Tuesday. Occupied all day with three game drives at Masa Mara.
Up at 6.00 a.m. and out. Grant's gazelles, bustard, zebra, 24 eland, with a three months old baby
one. 5 giraffes. 3 elephants. Topi. Black-headed heron. Superb starlings. Lion and lioness. Topi
(pix). Wildebeest (pix). Thomson's gazelles. Eland. Black-backed jackal. 5 giraffes. Goshawk.
Warthogs. Baboons. Eland. Lion. Back in for breakfast.
Another drive at 10.00 a.m. There are 1.4 million wildebeest here, 200,000 zebras, 700,000
Thomson's gazelles. There are 26 herbivores, 20 carnivores, 4 primates. The short rains are
November through December. The long rains are February through May. Rare here are: leopard,
roan antelope, rhino, wild dog. The wildebeest population is up five times since the 1900's when
they were first counted, then presumably decimated by rinderpest, introduced by colonial cattle.
When removed from the cattle it disappeared from the wildebeest.
There is a famous migration, really a big sort of circular movement, though the exact routes taken
vary from year to year. December through May the wildebeest are in the Masa Mara. June and
July they move to the northwest Serengeti, and by August through November they are far south in
the Serengeti. This is essentially a migration following where the food is, or where they sense food
might be; they seem to follow thunder and rain clouds. An individual wildebeest may walk 3,000
km. One gets different answers about which month to see them where. There really isn't a
beginning and an ending to the migration; they are always moving. About 1.25 million wildebeest
migrate. About .25 million will die during the migration. About .5 million calves will be born at the
same time, and only about half the calves will make it.
The wildebeest all drop their calves about the same time, late-January through mid-March. This
is thought to be a protection against predators, which can only take so many and then are too
glutted to eat more. The calves are often separated from their mothers and lost. But other mothers,
who have lost their calves, will not adopt them.
Hyenas are far the most numerous predator, there are perhaps 3,000 on the Serengeti-Masai/Mara.
Continuing, mid-day game drive:
51 hippos
bataleur eagle
topi
large herd of impala
The guide took us in to see some protected white rhinos, brought in from South Africa. Armed
guards around them. There are now eight here; there were ten. Two became ill and were sent
back for treatment. In a pen was a female with a three week old calf.