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earthstar

~ a celebration of nature

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Tag Archives: Serengeti National Park

Lizards of Tanzania

22 Wednesday Feb 2017

Posted by sconzani in nature, reptiles

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

female Agama lizard, lizard, lizards of Tanzania, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

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I’ve been going through my travel albums (always fun) to see what other creatures I’ve encountered in foreign parts that I can share with you and I found some of the many lizards I saw during my trip to Tanzania in August 2014.

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My photos show two different individuals, photographed several hours apart, and I think these may be female Agama lizards, of which there are some 37 species in Africa, but I don’t know that for sure. So if anyone does know, please do add a comment below. I also have some photos of the males but they deserve a post of their own!

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Happy Hippo day!

15 Wednesday Feb 2017

Posted by sconzani in animals, nature

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hippo, hippopotamus, Hippopotamus Day, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

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‘There is no need to worry about mere size. We do not necessarily respect a fat man more than a thin man. Sir Isaac Newton was very much smaller than a hippopotamus, but we do not on that account value him less.’   ~ Bertrand Russell

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‘There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud.’   ~ Carl Sandburg

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He thought he saw a Banker’s Clerk
Descending from the bus:
He looked again, and found it was
A Hippopotamus.
`If this should stay to dine,’ he said,
`There won’t be much for us!’
~ Lewis Carroll

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Burying its head in the sand?

27 Wednesday Jul 2016

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature

≈ 8 Comments

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burying your head in the sand, ostrich, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

For world wildlife Wednesday this week we have the ostrich, a bird with a reputation for refusing to confront or even acknowledge problems, a reputation that has, over the years, been the subject of many jokes, much derision and a myriad of witty comments.

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‘Any fool can turn a blind eye but who knows what the ostrich sees in the sand.’ ~ Samuel Beckett, in Murphy

‘The ostrich burying its head in the sand does at any rate wish to convey the impression that its head is the most important part of it.’ ~ Katherine Mansfield

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Of course, ostriches don’t actually bury their heads in the sand or any other substance – they simply lower their heads when feeding and also as part of their complicated mating ritual. The male lowers his head, flaps his wings rather excitedly, and pokes the ground with his bill to try to impress the female, repeating this pattern several times. Eventually, the female will run in a circle around the male and drop to the ground, which is the signal that she’s ready for him. I’m not sure that the female in my photos was very impressed with her male’s wing-flapping, and we didn’t stay long enough to see whether his energetic display proved successful.

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World wildlife Wednesday: Antelopes anonymous

13 Wednesday Jul 2016

Posted by sconzani in animals, nature

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

antelope, Ngorongoro Crater, safari, Serengeti National Park, Serengeti Plains, Tanzania

I used the word anonymous in my title because I’m not entirely sure what all of these animals are. And I use the word ‘antelopes’ in the broadest possible sense, as my photos may well include creatures that are not strictly speaking members of the antelope family. The trouble is that when you go on safari in a country like Tanzania, it’s far too easy to be overwhelmed by and enraptured with the less common, more sensational animals (the lions and leopards and cheetahs), so the ‘antelopes’, though no less interesting in themselves, tend to get ignored just a little.

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Having said that I did have to sort through more than a hundred ‘antelope’ photos when choosing which to include in this post. And, because I knew I would forget them, I did ask our guides the names of what we were seeing and made a list – I’m just not sure now which is which on that list. So, these photos may or may not include: impala, topi, Thomson’s gazelle, Grant’s gazelle, dik-dik, waterbuck, bushbuck, Cape eland, and Coke’s hartebeest.

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The laughing hyena

20 Wednesday Apr 2016

Posted by sconzani in animals, nature, nature photography

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Hyena, Serengeti National Park, Serengeti Plains, Spotted hyena, Tanzania

‘A sense of humor is good for you. Have you ever heard of a laughing hyena with heart burn?’ ~ Bob Hope

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‘HYENA, n. A beast held in reverence by some oriental nations from its habit of frequenting at night the burial-places of the dead. But the medical student does that.’ ~ Ambrose Bierce

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‘There’s always the hyena of morality at the garden gate, and the real wolf at the end of the street.’ ~ D. H. Lawrence

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‘Do let’s pretend that I’m a hungry hyena, and you’re a bone!’ ~ Lewis Carroll

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‘We slander the hyena; man is the fiercest and cruellest animal.’ ~ Henry David Thoreau

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The rock hyrax

06 Wednesday Apr 2016

Posted by sconzani in animals, nature, nature photography

≈ 6 Comments

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Procavia capensis, rock hyrax, Serengeti National Park, Serengeti Plains, Tanzania

On safari in the Serengeti even the places where we stopped for lunch had amazing wildlife, some of them lazing around in the sun as if just waiting for the animal paparazzi to show up. These critters are Rock hyraxes (Procavia capensis), also known as Cape hyraxes and rock badgers. Incredibly, though they look a bit like huge hamsters, their closest living relatives – cousins many times removed – are elephants and sea cows. Just like their cousins, they have prominent (though obviously much smaller) tusk-like upper incisors, and the males’ testes are permanently enclosed inside their abdomens.

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Their bodies do not regulate heat very efficiently so, though they look rather fat and lazy, they are more active in the early morning and in the evening but need simply to bask during the hottest hours of the day. Hyraxes live in large social groups, using sentries to warn of danger when foraging for their favourite food plants, and communicating through a series of at least 21 different vocalisations which can, apparently, inform other hyraxes of their age, size, body weight, social status and hormonal condition. They can be found in most of the sub-Saharan countries in Africa, and are just plain cute!

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‘The king of the jungle’

30 Wednesday Mar 2016

Posted by sconzani in animals, nature, nature photography

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

king of the jungle, lion, Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti National Park, Serengeti Plains, Tanzania

Did you know …

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The ‘king of the jungle’ is just an expression as lions actually live in grasslands and plains.

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The roar of a lion can be heard up to 8kms (5 miles) away.

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A lion can run at 50 mph but only for short distances and can leap as far as 36 feet.

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When it walks, a lion’s heels don’t touch the ground.

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Lions are the only big cats to live in family groups, known as prides.

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The reason lions spend up to 20 hours a day resting and sleeping is because their bodies have very few sweat glands so it is easier for them to be active in the cool of the night.

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Lions’ eyes are six times more sensitive to light than human eyes, which means they have excellent night vision.

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The darker the mane, the older the lion, and lionesses seem to prefer males with darker manes.

My photographs of lions were taken on the Serengeti Plains and in the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania in 2014, at the end of a week-long trip with The Giving Lens, an organisation that combines photography workshops with mentoring, media and financial support for local NGOs.

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Cat climbs a tree

19 Saturday Mar 2016

Posted by sconzani in animals, nature, nature photography

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Earth Hour, leopard, leopard climbs a tree, Serengeti National Park, Serengeti Plains, Tanzania

Today, at varying times around the globe, we celebrate Earth Hour, a movement in which 7000 cities and towns around the world unite in turning off their power, as a way of showing their support for environmental issues, as a way of uniting in their desire to protect planet earth.

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In honour of this special day I thought I would share one of the most special times I have experienced on this amazing planet we call home. If we don’t unite to protect our earth, sights like this will disappear forever. It is a simple act – a cat climbs a tree – but this is not just any cat, this is a pregnant female leopard, climbing the tree where she has previously stashed a kill, in the Serengeti, in Tanzania.

I hope we can all work together to protect our planet so that everyone has the opportunity to see this. I hope one day you get to see this. I hope one day your grandchildren get to see this.

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Giraffe necking

16 Wednesday Mar 2016

Posted by sconzani in animals, nature, nature photography

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

giraffe, giraffe necking, Serengeti National Park, Serengeti Plains, Tanzania

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Though I had seen giraffes in zoos, it was a totally different experience to see wild creatures like these in their natural environment, on the Serengeti Plains, in Tanzania, in 2014. In a zoo, you are safe: the animal is confined and, if not tame, at least partially used to human interaction. In the Serengeti, though I never felt unsafe, I was very much aware that I was out of place, an intruder in a savage world, where death and violence are commonplace.

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I felt this most when we were watching these three young male giraffes. Initially, they looked like they were just hanging out like good buddies but, as we watched, they started necking. This is a common, often violent ritual to establish dominance in the herd or to impress a female. They swing their necks and try to hit each other with those hard bumps (ossicles) on the tops of their heads. And it must hurt – those whacks and thumps sounded brutal and can apparently be heard up to a kilometre away. These three didn’t injure each other but older males have been known to knock each other unconscious with the power of their blows. It was certainly sobering to watch.

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The horse in striped pyjamas

09 Wednesday Mar 2016

Posted by sconzani in animals, nature, nature photography

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

horse in striped pyjamas, Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania, zebra

Eight things you might not have known about zebras, until now:

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1 Zebras can move fast, up to 65mph in fact, which, when combined with superb stamina and some cunning zigzagging moves, means they can outrun most of the creatures that might want to eat them.

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2 Zebras are relatively long-lived animals, clocking up between 20 and 30 years in the wild, and up to 40 in zoos.

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3 Though never domesticated, zebras were once trained to pull chariots around the hippodromes of Ancient Rome.

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4 Zebras are clever communicators. As well as oral expression (barks, whinnies and sniffing sounds), they also use facial expressions and the position of their ears and tails to convey how they feel. Beware the zebra with wide-open eyes, bared teeth and ears pulled backwards – he’s mad!

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5 As the old Eddie Arnold song goes, a zebra looks like a horse in striped pyjamas. Turns out, zebras sleep like horses too, standing up and only when safe amongst the herd.

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6 The herd means protection for a zebra, and the larger the herd the better, as then more ears and eyes are keeping watch. Other grazing animals like antelope and wildebeest are also welcome.

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7 Talking of herds – what about that incredible spectacle, the annual 1800-mile migration of zebras, antelopes and wildebeest between Kenya’s Maasai Mara and Tanzania’s mighty Serengeti Plains?

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8 And, finally, about those striped pyjamas – it seems zebras evolved stripes for a multitude of reasons:  en masse in a herd, their stripes visually merge so predators have a tough job focusing on individual animals; stripes also distort distance in low light (i.e. at dawn and dusk); they’re a unique visual fingerprint helping zebras recognise each other; they’re a form of temperature control as stripes are believed to disperse around 70% of the sun’s heat; and new research has shown that their monochrome pattern confuses the visual systems of flies, thus helping to keep those annoying critters at bay.

My photographs of zebras were taken on the Serengeti Plains and in the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania in 2014, at the end of a week-long trip with The Giving Lens, an organisation that combines photography workshops with mentoring, media and financial support for local NGOs.

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About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

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