The Last Day in the Serengeti

Today is our last day in the Serengeti. We will miss this wonderful hotel and our game drives in the Serengeti but we are looking forward to Kenya too!

We started with a VERY early game drive again. The first animal we saw was the lion - the King of the Jungle. He was sitting atop a large rock and looked very regal.

A few lion facts:

• Group of lions called a Pride

• Likes to sit up high so can see all around

• If male lion feels threatened by another male, he will fight and kill/chase away the other male and take over the challenged leader's pride. The new male will kill all the cubs sired by the previous leader and start his strong lineage.  

• Older lions are usually darker in color.

• Mature lion is around 8 years old.  

• Male lions migrate because of food movement.  

• Male lions need to fight for their right to sire cubs.

• Male lions weigh around 265 lbs. 

• Sometimes the boys will gang up on the father and kill him to take over the pride splitting it up.  

• Female lions stay in the pride even when old. They stay with the group and the younger females will care for her.

We then found another large rock group with many young male loins. In the second photo you can see all the paws of the lions sleeping - a pile of lions :-). They are resting after a big kill. If you look at their stomachs they almost look pregnant. They don't need to eat again for about a week. It takes longer to digest their food since it is raw.

Next we saw two male cheetahs. They were sleeping under a tree.

A few cheetah facts:

• Brothers often hang together until maturity / Females can be more solitary than males

• Fastest land mammal - Can run up to 70-80 MPH

• Male and females both hunt

• Solitary life style-When mating they will choose 2 trees next to each other and will get together to mate and then separate again to their own tree.  

• DO not see well at night

• Can run fast for about 25 meters or 82 feet until brain has oxygen depravation

• Prefers to eat the Thompson Gazzelle or nickname “Cheetah Cheeseburger”  

• Black spots on back of ears is the way that cheetah can tell each other apart. 

We then saw a family of Warthogs. Pumba as you remember from Lion King. Our guide told us Pumba means 'Not Very Smart' in Swahili. This was a family -- a mother and four babies. They were adorable. They live in dens and you can see the babies going in and out of the den.

A few warthog facts:

• Live in barrows / dens

• Two sets of tusks long upper short lower 

• Aardvarks make the caves because they are hunting for ants.  The Warthogs move in after the Aardvarks get the ants.

• They go into den backwards so they can defend themselves with their tusks.

• Babies have whiskers that look like tusks when they are born.

• Group of warthogs are called a Sounder

We came back to our hotel and we saw a warthog from our outside deck and he was playing in the mud. What a fun day of warthogs!

We also saw some Topi out of our hotel deck today. It was so interesting to watch the mom and baby running and playing.

Some Topi fun facts:

• People call them - Blue Jeans, Yellow Socks, Black Suspenders - due to their coloring.

• Topi are largely only in the Serengeti and the Maasai Mara

• They usually stick to themselves on the plains, they have good eyes and ears

• Another nickname is - The Savannah Cowboys - as they run through the Serengeti savannah like a cowboy on a horse.

• Young can get milk from any mother

• Babies are very brown in color to match the grass

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We have so enjoyed The Serengeti!! We are off to Amboseli, which is in Kenya. So a new African country to visit. Tomorrow is an early morning and long travel day so no game drives.

Thanks for following along.