Camera Critters: Serengeti Lions

For Camera Critters last week, I posted photos of a lumbering animal not always considered beautiful. My fondness for contrast led me to choose this series of shots for today...

for surely, there are few animals as magnificent, graceful and wondrous as the African lion.

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Crossing from Kenya into Tanzania, our drive took us past a tall cluster of rocks where

a young pair of lions basked in the sun-baked afternoon.

The male's youth showed in his short mane that had not yet come into its own, but already he was embracing his role in the pride. Adult males sleep for up to twenty hours a day, leaving the tasks of both childrearing and hunting to the females, rousing themselves only to feed first on the game dragged home to them. 

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Clearly, the pair had fed recently...the male soon dozed off in spite of our truck parked a short distance away with us looking on in fascination.

True to form, the female remained watchful, keeping a careful eye on us even as she scanned the wide open plain around their raised pedestal....her vigilance a guarantee that no threat or possibility would escape notice...

I used my telephoto lens for these shots, since the lions' perch was a distance away. from the rutted road.

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Keeping a distance is paramount. We must always remain mindful to tread carefully and respectfully in this fragile environment which we are priviliged to explore.

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This is their home...has always been their home. We may only peer in briefly from the edges, leaving all as we found it and taking out nothing but memories.

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And the memories are like no other. I write this post on a gray muddy day half a world away from the African continent...yet I need only close my eyes to feel that sultry sun soak into my skin as a young lion's golden head nods ever lower, until at last, he succumbs to sleep...

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I'm linking this to Misty Dawn's wonderful Camera Critters! To see more critters from around the world, check out the link below...

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 http://camera-critters.blogspot.com/

Watery Hippo Reflections

On our photo safari through Kenya and Tanzania, we saw countless magnificent animals whose beauty and stealth stirred in us incredible awe.

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Alas, the hippo was not one of them!

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Interesting these fellows are…and most definitely entertaining, but by no-one’s definition of charm would they be placed high on a list of the world’s beauties.

Driving through wild game reserves necessitated our remaining in the trucks most of the time. Danger was ever present as lions slid by close to our wheels and elephants stood nearby in angry disdain, looking as

 if they’d like nothing better than to charge.

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Hippo pools were one of the few places at which our driver allowed us to set foot on the savannah. There were some who regretted doing so one Serengeti evening…

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Too busy frolicking to pay us any heed, these lumbering beasts swam, played and fought at a frantic noise level one rarely hears elsewhere. But it was the stench that made a few of the less hardy scurry back to the truck.

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In the interest of remaining ladylike, I will not even mention what the brown stuff splashing about is…but it’s not water. I need only point out that hippos have a quite unorthodox way of greeting one another!

 

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Enough said…I am too easily able to visualize the look of  horror my mother would shoot my way, were she still here to read this post…:)

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(I think I know what kind of comments I'm going to get on this one!)

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Today, I’m linking this to three wonderful memes you would very much enjoy checking out…

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Watery Wednesday

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http://waterywednesday.blogspot.com/
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Weekend Reflections

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http://newtowndailyphoto.blogspot.com/
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Camera Critters

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http://camera-critters.blogspot.com/

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Saturday Photo Hunt: Monkeys

On photo safari through East Africa's game parks, one is lifted from the ordinary and transported to a world of such stunning beauty that the senses can barely take it in. Miles of golden savannah, thorny acacia trees that dot the landscape, and sky that goes on forever instill such awe that speech becomes inadequate and unnecessary.

 And most amazing of all is that this brilliance is but background to the

majesty of the animal life that calls these grasslands home.

While I marvelled at the lions and elephants, and found myself enthralled by the gangly giraffe, I developed a special fondness for the cheeky Vervet Monkeys with their tiny black faces and soft brown eyes.

 Locals do not consider these little guys cute...they are bold, opportunistic and altogether too quick to leap into safari trucks and dining rooms to steal away what they can...

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  I never tired of watching their antics, and the futile efforts of the humans who tried to control them!

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You might like these other posts of my Africa trip:

http://imaginationlane.blogspot.com/2010/07/african-morning.html

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http://imaginationlane.blogspot.com/2010/07/hot-air-balloon-over-serengeti.html

The photos above were taken at the Samburu National Reserve in Kenya

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I'm linking this post to Saturday Photo Hunt, graciously hosted by tnchick. Do stop by and check out other photos that spotlight black this week!
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http://tnchick.com/

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I am also linking up to a great meme I just discovered called Camera Critters. I can see I'm going to love this one...
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http://camera-critters.blogspot.com/