Well, through the big five, the beautiful five, and the ugly five, we've covered 15 amazing animals of the African savanna, but there are more... this post will cover a few other animals we saw on our safari in Kenya.Image
Hippos! Did you know they are the most dangerous animal in Africa? They cause more human deaths than any other animal - despite their large size, they are quite swift on their feet. We saw a hippo grazing on the grass up a hill (not close to the water source!) - it seemed so out of place, but Kifa assured us it's quite normal and he gave that hippo plenty of space. Hippos are very territorial, so they will get angry with animals and humans that get into their water or btwn a mama and her babies! https://www.awf.org/wildlife-conservation/hippopotamusOur camp in the Mara was right on the Ashnil River, which is home to many hippos! We could see (and hear) hippos from our regular dinner table and also from our tent. We weren't worried - our camp was atop a big cliff on one side of the river and an electric fence surrounded the camp. Side note: this part of the trip was quite confining actually, we sat in a jeep all day driving around the savanna and desperately wanted to stretch our legs once back at camp, but we could only walk laps the short distance from our tent to the main lodge to the pool and keep circling. However, we understand why the camp was so secure and appreciate not being open to wild animal attacks while at the camp.
The hippos were SO loud though, we could hear them splashing around and grunting and bellowing to each other all night - a group of hippos is called a bloat! As we were out on our game drives, we saw hippos in groups as well as solitary hippos in small ponds (we saw a lot of these, but somehow I didn't get a photo of one). Kifa informed us that when hippos get injured in a fight, they go off and find a solitary place to heal out of the way of other hippos and animals that would want to challenge them in a weaker state. As mentioned, we also saw a lone hippo up on a hill grazing on grass. I will talk more about hippos once we get to Burundi...stay tuned for more on that country starting later this week.
After seeing crocodiles up close and personal in Australia, it was hard to be impressed by the crocs we saw in the savanna, but we did see them - even living down in the river at our camp. We also saw a crocodile on the banks of a small lake in the Nairobi National Park. We only saw crocs sunning, so no cool stories with this creature.Other animals...baboons - we always saw them close to entrances - like camp and the park entrances. They are quite clever creatures. At camp, we had to keep all food and medicines locked up in a safe while we were out on the drives because baboons have been known to unzip the tent and ransack tents - we were fortunate to have no unwanted visitors in our tent, but sometimes you could hear them out around the camp - Jason said he saw one slip btwn 2 tents when he was walking back from the lodge one night.
Jackals are small, wild dogs that have made an appearance in other stories - the ones where we talk about scavengers. They were the ones we saw get the official nod from the lions to help themselves to the leftovers of the buffalo the pride had feasted on for over a day!
Another animal we caught a glimpse of is a serval - I only know about this animal because my kids love the Wild Kratts! It's a medium-sized cat with spots, so looks a lot like a small cheetah. We spotted it slinking away from us in in the grass, but were happy to see one! https://www.awf.org/wildlife-conservation/serval
That's it for my educational posts on animals we saw on our game drives in Kenya, but there is more trip left - our safari only took about half of our overall trip to Africa. We will head back to Nairobi for one more night, then catch a plane to Bujumbura, Burundi...
- Log in to post comments