Simba and the Rest of the Pride in the Serengeti

Tags

Africa, Allen Tanzania Safari, Allen Tazania Safaris, Great Migration, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, Serengeti, Tanzania

This is the tenth of twelve posts on our safari in Tanzania. Check out our other posts here:

After 6 days on safari, we finally reached the Serengeti. Spanning northern Tanzania and southwestern Kenya, the Serengeti is a massive park at roughly 12,000 square meters.

While way too much for us to cover in a week (let alone 2 days), we were in the Serengeti for one thing and one thing only: the Great Migration.

All sorts of zebras and wildebeests!

During late February and early March, millions of wildebeests and zebras eat their way across the Tanzanian side of the Serengeti on their way to Kenya. If we had waited until the summer we would have had to have made our way further North, but Mrs. Selfish wanted to see baby zebras and wildebeests, and February is prime baby season!

Surprisingly it didn’t take long for us to find a pregnant wildebeest.

We slowly stalked the pregnant wildebeest in the Landrover (no easy task given its immense size). Though she was a little leery of us at first, she eventually gave birth.

In less than 7 minutes, the momma wildebeest was coaxing the baby up and on its feet. A few minutes later they were gone and had rejoined the rest of the herd.

If only human children were so fast!

The birth was awesome (though perhaps a little messy), but I was there to see predators! Still, it was a long drive to the pride rock side of the park so we stopped for an obligatory Lion King pose.

The ciiiirrccllleee of liiifffeeee…

Descending back into the tall grasses of the Serengeti, it wasn’t long before we came upon a young male lion. Unlike the beat up lion we encountered in Ngorngoro Crater, this guy was pretty majestic.

Why did Simba’s dad die? Because he didn’t Mu-fasa! Haha! Sorry.

The lone lion was cool, but where was the rest of the pride? Up until this point we had only seen lions or groups of two or three, but that all changed when our guide got wind of a pride of lions camped out at the base of a tree.

The lionesses were passed out, hiding from the sun under the shade of the tree. We stopped for lunch nearby, since they didn’t seem to be doing much, but by the time we returned a large herd of buffalo had entered the area.

This naturally peaked the interest of the pride.

Although the pride was 7+ females strong, only two decided to chase down the buffalo herd. It did not go well.

Sorely defeated, the two lionesses rejoined the rest of the pride. To be honest, it seemed improbable that the pride could have out muscled the herd since the herd was 100+ buffalo strong. According to our guide, however, the lionesses typically work together.

While the majority of the pride chases the herd, one or two lionesses will isolate and bring down a buffalo together. Unfortunately for the lionesses, their communication was a bit crap this time around.

It was still pretty friggin’ cool to watch, though.

After the adrenaline rush of watching lions in action, we decided to head back to camp, as it was now late in the afternoon. As we passed back through the tall grassy fields, we encountered a pack of elephants.

Man you gotta love the Serengeti.

Possibly because they were traveling with a baby, the elephants trumpeted their arrival, so we pulled out of the way. Mrs. Selfish and I have ridden elephants in the past, but those were friendlier Asian elephants. African elephants are no joke!