THE SERENGETI, A MAGICAL PLACE TO SEE WILFLIFE, Guest Post by Karen Minkowski

Female leopard with her cub, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania.

My friend Karen Minkowski has visited Africa many times and has contributed often to The Intrepid Tourist, sharing her beautiful photographs and insights about animals. She recently went to northern Tanzania, visiting four national parks: Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, and Tarangire. This is the second of her four reports of that trip. 

The Serengeti is magical, a magnet, one of the best places on earth. It seems at times, as the Maasai thought when they named it Siringet, that it really does go on forever and ever – infinity on earth. Here is some of what we saw.

Cheetahs.

These cheetahs may be brothers; we wondered if there were hiding from lions, as they remained reclining, partially obscured by grass, for a long time.

Later that afternoon, a clump of nine or ten Land Cruisers ahead alerted us to something interesting. A group of stopped vehicles is a common way of finding predators, especially, when driving through a wildlife area.

Two leopard cubs wrestled and snuggled and finally looked in the direction of their mother, who was not in our line of sight. When the cubs disappeared amidst the rocks and vegetation, our guide moved the vehicle to where we could see her perched high upon a rock. 

Leopard cubs.

Leopard cubs.

Female leopard.

It’s not common to see a leopard with her cubs, so we were lucky when they briefly joined their mother. We watched as one cub or the other, sometimes both, spent a few seconds in her presence, as though just checking in with her.

We’d seen five species of cats in just a few days: lion, serval, wild cat, cheetah and leopard. Our version of the Big Five! (Traditionally the Big Five are lion, leopard, elephant, black rhino and Cape buffalo. We did see all but the black rhino.)

A lovely giraffe in a woodland.

Zebras at the river.

Impalas.

Male impalas nuzzling. They eventually put their foreheads together and gently practiced fighting, skills they might one day need.

Practice fighting.

A couple of new birds for me: von der Decken’s Hornbill and the Coqui Francolin. (I was last in the Serengeti in 1971, so I may have seen these birds before and forgotten them.) Both are males.

Decken's Hornbill.

Coqui Francolin.

Kirk's Dik-Dik, a tiny antelope about 16 to 18 inches in height.

Hippos are common where there is water deep enough to cover their enormous bodies. Such sweet faces!

Hippos.

Lion drinking.

Lions Mating.

Wildebeeste migration.

We saw a little of the wildebeest migration heading north towards the Maasai-Mara in Kenya.  

Note: Next week will be Karen's report on her visit to Ngorogoro Crater National Park.

TOURING UGANDA, THE "PEARL OF AFRICA": Guest Post by Owen Floody

Lions in tree in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda.

With many thanks to Owen Floody, a frequent contributor to The Intrepid Tourist. In 1971, Owen and my husband Art participated in a field course in animal behavior in Uganda. The descriptions in Owen's post below bring back many memories of that first trip to Africa.

Rhinos.

This column describes a 12-day June 2025 safari in Uganda that was run by Wilderness Travel and ably led by Robert Sunday, of Classic Africa Safaris.  After one night decompressing in Entebbe, we began the first of several long drives, aiming for Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda’s northwest.  Fortunately, the drive was broken up by an hour at the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary.  There, we had great fun tracking white rhinos on foot.  The high point was a standoff between one male and several females: Dust was raised but we apparently didn’t merit any actual contact.

Murchison Falls.

One of the beauties of Murchison Falls is the variety of activities it offers.  We took two Nile cruises, one to the base of the falls, the other to the Victoria Nile Delta in search of Shoebills.  For balance, we drove to the top of the falls, where we surrendered our barrels and marveled at the volume of water being forced through the tiny opening in the rock.  

Giraffe.

In addition, we went on several game drives, during which we even managed to tear our eyes off the giraffes for long enough to enjoy the many other animals and birds (e.g., Ground Hornbill.)

Ground hornbill.

Of course, experiences of this sort can’t go unpunished, so that we then piled back into the Land Cruiser for the long drive south to the Kibale Forest National Park.  This park is one of the relatively few in East Africa consisting of rainforest rather than savanna.  Naturally, then, it features rainforest creatures, chiefly chimpanzees and other forest primates.  The highlight of our visit was the two hours that we spent alternately crashing through the undergrowth and quietly hanging out with a troop of chimps that seemed to ignore us completely.  Out of the forest, we enjoyed a walking tour of Bigodi village, including visits to a coffee farm, banana-beer brewer, and native-plants herbalist.

Chimpanzee.

Fortified by the coffee, beer, and herbs, we hit the road again for the mercifully short drive to Queen Elizabeth National Park, perhaps Uganda’s best known savanna park.  Accordingly, we sought grassland animals, on our own and along with researchers tracking radio-collared lions and leopards.  

Lioness.

And we came back to the theme of cruises, as we enjoyed a small-boat ride on the Kazinga Channel.  Along with the Nile cruises at Murchison Falls, this is among the best known and most pleasant water experiences in Africa.  The hippos were impressive and the hyena an unexpected treat, but it was the multitude of Pied Kingfishers and other wonderful birds that stole the show.

Pied Kingfishser.

Finally, it was time for our last stop, at the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, near Uganda’s southwestern corner.  Like all other visitors to Bwindi, we were there for up-close-and-personal views of Mountain Gorillas.  We did the smart thing and hedged our bets by scheduling two gorilla treks on separate days.  This was fortunate and speaks to the care with which Wilderness Travel planned this trip.  The first trek was difficult and culminated in limited views.  

Gorilla.

Apparently, no one had told the gorillas of the fans hoping for an audience.  But the word got out overnight and resulted in an easy trek and incredible views the next day.  It is simply amazing how gratifying it is to see these majestic animals so completely at ease and at such close range.  Was it the small plane or gorilla memories that transported us back to Entebbe to begin the long, but satisfying trip home?

CLOSE-UP WITH WILDLIFE IN NAIROBI, KENYA: Part 2, Nairobi National Park, Guest Post by Humberto Gutierrez Rivas

Rhinos and Cattle Egrets, Nairobi National Park, Kenya

With many thanks to Humberto Gutierrez Rivas for his report and terrific photos of his family's trip to Kenya last January. His post about their wildlife experiences near Nairobi is in three parts, the first appearing last week, Part 2 today, and Part 3 next week.

This past January our family had the trip of a lifetime to Kenya for 12 days to visit friends in Nairobi, go on safari, and visit the island of Lamu.  There were many highlights of this trip, and one that got it started happened right there in the city of Nairobi.  

Less than 8 hours after our arrival, we were met at the front door of our friends’ house by Amos, our guide, and his safari van.  Our friends had coordinated a day expedition for us to Nairobi’s National Park, the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage center, and Giraffe Center.

Amos drove us from the north to the south part of the city to get us to the park, so we also got to see the early morning activities of people walking to bus stops, walking to work, and opening shops along the road.

Nairobi National Park

Grey-crowned crane in the park grassland.

After leaving the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage, we headed for the entrance to Nairobi National Park. The park was created in 1946 and is almost the size of San Francisco. It’s fenced on the sides that border with the city and is open to the southwest to allow the movement of animals during migration.

Nile crocodiles sunbathe on the shores of the park lagoon.

Soon after we entered the park’s main gate, Amos raised the roof of the van so that we could stand and be on the lookout for animals in the open and not from behind the windows.  There are no bathrooms or housing structures inside the park--just dirt roads. At that point, I realized that the only thing between us and the animals is the chassis of the van. It’s a truly immersive experience, but at times you are reminded that the park is close to the city when you see in the background the city buildings. 

Black-headed heron and Nile crocodile rest on the lagoon sandbank.

Hartebeest.

Nobody is allowed to get out of the van. Amos drove around the park and called out and directed our attention to different animals roaming and resting in their natural environment.  

Impala.

Masai giraffe.

Although we didn’t get to see lions, cheetahs, hyenas, and elephants, we enjoyed many other animals. 

Ivory burning site and mound of burned ivory. 2016 was the last ceremonial burning, with more than 100 tons of ivory.

We spent most of the day at the park, and on our way out of the park to visit the giraffe center, we stopped at the Ivory Burning Site.  It’s a memorial site dedicated to Kenya's commitment to conservation and to end ivory trade by burning confiscated elephant and rhino ivory. Ivory has been burned several times since 1989, and now you can see the mounds of ivory ashes left behind from these burnings. It truly brings to focus the role of conservation.

SUMMER AFTERNOON AT THE LOS ANGELES ZOO: Giraffes, Gorillas and Much More

 

Masai Giraffe, Los Angeles Zoo, Los Angeles, CA

We recently visited the Los Angeles Zoo, for the first time since the pandemic. It was good to see the animals again. We missed them. When the zoo was closed to visitors during the pandemic, the animals apparently missed seeing people too! Some adaptations have been made for social distancing since the zoo reopened, but most of the exhibits are open.

Male baby Masai giraffe, 3 months old. Born to Zainabu (mother) and Philip (father)

Highlights of our visit included koalas, cassowaries and other Australian animals, a new baby giraffe (born April 8th and already nearly 7 feet tall!) and a rambunctious young gorilla named Angela (born Jan 2020) playing in her enclosure, not unlike an energetic human two-year-old.

Southern Tamandua, a South American anteater.

Our first stop was the Winnick Family Children’s Zoo, not far from the zoo entrance, where we watched a Southern Tamandua (Tamandua tetradactyla) wake from its nap and explore its enclosure.

The path to the main part of the zoo passes the meerkat colony, and the animals were on alert, just as they are in the wild of southern Africa, where they are on the constant lookout for predators. If one meerkat spots a hawk soaring in the sky above, it emits a warning and the rest of the animals scurry to safety in their underground burrows. Although the meerkats are presumably safe in their zoo exhibit, they still watch out for large birds soaring overhead.

Caribbean flamingos.

Soon after the meerkats we passed the flamingos—both the bright pink Caribbean species, and the smaller and more delicate colored African flamingos. In both enclosures the birds were busy honking and jostling one another in minor disputes.   

Rock wallaby.

It was a warm day and many of the animals were resting in their enclosures. But in the area with the Australian animals, large trees supplied plenty of shade. We spotted an echidna scurrying around a kangaroo and under two koalas tucked into the branches of one of the trees. Other Australian animals on exhibit included a rock wallaby, a cassowary with its brightly colored head crest, and inside the reptile house, an enormous lizard--a perentie.

Perentie.

The perentie (Varanus giganteus) is the largest monitor lizard or goanna native to Australia. It is the one of the largest living lizards on earth. On our several trips to the Australian outback we had always hoped to see one (from a distance, of course), but never came closer than viewing some tracks. The perentie on exhibit at the LA Zoo looked to be at least five feet from nose to the tip of its tail. They can grow to up to  eight feet in length. The striking pattern of its scales resembles elegant designer fabric, but in the wild would likely be effective camouflage.

Angela, a young lowland gorilla.

Our final stop was at the gorilla enclosure. While the older animals appeared to be napping, the youngest member of the family, a young female named Angela, romped around the enclosure, playing with sticks, jumping from rocks, and turning somersaults, as she entertained herself and the crowd. 

As always, a visit to the zoo is potluck--you never know which animals are going to be active or visible in their enclosures.  We had an enjoyable afternoon, saw lots of animals, and didn't even have time to visit all of them.

For a map of the Los Angeles Zoo and information about planning your visit, click HERE.