Towards the end of sophomore year, I needed to take all my finals two weeks early. It was well worth it to be able to go to Kenya and Tanzania
(east Africa) on a photo safari.

Since we were celebrating my grandparent's 60th anniversary (wowie),
my mom's whole side of the family came, too. Between all of us,
we took over 5,000 pictures of the awesome animals. All pictures
on this site were taken by myself or a family member.

Let's start with lions

This is my favorite picture.

Lions are amazing stalkers. See if you can find all 5 in this picture.

As long as we're on predators...

The cheetah is the fastest creature on land

They can reach speeds of up to 70 miles per hour

Our Toyota Land Cruiser was unable to keep up on flat ground.

Just look at how lean they are.

Another sweet predator is the leopard

Notice how the cheetah's spots are all black, but the leopard's
only have black outlines. Also, the leopard has more white patches,
and is a tree stalker instead of a runner.

Notice how close that is to our vehicle.

It's comin' right for us!

Let's face it, Nile Crocodiles are scary looking

We only saw a few hyenas, the wild dogs of the savannah
 

And now for the most dangerous animal in Africa:

If you are on foot, a cape buffalo will charge you.
They have documented footage of a cape buffalo stopping the process
of giving birth in order to charge someone. Note the sharp horns.

Rhinos are cool.

Almost 1,000 of our pictures were of elephants.

Some morning exercise.

People ask me how close we got to the animals.
How's that for close?

Aparently, the rule about not getting in between a mom elephant and her babies also applies to just sitting there and letting them walk around your car on opposite sides. I swear, mom elephant, it wasn't our fault!

That white car tried to pass the elephant. Moron.

Olive baboons were the first animal we saw.

Olive baboons pleasure themselves more than any species on the planet (except maybe for my brother). We have lots of interesting video footage
(of the baboons, not my brother).

We also saw a great many giraffes. This is a maasai giraffe.

This is a reticulated giraffe.

This is a chair shaped like a giraffe.

 

How cute

We went to giraffe manor, a hotel where rescued giraffes live.

One of the hotels we stayed at was right next to a hippo-infested river.
They are very, very, noisy.

They also spray poop when they walk. Never walk behind a hippo.
 

I'm talkin' SPRAY- they leave a trail a few feet wide behind them.

It's Pumba! Hakuna matata, friend (by the way, that's a real song in Kenya,
but with different lyrics than what we know from the Lion King)

Speaking of the Lion King, here's pride rock.

We were priviliged to witness the Great Wildebeeste Migration,
which involves 4 million animals over four countries
during the course of a year.

We could see nothing but Wildebeeste as far as the eye can see,
which is pretty far on the Serengeti plains.

Why did the Wildebeeste cross the road?

Oddly shaped creatures, they have been described as
"designed by committee and built with spare parts"

One wildebeeste makes a really annoying noise,
arguably the most annoying in all of nature.

Now picture that noise in stereo- millions of them making it.

Despite the name, wildebeeste are not the only animals that participate
in the Great Wildebeeste Migration. Zebra and gazelle follow them.
Wildebeeste eat the top grass, Zebra eat the middle grass, and Gazelle eat the lowest grass. They're not competing for food, so they get along well.
Also, without the bigger animals eating the taller grass,
zebra and gazelle would starve.

A common zebra

In contrast, here is a Grevy's zebra (does not participate in Migration)

Common zebra and flamingos

The whole time we were in Africa, my dad wanted to ride a zebra

He asked rangers and guides whereever we went, but they all said no.

We got all sorts of excuses, from "Their backs are too straight" to
"because I said you couldn't".
Regardless of the excuse, he did not get to ride a zebra. We did get to eat them, though, and they weren't very good.

The night before we left, in the hotel we stayed at, our room had a cruel photograph in it. Over the bed was a photograph of a man riding a zebra.

You know that's cute.

Here is a rare, nonfertile crossbreed between a horse and zebra

 

Some gazelle that participate in the Migration

Kudu

Eland

Hartebeeste (delicious)

Bongo (do not migrate)

Oryx (do not migrate)

One of the hotels we stayed at has been taken over by Vervet Monkeys

Look cute, don't they?

Imagine finding one passed out on your porch, covered in its own vomit,
still clutching an empty bottle of whiskey that it stole from the pool bar.
They also steal food from your plate at the restaurant, prompting the hotel to hire proud Maasai warriors to guard the buffet line.

A rite of passage for the Maasai is to spend a week alone in the serengeti, and kill a lion with bare hands. When a normal person walks in the serengeti and encounters a lion, the lion will just sit there. If a Maasai goes walking in the serengeti, lions tuck tail and run. So, Maasai warriors are more than qualified to make sure that bread isn't stolen from the table.

This is a dik-dik. Unfortunately, this is not because they run around
shouting "dik, dik dik"

Oh, yeah. Remember how I said this was for my grandparent's anniversary?
Here they are.

Check out the latitude on that sign

 
 
 

These are gerenuk, "giraffe necked" gazelle. They stretch their necks
to eat leaves high up in the trees.

We saw many cool species of birds

Hornbill

Maribou stork

Vultures

We went to a place called Ngorongoro crater, which is a caldera (the middle part of an old volcano that collapsed on itself). The animals are trapped inside by the walls, but the area inside is huge enough that they survive. Our hotel was built onto the walls, and we had telescopes for looking down into the crater at all the animals.

Note the walls in the background

 
 
 
 

Termite mounds get enormous

 
 

This is a modified Toyota land cruiser, what we used to get around.

I'll end with this.

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