Tanzania - Safari, The Animals Part 2

Let's continue with the cats.  Male lions are a bit harder to find than the females.  We ran across these two who were quite a distance from the road.  Other groups had a closer view.  Once again, credit Kristian with getting the perfect picture.


Other cats were seen even less frequently.  Here, our group sees a Leopard that is resting in a tree.


Meanwhile, one of our other vehicles came upon a much closer Cheetah.  And again, Kristian gets the picture for us.


If you are wondering how to tell a Leopard from a Cheetah, see this web page.  Short answer - those black "tear lines" that run from the corner of their eyes down the sides of their nose to their mouth mean it's a Cheetah.

Two more large animals made their appearance for us on the floor of the Ngorongoro Crater.  Our vehicle spent at least an hour looking for and at these Rhinoceroses, pictured on the left.  I suspect that we were never closer than a quarter mile.  Another of our vehicles found one crossing the road.  This time we have to credit Corky with getting the picture for us.


The other large animal found in the crater is the Hippopotamus.  We saw them in several places.  They probably look the cutest lying on the ground.


Well, maybe cute is not the right word.  We also encountered them in a pool.  What, at first glance, looks like rocks in the river is actually a large number of hippos.



To anyone who has spent time around a hog barn, the smell of this pool was quite familiar.  To many in our group it just smelled B-A-D!  A nice set of signs described the environment.

A Closer Look at the Hippos

I took the picture on the left.  Once again, Kristian demonstrates his artistic talent and patience by waiting for that "Kodak Moment" and got the picture on the right.


Now that we have looked at the "big"animals, what about "tall."  We saw many giraffes.  Kristian gets credit for finding one not in the trees and bushes.  They seem to be constantly eating with their heads down.