1965. A small group of tourists and I were in Tanzania’s Oldupai Gorge listening to an African guide talk about paleontological discoveries at the gorge. He was a young man, one of five trained by paleoanthropologists Louis and Mary Leakey, and was clearly enjoying his job. However, he really came alive at the discovery site of a nearly two-million-year-old species of ape, Zinjanthropus boisei, nicknamed Nutcracker Man because of its huge teeth. “A very important find” he excitedly announced. “Why? Because this ancient ape walked upright, just like us! This same creature may also have been the first to use rudimentary stone tools!” Then, gesturing to a small concrete monument at his feet, our guide proudly stated, “And Dr. Mary Leakey found the skull of Nutcracker man right here!”
Discovery site of Zinjanthropus boisei (Nutcracker Man). It has since been reclassified, first as Australopithecus boisei and then Paranthropus boisei. (Paranthropus means Robust Ape.)
The tour guides, in place since 1963, had been taken on to deal with a sudden surge in visits stimulated by artlcles about Oldupai Gorge and Nutcracker Man published in National Geographic Magazine. Safari companies, instead of driving their clients directly from Ngorongoro to the Serengeti National Park, were beginning to include Oldupai Gorge in their itineraries. Visitor numbers, already too high to be handled directly by on-site scientists, rose from 600 in 1963 to 3,335 in 1965, initiating a rising trend that continues to the present day.
The Oldupai Gorge Site and Visitor Center is only a short diversion from the main road about halfway between two of Tanzania’s most visited tourist sites, Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti National Park. (Graphic by (David Bygott and Jeannette Hanby.)
Of course, increasing tourism in Tanzania primarily reflected the allure of its wildlife, especially in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Serengeti National Park. For instance, in 1965, four of five visitors to Ngorongoro and the Serengeti bypassed Oldupai Gorge entirely. Nonetheless, findings excavated there continued to attract visiters by keeping it in the news. Examples not included in a previous post https://storiesofeastafrica.com/2024/09/20/the-leakeys-and-their-discoveries-at-oldupai-gorge-tanzania/ include:
A 1.75 million-year-old stone circle, the oldest-known evidence of a man-made shelter from weather.
A computerized depiction of the remains of a stone circle at Oldupai. It was built by piling basaltic rocks in a ring structure and was used as a windbreak and / or base to support upright branches covered by skins and grass. (https://www.dennisrhollowayarchitect.com/Olduvai.html)
Rudimentary stone tools, associated with Australopithecus apes, that are a million years or more older than those associated with Nutcracker Man and Homo habilis (Handy Man).
An array of extinct animal species that co-existed at Oldupai with early humans, who first scavenged their remains and later hunted them. Some of these animals were remarkably large.
Weighing up to two tons and with horns up to 2 m (6.6 ft) long, Pelorovus was one of the largest bovines (and even ruminants) to have ever lived.
(Mr. A. GNU Free Documentation License.)
At 4-5 tons in weight, Deinotherium (Greek for “Terrible Animal”), was one of the largest mammals that ever lived. Not directly related to modern day elephants, it probably browsed tree foliage in open woodlands. Its tusks weren’t used for digging but rather for removing branches that hindered feeding. Isolated populations survived until 12,000 years ago, possibly hunted into extinction by modern man (Homo sapiens). (Concavenator. C.C. Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.)
Almost sixty years later, tourism at Oldupai Gorge is booming, with 3,000 visits a day during Ngorongoro-Serengeti’s five-month peak tourist season. (Thus, out of the nearly 1.5 million visitors to Ngorongoro and Serengeti last year at least 450,000 visited Oldupai Gorge.)
Traffic jam in Ngorongoro crater. Most of these vehicles later continued to the Serengeti National Park, a significant number visiting Oldupai Gorge along the way. (David Bygott.)
This good news, however, brought with it a need for upgraded infrastructure, not only to handle the large numbers of visitors, but also to interpret the findings that have made Oldupai Gorge a UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of the most important in the world depicting human evolution.
This led to the construction, in 2018, by the J.Paul Getty Museum, of the Oldupai Gorge Site and Visitors Center (replacing a smaller original museum dating from the 1970’s). Situated at the very edge of the gorge and under the jurisdiction of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA), its one of the largest on-site museums in Africa.
Oldupai Gorge Site and Visitor Center.
(David Bygott.)
Backed by a view of Oldupai Gorge, an interpretive guide does his bit at the visitor center.
(David Bygott.)
Also, to better direct tourists to Oldupai Gorge, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority erected a large monument depicting Nutcracker Man and Handy Man at the turnoff from the Ngorongoro-Serengeti Road. The junction is now so well marked that even tourists unaccompanied by experienced drivers and/or tour guides will notice it.
Monument to the discoveries at Oldupai Gorge of Nutcracker Man and Handy Man.
(David Bydgott.)
Thus, the NCAA has reason to be pleased about the present state of tourism at Oldupai. However, there is still room for improvement: Most Tanzanians can’t visit Oldupai Gorge. This is partly because it’s far from population centers, but also because of the NCAA’s prohibitively high entry fees (except for school field trips). Reducing entry fees for Tanzanian citizens would help the country’s small (10% of the population) but growing middle class better appreciate an important part of their (and the world’s) national heritage.
To the casual eye, Oldupai Gorge, in Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Conservation Area, seems much like any other network of scrub-littered ravines draining (whenever it rains) dry rangeland areas in the world. However, it stands out from the rest in being a special place, a UNESCO World Heritage Site yielding up artifacts invaluable to understanding early human evolution.
Oldupai Gorge (David Bygott)
Oldupai seasonal stream, the eastern half of which flows through Oldupai Gorge, drains the eastern Serengeti Plains.
(David Bygott & Jeannette Hanby)
Oldupai Gorge’s fame reflects its unique geological history:
Basalt flows from Ngorongoro’s Crater Highlands which flooded the area almost two million years ago.
The subsequent, intermittent formation of shallow alkaline lakes attractive to a rich diversity of animals, apes and early humans (Lakebed clays aided in fossilizing their remains).
Periodic volcanic eruptions in the nearby Crater Highlands which added successive layers of ash that helped preserve animal and hominid remains.*
Geologically recent earth movements which tilted the Oldupai area, creating the stream that cut the ( up to 90 meter / 295 ft deep) Oldupai Gorge, exposing an orderly sequence of nearly two million years of layered deposits containing animal, pre-human, and human artifacts.
* Hominid–Family of erect, bipedal primates including humans together with extinct ancestral and related forms and the gorillas, chimp, bonobo and orangutan.
In this way, Nature first created, and then exposed, a treasure trove of artifacts illustrating human evolutionary history.
All that was needed now was for someone to piece that history together.
Layered deposits exposed by erosion in Oldupai Gorge.
(David Bygott)
The volcanic ash comprising most of the layered deposits in the gorge came from once active volcanoes in the Ngorongoro Crater Highlands (background).
Enter Louis and Mary Leakey. Born in Kenya to missionary parents, Cambridge-educated Louis was raised among the Kikuyu, whose language he spoke and about whom he later wrote a book. For her part, Mary, despite receiving only a sporadic education, already was a woman pioneer in the fields of archaeology and paleoanthropology. Their complimentary skills, hers in excavating artifacts and his in interpreting and publicizing them, made them an effective husband-wife team.
Mary and Louis Leakey
(Smithsonian Institution Archives. Accession 90-105, Science Service Records, Image no. SIA 2008-5175)
Beginning in 1931, the Leakeys spent most of their professional careers excavating Oldupai Gorge’s layered deposits, from the lowest and oldest (1,750,000 years) to the highest and youngest (present day).
Time sequence of depositional beds at Oldupai Gorge related to environment and human evolution.
(Jeannette Hanby & David Bygott: 1992. Ngorongoro Conservation Area Guidebook. David Bygott & Co)
Their first major find, in 1959, was a large, robust ape, which Louis Leakey classified as Zinjanthropus boisei (Later classified as Australopithecus boisei, and then reclassified as Paranthropus boisei). He initially considered it to be a direct ancestor of humans because it walked upright and was found with an abundance of faunal remains and rudimentary stone tools (so named becausethe stones chosen already resembled the final product and were simply altered by chipping off a few flakes). Its massive teeth (for which it was nicknamed Nutcracker Man) implied a diet of coarse plant material.
It was a welcome discovery for the Leakeys who up to this point had, whenever Louis could find enough funds to support their work, spent 28 years at Oldupai uncovering animal fossils and crude stone tools. Zinjanthropus, however, caught the world’s attention, enabling Louis to secure proper long-term financial support–from the National Geographic Society.
A reconstruction of Zinjanthropus boisei (now Paranthropus boisei)
(Cicero Moraes and Dr. Moacir Elias Santos. Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.)
But then in 1960, remains of another hominid species, discovered by Mary and her son, John, came to light. Similar in age to Zinjanthropus boisei but smaller in stature, it had smaller teeth and a larger brain, which at 600 cc was 100 cc larger than Zinjanthropus’s. This changed Louis’s mind–Here was the real direct ancestor of man, one more likely to have used stone tools. Louis named the new find, Homo habilis. Handy man.
A reconstruction of Homo habilis.
(Cicero Moraes. C.C. Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.)
Still largely ape-like, H. habilis remained partially arboreal (long arms) but ate more meat (implied by its smaller teeth) than apes, and probably scavenged and hunted smaller animals, while still eating lots of plants.
A chopper associated with Zinjanthropus (Australopithecus / Paranthropus) boisei and Homo habilis remains at Oldupai Gorge.
(Picasa. CCO 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.)
(Note: Present-day thinking is that Paranthropus boisei may, in fact, have been able to make rudimentary stone tools, which it used for butchering carcasses.)
Louis’s and Mary’s announcement that they had found a new species of early human provoked controversy as many experts thought they had too little evidence to support such an important conclusion. Only in the 1980’s, following Richard Leakey’s discovery, in 1972, of Homo habilis remains on the shores of Kenya’s Lake Turkana, did the scientific community fully accept that Homo habilis was a true human ancestor.
Richard, one of three Leakey children. Still young when this picture was taken in 1965, he was to become a noted paleoanthropologist in his own right.
The Leakey’s later excavation of Homo erectus (Upright Man) remains in higher level, 0.7 – 1.2 million-year-old, deposits in the gorge, created less of a stir because remains of H. erectus already had been discovered elsewhere (Java in 1892 and China in 1927). Nonetheless, finding H. erectus , Paranthropus boisei, and H. habilis, as well as 17,000-year-old artifacts of H. sapiens (Modern Man) at Oldupai made it possible to demonstrate the full sequence of human evolution at a single site.
Reconstruction of Homo erectus. Upright Man.
(Cicero Moraes. C.C. Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License)
At 950 cc, H. erectus had a larger brain than H. habilis. Upright Man also used more sophisticated stone tools, including hand axes and cleavers, had a more modern gait and body proportions (flat face, prominent nose) and sparse body hair, carried out coordinated hunting of medium-large animals (bovines-elephants) and possibly was the first human ancestor to use fire, have a proto-language, and practice monogamy (as inferred from males and females being similar in size). H. erectus also was the first human ancestor to spread from Africa into Eurasia.
Stone tool hand axe used by Homo erectus.
(Loctus Borg. C.C. Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.)
Stone Age Homo sapiens, represented by the 17,000 year-old remains excavated at Oldupai Gorge, used stone tools tools characterized by microliths, which are smaller, finer, and sharper than stone tools made by H. erectus. They include spear points and arrow heads. Microliths were advanced technology in their day because they were portable as well as easier to make than the hafts of spears and bows. Thus, when a spear point broke it could be easily replaced without having to make a new haft.
Microliths.
(Birmingham Museums Trust. C.C. A. 2.0 Generic License.)
SUMMARY
From the early 1930’s until Mary died in 1996 (Louis died in 1972), the Leakeys were responsible for most of the stone tool and hominid fossil discoveries at Oldupai Gorge (and Laetoli). These discoveries, which were major contributions to understanding human evolution, proved that:
Humans were far older than previously believed
Human evolution centered in Africa rather than Asia, as earlier discoveries had suggested
The earliest humans coexisted with a species of ape which, like them, walked upright.
They also demonstrated the relationship between the evolving features (especially brain size) of increasingly modern species of humans and the sophistication and frequency of use of stone tools.
Louis and Mary Leakey worked at Oldupai Gorge for 41 and 65 years respectively. It was time well spent.
REFERENCES
Bygott, D. 1992. Ngorongoro Conservation Area Guidebook. Tanzania Printers Ltd.
Featured image: Eleusine jaegeri, a large tussock grass, dominates the highland grasslands of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. It is unpalatable except when young. Consequently, grazing pressure is confined to an underlying mat of palatable grasses (Andropogon, Cynodon, Digitaria, Sporobolus) which is kept low by constant usage.
Several months ago I made digital copies of the Range Management Handbook of Kenya available online. The response was so positive that I’ve decided to continue with other difficult-to-obtain publications on eastern Africa’s rangelands. Today I’m happy to announce the online availability of several digitized publications on the rangelands of Tanzania!
During the mid 1960’s and 70’s I was involved in, among other things, surveys of vegetation in Tanzania. Whenever possible, I also obtained copies of other surveys and studies, six of which I have digitized. Published between 1967 and 1978, they are now out of print and hard to obtain. Nonetheless, they may still have some value, be that for planning, instructional, research, or historical purposes.
Also, if you have paper copies of additional publications on the rangelands of Tanzania and would like me to digitize them and make them available, please send me an email.
Outside the house a prowling hyena whooped mournfully, waking me from my reverie. The fire which, last time I noticed, had been burning merrily away in the fireplace, was now.a bed of glowing coals. The short wave radio, having wandered off frequency, was whining and crackling with static. The feeble, slowly pulsating light from the Petromax lantern showed that it needed pumping. Again, the hyena whooped, but farther away this time. I looked at my watch and realized the lateness of the hour . . .
Buffaloes by My Bedroom: Tales of Tanganyika
Many years later, when I think about my nights at Ngorongoro, whether in the Crater Highlands, on the floor of Ngorongoro Crater, or somewhere on the Serengeti Plains, the first thing that comes to mind is the querulous oooo-WHUP (I am here) of a prowling spotted hyena.
The spotted hyena only occurs in Africa. (Graphic: Ngorongoro Hyena Project)
At the time I gave this little thought. But now, having investigated the matter, I know it was because the spotted hyena is not only Africa’s most abundant large carnivore, but also mostly hunts at night.
Something I did know, however, even then, was that the spotted hyena had an image problem. Less than handsome (although its small black cubs are cute), it has long been regarded as a skulking, slinking, nocturnal, weird-sounding, odd-looking, unclean scavenger too cowardly to prey on any but the weak and young. Furthermore, its role in disposing of human corpses encouraged the feeling that the animal is something of a living mausoleum. (Many East African tribes placed their dead, and in some cases, near-dead, in the bush for just this purpose.) Thus, it’s not surprising that the spotted hyena, whose behavior sometimes seems to verge on the demonic, also is associated with death and witchcraft. Consequently, it plays a more important role in African witchcraft than any other animal. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_depictions_of_spotted_hyenas#:~:text=In%20the%20culture%20of%20the,branded%20with%20an%20invisible%20mark.)
“Where’s my public relations person?“
(Photo: David Bygott)
That said, any spotted hyenas worried about their poor fan base can take heart from the fact that scientific research is casting them in a more positive light. Two attributes stand out: (a) high intelligence, and (b) speed and efficiency in utilizing prey carcasses. Together, these traits have made the spotted hyena a very successful carnivore. Details follow.
But first, two interesting spotted hyena facts.
Spotted hyenas look like dogs but are taxonomically more closely related to cats (most closely to genets and mongooses).
Hyenas are more closely related to mongooses than foxes, which, like dogs, are in the Suborder Caniformia.
(Graphic: Ngorongoro Hyena Project)
Dwarf mongooses.
(Photo: David Bygott)
Also interesting, and rather strange, is that males and females look so alike (females have a pseudopenis and false scrotum), that spotted hyenas were long thought to be hermaphrodites.
Female? Male?
(Photo by David Bygott)
Now, down to business:
Contrary to their reputation, spotted hyenas are highly intelligent, capable of outsmarting chimpanzees in laboratory problem-solving tests. Some everyday examples of this intelligence include (a) exceedingly cunning and suspicious behavior after escaping from traps, (b) use of deceptive behavior, and (c) an ability to plan for hunts of certain prey species in advance.
Regarding (b) and (c) above, Hans Kruuk, who studied spotted hyenas in Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti in the 1960’s, once observed a spotted hyena which upon finding a carcass, sounded the alarm call to keep other hyenas away, allowing it to keep the carcass for itself (Spotted hyena mothers sometimes show similar behavior by sounding alarm calls when other hyenas attempt ro kill their cubs). Hans also could often tell, from their behavior, when a group of hyenas had decided to hunt zebras, even when none were in sight and other prey were more easily available.
Other examples of spotted hyena intelligence occur throughout this report.
Complex behaviors reflect high intelligence, and spotted hyena behavior is the most complex of all African carnivores. An aspect to this is a high degree of behavioral flexibility. For instance, hyenas don’t always stick together, They may act communally, as when hunting dangerous prey, and defending clan territories, or individualistically (and highly competitively) as when caring for their young, foraging, and hunting smaller prey. This allows the species to exploit many different resources efficiently.
The spotted hyena social system differs from other social carnivores in that there is no communal sharing of food (or care of the young, each female caring only for her own).
(Photo: Bernard Dupont. CCAS 2.0 A license*)
Females rule. Larger than males (unusual in mammals), they take the lead in territorial marking exercises, group hunts, and battles with other packs. Females also remain in the clan / pack while males emigrate (at about two years of age). Males not only defer to females, but also play no parental role, and are often not even allowed near the otherwise communal dens, Less closely knit than wild dogs, spotted hyenas more often forage and hunt alone.
“Darn females won’t let me in the house! “
(Photo: David Bygott.)
Complex behavior requires good communication. Spotted hyenas are excellent communicators. This is because every individual is, to another hyena, a potential competitor (even dangerous enemy) or collaborator, which makes the signaling of moods and intentions very important. Thus, the spotted hyena has an enormous array of calls (whoops, moans, grunts, giggles, whines, yells, growls), expressions, postures, and attitudes. This can lead to a massive amount of noise when they compete with one another over a carcass. Consequently,the spotted hyena is one of Africa’s noisiest animals.
Highly gregarious, the spotted hyena is the most social of all carnivore species, with the largest social groups. For instance, a spotted hyena clan may comprise 35 to 80 adults. (In contrast, the largest recorded pride of lions, the other major social large carnivore, is 30 animals, including cubs.)
Social group size, however, varies with the availability of food, as does the size of spotted hyena territories, and the degree to which the group (clan / pack) defends them. For instance, in the Kalahari Desert spotted hyena densities are so low that they forage and hunt within territories too large (500-2,000 sq. km / 193-772 sq. miles) to defend against other hyenas. In contrast, where wild ungulate prey is most abundant, as in Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Crater, hyenas are numerous, forming large social groups and aggressively defending territories less than 40 sq. km (15 sq. miles) in area. (The much larger Serengeti-Mara ecosystem, which includes the crater, is home to 7,200-7,000 animals, the largest spotted hyena population in Africa.)
Ngorongoro Crater’s large resident population of 25,000 ungulates supports high densities of from 380-470 spotted hyenas.
(Photo: David Bygott.)
One night in the Serengeti, two friends of mine, staying in a guest house, experienced at close hand the aggressive defense of a spotted hyena clan territory. Hearing hyenas, they went outside and played a recording of spotted hyena calls from another area. Minutes later they had to scramble atop a nearby Land Rover to escape a crowd of angry spotted hyenas. Hearing hyenas from another clan in their territory, they had rushed over to expel them.
Another example of the spotted hyena’s complex behavior is a greater plasticity in foraging and hunting behavior than exhibited by other African carnivores. for instance, spotted hyenas both scavenge and hunt, the former usually during the day because they use vultures as indicators of kills, and the vultures only fly during the day.
A spotted hyena waits for lions to finish eating before scavenging the remains.
(Photo: David Bygott)
However, when carcasses are scarce, spotted hyenas also hunt, usually at night, and, depending on the circumstances, either alone, in small parties, or in large groups. A common technique is to lope toward a herd or flock, forcing its members to flee, revealing easy to catch stragglers (weak, young, sick).
Wildebeest calves in Ngorongoro Crater and on the Serengeti Plains are a favorite prey of spotted hyenas. As they are easy to catch, they are hunted by single hyenas.
(Photo: David Bygott)
Like wild dogs, spotted hyenas simply run their prey to exhaustion, usually within 1.5-5 km (1-3 miles). A single hyena can catch and kill healthy prey the size of a bull gnu, but only as a last resort. When hyenas are numerous, other pack members may join in near the end of a chase to help pull down larger animals like wildebeests. However, usually led by a female, they also stage deliberate pack hunts of dangerous prey, such as zebra families guarded by sharp-hoofed stallions.
Zebras fight back, so spotted hyenas must hunt them in groups.
(Photo: David Bygott)
Often eating their prey alive, spotted hyenas, unlike wild dogs (https://storiesofeastafrica.com/2023/09/13/wild-dogs-wildlife-of-ngorongoro/), compete with other pack members by eating as much and as fast as they can, with individuals swallowing up to a third of their weight (A lion can only swallow a fourth of its weight). Twenty hyenas, and another group of 35, were recorded finishing off carcasses weighing 100 kg (220 lbs.) and 220 kg (485 lbs.) respectively, in 13 minutes. And they do this with remarkably little fighting. Instead, there’s lots of noise, which attracts other clan members (up to 65 seen on a kill in Ngorongoro Crater). Only then do all clan members ever come together. (These competitive scrambles are less common in the Serengeti where there is a better ratio of prey to hyena.)
When many spotted hyenas are on a kill, some quickly eat what they can before taking a chunk of meat and bone elsewhere for a quiet meal.
(Photo: David Bygott)
Spotted hyenas also excel in that they eat almost the entire carcass of their prey. They can, for instance, crack quite large bones, such as those of buffaloes and giraffes, noisily splintering them before they are swallowed. Furthermore, their digestive system can dissolve bones, and even teeth, within hours. (Dry hyena scats, composed of ground up bones, are a chalky white.). Thus, virtually everything is eaten except the rumen contents (Grass! Yuck!), and horn bosses of larger antelopes. The hair, and hooves, which cannot be digested, are disgorged. Probably no other carnivore utilizes vertebrate prey so efficiently. Other species waste up to 40% of their kills.
“The good stuff’s finished; time to eat the hide.”
(Photo: David Bygott)
Hans Kruuk found the spotted hyena to be a formidable predator. This to the extent that lions often scavenge hyena kills. Direct competitors with lions for food, spotted hyenas, unless present in large groups, generally give way to the larger carnivores, allowing them to appropriate their kills. In turn, spotted hyenas frequently steal kills made by cheetahs and wild dogs (although the latter, being more socially cooperative, are sometimes able to successfully defend themselves) and, given the opportunity, also kill their cubs, as do lions. In the Serengeti, lions and hyenas have exerted such pressure on wild dogs that they have pushed them into outlying parts of the greater Serengeti ecosystem.
A single hyena being harassed by a pack of wild dogs.
(Photo: Kruger sightings HD. CCA 3.0 U**)
Furthermore, spotted hyenas can be dangerous to livestock and people, especially when other food is scarce, but also when an opportunity arises for an easy meal, such as encountering an unattended child, or someone sleeping in the open. A relevant example (see below) recently appeared in my local newspaper.
Furthermore, spotted hyenas are easily kept and trained. Witch doctors sometimes add to their persona by keep them as pets. Hans Kruuk and his wife, Jane, successfully raised a young hyena as a family pet in the Serengeti National Park, although they eventually put it in a zoo when it learned how to open doors and steal bacon from the chief park warden’s breakfast table.
Spotted hyenas: Complicated creatures. Just like us.
REFERENCES
Estes, R.D. 1992. The Behavior Guide to African Mammals: Including Hoofed Mammals, Carnivores, Primates. The University of California Press.
Fosbrooke, H. 1972. Ngorongoro–The Eighth Wonder. Andre Deutsch.
Herlocker, D.J. 2009. Buffaloes by My Bedroom: Tales of Tanganyika. iUniverse.
Featured image: African wild dog pack, Kruger National Park, South Africa. Bart Swanson. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 unsorted license
“Wild dogs!” John yelped. Pointing out the right window of his Land Rover, he exclaimed “Over there–ten of them.” Then he really got excited: “And they’re chasing something! See how they’re trotting, strung out in a long line? Fantastic!” Abandoning our search for rhinos, we promptly sped off to follow the hunt.
It was 1965 and I, the assistant conservator (forests) for the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), was temporarily without official transport because the NCA had prematurely exhausted its government-imposed monthly fuel allowance. For the time-being I would be unable to supervise the crew constricting a road around the western and northern rim of Ngorongoro crater or visit forest guards patrolling the Northern Highlands Forest Reserve; they were all too far away. What I could do, however, was accompany my neighbor, John Goddard, a Canadian biologist studying black rhinos, into the Crater. John had his own source of funding, which meant he was unhampered by government fuel allowances.
Rattling across the crater floor in John’s Land Rover, we followed the pack for about a mile before it brought down its prey, an adult Grant’s gazelle. Then, instead of resting from their exertions, the wild dogs immediately started ripping it apart; John and I arrived to find one dog pulling on a foreleg of the gazelle, another yanking the other direction on a hind leg, and two others tugging at its stomach while the rest of the pack danced about uttering excited twitters and whines. John quickly took several photographs, but then surprised me by leaving the vehicle to approach the frenzied melee taking place only thirty feet away. What was he thinking? They’ll eat him for dessert! But then another surprise: instead of aggressively defending their kill, the wild dogs warily backed away, allowing John to walk right up to it.
Wild dog pack tearing into a Grant’s gazelle in Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania.
In his 1972 book, Ngorongoro: The Eighth Wonder, Henry Fosbrooke remarks on how wild dogs in the crater always gave way when John approached. He did this, Henry said, to collect the prey’s mandibles–aging its teeth showed an animal’s age at death. John wanted undamaged specimens so he collected them as soon as possible after the wild dogs made their kill. However, in this case at least, there also was a fringe benefit: Returning with both the gazelle’s head and part of one of its hindquarters, John announced, “This takes care of dinner, tonight!”
My three years (1964-1967) at Ngorongoro exactly coincided with the presence of a wild dog pack in Ngorongoro Crater. Few were seen prior to this time and the pack left the crater in 1967. But then African wild dogs have a reputation for being rare and elusive. For instance, Henry Fosbrooke saw a wild dog only once during his 30 years of on and off acquaintance with Ngorongoro. George and Lory Frame, who studied cheetahs and wild dogs on the Serengeti Plains in the 1970’s, often spent days or weeks searching for dogs to study, then, having found a pack and studied it for a few days, woke up the next morning to find the dogs had vanished.
“Where’d they go?”
Being rare and elusive makes the African wild dog difficult to study. Nonetheless, it’s worth the effort, and not just because the wild dog occupies its own taxonomic genus (Lyacon) differing from the genus Canis (jackals, wolves, coyotes, domestic dogs) by dentition highly specialized for a hyper-carnivorous diet, and in having four toes on each foot. Both attributes support survival, the first by enhancing the shearing of meat, which increases the speed at which prey is consumed (thereby lessening the chance that lions and hyenas can steal the kill), and the second increases an animal’s stride and speed, allowing long distance pursuit of prey.
To the average viewer, however, the African wild dog’s most distinctive features are its large, round ears, and a splotchy black, white, and brown (sometimes verging on yellow) body–hence its other name, the painted dog. Happily for those who study this species, each animal has its own unique, readily distinguishable coat color pattern. African wild dogs also apparently really stink, although, unlike John Goddard, I never got close enough to tell.
Painted dogs, Kruger National Park, South Africa. Unlike those pictured here, the wild dog in East Africa generally has a white-tipped tail. (The Maasai call it Oloibor kidongoi, the white-tipped one.)
Bernard Dupont. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License.
The African wild dog is a habitat generalist able to survive in a wide range of environments (An extreme, although undoubtedly short-lived, example is the sighting of a pack near the summit of Tanzania’s 19,341 ft Mt. Kilimanjaro). However, wild dogs are most commonly found in relatively open habitats which provide good views and running conditions.
Almost exclusively carnivorous, killing most of what it eats, the species is specialized as a pack hunter, concentrating on whatever medium-sized antelopes are most abundant. More enduring than its prey, it pursues the latter at up to 35 m/h (56 km/h), one dog leading , and the rest strung out behind, until the prey is exhausted, usually within 3 miles (5 km). Their ability to run their prey down without having to conceal their approach allows African wild dogs to be conspicuously colored, and like cheetahs, hunt only during the day.
African wild dogs chasing prey in Botswana’s Okavango Swamp.
Probably one of the most successful African carnivores, African wild dogs are such effective hunters that when prey is abundant, a pack can regularly have both breakfast and dinner. For example, wild dogs in Ngorongoro Crater killed twice a day, catching 85% of the animals they chased. Even the lowest recorded success rate for this species (39%) exceeded those of all other large predators except cheetahs. Furthermore, the entire pack benefits from a kill because it is shared among them.
Wild dogs in the Serengeti primarily prey upon Thompson’s gazelles and, in season, wildebeest calves (pictured here).
One reason for their rare and elusive nature is that wild dog packs are frequently on the move, averaging 10 km (6 miles) / day, or when game is scarce, up to 40 km (25 miles) / day. In the latter case, hunting ranges can be huge, up to 1500-2000 sq. km / 580 – 770 sq. miles (The largest recorded range is greater than the total area of London), exceeding in area even those of cheetahs. However, a range can be smaller when prey is resident and numerous.
The African wild dog has specialized on an abundant food resource which it can only exploit efficiently by hunting in packs. In East Africa these typically consist of about 10 animals but can go as high as 20 or even 60. Social bonds are strong; when separated from its pack, an African wild dog becomes so depressed that it may die. Each pack has only a single breeding pair, composed of the dominant male and female, which needs assistance from the other adults to provision large litters of up to 10 pups during an extended (12-14 month) period of dependence. Food sharing, by regurgitation of meat obtained from a kill, is supported by an emphasis on submissive, begging behavior within a pack. Aggressive behavior is rare. In-breeding is prevented by the emigration of females to other packs whereas the males, related to one another but not the breeding female, remain.
Wild dog pups. Litter sizes , larger than any other canid, are enough to form a new pack every year.
David Bygott
Despite being such effective hunters, and having an exceptionally efficient reproductive system, African wild dogs are the least common large predator in Africa. Furthermore, their population is declining. With under 7,000 animals remaining in the wild (there are fewer wild dogs than cheetahs) and having disappeared from much of their former range, African wild dogs are the continent’s 2nd most endangered large carnivore, after the Ethiopian wolf. Reasons given include:
(a) infectious diseases: Wild dogs are highly susceptible to canine diseases spread by domestic dogs;
(b) competition from lions and spotted hyenas, which appropriate wild dog kills, and in the case of lions, also kill their pups and adults;
(c) habitat fragmentation and loss.
The fragmented continental habitat of African wild dogs. The full extent of the original habitat can be roughly approximated by the distribution of smaller relict ranges. (Approximately 700 wild dogs live in northern Botswana.)
IUCN. CCA-SA 4.0 International license.
The results are smaller, less efficient and viable wild dog packs. Once African wild dog packs are reduced to small sizes, and suitable habitats are fragmented and altered by humans, wild dog populations seldom recover.
Lions are bad news for wild dogs.
David Bygott
So are domestic dogs, which carry infectious diseases.
Bothar at English Wikipedia CCASA 3.0 Unported.
Thus, the most effective way to ensure the conservation of African wild dog populations is thought to be by creating and protecting areas connecting isolated habitats. A good example of the importance of extensive, connected, ecologically diverse wild dog habitats is provided by the Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem in Tanzania and Kenya. Probably due to a combination of disease and competition from lions, (the major source of wild dog mortality in the Serengeti), and from spotted hyenas, African wild dogs disappeared from the 5,700 sq. mile (14,763 km) Serengeti National Park in the early 1990’s. However, the wild dog populations survived by moving into other parts of the greater (15,444 sq. mile / 40,000 sq. km) Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem. These include Ngorongoro Crater where wild dogs have returned after a 30 year absence, but primarily the Loliondo Game Controlled Area where a more hilly habitat provides greater security from larger predators while the wild dogs are denning and raising their young. Currently, the Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem contains about 120 African wild dogs.
The Loliondo Game Controlled Area (dark green) lies east of the Serengeti National Park.
Abrah Dust. CCA-SA 4.0 International license.
REFERENCES
Estes, R.D. 1991. The Behavior Guide to African Mammals: Including Hoofed Mammals, Carnivores, Primates. The University of California Press. Fosbrooke,H. 1972.
Fosbrooke, H. 1972. Ngorongoro: The Eighth Wonder. Andre Deutsch.
Frame, G. & L. Frame. 1981. Swift & Enduring: Cheetahs and Wild Dogs of the Serengeti. E.P. Dutton.
A cheetah cub purred as it chewed on a windshield wiper; another admired itself in the Land Rover’s fender mirror; a third, sitting on the roof, dangled its tail beside an open window . . . George and Lory Frame, who studied cheetahs and wild dogs in the Serengeti in the late 1970’s, recount how, one day, five large, playful cheetah cubs, members of a family they were studying, turned the tables on the two researchers and investigated them, instead. For the Frames it must have been a welcome break from their usual routine of hours and hours of careful observation and note-taking.
A nice patch of shade.
George and Lory certainly had an interesting animal to study: An inhabitant of wooded savanna, open plains, and desert, the cheetah is a striking cat: lightly built, with long, thin legs, small feet with blunt, unsheathed claws, and small rounded head, it’s built for speed–the field version of a greyhound, as one researcher put it. Capable of top speeds of 60-70 mph (90-112 kph), it’s the fastest animal in the world, a specialist in hunting small, but fast antelopes, such as Thomson’s gazelles (and hares), seldom killing animals larger than itself.
Built for speed. Photo by David Bygott.
However, becoming so speedy has involved tradeoffs. A sprinter with little stamina for chases beyond 300 m / 985 ft., a cheetah must use whatever cover (tall grass, shrubs, trees, ravines) is available to get as close as possible to its prey before attacking it. Furthermore, the cheetah has sacrificed not just stamina, but also the strength (it’s less than a fourth the weight of a full-grown lion) and weapons (note those dull claws) needed to protect itself from other predators. Consequently, cheetahs must avoid large predators, especially lions, which often kill cheetah cubs as well as steal kills. Hyenas also frequently appropriate prey killed by cheetahs. Therefore, cheetahs do not hunt at night, which is when lions and hyenas are most active.
Cheetahs also are unique in that males are social while females are solitary and shy (but still highly promiscuous). Furthermore, they have large home ranges, the largest, up to 400 sq. miles (1,036 sq. km), being those of individual females. Groups of males, called coalitions, defend smaller territories, 14-62 sq. miles (36-160 sq. km) in area, within female home ranges.
Cheetah stalking a Thomson’s gazelle, its favorite prey on the Serengeti Plains. The adult zebra and wildebeests in the background are too large. Photo by David Bygott.
Large home ranges, and mortality from larger predators so intense it limits cheetah numbers even when prey is abundant (less than half of all cheetahs live beyond three months), means that cheetahs never achieve high densities–they are always less abundant than other African carnivores. For instance, the 15,444 sq. mile (40,000 sq. km) Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem (see map at end of post), an area larger than the state of Maryland, and almost twice the size of Wales, has 275 cheetahs (the world’s highest density of these cats), but also 3,000 lions and at least 7,200 hyenas. (The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is part of the Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem.)
Two of the Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem’s 275 cheetahs. Photo by David Bygott.
Most other protected areas are too small to protect viable cheetah populations. Of the roughly 10,000 cheetahs in Africa, about 2/3 live in unprotected areas where. due to persecution and loss of habitat, their numbers are declining. Low populations, the need for young males to sometimes travel large distances to establish new territories, and an extraordinarily low degree of genetic diversity means that cheetahs, of all carnivores, are most vulnerable to habitat loss and fragmentation. (Low genetic diversity also raises the possibility that a disease could devastate wild populations.). Thus, steps are needed to conserve them outside protected areas.
Some conservationists see the cheetah’s future linked to the survival of traditional pastoral livestock management. This is because, historically, there has been little conflict between cheetahs and traditional pastoralists, who minimize stock losses to carnivores by seldom leaving their animals unattended during the day and corralling them at night in protected enclosures.
Traditional pastoralists seldom leave their livestock unattended. Photo by David Bygott.
MAPS
Vegetation of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania. Forest (darkest green–far right) is the poorest of these habitats for cheetahs. Graphic by David Bygott and Jeannette Hanby.
The seasonal movements of the Serengeti-Mara wildebeest populations occur within all or part of each protected area. Graphic by Abrah Eust. Creative commons 4.0 international license.
MAJOR REFERENCES
Estes, R.D. 1991. The behavior guide to African mammals: Including hoofed mammals, carnivores, primates. The University of California Press.
Fosbrooke, H. 1972. Ngorongoro: The eighth wonder. Andre Deutsch.
Frame, G. & L. Frame. 1981. Swift and enduring: Cheetahs and wild dogs of the Serengeti. E.P. Dutton.
Durant. S. 2004. Survival of the fastest: The cheetahs of the Serengeti. Africa Geographic. Pages30-32.
Zoological Society of London. Cheetah conservation in Africa. ZSL.org
My previous post, LEOPARDS: WILDLIFE OF NGORONGORO, stimulated some comments worthy of sharing:
Yvonne Stephenson*
When Yvonne and her husband Steve lived in the Serengeti National Park “many moons ago,” Kay Turner had two pet serval kittens given her by a warden of Tanzania’s game department. His rangers had found them at the bottom of a six-foot-deep pit that poachers had covered with grass to trap passing animals. Kay raised the two servals for six months. Then, one night, while they were sleeping on her bed, a leopard crashed through the bedroom window’s wire mosquito screen and caught one. Luckily, Kay was in another room at the time, entertaining guests. (*The husbands of Yvonne and Kay were, respectively, chief, and deputy chief wardens of the park in the early 1970’s.)
Young serval cat.
Photo by Su Neko. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 generic license.
On another occasion, Yvonne continues, “A ranger burst into our house to report that a leopard had been spotted up a tree with a cheetah, which it must have killed, because the cheetah’s tail could be seen hanging down from the branch. This was very sad for few cheetahs were being seen at the time.”
Herman Dirschl
Herman, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area’s ecologist in 1966, relates a leopard encounter experienced by John Goddard, a biologist studying rhinos in Ngorongoro Crater. John was on the porch of Lerai Cabin when he noticed his little dog, which had wandered several hundred feet away to the edge of Lerai Forest, racing toward him with a leopard in close pursuit. John opened the cabin’s door just in time to let his dog in, slamming it in the leopard’s face.
Lerai Cabin at base of crater wall, 1964.
Patrick Furtado
Patrick thinks he remembers reading a passage in Beryl Markham’s memoir, West with the Night, about her bulldog fighting off a leopard that leaped through a window to catch it. I can easily believe this happened because West with the Night is about Beryl growing up in Kenya in the early 1900’s when it was British East Africa, and wild animals still prowled the outskirts of Nairobi. Beryl’s bulldog would not have been the only domestic pet to have a close–and sometimes deadly–encounter with a leopard.
David Bygott*
David, commenting on my statement that leopards were rarely seen in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, says this has changed due to an increase in tourism, which is habituating leopards to people (or perhaps the vehicles they ride in). And, of course, leopards also are more commonly seen because more people are looking for them. ” I have seen leopards several times on the main road from Lodoare Gate to Ngorongoro, and in the crater. In the Ndutu area I’ve seen them many times.” (*David Bygott and Jeannette Hanby are the authors of Ngorongoro Conservation Area: A Complete Guidebook. https://www.hanby-bygott-books.com)
Tourists: Agents of habituation.
Photo by David Bygott.
David continues: “Here’s one of my favorite leopard memories: Years ago, staying at Serengeti’s Migration Camp, Jeannette and I slipped away and climbed a small hill to enjoy the sunset. As we sat there, I chanced to look over my shoulder and saw a leopard sitting about ten yards away, illuminated by the sun, peering at us over the tall grass. In the time it took me to whisper ‘Chui!‘ it vanished completely, leaving only an indelible mental picture.”
John Goddard and I were twenty feet up in a sturdy acacia at the edge of the floor of Ngorongoro Crater, searching for rhinos hidden by a dense understory of head-high shrubs. We saw three right away, one a young calf. Also in sight were sixteen elephants shouldering their way through the shrubs to a nearby swamp. But John focused his camera entirely on the rhinos. Not having seen these individuals before, he was ecstatic. However, it was late afternoon, and I was thirsty, so I climbed down to walk back through the shrubs to where his wife and young daughter (and a jug of cool water) were waiting in the car. But then a loud cry stopped me.
“Dennis!” John yelled from high in the tree. “Run for the car!”
I wheeled in alarm. About a hundred yards away, John was in trouble.
“Leopard!” He shouted while frantically breaking off a dead branch to use as a club. “At the base of the tree!”
He was as high in the tree as he could get, shouting excitedly and waving his improvised club; the leopard was probably this very moment preparing to bound up the tree and chew his ankles off. Running back to the Land Rover, I drove it through the bushes toward the tree while John’s wife tried to calm their daughter’s anxious queries about her father’s safety. But we never saw the leopard. The noise of our approach–racing engine, the screech and whap of branches against the car, wheels bumping over rough ground–probably scared it off. John clambered down as fast as he could, and we returned to the road. By this time, his wife had had enough. She had not slept well in their tent. She had almost stepped on a cobra earlier in the morning. And now the leopard. It was time to go home.
And home they went.
Buffaloes by My Bedroom: Tales of Tanganyika
Was John in real danger? Many years later, comfortably far removed from the possibility of eye-to-eye contact with an uncaged leopard, I can say that he probably wasn’t. Leopards have indeed killed people when other food was unavailable. However, that wasn’t the case in Ngorongoro Crater which contained an abundance of prey species more attractive to leopards.
Leopard with kill. Photo by David Bygott.
Jackals, of which three species inhabit Ngorongoro Crater, are a good example–leopards really like jackals. That they also like domestic pets was discovered by the Ngorongoro Conservation Area’s first conservator, Henry Fosbrooke, when a leopard snatched his small dog from beside his house one night, grabbed one of his cats from the veranda the next day in broad daylight, and then returned the following evening to see if anything else was on offer. (Leopards have been known to come through open windows to catch sleeping pets.)
Black-backed jackal, a favorite food of leopards.
The leopard’s fondness for domestic pets, however, has not kept it from becoming one of the most economically important animal species in Tanzania. Tourists want to see them, sports hunters want to shoot them, and both groups pay substantial amounts of money for the opportunity.
Tourist photographing a leopard. Photo by David Bygott.
That said, leopards are rarely seen in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area–I saw none during my three years there. This is because leopards are animals of bush and forest rather than open grassland, and usually try to stay inconspicuous (see habitat map at end of post). Nonetheless, tourists with competent guides have a reasonable chance of seeing one. Location is also important. For instance, leopards are frequently seen resting on the branches of fever trees near Seronera in the Serengeti National Park. The trees provide cover from which they can hunt gazelles in adjacent grasslands, then haul their carcasses up a tree to keep then from being appropriated by lions.
Leopard at edge of the Serengeti Plains.
Finger-like extensions of trees into open grassland (pale yellow) provide good habitat for leopards. Adapted from Herlocker (1975).
Their cryptic nature makes leopards difficult to count and monitor. Nevertheless, photo-trapping surveys show them to be widespread within the Serengeti-Ngorongoro region. Furthermore, ranger patrols have sighted a good number of leopards throughout the Ngorongoro Conservation Area’s Northern Highlands Forest Reserve (NHFR). The forest reserve is excellent leopard habitat, providing plenty of food for an animal that will eat anything from beetles and birds to wildebeests (not that the latter are found in forests). It’s such good habitat, in fact, that female leopards living in the NHFR give birth to a minimum of three cubs rather than the usual two.
Excellent leopard habitat: Northern Highlands Forest Reserve, Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Photo by David Bygott.
Leopards are often poached for their valuable pelts, leading to a probable decline in their numbers world-wide. However, even though they sometimes attack cattle, and are consequently regarded by Maasai pastoralists as a threat, leopards appear to be relatively unthreatened within the 3,200 sq. mile (8,288 sq. km) Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which contains an estimated 1,000 of these predators.
Let’s hope it continues this way.
MAPS
Vegetation of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania. In terms of habitat for leopards, Grassland (yellow) is the poorest.Graphic by David Bygott and Jeannette Hanby.
MAJOR REFERENCES
Estes, R.D. 1991. The behavior guide to African mammals; Including hoofed mammals, carnivores, primates. The University of California Press.
Fosbrooke, H. 1972. Ngorongoro: The eighth wonder. Andre Deutsch.
Herlocker, D. 1975. Woody vegetation of the Serengeti National Park. The Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, College Station. 4M–9-75
Proceedings of the 1st Tanzania lion and leopard conservation action plan workshop. Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI) 20-22nd, February 2006.
September 1964. One of the things I remember from my first day as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ngorongoro Crater were the reactions of Henry Fosbrooke, conservator of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and John Goddard, a Canadian wildlife biologist, to tourist vehicles tightly clustered around animals of interest, such as lions.
“Why don’t they stay on the main tracks?” Henry complained. “There’s quite enough off-track driving going on. It’s wearing down the grass and disfiguring the crater floor. I must talk with our guides about this.” John wasn’t pleased either. “Crowding the animals makes them edgy.”
Buffaloes by My Bedroom: Tales of Tanganyika.
That year, 12,137 tourists visited Ngorongoro. In 2018, over half a century later, the amount was closer to three quarters of a million. If Henry and John were worried about the impact of tourists on the crater’s environment and wildlife then, I wonder how they would feel now.
Not that I blame people for wanting to visit the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, for there is much to see. Here are some examples:
Lions. Tourist vehicles were most apt to crowd around the big cats, of which lions are both the largest, and usually easiest to find. And who wouldn’t want to see one, for the lion is the epitome of ferocity, the King of the Beasts lording it atop the food chain. Even from a distance, the large carnivore’s booming, moaning roars have a way of concentrating one’s attention, especially when sleeping in the fragile protection of a tent.
Meal time in Ngorongoro Crater. Photo by David Bygott.
Ngorongoro Crater has long been considered one of the best places on earth to see lions. In 1975, at 125 animals, it contained one of the densest populations in Africa. As of 2014, however, only 55 lions, comprising four prides, ruled the crater. Unfortunately, the lions of Ngorongoro Crater have a problem. Back in the early 1960’s most of them died, weakened by a plague of Stomoxys biting flies. Although the population subsequently grew, so few new lions entered the crater to replenish the gene pool over the next three decades that the crater’s lions became inbred. Immigration of new lions into the crater apparently has always been rare. However, a growing belt of Maasai communities may have exacerbated the situation by detering movement of lions between plains and crater (Maasai warriors kill lions to protect their livestock; they also once did it to prove their manhood.) This is one of the reasons why the Ngorongoro Conservaton Area Authority (NCAA) worries about the impact of an increasing human population on wildlife conservation (See MAASAI PASTORALISTS OF NGORONGORO: AS THEY ARE NOW). That said, however, KopeLion https://www.KopeLion.org and The Lion Recovery Fund, https://www.lionrecoveryfund have recently had some success in improving the relationship between lions and the Maasai.
Wildebeests. High-shouldered, broad-muzzled, and with cow-like horns and spindly legs, the wildebeest, or gnu, will ever win a beauty contest. (That said, I must admit to the cuteness of gnu calves.)
Wildebeest calves in Ngorongoro Crater.
In compensation, the wildebeest has a comical personality best displayed when, for instance, one of the funny looking animals cavorts about, kicking it’s heels in the air, or again, when sparring males drop to their front knees and butt heads with their hind ends in the air. Then, there’s those bleating grunts–ngggh. . . ngggh. . . ngggh–which sound like the large antelopes have sinus problems. (The name, gnu, might come from an approximation of that sound. However, the Swahili word for wildebeest is Nyumbu.)
The most spectacular wildebeest population in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) comprises the over a million animals of the migratory Serengeti herds which visit the eastern Serengeti Plains in the rainy season to graze nutritious forage and give birth.
Wildebeests on the Serengeti Plains. The animals calve on the eastern plains, which lie within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Photo taken in 1972 by Dirk Kreulen.
The wildebeest population in Ngorongoro Crater contains both resident and migratory animals. Thus, about 7,000 wildebeests are present throughout the year, blending in with a similar number of other ungulates, larger mammals, such as rhinos, and predators. (The present wildebeest population is about half what it was in the 1960’s. This is because removal of Maasai cattle from the crater, combined with a ban on setting grass fires, reduced wildebeest numbers by encouraging taller grass, a habitat more conducive to buffaloes.)
Wildebeests and zebras in Ngorongoro Crater
The year-round presence of wildebeests in Ngorongoro Crater strongly contrasts with that on the Serengeti Plains where the migratory herds provide an overwhelming visual impact in the wet season but are completely absent during the five-month dry season. In fact, few ungulates of any kind use the plains in the dry season.
Dry season on the Serengeti Plains. Photo by David Bygott.
In the 1960’s, I occasionally encountered oryx on the drier parts of the Serengeti Plains. Adapted to dry environments, they also make dry season use of areas which other herbivores only use in the wet season.
Black rhinos. While only half the size of an 1,750,000-year-old ancestor discovered by archeologists at Oldupai Gorge, the black rhino is still a heavy animal, weighing in at about a ton. However, as it is able to gallop at 30 mph (50 kph), and turn in its own length, it is a surprisingly nimble large animal.
Black rhino in Ngorongoro Crater.
The rhino’s inability to distinguish a motionless object beyond 15 yards (14 meters) may explain why, rather than charge a perceived threat, it’s more apt to snort loudly and, tail looped over its rump, trot away. Even its “charges” tend to be more impulsive and confused than aggressive. I once experienced this when, while rapidly retreating from what I thought was a charging rhino, I tripped and fell flat on my face only to find my presumed pursuer trot past fifty or so feet away.
Rhinos also can become habituated to the presence of humans. I remember one, named Horace, who was fast asleep when Henry, John, and I visited him that first day in the crater, and stayed that way as we ate lunch a few feet away.
The only signs of activity from Horace, other than heavy breathing, came from several yellow-beaked tick birds (ox peckers) that hopped and fluttered about as they poked into nooks and crannies of his body in search of ticks.
Buffaloes by My Bedroom: Tales of Tanganyika.
Non-habituated rhinos, however, can be dangerous. For instance, when Horace first appeared in the crater, he vigorously charged everything in sight. John and I barely escaped the wrath of an angry female, who only managed to bump our Land Rover as we sped away. A colleague encountering a grumpy rhino in the Serengeti National Park, did not escape so easily, the big animal hooking it’s horns under his Land Rover’s fender and banging the vehicle up and down several times before disengaging, leaving the fender looking like it had been holed by artillery shells.
A rhino charging a vehicle that came too close.
Sadly, the black rhino, as it is elsewhere in Africa, is the most threatened large mammal in the NCA. Intensive poaching wiped out the entire Oldupai Gorge population of 70 animals by the 1980’s and reduced their numbers in Ngorongoro Crater from over 100 in the late 1960’s to a mere 12 in 1996. Subsequently, however, a program of intensive monitoring and protection carried out by the NCAA and Frankfurt Zoological Society, increased the population to 30 by 2017. Yet another problem is that, as with the crater’s lions, its rhinos also may be genetically isolated and inbred. This has been partially addressed by the translocation into the crater of two female rhinos.
Mobile ranger post used for monitoring and protecting rhinos in Ngorongoro Crater. Photo taken in 2004.
Nonetheless, the black rhinos of Ngorongoro Crater continue to be a major tourist attraction.
Tourists viewing a distant rhino in Ngorongoro Crater. My old colleagues, Henry Fosbrooke and John Goddard, would be startled by the numbers of vehicles, but highly gratified that none have left the road. Photo taken in 2008 by David Bygott.
(TO BE CONTINUED)
Ashley Maberley, C.T. 1962. Animals of East Africa. Howard Timmons, Cape Town.
Estes, R.D. 1991. The Behavior Guide to African Animals. The University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles.
Fosbrooke, H. 1972. Ngorongoro: the Eighth Wonder. Andre Deutsch, London.
Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority. 1966. General Management Plan. Tanzania Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism.
Oates, L. & P.A. Rees. 2013. The Historical Ecology of the Large Mammal Populations of Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania, East Africa. Mammal Review 43 (2013) 124-141.
