Africa: The Serengeti Page #2

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In daytime, only one lion hunt

in five succeeds.

Finally, after months

of migration,

the forward ranks ...

surge into the bounty that has

drawn them northward

the rich pastures of the

Maasai Mara in Kenya.

Once more, their instincts have

brought them to a place of plenty.

Here, they will range

and graze for months ...

until the life-giving rains

return on the winds of October.

To the east,

close by the Serengeti,

there is a place of even

greater abundance.

One of the natural

wonders of the world.

It is a microcosm

of the Serengeti.

Ngorongoro crater is

a huge volcanic caldera,

encompassing 100 square miles,

a remnant of the great eruptions

that created the Serengeti plains.

From cloud forests along the rim to

the crater floor 2,000 feet below,

a self-contained

ecosystem provides ...

abundant forage

and plentiful water.

Where there is water, there is life.

An object of amusement to some,

the hippopotamus can cut a crocodile

or a human in half with a single bite.

Prompting an axiom

of the Serengeti:

"Never come between a hippo

and its territorial waters."

Tens of thousands of

animals dwell here,

others come in migrations

of the sky:

Flamingos from Namibia.

Storks from as far

as Europe and Asia.

Like privileged cousins of the

migrating herds outside,

wildebeests and zebras within

the crater walls ...

need only wander from

pasture to pasture.

Dangers abound here as elsewhere.

Zebras cluster together in

a tangle of stripes,

confusing to predators.

The horses of Africa appear placid,

but they have never

been domesticated.

The black rhinoceros, for all its

formidable presence ...

and frequent marking of territory

is a vulnerable giant,

poached almost to extinction

for the value of its horn.

Ngorongoro crater is one of the

few protected refuges ...

where the black rhino endures.

For a baboon troop

much of the day passes ...

attending to young, grooming ...

and socializing.

Though the job of protecting ...

the lion pride and its territory

belongs to the males,

the work of hunting and raising

young falls to the females.

Play helps prepare the young for

the violent encounters to come.

The vaunted power of lions is matched

by a prodigious capacity for rest.

Typically 20 hours a day is

spent in regal slumber.

When lions mate, however,

they do so on average ...

every 25 minutes,

day and night ...

without feeding ...

for three or four days.

It has been estimated that

for every cub that

survives its first year.

These lands are also

the cradle of humanity.

Gashed into the

eastern Serengeti ...

Plains near Ngorongoro is

Olduvai-gorge, one of the most ...

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