Christmas Day in Tarangire

December 25, 2015: Our last day in Tarangire National Park, before moving on to Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro, and the Serengeti. It was a good one, beginning with sunrise.

We went for a game drive, and soon saw this orb weaver spider on a bush by the side of the road.

We walked for a bit and posed for a picture (except for me, who took the picture). Note our good-humored guide, Noele, a park ranger with a gun, and our Masai guide/guard with a spear in the back.

Continuing our drive, we finally saw the animal we'd been looking for: a leopard. Leopards are usually found in trees, but this one was sitting calmly on the ground by some termite mounds. Close inspection of the photos shows that it has lost its right eye.

To close this post, I'll repeat the remarkable photo of a python attacking a puff adder that I posted a few days ago, prefaced with a picture of an earlier attack, a minute or two before, from the same event.

Elephants and Monkeys

December 24, 2015: Tarangire National Park is probably the best place in Tanzania to view elephants. There are a lot of them, and they move freely throughout the park - including close to our vehicles and near the kitchen of our camp. They're red because of the iron-containing mud they wallow in.

Vervet monkeys also turn up with some frequency.

Tarangire Nightfall

December 24

Sunset

Moon through an acacia tree

Tarangire Birds

December 24: Tarangire National Park has a great assortment of striking birds, large and small. Here's a sample.

Lilac breasted roller

White-fronted bee eater

East African crowned cranes

Tawny eagle

Saddleback stork

Maribou storks in acacia tree

Hammerkop

Antelopes of Tarangire

December 24, 2015: Evolution seems to have filled most of the niches for the grass-eating, nimble, fast-running, horned creatures we call antelopes. Here are the three we saw in Tarangire National Park in Tanzania. There were several more in the parks we visited subsequently. Very appealing creatures.

Dik-dik, the smallest of the antelopes, on a termite mound

Hartebeests

Impala

Tarangire Landscapes

December 24: The landscapes were among the things I enjoyed most about Tarangire National Park in Tanzania. The first two remind me of surrealist paintings.

Lion Family

December 24: Lion family (female, young male, cub) lounging in the grass close to the road in Tarangire National Park. If they had been lying down, they would have been totally hidden if we had been walking along the road. As they are, a charming family group that we watched from our Land Cruiser, which we drove right next to them. The female has been collared for research.