Tour Bushbuck

In VII-X century lions could be found in the Southern Europe and in the Caucasus. Unfortunately, these times have gone and now lions can be seen only in Africa and in one of Indian state (with a population of less than 400 individuals). This is one of the biggest, dangerous and at the same time laziest representative of the family of cats. Lions sleep approximately 20 hours a day, hunting and eating between sleep. They live in big prides where there are about 15 individuals, of these just 1-2 are males and others are females with cubs. The goal of males is the protection of the territory and their pride, while females have more difficult aim, they need to find food and look after the cubs. Not in vain the East African lion is called Masai lion, at least they have the similar way of life.

Cheetahs are perfect hunters which speed of up to 130 km/h and there is no problem for them to find food. But it is rather difficult to eat their prey because in the wildlife other predators often take food from small relatives and cheetahs have to look for a new victim again. However, the cheetahs’ population dramatically decreased and now due to their similarity of DNA, their fertility and immunity fell. And the factor of the natural selection was also added, therefore there are sad statistics that approximately 50% of cubs die before reaching the age of 6 months. But upon reaching this age, their chances for survival strongly increase because now they are enough fast and smart to escape from other predators.

Elephant is the largest land mammals weighing up to 7 tones. Adult elephants eat approximately 130 kilograms of food and 160 liters of water per day. Females live all their life in the group of relatives – mothers, aunts, grandmothers, sisters and daughters, while male elephants prefer to live in isolation. The old female is usually the leader of herd. They cannot relax in the wildlife. In spite of that they have almost no enemies but at night time lions’ attacks happen. Lions profit by elephants’ bad vision in the darkness and sometimes they attack very young individuals. Therefore, elephants sleep only 2-3 hours a day.

Скверный характер носорога известен многим. Он представляет из себя смесь воинственности, упрямства, и спокойствия. Считается что носорога может вывести из себя любой посторонний объект. Многие склоняются к тому, что такой  вспыльчивый характер носорога сложился из-за его плохого зрения. Ведь на рсстоянии 50 метров он уже спутает человека и дерево. Есть даже мнение, что если за вами гонится носорог ( оптимистичный  сюжет для путешественника), вы можете резко отпрыгнуть в сторону и животное пробежит мимо вас. Мало у кого возникает желание проверять этот совет в действии).

  Режим жизни носорогов во многом зависит от погоды. В жаркие дни животные прячутся в тени деревьев, а в  пасмурные могут пастись весь день. Обычно у носорога рождается один детеныш весом 25-30 кг и примерно до 3 лет он живет с матерью. Средний возраст жизни носорога от 30 и до 60 лет. 

К сожалению все виды носорогов близки к вымиранию - если ранее в 1970 гг. в ...

 However, scientist have proved that zebras are black with white stripes. They use stripes as a camouflage which make difficult for predators to identify a single animal from a running herd. Indeed, that is why zebras live in herds. They escape from predators, make the speed up to 65 km/h on the zigzag trajectory that make them rather difficult prey. Each animal's stripes are as unique as fingerprints, due to that, calf may also recognize its mother. Zebras are very social animals. All calves are very related to their mothers, and growing up, males become closer to fathers.

The wildebeests are a genus of antelopes that is quite common on the territory of East Africa, with a head from a bull, the tail from a horse and horns from an ox. At least they look like this visually. They live in herds and annually migrate in search of water and fresh grass. They migrate by half-hour running then they break apart for several kilometers to grazing and after having a rest, they gather again in a huge flow. You can annually see the migration on the territory of Tanzania except the end of August and September. But this natural event does not have a precise timetable, terms can change depending on to dry season and many others factors. Living on the territory of Serengeti you have chances to spend the night listening to the noisy bellow of wildebeest herd. It is worth to try!

It is a really gorgeous bird which lives in numerous alkaline lakes that have appeared because of volcanic activity in the Great Rift Valley. During all year the colonies of pink flamingos migrate from one lake to another. So, they fly to Lake Manyara mostly between June – September period. As a location they choose the mud flats where crustaceans live. They are their main diet without which these birds have grey-white color. Young grey flamingos will turn pink with age, in a year, because of the pigment carotene that is contained in the food. 

The graceful representative of panthers, in fact the leopard is just a big cat that purrs from pleasure or roars when it is angry. The leopard is a perfect hunter which is waiting for its victim in ambush and after it makes a deadly jump, strangling the prey. The leopard is different from the cheetah by three features: the lack of stripes from eyes to the mouth, the tail has homogeneous special color (cheetahs have a white tip) and spots on the body are in form of "rosettes", i.e. they are without black pigment. During the rut, the female tries to copulate with several dominant males, because after the birth, the little cheetahs will be safe as well as every male will think that there are its cubs.

This representative of small cats is often called an African lynx due to typical black brushes on the ears. If you meet the caracal in Ngorongoro or Serengeti, surely, you will not confuse it with anybody. However, it is rather hard to meet this cat, because it is mostly nocturnal and try to avoid meeting people. At one time, hunting a caracal was very popular but fortunately, its number was not in danger. It is interesting to note that relatively small caracal can hunting a prey which is bigger in two or three times than it. Catching a furry animal, it will comb it by its sharp claws because caracal cannot digest the fur.

It looks like cute and clumsy inhabitant of African lakes but nevertheless it is the most dangerous animal of the continent. Hippos have more attacks on the people than lions, buffalos and other wild animals. Aggressive and unpredictable, they reach speeds of up to 23km/h that is extremely fast for such giant. They have two pairs big tusks and powerful jaw and due to this complex they can easily damage the boat. The hippo's skin with the thickens of 4 cm dries up fast and cracks, therefore they spend about 16 hours in water and after sunset they go grazing. There is also talk of bloody sweat of hippos that means a special red liquid which appears as a cooling and hydrating substance to protect hippo's skin when it is in the blazing sun.

The African marabou works as a corpseman-bird. Marabu, along with other scavengers, eats dead killed animals and thereby clears the ecosystem of the spread of various diseases. You can distinduish marabu on the red neck and head with a large pointed beak.

The ostrich is the largest and fastest bird in the world, as well as the bird carrying the largest eggs. Imagine that the size of an omelet from an ostrich egg is the same as that of 25 chicken eggs. Contrary to popular myth, ostriches do not hide their head in the sand, but only bend it in case of danger. Ironically, the Romans, people who have never seen this animal, developed this myth. They also presumed that ostriches are very timid. For the largest bird in the world - this statement is rather doubtful.

The most elegant and miniature antelope Dik-Dik, inhabiting only the African continent, is very careful and quick-headed. When an animal feels danger, it emits a piercing and loud whistling sound, somewhat reminiscent of the very name of the antelope. Animals try not to appear in open terrain, and find themselves shelter in thickets of bushes without giving chances to predatory animals to grab them. Dik-dikis are monogamous and true to each other. When an antelope finds a pair, they live their life together. As they say, in love and faithfulness.

Antelope impala - one of the most common antelope. It inhabits Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Botswana and South Africa. In the mating season, usually only one male protects a whole herd of females. If you have met a whole herd of antelopes, of which only one has horns, do not doubt – these are impalas! These antelopes are also known for their ability to jump. They have thin shins, but very strong hips, which they use to jump. They do this often without any reason, just for fun.

These primates, living in herds up to 50 individuals, are very sociable. In each herd there are some the largest and strongest leaders which protect others members, while the most experienced females are care-takers. Unlike most of the monkeys, baboons grasping movements are not developed and sometime they cannot grasp at trees branches, therefore they live mostly on land, picking up the dropped fruits and taking the roots of plants. Having big tusks, baboons can eat meat and sometimes they even hunt for small mammals. During safari these sly primates can enter into the car and steal your lunch box, therefore take care and do not forget to close windows of the car.

These are African pigs that are very similar to the wild boar, with a flat head on which there are six warts and two pairs of tusks the size of 50 centimeters. Due to these external features, you can see the warthog in the list of "The most disgusting animals in the world". But Ii is impossible to believe this while looking at the running members of this family with raised tails. They are very funny, thought, feel as a tree bark. Warthogs live in holes, often using already built homes of porcupines, aardvarks or termite mounds.

This seemingly innocuous bull-calf is one of Africa's largest and most dangerous animals. Its main weapon is two powerful horns bent to the top. With this beast, one should be extremely cautious. A clumsy buffalo can reach speed of up to 60 km/h. When sensing danger, the whole herd will definitely support their fellow, which leaves practically no chance to beat or escape buffalo.

Thanks to the cartoon “The Lion King”, adults and children easily recognize Hyenas. By the tail of the hyena, it is possible to determine its social status in the pack - proudly tucked up the tail means a high position, and lowered down, respectively, a low status. Mommy-hyenas are truly one of the most caring mothers of the wild. They do not allow other adults from the pack to feast on the pray before their children will have their share, and they milk newborns for almost two years! Is not it lovely?

Mongoose is a decent family man. Mongooses live in families from 4 to 50 individuals. They say "in a large family do not click your beak" - but with the Mongoose the situation is exactly the opposite. Only the one who hunts gets is eating well. Other family members have no right to take the loot. Mongoose are well tamed and frequently live in African houses as a pet. The locals keep them for fighting rats and snakes. Yes, a mongoose can kill and eat a snake, but he does not have immunity to poison, if bitten, mongoose will die.

Jackal is a small copy of a wolf. Despite their small size, a pack of jackals can drive and deal with very large prey. Animals communicate with each other through sounds resembling a siren and a dog barking. It is interesting that the Russian airline Aeroflot does not use the dog, but its mixture with the jackal, to check passengers' luggage, justifying this by the fact that the sense of smell of such an animal is much better.

Serval is predatory cat that lives only in African savannahs. Large ears, long paws and short tail distinguish these cats. Its color is similar to a cheetah, but a bit darker. Serval is endowed with a useful predator skill - incredible jumping. Serval’s leap can reach 4 meters and gives him the opportunity to snatch his prey straight in flight. Serval strikes decisively and does not take chances. According to statistics, only 40% of prey will be able to get away from an insidious serval.

Waterbucks - large or medium-sized antelopes with slightly concave or lyrelike horns. They are easy to recognize by a white ring on the croup of an animal. Goats live all over Africa to the south of the Sahara. They live near water because they need to drink large amounts of water every day. Moreover, water for them is often the way to salvation: animals, being by nature good swimmers, thus move away from the danger of their natural enemies - lions, leopards and hyena-like dogs that threaten them.

Outfit of the secretary bird is very different from other birds of prey. It got its name because of its headdress - several protruding long black feathers. This is due to the court clerks of past years, who liked to insert a few such goose feathers into their wig. The secretary also hunts very specific: the bird does not look out for prey in flight and does not stab a sharp claw. The secretary bird pursues the booty on the ground. He grabs small animals with his beak, he clogs big animals with strong blows of his legs, circling near the intended victim. Secretaries create couples for life and keep fidelity to partner. The marriage ritual plays an important role in the life of these birds. The male that takes care of the female flies along a wavy trajectory and makes loud cries resembling a groan, then sits with spread wings next to her and invites to the marriage dance. Birds together build a nest on the top of a prickly acacia or a flat crown of another tree at a height of no more ...

Vulture is one of the many predatory birds inhabiting our planet. It is special because it feeds on carrion. Vultures belong to the family of griffins. However, they are smaller and have a respectively little beak, which they use mostly as a knife. There are only two species of these feathered birds - common and brown vultures. Because of their predilection for the carrion, the species of these birds is rapidly decreasing. In connection with the introduction of medicines in livestock, vultures often get poison by their prey and die.

Despite the name of this bird, its nearest relatives are not geese at all, but ducks. Egyptian goose is recognizable upon a pink beak with a black tip. Egyptian goose mostly lives on the land, but often settles on trees or buildings. The bird swims well; it looks heavy in flight, more like a goose than a duck, which explains its name. These birds create nests in different places prefer hollow trees. It feeds on seeds, leaves, grass, sometimes eat locusts, worms. Nile goose was considered a sacred animal in the ancient Egyptians, but in South Africa – is malicious pest.

Crocodiles are one of the biggest cannibal reptiles. When hungry, large individuals can easily feast upon the smaller ones. Only the strongest survive and according to statistics only 1% of the offspring reaches mature age eventually. There is a myth that when a crocodile eats his freshly caught prey, from repentance and pity, he cries over it with "crocodile tears". Indeed, reptiles cry, but it happens for explainable biological reasons. It is an adaptive reaction of the body, which relieves the crocodile from the excessive salt through special lacrimal glands, located both in the eyes of the reptile and in the tongue. Looking into the mouth of the crocodile, you can see 24 teeth that can hold and snack prey. It is interesting that the crocodile can squeeze its jaws with ease, but the muscles that open the mouth are very weak, so effort of one hand is enough to prevent it from opening.

A large herbivore - Kudu antelope inhabits exclusively the vastness of Africa. Pronounced white stripes on the sides of the body will help you recognize the beast. The male specimen stands out with its elegant, swirling horns, reaching up to 1 meter in length. Despite such natural weapons, in case of danger, the animal escapes from the predator by flight. Kudu easily jumps over meter obstacles and often gets his pursuers into bushes, from which they cannot get out. However, kudu also has a strange habit, which often becomes fatal for them: the animal develops speed, trying to escape from the predator, and stops abruptly to look around. In most cases, this behavior ends very badly for Kudu.