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| Marabou Stork Joins the Buffet |
Our second early morning game drive felt a little off. As it became light we saw few animals about. The ones we saw were making alarm noises and were standing guard. Richard noticed jackal, lion, and hyena tracks on the road which we followed until we found the site of a kill. We (actually Richard, then us) saw a hyena slinking away followed by a side-striped jackal. Richard said neither scavenger would voluntarily give up the kill so suspected that there was a lion nearby. The kill vibrated with feasting vultures who were soon joined by a Marabou Stork.
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| Hyena slinking through the tall grasses |
We don't know what kind of animal met its demise, but as we moved downwind the smell of death filled the air. Leaving the area, we drove on toward the fresh air of Lake Albert.
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| Gray-Crowned Cranes (Uganda's National Bird) |
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| Waterbuck |
Patas Monkeys are mostly ground dwelling. Members of the troop stop often to stand tall and look around for danger. They are the fastest monkeys reaching running speeds far greater than those of human runners. They were fun to watch.
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| Patas Monkeys |
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| Abyssinian Ground Hornbill |
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| Female and young Ugandan Kob |
As we drove on we reached a dating meet-up area. It was mostly flat with good visibility for the animals. Animals were frolicking, courting, and mating. Besides male-female hookups, we saw female giraffes mounting other female giraffes. We saw female kobs mounting female kobs. Love or lust was definitely in the air.
Late afternoon, we returned to the park for another game drive.
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| Jackson's Hartebeest |
And, we were lucky to see a group of mostly male giraffes crossing our path when the light was beautiful.
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| Male-female courtship |
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| His Display of Satisfaction |
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| Different couple-two males |
We found a group of elephants moving quickly while they grazed through the tall grasses.
The evening ended with more giraffes moving to or from Lake Albert. As the sun set two male couples began necking. Necking in this context means they are practicing fighting skills. It involves swinging your neck to hit your adversary with your skull who then responds by hitting you the same way. Each giraffe made huge, graceful looking arcs with its neck to gather force and then wham into the body of the adversary. We were at a distance but we could hear the collision of one head into the body of the other. After several blows, the giraffes took a break to rest before resuming another session of body blows.
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| Giraffes taking a break from "Necking" |
Tomorrow a morning game drive before catching our flight to Kasese.
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