Wildlife Report. For the month of October, Two Thousand and Fourteen

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1 Singita Lamai Mara River Tented Camp Tanzania (Photo by Adas Anthony) A long, successful season Wildlife Report For the month of October, Two Thousand and Fourteen On the last day of June this year I received an from Lodge Manager Kevin Pongola, at Singita Lamai, Mara River Tented Camp: It's happening... he wrote, crossing at number 7 is active... will update you later with the details. This report came after three long weeks of silence since the migration had left our Singita Grumeti property, and now wildebeest were crossing the mighty Mara River onto Lamai Triangle, about 60 km away, where Singita Lamai, Mara River Tented Camp is situated. Since then, the area surrounding Mara River Tented Camp saw three straight months of migration. The herds remained present for the first week of October, but after that the bulk of them had cleared the area, making their long journey back south to the short grass plains of Ndutu. Not all the of action stopped though, as a few lagging groups were still moving out of the area, up until the middle of the month. Our guests saw a handful of crossings of wildebeest and zebra, in groups of 50 to100. This is maybe not as epic as strong, but any crossing is always very exciting! Even non-migratory species need to cross the river from time to time, and elephants are a prominent example. Whether there is tasty vegetation on the other side, or they are on their way to meet up with another herd of extended family members, or they really just want to cool off and enjoy a swim, it is not unusual to find elephants crossing the river. In fact, it happens quite often.

2 (Photo by Jenny Hishin)

3 (Above photos by Adas Anthony)

4 Black-and-white-casqued hornbill Birding adds a great deal of variety to any safari, and at Singita Lamai there is no shortage of excellent birdlife. The main reason our field guides enjoy birding at Singita Lamai is that they occasionally see birds that do not occur at Singita Grumeti. Adas spied one such bird in October. He saw a hornbill up in a tree, but immediately knew this was one he had never seen before - the primary indication being the colour of the bill and the large casque on top of it. He checked his bird book and determined this was either a silvery-cheeked hornbill (Bycanistes brevis) or a black-and-white-casqued hornbill (Bycanistes subcylindricus), as these are the only two hornbills with such pronounced casques that would possibly occur in this area. Upon his return from Singita Lamai to Singita Grumeti, Adas consulted with Singita Serengeti Head Guide Ryan Schmitt. He showed Ryan the photo he took of the bird, which was slightly blurry as it was taken from a distance. They then consulted the bird book and determined that it was in fact a black and white casqued hornbill. The main reason was that the bill and the front of the casque of this bird were dark, with a pronounced white patch on the back half of the casque, exactly like the black-and-white-casqued hornbill. The silvery-cheeked hornbill has a lighter colour bill and casque. Python round 2 In our September Wildlife Report we talked about the rock python found by Adas Anthony and guests. Well, it was only 11 days later that he found another python, near Kigelia Thickets.

5 This was great news as pythons are usually only seen once every couple of months. What s more, this python was very different from any other he had seen before, as it was almost totally black, with just a shadow of its markings showing. Singita Serengeti Head Guide Ryan Schmitt has been a safari guide for the past 18 years and has said he has never seen, read about, or heard of an almost completely black African rock python. The same goes for any sort of significant colour differentiation in African rock pythons. As rare and unheard of as it is, Ryan thinks that the reason behind the abnormal colouration is simple: genetics. This python has inherited a gene that has made its skin black. This doesn t mean that one of its parents also had black skin, as there are often recessive genes in nature that can skip multiple generations before showing up again. Sightings report (Photo by Adas Anthony) Lion: 17 Leopard: 9 Cheetah: 5 Elephant: 15 Crossings: 5 Croc kills: 2 Special sightings: Zebra giving birth on the plains close to the Kenyan border. Bat-eared fox north of the camp on the plains. 30 Hyenas 4 km east of the camp. Black African rock python downstream of Kigelia Thicket, about 1 km south. Serval along the Kenyan border.

6 By Lizzie Hamrick Singita Grumeti Serengeti Tanzania 31 October 2014