[Leica] Rare Sightings

[jayanand at gmail.com (Jayanand Govindaraj)]

We saw some rare sightings in Ndutu - to the ones under can be added
a rare White-headed Vulture, but I was not in the vehicle that saw the
bird. The first was the Serval, a small cat, not a rare animal but
difficult to see, with a quite beautiful coat. This one kept running
away, so we got no shots of it particularly close. This is probably a
15% crop of a D4 frame:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/EAfrica/2014/Ndutu_20120107_0231.jpg.html

The Ratel, or Honey Badger is again not a rare animal, but this was
the first trip on which  I saw one. They are closer related to weasels
than badgers, and like other members of that family have a reputation
of being totally tough and fearless, and of never letting go of
anything they get between their jaws. One luckily came fairly close
and kept a bit still for us to get some shots off:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/EAfrica/2014/Ndutu_20140312_3257.jpg.html

The high point of the trip for me, at least, was the tracking down of
probably (not sure, though) the only pack of African Wild Dogs in the
Serengeti ecosystem - I know for certain that there are none in Masai
Mara. Distemper had practically wiped out all the dogs a few decades
ago from this whole area, and it was really amazing to see them making
a comeback. There was a reported sighting one day, and both our
drivers joined up with another four to form a search party, and after
four to five hours of searching they were finally able to track the
pack down. For my driver, Felix, this was only the third time in 15
years of being a driver/guide in this area that he had seen the dogs.
I had never ever seen them before, and it was really wonderful to do
so. They were much better looking than I thought they would be -
actually they looked like Alsatians with big round ears. Anyway, after
news of our sighting broke, many vehicles went in search of the pack,
but they had disappeared, and till we left, nobody had seen them
again.

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/EAfrica/2014/Ndutu_20140312_3426.jpg.html

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/EAfrica/2014/Ndutu_20140312_3300.jpg.html

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/EAfrica/2014/Ndutu_20140312_3617.jpg.html

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/EAfrica/2014/Ndutu_20140312_3325.jpg.html

Finally, here is a panorama of the bunch we saw, all 14 of them
snoozing and resting, taken a few minutes after Alastair's Panorama,
after one or two stragglers had also come and settled down:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Panoramas/EA2013/Ndutu_20140312_3713.jpg.html

Please see LARGE, especially the panorama

Comments and criticism, as ever, welcome

Cheers
Jayanand