Serengeti NP, Tanzania - Day 2



Coke's hartebeest, or Kongoni in Swahili



We’d got a bit of intel from one of the guides the previous night about a leopard with a kill and a cheetah with cubs, but even after precise directions (“go right at the big odd shaped rock”)  it took us over an hour before we found the leopard. 

 

  

Serval - always a highlight



 

But while looking for it, we came across a rarer cat sighting – serval! He was on the road as we came around the bend, but disappeared soon after, not giving us much photo opportunity – but a sighting of a serval is always a highlight! 



Leopard looking lovingly at his kill

 And not long after we found the leopard under tree with his Thompson gazelle stashed up the tree.  We waited for him to climb up to start eating, but after 5 (yes – 5) hours of waiting, we decided he wasn’t going to do it any time soon, and headed off to find other sightings.

Cheetah dragging his kill

We spotted the other spotted cat – cheetah, pulling a kill into a bush for a feed in the middle of the Serengeti plains, and another leopard sleeping far off in a tree.



Lilac-breasted roller

 The afternoon was spent chasing mainly lions, where we found a couple of lionesses looking restless. 


Tusker on the Serengeti plains

After finding the leftovers of a buffalo kill, with only a few vultures trying to grab scraps, we came across a lioness in a tree – something we’d only seen once before in Tarangire. 

 

Lion up a tree

We ended the day by checking the leopard that had his kill stashed in the tree, but he still hadn’t made a move up...

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