Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Life and Death on the African Plains

Swahili proverb: Kuishi kwingi ni kuona mengi. - To live long is to see much.

And WOW did we see much during our last few days here in Africa! Yesterday we drove to the Tarangire Safari Lodge perched on a hill overlooking expansive plains filled with wild game animals and a river meandering through the picturesque setting. Everybody loved the luxury tents complete with full sized beds, running water, electricity, and even hot showers. Definitely not the kind of tents we were living in for eight days on Kili.

After settling in to our accommodations we hopped back into the Land Rovers and went on an afternoon game drive that none of us will ever forget in our lifetimes. Not long after leaving the lodge we came across a fresh kill. A lion and her juvenile cubs were just beginning to feast on a zebra they had taken down. As we snapped photos of this incredible site, we noticed one of the young lions was pulling on something that appeared to be the zebra's tail or leg.

Upon a closer look we realized with a fascinated horror that the lions had killed a pregnant zebra and they were pulling out the baby zebra by the head! It was quite difficult to watch but we eventually realized that this is simply the way of life in the sometimes harsh world of the animal kingdom. Our safari guide told us he had never seen anything like this before himself and told us we were lucky to witness this event. I'm not sure if lucky is the right word but we are indeed privileged to be here on this continent and share this amazing learning experience with such a great group of friends. Thank you for allowing us to now share this with you, our friends back home, and we wish you all a long life of seeing much.

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