African Buffalo - (Syncerus caffer)

Has been forever since I posted but things have been somewhat mad since the start of the year - think I should have a little more time now and would love to revisit our trip last year.

These guys are huge and when you see one you tend to see hundreds - they trample the ground around them and move from one spot to another on the wide open plains.

Very protective of their young - which are more than a little prone to defensive violence themselves, these animals have few predators that would think to attack a healthy adult.

Almost always in the company of white herons you can see in the photos, which I will write about in a separate post, they seem to take great pleasure bathing in the midday heat when the opportunity arises.

Baboon (Papio)

Baboons! Who doesn't love baboons? They tend to be portrayed in a positive light by most of the worlds press.

We managed to see both olive baboons (Papio anubis) and yellow baboons (Papio cynocephalus), though I found it hard to differentiate. Nearly constantly chewing on seeds when not up to something - they also hunt and eat birds, reptiles and small mammals - including the dik-dik!

There was always a member or two of the group that was ready for a bit of action - the pink, rather sore looking rears showing explicit interest - the results of which were very visible as you'll see in a later post.

Common warthog (Phacochoerus africanus)

The common warthog (Phacochoerus africanus) was our near constant companion on our journey across this part of the world.

They welcomed us on our first day - never getting too close - often running off with its tail raised up in fear before stopping, relaxing - looking around to see why the hell it was running in the first place - occasionally to be eaten.

The largest of these guys can reach 150kg - a somewhat scary proposition... Those tusks look like they could do some serious damage!

Apparently Pumba has a very short memory span of around 30 seconds by local accounts.

Mothers with young do a fairly good job of camouflaging themselves - the babies are barely visible - though some parents do a better job than others - each of the photos below feature a mother and two young:

And of course running away through a group of fake meerkats, tail raised, before getting confused and looking around in a daze:

And a family group - most likely sisters - raising their young together - if one of the adults is to be hurt or killed the other can continue providing milk to her sisters offspring.

Some photos of some sisters with their babies - small age gap clearly visible.

Grey crowned crane

We spotted plenty of these - usually in pairs - more or less everywhere we went in Kenya.

The grey crowned crane (Balearica regulorum) is the national bird of Uganda and features on their flag and coat of arms (and on their money which is oddly not on Wikipedia...).

Around a meter tall though weigh almost nothing - their feathers make them look significantly larger than their typical 3.5kg.

Only saw adults - paired up and wandering around feeding together.

When the sun catches their crown just right it almost looks like a halo.

Beautiful birds.

Ostrich

These huge birds can speed across the Savannah at speeds of up to 70km/h! Bear in mind - at his absolute fastest - Usain Bolt only clocked in 44.72 km/h... And they're HUGE.

The largest living bird - typically over 100kg in weight and lay the largest eggs in the world - a single one being large enough to feed a dozen people. Their kicks and pecks can lethally injure lions so they tend to steer clear.

Also - flightless. In good company there.

Sometimes in pairs - sometimes a single male with several females - they are very visible in the grass or brush if they are standing up - lying down they are barely visible as can be seen in the last few photos.

We caught our first glimpses of Ostriches - the common kind - North African Ostrich (Struthio camelus camelus) and The Masai Ostrich (Struthio camelus massaicus) at Amboseli:

With an elephant herd in the background.

Look at the size of those thighs!

We were honoured to witness some defecation as well:

Later on we had a closer encounter with a male (pink legs, black body) and his little harem (3 females - one a little tough to spot lying down in the grass). We were told the males lay on the eggs at night and the females during the day - their colouring helping with camouflage based on lighting.