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Night falls. In the African bush, it is pitch black except for the stars strewn across the sky like thousands of diamonds on an endless velvet tablecloth. The night is far from quiet. One of the sounds I hear as I lie in my tent is the grunting of lions. They are presumably having a little talk about the night’s hunting strategy. On our way to this camp we saw thousands and thousands of gnus accompanied by zebras on their annual migration – good takings for the predators.
Next morning we go for a game drive. We are still in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, now not far from alkaline Lake Ndutu. Almost immediately after leaving camp we see a leopard up in a tree, keeping guard over the light brown gnu calf it has killed, dragged up in the branches and partially eaten. The green-eyed cat lies elegantly above us, serenely washing its paws after its meal.
A few minutes later we come upon a male lion and three females, all of them looking very sated, satisfied and healthy, their cheeks still pink with blood. They have been feasting on a zebra. The meagre remains of the zebra are now covered with a variety of hungry and quarrelling vultures including white-headed vulture, white-backed vulture, hooded vulture, lappet-faced vulture, and Rüppels griffon vulture.
Later on, we see two black-backed jackals and a hyena roaming around, looking for food.
