What's been happening at Ndutu?
November 2001
We had 40 mm of rain in the beginning of November, which has given the area a green flush, especially the burnt areas where the September bush fire passed through. It's starting to dry out now, but the rain clouds are still building so, fingers crossed, we'll soon get the heavy showers that will attract the large herds.
Nevertheless
there are quite a lot of wildebeest and zebra at the place we call Two Trees, it's actually 3 trees but looks like
two at a distance. These huge old trees are grand landmarks, as they stand alone in the middle of the plain. Large
numbers of Thomson gazelles have also been attracted here by the green flush. There are lots of tiny fawns at this
time of year, which naturally attracts predators like cheetahs. Researchers have found that when the gazelles give
birth in large numbers, cheetah switch their attention to this easy source of prey and as much as 36 % of their diet
consists of gazelle fawns at this time. We often see a cheetah sitting upright staring out across the plains at distant
groups of gazelles, waiting patiently to catch a glimpse of a fawn. Once sighted it then heads off into a seemingly
empty quarter of the plain at a low crouching walk, only to speed up at the very last moment when a hidden fawn springs
out of the grass. The cheetah success rate is very high at 81 %, but they always have to be aware of hyenas which
steal approximately 1 out of every 10 kills. Apparently this behaviour by other predators is called kleptoparasitism.
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People in the UK may have seen the powerful Savannah television program in the highly acclaimed series, Wild Africa, shown this month and filmed by Owen Newman and Amanda Barrett for the BBC Natural History Unit. Owen and Amanda were based at Ndutu for over a year while filming this epic program. Some people may also have seen the short 10-minute film called Under Serengeti Stars, which was also shown this month and showed how Owen and Amanda filmed the stunning night sequences of aardvarks featured in the film.
There's a nice shot of the Ndutu Lodge workshop as our mechanic, Leonard, straightens out Amanda's steering rod for about the third time after she had accidentally driven into yet another aardvark hole. Over ninety percent of the film was filmed here at Ndutu. November's edition of the BBC Wildlife magazine also features an article written by Amanda about the Ndutu elephants, accompanied with photographs by Owen. They were so impressed by Ndutu that they've returned to make another film and again will be based at Ndutu. Their new film will be about the lives of the small cats, the caracal, serval and wildcat. Suckers for punishment, most of this program will be filmed at night with infra-red so as not to disturb the animals. Anyone who has ever been on safari will know that to find any of the small cats is easier said than done, let alone film them.
The night sky at the moment is fantastic with Cassiopeia, the giant M, lying low in the North. Guests coming from the north may be surprised as it's a giant W in the Northern hemisphere. Rising in the East behind Taurus the bull is Saturn and, at about nine thirty, the planet, Jupiter, follows them both. November is the month of shooting stars and we are being treated to some wonderful displays as the Leonids meteorite showers pass overhead this month.
With
only a few weeks to go before high season, the staff are busy trying to finish all the improvements we have made this
year. Returning guests will see some changes this year as we have built four new rooms to replace some of the older
style rooms. We also have a new look dining room and have started to build toilets adjacent to the bar. So far from
town, community spirit is the key to life here so all this work is carried out by our own staff and in the low season
months everybody helps out with maintenance and improvements.
Wilbrod the cook, is an excellent carpenter, Erasto the waiter is a first class painter and everybody helps to dig sand from a dry riverbed 50 miles away as well as helping to mix cement. Mirando, a room steward, and Safari Sarime a cook, re-thatch the roofs with palm thatch and our tailor, also called Safari makes all the staff uniforms, curtains, cushion covers and seat covers for the cars. He's a great asset to Ndutu as he can run up a shirt or a pair of trousers in no time, he's also a plumber and helps out in the kitchen in high season.
Being out in the bush, maintenance is a never-ending activity as the wind carries the thatch away, the sun kills
the paintwork and fades the fabrics, termites eat the wooden posts and earth tremors (gentle, hardly discernible shakes
which last about ten seconds,about once a year) crack the cement. 
Not
to mention the hyenas, which will chew anything left out at night. I remember once when somebody forgot to close a
bathroom door in the staff quarters, only for a hyena to go in and pull the wash basin off the wall, taps, plumbing
and all, before dragging it off into the bush and biting a chunk out of it. We have dozens of tales of elephants and
giraffes causing mayhem. And then there's the porcupine, which has learnt to open the taps on the water tanks to obtain
a drink, but never mastered the art of closing it to avoid the inevitable flood in the morning. I guess this is what
makes life so much fun in the bush, although it doesn't always seem so at the time. However when living in the one
of the most beautiful places on earth, I guess you have to be a little tolerant of the residents.
Ndutu Safari Lodge.
3/12/01