Many residents and tourists from outside Tanzania who get the chance to visit Ngorongoro Conservation area and particularly the Crater, believe the place is like Eden, the garden mentioned in the Holy Books – the Bible and the Koran where people at that time co-existed with vicious and non-vicious animals, insects and various bird species. Our Staff Writer SIMON MKINA visited there recently and gives an account of life in this enticing area.
Many tourists visiting attractive places believe Tanzania is a country of milk and honey like Canaan as mentioned in the Holy Books. They narrate that it is a country endowed with special favors and has every reason to be prosperous due to richness of her natural resources and attractions.
“Why? I see your country has vast wealth while many of her people live in difficulty; in poverty and worry…I don’t know why poverty continues to besiege the lives of Tanzanians,” asks Lauren, an American tourist in the company of the writer of this article after being perplexed in his first day of entering Serengeti National Park on their way to Ngorongoro.
All the time she sees a wild animal or animals she becomes excited and astonished exclaiming ‘wow’ all the time since the morning of the first day of the three-day safari.
“Is it corruption, lack of the sense of duty or is it the laziness of the people themselves or are you short of proper plans?” asks the 26- year- old- lady from the State of Oregon.
She explains that if America had been endowed with an attractive environment such as this one in Tanzania’s, America, presently the wealthiest country in the world, would have comparatively developed more by now.
The guest, seemingly upset at times, posed at seeing an animal with a small body but looking healthy with two protruding teeth structure; and she exclaimed wow…that is the wild boar.
In no time various kinds of animals came into view and the exclamations increased –wow– forgetting what she had been saying about Tanzanian lives and their poverty in spite of many rich attractions.
Lauren and other accompanying tourists while still inside the Serengeti National Park came across giraffes, elephants, monkeys, light-colored monkeys, buffaloes, Grant gazelles, hartebeest and many more. The hartebeest are many accompanied by zebras.
The Empakaai Crater (at Ngorongoro) is a collapsed volcanic caldera which is 300 meters high and has a width of 6 km.
The Crater is filled with a deep alkaline lake which occupies about 75% of the Crater's floor and is about 85 meters deep.
The guide from Africa Safari Company of Mwanza, Robert astonished tourists accompanying Lauren by amazingly explained the lifestyle of every kind of animal in view. He explained why the hartebeest are in such abundance than any other animal species in the Serengeti, saying that this was because they are in search of better fodder. He said the animals roam between the Serengeti and Maasai Mara in Kenya, an exercise done once a year in January, to be repeated the following January.
Robert further explained that the hartebeest are in company of zebras for one big reason which is of assistance to them. Robert, an ex-veterinary doctor by profession, said the hartebeest follow zebras because they believe that the latter are swift in detecting enemies, so having them near helps them to avoid danger.
He also says on the part of zebras, despite their swiftness in detecting enemies, they are stupid in detecting where good fodder is, so they follow the hartebeest because they are experts in that sphere of finding where good fodder is throughout the year.
Robert’s explanation concerning the life styles of almost every animal is amazing. On Grant gazelles, he said a male animal can service about 100 females or more and that male defends them all against other males.
“When you see a big herd of Grant gazelles you should know that all of them are females with a single male whom you can recognize by looking at the horns because males have long horns which are wide where they join the head. No other male can go near there and if that happens there will be a fight until one of the contestants runs away or dies as a result of the fight and the winner will own that big herd of females,” he explained.
On zebras, he said in spite of looking very similar, the truth is that those animals with white and ashy stripes and those with black and dark-red ones are not similar whatsoever; if you go near them you will realize that the stripes are different from one zebra to another.
Explaining the lifestyle of elephants, Robert said the cow elephant controls the male elephant such that it can’t engage in a fight unless permitted by the cow. He also asserted that the male lion is dependent of the lioness in everything. A lioness hunts for food but can’t eat until the male appears to “bless” the food. “When a lioness kills game, she will wait until the male returns notwithstanding how hungry she may be and how far away the male is-although most of the time the male is around when she hunts,” Robert added.
WHERE EDEN IS IN THE WORLD NOW
After a 26-hour journey around the great Serengeti National Park, Lauren and fellow tourists including five others and a 16-month old baby, Abel II, entered the Ngorongoro Conservation area where animals are like those found in the Serengeti–although not in such big numbers.
It was a cool serene morning with a very cold breeze blowing swiftly from one side when three Maasai youth were seen driving cattle towards inside the crater.
Lauren was amazed to see those youth, cattle, goats and sheep at a place where ferocious animals like lions and others live. Robert told her and the entire group in the car not to fear for animals in these areas because they are friendly to human beings and their herds. He notified her that later in the safari she would see wild animals and domesticated ones eating grass together. The tourists were confounded by this explanation, each one asking oneself how can it be that wild animals like lions live with human beings?
Before the answer to the question is given, the vehicle started to drive down a steep road in low gear and Robert was explaining that they were now entering the Ngorongoro crater. Because the road was very steep, the vehicle was leaning forward and seeing the driver in so serious a concentration on the road, nobody uttered a word. Possibly everyone was saying a prayer asking God to help the driver in his difficult task of guiding the vehicle descending the escarpment.
Soon the vehicle reached the low straight plain ushering the beginning of a tour in the Crater itself. The first animal to be seen was a hyena lying down nursing her cubs. Neither the hyena nor the cubs showed any concern even when the vehicle pulled near the place she was lying down. Perhaps that animal was wondering at seeing human beings staring at her.
More animals could now be seen in the crater feeding as others basked in the sun for it was starting to rise. Lions were lying down in a group not far from a herd of four African buffaloes basking in the sun. Further away Grant antelopes, zebras and hartebeests could be seen mixed with cattle while goats were walking here and there in the crater. Two elephants, a male and a cow were eating shrubs very near wild boar and African hartebeest also eating grass.
In the same area near the elephants were standing seven Maasai youth without worrying about their own safety or of the animals they were herding. One of the youths who introduced himself by the name of Olosolot said he did not fear the animals in the crater because they were friends. He explained that in spite of his love for meat he can’t kill an animal in the crater because they are friends.
He added confidently: “Even these animals are aware that we are friends and not one can do harm to another. When we want to eat meat and drink blood we eat one of our own cattle and not the animals in the crater.”
In the crater water could be seen and Robert explained that it is a small lake called Makat which has water containing a lot of salt. The little lake seemed surrounded by soda ash which was evident. He explained that although the lake is not deep, it does not dry the whole year thus animals and birds love to be near it most of them eating grass said to contain more salt.
Flamingoes could be seen in the water of the lake with their long legs, proving that it is not deep. The multitude of these birds makes the whole lake look white and pink from afar but when you get nearer you realize that the colors are of birds. The birds eat small insects obtained in the salty water and vegetation growing in and around the shore.
Flamingoes could be seen in the water of the lake with their long legs, proving that it is not deep. Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania.
Another group of Maasai youth are seen in the crater with spears in their hands without worrying; the youth explain that their duty is to teach younger boys how to graze their animals and live peacefully with their siblings. What are the spears for? They say the spears are for keeping the peace within the crater; for if it happens an animal wants another animal’s meat, it is their duty to volunteer to protect that animal.
It is said that animals like lions that dwells in the crater get their food outside that unique place. “When a lion is hungry, he leaves the crater and climbs outside the crater to find food but not hunt inside here,” one youth explains.
He explains that the secret behind that life among wild ferocious and peaceful animals; is possible because the animals are able to detect the smell of the “citizens” of the crater and they feel and consider them their kind.
What if a new person from outside comes into the crater? The youth answers that the possibility of being attacked is great–which explains why officials of the game reserves dissuade tourists or guests from getting out of their vehicles or going near the animals.
Apart from animals, birds and humans in the crater, there are varieties of exotic flowers in yellow, red, green and white colors which makes the crater to be likened to the paradise that is mentioned in the holy books.
The crater, with an area of 264 sq. kilometers at any one given time has 25,000 animals everyday, most of them being hartebeests, African antelopes, zebra, lions, hyenas, wild boars and a small number of rhinoceros, monkeys and small light colored monkeys. There are many other animals grazing inside the crater said to be 630 meters below sea level.
This is the communal life being practiced between wild animals, tamed animals and human beings–all eating and drinking water in the Ngorongoro Crater. It is a good and appealing life as described in the Holy Books as life in Eden or Paradise.