Lake Manyara National Park - Olive Baboon Troupe
Precious moments of animal behaviour
05.02.2020 -
2020-02-05 02:24:32
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Baby Boomers - Tanzania 2020
on Grete Howard's travel map.
Lake Manyara National Park
Not being one of the major parks, we have only visited here twice before in our six previous safaris, the last time being in 2011, so it will make a nice change to see what it is like now.
Common Waterbuck
Every day on safari, we call the first animal we see “our breakfast”, and today it is a waterbuck.
Southern Ground Hornbill
I am just telling Malisa that the very first park we visited on our very first safari in Tanzania, was Lake Manyara; and the very first wildlife we saw was a couple of Southern Ground Hornbills; when the very same species of bird appears!
Grey Hornbill
Lilac Breasted Roller - one of my favourite African birds
Grey Crowned Crane
We see fresh elephant poo on the road – so fresh we can smell it – and follow it for a while before the trail goes cold.
Malisa is not sure if it will be possible to cross this river, but he gives it a go.
Easy peasy lemon squeezy, as Malisa says.
Zebra
Impala
D'Arnaud's Barbet
Common Fiscal Shrike
Grey Backed Fiscal Shrike
The road is certainly impassable at this point, and we end up having to turn around and try a different route!
Black Faced Vervet Monkeys
We stay with a troupe of monkeys for a while, as they try to teach youngsters how to climb.
The baby gets very nervous when going out on a branch on his own.
Mountain Buzzard
Another lifer!
Red Billed Hornbill
Bushbuck
Mum and her three-month old offspring.
Olive Baboons
We first spot the baby clinging to mum. Malisa estimates that he is less than two hours old.
He is not always graceful in his actions.
After falling straight off on his previous attempt, he seems to have mastered the hanging on now; although he does look absolutely terrified!
That's better!
Holding on tight.
A mother's love.
A male baboon turns up and mum feels threatened.
It's tiring being a new mum.
A friend comes around for a cuddle.
They stay and chat for a while, comparing notes on babies and sharing secrets.
Constantly caressing each other's babies.
Such a privilege to be allowed to watch their heart-warming interactions.
The bushbuck wanders over to where the baboons are, but neither party take any notice of the other as they go about their business as usual.
There are now baboons all around us, and we feel as if we have been accepted as part of their troupe. Such an honour!
The children are getting to know each other and learning to play together.
And riding on mum's back.
Even at just a few hours, baby baboons have an old man's face.
Other times they look like something out of a horror film.
As they get older they become cuter.
Daddy is always watching.
Big brother.
When another car turns up, breaking the magical spell, we reluctantly leave the baboon troupe behind and go to “see what else nature has to offer us” (Malisa's favourite saying).
Southern Ground Hornbill
As is suggested by its name, this, the largest species of hornbill worldwide, spends over 70% of its time on the ground.
At up to four feet tall, it's a big bird, and very striking with its black and red colours!
Yellow Billed Stork
It's time for breakfast, and time to close off this blog entry. Thank you to Calabash Adventures for organising this safari for us.
Posted by Grete Howard 02:24 Archived in Tanzania Tagged monkeys wildlife africa safari tanzania zebra national_park baboons flooding roller stork impala waterbuck bushbuck shrike barbet hornbill lake_manyara buzzard game_drive lilac_breasted_roller calabash_adventures vervet_monkeys crowned_crane wildlife_photography fiscal_shrike lake_manyara_national_park
I'm always happy when you can give me a Lilac Breasted Roller photo
But the stars of this entry are the baboons for sure! I love the photos of the two mothers and their babies together. There's such a direct human parallel with the mums who meet up in coffee shops etc to chat and compare baby notes 
by ToonSarah