Happy Halloween! 

So, before we begin, I have to clarify that Halloween is my third favorite holiday. I love trick-or-treating, love dressing up and being scared for fun. So I was a little bummer out last week, figuring this Halloween would be a bit of a letdown, seeing as most Africans have never heard of the holiday.

WRONG!

That day, we went to Ngorongoro Crater, the largest land-filled caldera in on the planet. It was once a volcano, and where magma once churned and bubbled now rests a hotspot of another kind- wildlife bio diversity. The twelve mile depression is a breathtaking Eden of predators and prey alike. Population densities shift, and right now the scale tips towards the lions, with roughly seventy-four individuals in the park.

The park was established in 1952, and is nearly 9,000km2 in area. It is 3,700 to 1,020m above sea level. Not only is the location unique, but the Park’s situation with local people as well. Locals have been displaced in setting up the park, and any expansion would upset them further. This is a common theme in wildlife conservation in Africa. However, Ngorongoro makes a real effort to help the locals.  In the cause of more mandatory moving, the Park wants to buy land good for agriculture to entice people to move to it. The pastoral way of life is largely compatible with the herbivores that live in the park, but agriculture means high levels of human-wildlife conflict. So it makes sense that this land use practice can’t occur near the Park.  It’s very important, therefore, that the people receive benefits from the park- roughly 1.5 billion TSH. The funds are managed by a Pastoral Council, which is comprised of representatives from the local communities. In the meantime, many local communities run tourist ventures like camp sites, which helps them benefit from the flow of tourists that enter the park daily.

Okay, so back to what I mentioned earlier- the lions. Lions are my favorite carnivore, dating back to seeing the Lion King at age five or so. We watched a documentary the night before our trip to the Crater, and our Wildlife Management professor warned us not to get our hopes up base on the lions, leopards, and cheetahs we saw on the screen.

So imagine our sheer joy when we came across and epic, savannah style- show down between a pack of twenty-four hyenas and two large male lions. The hyenas had been feeding on a cape buffalo carcass when our vehicle rolled up. The crowded around it, so covered in blood they appeared a deep, muddy-red instead of their usual spotted tawny. Black-backed Jackals padded around them, waiting for their chance to swipe a scrap. Then the lions appeared, and growling rushed the carcass. The hyenas hooted and barked, but retreated. They stood looking on as the one male (they were probably brothers) plopped down beside the disemboweled buffalo and waited. Neither of the lions ate, then sat in the hot sun, panting and blinking. The hyenas stuck around for a while, but eventually gave up and stalked off disappointed into the dusty grasslands of the crater.

AND THEN WE SAW MORE LIONS. Driving around before lunch, we came upon a kill- another buffalo. It was surrounded by lions- females with their adolescent young, chowing down right in the middle of the road.

The pictures at this point can describe it better than world, but let me just say the single most thrilling thing was to hear the lions. The sensation of hearing the growls, snarls and wet tearing of flesh both horrifies you and commands intense respect. You can’t help but fear them, even when you’re separated by metal and glass. It’s not like the zoo, you feel more vulnerable. Especially when one feel slinked right up along our car!

Oh, and we saw two cheetah- also kind of wickedly amazing.

That night, in celebration of Halloween, my friend Rosie painted me up like a skeleton. Like I was going to miss a perfectly good all- hallow’s eve! My costume spooked some of the local staff, who are highly superstitious. Other were confused, asking if I was dressed up in Maasai warrior paint. Not quite. I did trick-or-treat a lollipop form the school store, and gobbled up my stash of candy I’d in the mail. It was the best Halloween ever!

Location: Ngorongoro Crater