Dry Season in Amboseli

It’s October 27 and there was a full moon last night. We’re told the weather always changes at the full moon. We certainly hope so. It’s desperately dry here in the Park. It’s also hot, windy and dusty. Every day the wind comes up earlier and earlier creating huge dust devils and sometimes choking dust storms.

The CB family confronting a dust devil on their way to Longinye Swamp

The herbivores are only just getting by on the remaining, poor fodder. Wildebeest, zebras, gazelles, buffaloes and other grazing species are concentrating on the two big swamps in Amboseli. Without the swamps it would be a very desolate place.

The only animals that are thriving are the predators and scavengers. They’re huge and fat, especially the hyenas. Although the zebras and wildebeest are not dying from drought yet, they are probably relatively easy to catch because they have little energy. Once the rains come they will be out of here, literally on the first day it rains. They head for higher ground where the vegetation is more nutritious.

The elephants use a variety of strategies to survive. Some stay in the Park and feed in the swamps. Others chose the bushland and only come into the Park to drink. Still others switch back and forth, spending a few days in the Park and a few outside. It’s a tough time whatever they do.

Yesterday morning I watched one of the families, the TAs, who spend their time out to the south of the Park, come rushing in almost at a run to drink at Snipe River which runs from the spring that feeds Longinye Swamp. They had probably been out for two to three days with no water at all.

The evening before a big storm engulfed Kilimanjaro and when it cleared at around 9:00 at night the mountain was covered in snow. In the morning it was gorgeous. Later that day there was a second storm on the mountain and once again the mountain was covered with snow. This was definitely a good sign. We are hoping for rain in the Park any time now.

Kilimanjaro from Snipe River on the morning of 26 October: we are hoping it heralds rain.