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Click here to view Mama Tembo's current photo show. Featured shows A Wildebeest's First Minutes: Wildebeest calving is unique to the bovid family. The females produce the majority of their foals within a three week period, which typically falls in Tanzania beginning late January. A short calving season provides a glut of prey for spotted hyenas and other wildebeest predators, ensuring survival for at least four out of five newborns; while large maternity herds of females and yearlings provide the additional cover and protection needed for so many young born at the same time to grow stronger and imprint on their mothers. Birth takes place in the morning too so that newborns have the day to prepare for nightfall which brings predators. Wildebeest babies can stand within three to seven minutes and run off with mother, albeit none too steadily. It's the school of hard knocks from the start: I've seen bulls in the herd flip newborns in the air with their horns. These photos document the first few minutes of a wildebeest's life. Once it rose to its feet, Mother kept it there by gently pushing it around in circles, refusing to allow it milk until it was capable of walking behind her. The following two shows' photos were taken June 2008 over several days of observing elephants at Dzanga Bai and gorillas at Mbeli Bai. Village of Elephants: In Central African forests there are low, marshy clearings called "bais". These are visited daily for their nutritious plants and soil’s high mineral content by wildlife such as western lowland gorillas, sitatunga and bongo antelopes, forest buffalos, African grey parrots, and forest elephants. Dzanga Bai, in Dzanga-Ndoki National Park, is best known for its elephants. As many as 100 a day can be observed there, pumping mineral salts which lie in solution at the bottom of deep holes which the elephants have dug. They collect the salts, which compensate for any diet imbalances, by inserting their trunks into these depressions and blowing noisily first to empty them of air. The word "bai" comes from the Aka language and is thought to mean "where the animals eat" or in Dzanga Bai’s case, "the village of elephants". Mbeli Bai: In Central African forests there are low, marshy clearings called "bais''. These are visited daily for their nutritious plants and soil’s high mineral content by wildlife such as western lowland gorillas, sitatunga and bongo antelopes, forest buffalos, African grey parrots, and forest elephants. Mbeli Bai in Nouabale-Ndoki National Park sees elephant visitors, but not as much as Dzanga Bai in the forest to its north and west. As a rule, gorillas avoid elephants so you might expect to see at Mbeli Bai, if your luck holds, the foraging families of western lowland gorillas which this bai’s floating aquatic vegetation attracts.
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