TheSuperServal

By the time we actually saw a serval, I was beginning to despair. After all, Kay and Sharon had caught a glimpse of one in the Ngorongoro Crater but neither Betsy, Lois nor I saw even the tiniest part of him. Sharon & Kay were not able to catch him on camera either because he disappeared with the quickness of a wink. Anyway, when we got to Kenya, I had just about decided that it wouldn’t happen and was working my way towards being philosophical about it. Whining is not in a cat’s range of vocalizations, you know.

On our 3rd day on the Masai Mara, the unanticipated miracle occurred and alongside the ranger rover we saw a serval through the tall grasses off the road. We all ducked and stretched and peered at him, straining to see him as clearly as possible. Then most generously, my kinsman walked across the road in front to the vehicle. He was most dignified and unhurried, but quite aware of his surroundings. He gave the photographers ample time to capture his lithe and lovely person while he checked his surroundings with a smoothly swiveling head.

He was slender and took surprisingly dainty steps. His body was longish but not so elongated at that of our other cousin, the cheetah. His legs were very long, the longest in the feline world actually, proportionately of course. His ears were large, tall and oval shaped with black fringing on the inside. The backs of his ears were black with a horizontal white stripe cutting them in half. The purpose of this stripe is debated but it seems to be a signal to kittens and a warning to other predators that the serval is “looking at them.” He wore a light tawny coat decorated with widely scattered rosettes of black fur but his underbelly was pure white He was really quite handsome.

A serval is about 34 inches long with 16 more inches added by the tail. He is about 21 inches high at the shoulder and weighs from 12 to 20 lbs., depending on gender and nutrition. Just to give you some perspective, I am a fairly large domestic cat who weighs 15 lbs. and stands 10 inches at the shoulder. My tail is about 10 inches long and my body length from nose to root of tail is 18 inches. That should give you a rough idea of how big a serval actually appears. Interestingly enough, some breeders in the USA have been interbreeding domestic cats with servals producing a creature they call a “Savannah cat” The only reason I mention this fact is that it made me feel close kinship to my lovely relative after all, our kind can interbreed (but I don’t really approve of this sort of “fooling with Mother Nature”).

A few more interesting things about serval cats. Though relatively small, they are more efficient hunters than their bigger cousins. Their hunt success rate is 50% compared to only 10% for the larger cats Their usual prey consists of rodents, hyrax, hares, birds, reptiles, insects, fish and frogs. They usually consume their kills very quickly because of the chance that a larger predator will come along and steal it from them. They can climb and swim but rarely do either activity. However, they do require a constant supply of water and cannot survive in deserts or dry steppe areas All cats need water regularly, but some are adapted to go a little longer without it not the serval however, he’s a “drinker.”

Meanwhile, back to my own serval observations. Some Egyptian geese were standing nearby in the direction of his path and they squawked at him most discourteously He obviously wasn’t hungry since he paid them no heed whatever and just slowly and silently disappeared over a slight dip in the terrain and was seen no more. In all, we probably observed him for about 2-3 minutes but to me it seemed like a lifetime as I studied him so carefully. I am proud of my kinship to this handsome and elegant cat!

TheLovelyLeopard

Leopards are elusive, beautiful and very powerful, bigger than the serval but smaller than the lion. Actually, the leopard is the smallest in its species “panthera” behind the tiger, lion, and jaguar. A leopard is fairly long with short legs; body length is usually between 35 and 75 inches, with the tail adding another 24-43 inches to its overall size The shoulder height is between 18 and 31 inches.

Males are much bigger than females and weigh between 81 and 198 lbs., with females reaching from 62 to 132 lbs. (Remember my measurements and you’ll get a clearer understanding of the leopard’s size.

Leopards are usually a tawny color with dark rosettes sprinkled over their fur. Unlike the rosettes of jaguars, there is no central spot in the middle of the rosette and their rosettes are not like cheetah spots which are truly spots, not circles. Leopards can run really fast over short distances, up to 40 mph, and they leap 40 feet horizontally and 20 feet vertically (makes that Masai feat of 4 ft. seem paltry, eh?). Pretty prodigious figures, right? Perhaps their greatest feat is their strength in pulling prey three times their own weight up into a tree for dining and/or caching for a later meal. They occasionally put their much lighter kittens up in trees for safekeeping as well. And they usually sleep in trees during the day since they are mostly nocturnal hunters. Tree-sleeping protects them for lions, hyenas and wild dogs. from us horizontally and maybe 15 feet higher than we. He was a big fellow and absolutely beautiful. He deigned to move about in the tree a little for us and he did open his eyes and glare once. Not only did he shift his weight on the branch, but he straddled it once and moved into a tree crotch to change positions. We could see him so clearly that it was just awe-inspiring. He too was exhibiting the cat’s characteristic activity sleeping. We do that best, you know.

Of all the big cats in the world, leopards are at present the least threatened partly because of their adaptability to a wide range of habitats and diets Research has shown that leopards prey upon 90 different kinds of animals. They are opportunistic hunters who eat whatever they can grab. They also have the ability to move silently so that stealth is a great advantage to them in hunting.

Before I saw the two leopards I was able to observe on this trip, I had learned that leopard behavior has one telling similarity to myself (I mean, domestic cats) and that is his response to a threat. He assumes the same posture as the domestic cat: he stretches his back, depresses his ribcage between his shoulder blades causing it to look bigger, and lowers his head. That similarity made me feel really strong and also close to my big cousin I really liked that about us.

Now to our two sightings: the first occurred in the Serengeti in a large acacia tree at least 100 yards from where the land rovers were parked in the road at least 16 or so of them. Sightings are rare so all the guides in the area converged on this sleeping fellow. His tail hung down from the branch over which he had draped himself and by the time we arrived, he was well aware that he was being observed. Actually he was probably a she since the animal was fairly small according to the estimations of our experienced guides. We could hardly see the leopard except through the binoculars and then he was still just a small spot in the tree. However, we were all elated to see him, especially since we knew that Kay and Lois had never seen a leopard in the wild despite their having had two previous trips to Africa. What we really saw this time was a sleeping cat with no desire to move from his chosen spot (I can very well identify with that preference I really resent it when someone dislodges me from my choice sleeping spot!) And of course it is true that cats of all kinds spend a lot of time sleeping. Wise creatures that we are!

Our second leopard encounter was much more satisfying because he was so much closer to us. We saw him in Masai Mara, also up a tree. But he was only about 30 ft.

TheChoiceCheetah

Ah, here we have the cat in a class by himself literally. There are no other felines in his family. He has a crazy and damaging genetic history as well, which does not bode well for his long time survival. All cheetah tested, both wild and captive, reveal a genetic code so close to each other that the problems of interbreeding are clearly seen. The fertility rate of cheetahs is very low and the problem seems to be with the quality, number, and motility of the male’s sperm, all of which are very low. Their genetic closeness is proved by scientific experiments involving skin grafts from cheetah to cheetah. These grafts are never rejected and now drug suppression therapy is required. th Cheetahs rarely breed in captivity so saving them through zoo conservation programs has not been outstandingly successful. Though females in the wild can produce anywhere from one to nine kittens, their mortality rate is extremely high, usually only one or two survive, if even that number. Scientists postulate that cheetahs got trapped in a genetic logjam during the last Ice Age when populations were cut off from one another through climatic conditions and the changes that wrought Thus the gene pool was reduced and all the cheetahs now living are too closely related to one another!

Other problems that nature has dealt to cheetahs include their inability to adapt to changing conditions. This inflexibility is probably a result of their genetic compression. Adult cheetahs are never preyed upon by other cats, hyenas or hunting dogs, but their babies are predated by all three A less aggressive personality is a handicap too because he will not defend kills against interlopers. Perhaps this reluctance conveys some protection as well since the cheetah is usually not hurt in interspecies conflicts, but it does make feeding frequency incommensurate with hunting skills As a matter of record, cheetahs lose their kills about 50% of the time. It is a lucky thing that they are such good hunters.

And what a tragic loss it will be if cheetahs do go extinct! This is a truly magnificent cat, superbly equipped for hunting and surviving in his environment. He is a record book of outstanding statistics: fastest land animal, capable of running 70-75 mph over 1500 ft when hunting, able to accelerate from 0 to 68 ph in 3 seconds, faster than the fastest race car humans have yet devised, possessed of unique semiretractable claws (only two much smaller cats have this characteristic ) and rudderlike long tail that permits him to make the sharpest of turns and twists while running full out. His small head (aerodynamically correct since it produces less wind drag than would a larger head) is marked by two black tear stain lines running from the inner canthus of his eyes down along his nose to his mouth. The beautiful marking protects him from sun glare, much as the black horizontal stripe that football players paint under their eyes works. He has the best eyesight of any of the felines and his hearing is also prodigious. In addition, the cheetah has very large nostrils for the quick and full intake of air during chases. Furthermore, his heart and lungs are very large proportionate to his body This animal is built for running! What a creature!

With all those attributes, we can add that the cheetah is also simply beautiful. He is long and slender with a deep chest and narrow waist. His short, coarse fur is marked with striking black spots that cover his whole body except for his white belly. Even his long & heavy tail (averaging 33 inches) is spotted but it ends in a lovely white tuft of fur. His body can be from 45 to 53 inches long and his shoulder height is 35 inches. He weighs in at between 88 and 140 lbs. His markings provide excellent camouflage on the Serengeti among the tall and short grasses and the coarseness of his fur is protection against burrs and thorns.

Another interesting facet of cheetah biology is his range of vocalizations. Because he can purr, he cannot roar, but he does talk in many other tongues. Besides the purring, a sign of content and most often used between mothers and kittens, cheetahs can “yip.” This sound is like a sharp, short bark and is used between cheetahs for recognition and especially for mothers to call their kittens. The kittens produce a chirping, rather birdlike, sound when answering their mothers. When cheetahs meet another adult in a friendly way, they “churr” at one another.

Growling is usually accompanied by hissing and spitting when the cat is annoyed or frightened. (Does this sound like someone you know well? How refreshing, another trait I share with a wild relative!) Yowling accompanies extreme fear and is an escalation of the growling sound. Gee, I can do that too. And I purr very well and often.

Like all the big cats, except lions, cheetahs are solitary creatures. Well, that is not completely true. Females are always solitary unless they are with their kittens. These offspring often stay with them for 18 months as they learn to hunt and survive in the wild. After 18 months, the females go off on their own to live alone until they have kittens of their own. The males of a litter usually stay together if there are more than one of them. Single males from a litter usually find other males to live with. Brothers often accept single males from different mothers into their group called a “coalition.”

Females join males only for reproduction and they never live with females other than their children.

Both of the cheetahs we were so fortunate to observe we saw in the Serengeti in Tanzania. One was on the open plain very close to the road. When we stopped to look at her, she lifted a bloody face and we could see that she was feeding on a hartebeest baby We recognized her kill because the heartbroken mother hartebeest was standing off just a bit away, totally dispirited and not sure what to do. She wandered closer and then recognized the futility and danger of that and moved away again. Gradually, she took her sorrow with her as she strayed slowly away towards a small hartebeest herd We all grieved for her but we also had to admit that the cheetah must have meat to survive. Nature is concerned only with species survival not with individuals.

This cheetah had her kill in a small ditch so that when she bent to feed, we could not see anything of her but the top of her head. When she would rise up to look around her, we could see more of her body and some of the kill. Luckily for her nothing on the plain caught the scent of her kill and she able to feed undisturbed. We watched her eating and performing her regular surveillances for about 10 minutes. Then she jumped up from the low spot and began to making “yip” noises. She looked across the road and yipped over and over That call is rather like the yip of a small dog She called several times until we folks in the land rover began to worry because we were sure she was calling her kittens. None showed up and she stalked across the road in front of the truck and got atop a low termite nest. She continued yipping and finally began some very loud purring as she looked anxiously in every direction from the mound. By this time not only was mother cheetah apprehensive but we in the truck were feeling more and more frantic for her. We did not want to see another heartsick mother.

Finally, there emerged from the tall grasses to the left of the termite mound a single kitten. Evidently she had but the one because her relief at seeing this one was complete. We all breathed more deeply as well. The kitten, about 3 months old according to the guides, was intimidated by our land rover and would not walk over to his mother. So since “Mohamet would not come to the mountain, the mountain came to him.” Mother walked over and led her baby across the road behind the land rover this time and brought him to the kill site. Baby fell to pretty quickly and chewed and ate hungrily. Still no other predators or scavengers appeared at the site, so now mother and baby ate contentedly. The baby cheetah had the typical downy fur extending from its neck down its back overlying the base coat. This soonto-be lost fur is called the “mantle” and is usually present for the first four months of life. It is believed to add extra camouflage when the kitten is lying in the tall grasses waiting for mother’s call or presence.

When both cheetahs had their fill, the mother went back across the road with the baby following closely and very quickly both disappeared into the tawny grasses of the Serengeti. Cheetahs do not cache their kills or attempt to save them for later consumption, so probably there was very little if anything left on the carcass.

On our last day in the Serengeti we were taken up into the swampy area where the rains had waterlogged the entire vicinity. We slipped and slid around in the water over the sodden grasses and many times almost became stuck. However, all three of the guides were determined to find a cheetah which they knew lived in this locale. Heres we were allowed to leave the gravel roads and go off-road We bounced around for about an hour seeing not much of interest and we tourists were beginning to wonder what on the earth the guides were so determined about. We did not know yet about the resident cheetah.

We made a final circuit around the district and came slipping around a low bush and found the prize! There she was, stretched out in the grass in a relaxed attitude, sleeping really. Her belly appeared full but we saw no sign of a kill near her. She stretched, and curled, and flipped over from side to side. She coiled and uncoiled her back and swished her tail. We watched her for quite a time and at very close range She seemed totally oblivious to our presence Then we detected a raspy kind purring and knew she was feeling content at that time. Soon a small face emerged from the tall grasses behind her and nuzzled up to her face and pushed against her cheek. The mother purred at him and licked him and played with him. He was entranced with her tail, her face, and her big paws Occasionally, he would open his little mouth and chirp at her, showing us his little needle teeth. He was so adorable that any of us would have paid a big price to cuddle with him. His mother was very tender with him and endured all his pushing and nipping and batting with all the patience of any mother delighted with her child. All of us were spellbound with this wonderful interaction and our opportunity to observe this wild behavior.

I love being kin to this marvelous animal and I am proud that I can purr like she does. Will have to practice trying to make those “yips” though.

TheLordlyLion

Surely the male lion has the most familiar face in the wild kingdom! A description of his magnificent mane and his haughty stare is unnecessary. We have all seen the lion and his mate in zoos and movies and all manner of artistic representations However, there is no substitute for seeing my cousins in their own habitat, living free and wild, behaving as Mother Nature intended. The Serengeti Plain seems the most perfect home for this species because their tawny color blends so perfectly with the grasses and the kopjes provide such strategic outlooks for hunting The Serengeti would not be complete without the lions and the Serengeti is where they belong.

However, such was not always the case. Lions once were the most widespread mammal species over the earth, second only to human beings. They lived in Asia, Africa, Europe and both North and South America! It appears that the last major Ice Age caused the big squeeze in appropriate territory for lions, probably because of the extinction of the megafauna (mastodons, woolly mammoths, etc.) which were the prey species before the huge climatic change. Now lions are pretty much restricted to Sub-Saharan Africa with tiny remnant populations in the Middle East and India. The ubiquity of lions is proven not only by fossil finds, but also by the art and myths of cultures around the world from the cave paintings in Lescaux and other sites to the many representations of my cousins in European paintings, heraldry, Bible stories, statuary, and decorative arts

Lions are the 2nd largest of the big cats, second only to tigers. Males weigh from 330 to 530 lbs., females from 270 to 400 lbs.). The average length of a male is 5 ‘7” to 8’2” and females range from 4’7” to 5’9”. Males are 4 ft. at the shoulder and females 3’3”. Tail lengths range 2’3” to 3’3”. Both males and females sport the tuft with a spike buried in the fur on their tails and the scientists have not decided on a purpose for the spike, which is composed of fused bones.

Maybe because of their extraordinary size, lions do spend a lot of time resting, sleeping, and socializing in their prides. They usually are inactive for 20 hours per day and spend about 2 hours walking, 1 hour hunting, and another hour feeding. They typically hunt at night for several reasons: it’s cooler, their night vision gives them an advantage over prey species, they do not come into contact with other species as regularly, and it’s safer to leave the cubs behind in the darkness. While socializing during their lengthy rest periods, lions rub heads, perform social licking (most often around the head and neck areas since they are unable to clean those areas for themselves), play with the cubs, and pile up against each other to sleep. The lions utilize a large repertoire of vocalizations to communicate: snarling, hissing, roaring, coughing, woofing, and meowing. The roars can be heard over 5 miles. Whenever possible they try to find shade in which to sleep and interact. In particular, the males with the really big manes suffer in the heat and need the shade to reduce the temperatures.

Unique among the felines, lions live in groups. These groups, or “prides,” are composed of related females, their cubs, and from 1 to 7 adult males. The group of adult males within the pride are called a coalition and these are the males who guard the pride and mate with the females. The females do almost all the hunting, more on that later. When young males mature to about 18 months, they must leave the pride and either start their own or challenge and defeat the males of an already established pride. When that is not possible, the males usually wander about alone until they are strong enough; unless that occurs, these males are labeled “nomadic” and they do their own hunting. Females only rarely leave their home pride to become “nomads” because it is extremely difficult for them to find acceptance in an unrelated pride. Females are not as successful alone as are males due to their smaller size and their favored “group hunting” techniques.

Within the pride, each individual female develops her own strategy for the coordinated hunting she and her sisters and aunts utilize. Some are the runners, others the flankers, still others the pouncers and stranglers. They almost always perform their own role during a hunt Lions prefer the really big grazers such as eland, topis, giraffe, wildebeest, hartebeest, waterbuck and buffalo. Only extreme hunger drives them to attack really big animals such as hippo, rhino, or elephant. During a hunt, the lionesses fan out and begin to stalk the selected herd. Through stealth and camouflage they try to get to within 98 feet of the prey animal Then the attackers charge the selected animal at 40 miles per hour and leap onto its back while the runners attack the sides and back legs. When the animal is brought down, the strangler cat clamps down on the victim’s throat causing strangulation. Death rarely occurs from a single blow or disemboweling as if often incorrectly depicted in art and stories. Normally these strategies are used by lionesses. But it has been observed that some male groups (not prides) will employ these same tactics.

Once the kill has been made, the lionesses typically eat their fill (up to 66 pounds at a sitting) and then allow the cubs and males to come up for food. Males in a pride will also share the “table” with cubs, but males who kill alone will never share their food with any other lions of any age. Young lions do not participate in the hunt until they are about one year old It has been postulated that adults lions require 15-30 lbs. of meat daily for good health, but that they will gorge to beyond repletion when plentiful food is available. Often, they will rest after the first “course” and then return to the kill for more eating. Usually, the male or males in the pride will remain with the carcass during this respite between feedings to protect it from hyenas, jackets, vultures and other scavengers.

There is so much to say about lions but anyone interested in more facts than I am offering here can read the many books published about them as well as checking the multiple entries on the Internet. The last fascinating fact I intend to relate is another behavior which tends to support the closeness of the pride and also works towards the survival of the cubs. Females are polyestrous, meaning they can go into heat often. They usually do not become reproductively receptive while their kittens are small and still nursing. The remarkable thing that happens among the females in a pride however is their synchronizing their reproductive cycles so that the cubs are born at the same time. This permits cubs to be cared for, suckled, and tended by all the females in the pride. Cubs go to any female for milk and they perform the same social behaviors with all females nuzzling, licking and playing. This surely gives the cubs more protection, more food, and insures their socialization and integration into the pride. Even so, lion cubs have a perilous course, with 90% usually succumbing before they reach 2 years of age.

Needless to say, all us travelers were eager to see lions—the icon of all Africa and certainly of the Serengeti! In Tarangire National Park, we saw no lions at all even though they are present there However, we were all undismayed since we just knew we would see them later in the trip. And see them we did! Actually, we stopped counting the numbers we saw and just enjoyed every encounter. It didn’t matter how many groups or individuals we found; the wonder was the experience of watching them “living free.”

Our first encounter, in Ngorongoro Crater, was significant in the number of lions in the first pride we came upon. There were at least 8 adult females, 4 cubs, 3 young males, and two adult males. We rode up on a “jam” of range rovers with lions scattered on the wet, muddy road seeking shade from the trucks.

The adult lions behaved obliviously to us and never made eye contact with us The 4 cubs were very alert and did look at us though they too were unafraid.

About 35 yards off the road were two lions feeding on a recent kill, an eland we later discovered. That was a fascinating scene since it was our first. The two lions ate contentedly beside one another (the other lions appeared to have already fed since their bellies were bulging as were the tummies of the cubs) but they were being circled by various other creatures eager to join the feast. First, the jackals sidled up fairly close but far enough away for escape if their proximity was annoying to the feeding lions. Then the scavenging birds began to swoop down griffon vultures, marabou storks, black vultures even a tawny eagle Silently, the spotted hyenas began to appear from the taller grasses ringing the kill site. The lions chewed lazily and unconcernedly. One of the jackals tried a bold feint towards the carcass, but the lions growled and warned him off. Then a hyena couldn’t stand the wait and dashed in and grabbed a large piece of skin, running as fast as he could away The lions didn’t seem to care about that theft since they often do not eat the skin with the fur still attached. However, fellow hyenas chased after the successful thief and finally stole his prize from him. More and more hyenas materialized noiselessly from the grasses and stood slavering outside the kill site One of the lions arose and stretched the hyenas melted backwards. But that lion, a young male, strolled lazily away towards the other lions reclining in the vehicular shady spots. The remaining lioness continued to feed, but now the hyenas were much bolder in their feints towards the prey. At last, the lioness also had eaten her fill and she too rose up and strolled away. Then there was a terrific fluttering of wings, scratching at the grasses, animal sounds and bird calls, as the hyenas, vultures, and jackals fell upon the remaining carcass. The birds lifted briefly off the ground with a great rustle of wings and then crash-landed back at the kill The jackals and hyenas attempted to tear bits off so they could back away and eat in peace. A terrible and yet typical event on the plains.

After that we saw many lions in many configurations, some of them alone, others asleep among their fellows on the open grassland. Still others would be lying up under the few acacia trees punctuating the vast plains We were never bored with these sightings and often observed them for long periods. On one occasion, we came upon a courting couple separated from the rest of the pride, who merely watched from a distance. The male was very attentive but the female was definitely playing hard to get. She would snap at him if he tried to become more intimate and would walk away, striding royally, staying just in front of him. She would lead him on a long walk, sometimes across the road, and then back again. He seemed content to follow her every step. Then she would drop down under a tree and he would be sure that now was his chance. But it never was while we watched. She would yawn at him and snarl if he tried to get a bit closer. The courtship continued until our guides felt we should move on since we might have been interfering with the normal course of events. The guides told us that male lions never mount females without their invitation. Unlike primates, lions do not “rape” their females. The female controls the mating rituals entirely These rituals can go on for days with as many as 40 copulations in a single 24 hour period. But it is the female who dictates the behavior.

In the Serengeti we also many lions and were able to observe them as they watched the passing parade from their “catbird” seat in a beautiful kopje. There three lionesses were sprawled comfortably but alertly on the rock ledge, shaded by the foliage there, just contentedly eyeing the myriad zebras and wildebeest. They knew that their next meal was not far away.

In the Masai Mara, we came upon another kill site on our last morning game drive. We sat at that place for at least an hour watching the two lionesses who were eating their fill of a topi. They were alone and no other animals or birds had gotten the scent yet because the sky was empty of wings and the grasses around them revealed no hyenas or jackals. They were not more than 15 ft. off the road and we would see more than we probably wanted to see of the topi’s entrails. As Kay announced, we could all have had a clear anatomy lesson just from observing the kill. It was interesting to note that neither of the animals ever touched the stomach which was pretty full. However, one of the girls was very busily and noisily gnawing on a leg bone There were crunching sounds, slurping sounds, chewing and sighing Occasionally, one of the lionesses would pull really hard on part of the carcass and some other part would rise eerily up out of the depression where the body lay. Finally, one of the huntresses grasped part of the body in her powerful jaws and tried to pull it up and out of the ditch There was a little growling from the other and she soon gave that up and just continued eating. She was the first to leave the kill as she walked directly toward our range rover. The guide made us roll of the windows and told us to avoid eye contact with her as she kept right on coming. Then we saw what she was aiming for. The rain had left large puddles in the ruts of the road and she was strolling over for a leisurely drink. Her belly was already bulging but as she drank continuously for at least five full minutes, that belly puffed out more and more. None of us could believe in her prodigious drinking binge. Shortly thereafter, the other female left the kill and went to another puddle in the road and drank just as copiously. Still, no other creatures or birds had approached the kill site. As we drove away, we were reminded by the guides that the girls were probably only retiring for a bit of rest and then would resume their feeding.

Lions really do deserve to be labeled the “king of the beasts” in Africa. They are so huge and beautiful and regal. They are fearsome hunters and dangerous enemies on the plains. But they are also perfectly adapted to their environment and perform the role that Mother Nature gave them. I really can’t think of anything I have in common with the mighty lions, but my ginger coloring. I am so tiny next to them that I would scarcely serve as an appetizer for one of them. But I share their heritage and their genetic identity is part of mine. Fernand Mery believed that “God made the cat in order that man might have the pleasure of caressing the lion.” Oh wait, I just thought of something simple I share with my cousins: I also like to groom myself and fellow cats in my household, I push my head into the faces and necks of those I like (including my humans), and I can snarl and hiss when I don’t like something. Granted, my calls do not echo over 6 miles!

Whatilearned

My research has taught me that my species, felidae, probably began evolving as long ago as 11 million years ago, back in the times of the saber-tooth tiger and even earlier than that However, a 2007 study by the National Cancer Institute in conjunction with the genome project strongly suggests that my own kind, the domestic or house cat, probably sprang from 5 self-domesticating wild cats (Felis sylvestris lybica) in the Near East about 8000 years ago. So I am just a little younger than Homo sapiens, that’s you folks However, my distant lineage far predates any of man’s ancient ancestors! So there, you all!

My pride and sense of family were supported by the wonderful cousins I observed in Africa. I am so proud to claim the lion, leopard, cheetah and serval as my close kin. The traits I found that I shared with them also increased my sense of belonging: great senses of smell, sight and hearing, a supple and muscular body built for hunting, similarities in vocalizations and behaviors relating to other cats, closely comparable bone structure, good climbing and balance abilities, and an abrasive tongue surface that keeps us all clean and well-groomed.

How surprising to learn that there is at least one thing I can do that my larger relatives cannot do! Can you guess what that is? It has to do with my tail I am the only one of the cats who can carry its tail vertically upright. The others all drag their tails or tuck it between their back legs when they walk! I located one thing I seem to have in common with smaller wild species of cat which the larger cats do not share the shape of our pupils Mine are vertical slits which can expand to huge round black pupils. The larger cats have round pupils which can certainly expand and contract, from filling the whole iris down to pinpoints, but not to narrow slits.

Want to know about the most wonderful thing I learned about my family during this trip?

To paraphrase Henry Higgins in Pygmalion, “on the whole, we are a marvelous species!”

Mark Twain even said, “If man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve the man but deteriorate the cat.” He said it, not me! Everybody knows that Mark Twain was a humorist, so you might prefer to take his idea as a joke. But we all know that Leonardo da Vinci was a man of genius, of serious intent, and a sublime artist as well. So, I think he describes me and my family members most perfectly. Leonardo said, “Even the smallest feline is a masterpiece!” I rest both my case and my search for my place in nature. I know whom I am and I am content. And I know where I came from.

APPENDIX A - ANIMALS WE SAW IN AFRICA

Some show their names in Swahili too

Lion Simba

Leopard – Chui

Cheetah Duma

Serval Paka-duma

Hippopotamus Kibuko

Crocodile Mamba

Giraffe Twiga

Cape Buffalo Nyati

Impala Swalla-pala

Grant’s Gazelle Swalla-grantii

Thomson’s Gazelle Swalla-tommie

Elephant Tembo

Warthog Ngiri

Spotted Hyena Fisi

Wildebeest Nyumbu

Jackal Bwha

Zebra Punda Milea

Eland

Dik-Dik

Olive Baboon

Steenbok

Golden Jackal

Black Rhinoceros

Black-backed Jackal

Hartebeest

Topi

Common Waterbuck

Reedbuck

Rock Hyrax

Banded Mongoose

Defassa Waterbuck

Leopard Tortoise

African Hare

APPENDIX B - BIRDS I DROOLED OVER

Fischer’s Sparrow

Spotted Morning Thrush

White-headed Buffalo Weaver

Knob-bill Duck

Ostrich

Helmeted Guinea Fowl

Red-billed Francolin

Red-headed Quelea

Ashy Starling

Gray Heron

Egyptian Goose

African Spoonbill

Bataleur Eagle

Tawny Eagle

Saddle-billed stork

White Crane

Lappet-faced Vulture

White-backed Vulture

Harrier Hawk

Black-chested Snake Eagle

Long-crested Eagle

Martial Eagle

African Fish Eagle

Black Kite

Black-shouldered Kite

Pygmy Falcon

Coqui Francolin

Red-necked Spur Fowl

Hildebrand’s Francolin

Yellow-necked Spur Fowl

Kori Bustard

White-bellied Bustard

Black-bellied Bustard

Blacksmith Plover

Crown Plover

Three-banded Plover

Brown Parrot

Fischer’s Lovebird

Yellow-collared Lovebird

Cinnamon-chested Bee-eater

White-browed Coucal

Lilac-breasted Roller

Eurasian Roller

Long-tailed Whydah

Pintail Whydah

Fiscal Shrike

Long-tailed Shrike

Southern Black Flycatcher