Tanzania Safari the Great Migration
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Tanzania Safari The Great Migration © Joseph Paszczyk February 8 - 21 2019 14 days with Drs. Adam Ferguson & Molly McDonough Limited to just 16 participants Dear Members and Friends, I invite you to join the Field Museum on our classic Tanzania Safari. Journeying through the impressive wildlife, beauty, and diversity in this African terrain highlights what is best about science at the Museum–the privilege of exploring and learning from the world around us. We schedule our visit to the Serengeti to experience one of the most dramatic wildlife spectacles on Earth–the Great Wildebeest Migration. Witnessing the migration, which includes an estimated 1.4 million wildebeest, is an experience I will never forget. Jan and I traveled to Tanzania with the Field in 2016, and I can attest that traveling with Field Museum scientists brings an entirely new dynamic. They are experts in their fields, and we relished the opportunity to see Africa through their eyes. They shared amazing insights about what we saw and made it all the more meaningful by relating it to research happening at the Museum. I hope you will join the Museum for this journey through Tanzania. You will treasure the natural history of the Serengeti and learn more about how the Field Museum studies and helps conserve global ecosystems. Sincerely, Richard W. Lariviere, PhD President & CEO the Field Museum Cover, the East African Cheetah. Right, the Great Wildebeest Migration, Serengeti National Park. © Joseph Paszczyk Itinerary © Joseph Paszczyk (B=Breakfast, L=Lunch, D=Dinner) Friday, February 8, 2019: Depart home Saturday, February 9: Arrive Arusha, Tanzania Arrive at Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO) and join a group transfer (time TBD, to coincide with the arrival of the suggested flight) to our hotel. Gather for dinner this evening. Overnight at Arusha Serena Hotel for two nights. (D) Tanzania Sunday, February 10: Ngorongoro 2 Arusha National Park Crater Arusha National Today we visit nearby Arusha National Park, which contains Park Serengeti Karatu three distinct habitats within its boundaries. Ngurdoto Crater National 1 is a scenic, thickly wooded caldera whose floor is off-limits to Park 5 protect the animals from human disturbance. There is a series of look-outs ringing the crater from which we can look down Olduvai into the caldera, home to buffalo, elephant, and various monkey Gorge Arusha 2 species. Mount Meru is the fourth-largest mountain in Africa, 1 and offers distinct mountain-forest species such as colobus and Sykes monkeys, as well as hippo, giraffe, and elephant. The Momela Lakes are a series of seven lakes of varying alkalinity, 1 Lake Manyara where we may see pink-backed pelicans and greater flamingos. National Park We return to Arusha in time for dinner. (B,L,D) Monday, February 11: Arusha | Lake Manyara This morning we drive to Lake Manyara. Noted for its elephant population, the small park is 123 square miles in area, 88 square miles of which are alkaline lake. Check in at our beautiful ## of Hotel Nights lodge, with its breathtaking cliff-top view of the park below, # Hotel Day Room and enjoy an early lunch buffet before going to the park for a game drive. Flamingo and hippo inhabit the lake shore, which is surrounded by ground-water forest with wild fig, palm, tamarind, and remarkable old baobab trees. After dinner at the lodge, we enjoy a special nighttime game drive where we have the chance to observe some of Tanzania’s more secretive, nocturnal mammals such as genets and bushbabies. Overnight at the Lake Manyara Serena Safari Lodge. (B,L,D) © Joachim Huber Tuesday & Wednesday, February 12 & 13: Thursday & Friday, February 14 & 15: Lake Manyara | Ngorongoro Crater Ngorongoro Crater | Olduvai Gorge | Central Serengeti This morning we set out for the 102-square-mile From Ngorongoro we drive to Olduvai Gorge, world Ngorongoro Crater, the world’s largest unflooded, renowned for the discoveries of early hominids made unbroken caldera, regarded by many to be Africa’s by archaeologists Mary and Louis Leakey. We have best game-viewing area. Check in at our Lodge, and time to visit the small museum and look into the gorge then continue to the western descent road for an where the discoveries were made. Continue through afternoon game drive on the Crater floor. The next the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a wilderness morning, we descend in four-wheel-drive vehicles reserve that is the buffer between the Serengeti and from the rim, at about 7,600 feet in elevation, to the the Crater, with a stop for a picnic lunch. Along the floor of the Crater some 2,000 feet below. There way we will see many Maasai bomas (villages) and are thousands of wildebeest, still many black rhino, their herds. Check in at the main park gate (Naabi cheetah, gazelle, and arguably the highest density Hill) and drive through the Gol Kopjes to our Camp in of hyena anywhere in Africa. Flamingos inhabit the central Serengeti. (A game drive in the Gol Kopjes an alkaline lake in the center, and other bird life is requires a special permit due to its fragility and abundant. We have two days in the Crater, taking abundance of cheetah.) We visit both the central and along picnic lunches and returning to the rim each southern plains of the Serengeti, allowing us to follow evening for dinner. Overnight at the Ngorongoro the herds and cats and enjoy more concentrated Serena Safari Lodge for two nights. (B,L,D each day) time with what each area has to offer. The central Serengeti is well known for its large populations of lion, leopard, and cheetah. Sametu Camp is a semi- permanent tented property with ten spacious tents and a large dining, lounge, and bar tent. Overnight at Sametu Camp for two nights. (B,L,D each day) For more information and to reserve your space call 800-856-8951 or email [email protected] Saturday—Monday, February 16—18: Central Serengeti | Southern Serengeti Plains Once again enjoy a special game drive through the Gol Kopjes as we travel to the southern plains, where wildebeest The entire experience calving should be at its peak if weather patterns are normal. The 5,700-square-mile Serengeti is home to large herds of was beyond my wildebeest and other grazing animals, and the herds follow “expectations. From a seasonal migration route so we have timed our visit to the educational witness the huge influx of wildlife on the southern plains. The wildebeest calving season is a wildlife spectacle second experience... to none, with 10,000-12,000 babies born daily during the to the beautiful calving’s 3- to 6-week peak. Wildebeest need to calve on the southern plains because the short grass that grows in this accommodations area is rich in calcium and magnesium (essential for good and the wonderful lactation) and allows better visibility of approaching predators. In the southern Serengeti we stay at Woodlands Camp, a excursions. seasonal tented property with the amenities of a hotel and the adventure and intimacy of being under canvas near the migration. Just as at Sametu Camp, there is a large, separate, dining and lounge tent with a fully stocked bar. Camping near the herds and away from the tourist lodges will leave you with unforgettable memories. Overnight at Woodlands Camp for ” three nights. (B,L,D each day) Tuesday, February 19: Southern Serengeti Plains | Karatu Leaving the Serengeti© Daniel Zaas plains this morning on a game drive, we drive back past Ngorongoro and arrive at the Plantation Lodge in time for a late lunch and afternoon at leisure. The Lodge is located on an old coffee farm with beautiful gardens and exceptional rooms. Gather this evening for a farewell dinner. Overnight at the Plantation Lodge. (B,L,D) Wednesday, February 20: Karatu | Arusha | Depart Tanzania Today we drive to Arusha, stopping along the way to shop at the African Gallery near Lake Manyara village. Arrive in time for a hot buffet lunch at the Arusha Coffee Lodge, and then transfer to the Mount Meru Hotel, where we have day rooms and time to pack, shower, and/or relax. In the early evening we transfer as a group to Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO) in time for the suggested flight to Amsterdam, the Netherlands. (B,L,D) Thursday, February 21: Fly Home Arrive in Amsterdam (AMS) this morning and connect with homeward flights. Maasai under the stars. © operator Study Leaders Dr. Adam Ferguson joined the Field Museum in 2017 and is the Negaunee Collections Manager of Mammals in the Gantz Family Collection Center. His interest in mammals started at an early age and was nurtured by hundreds of adventures with his father across the amazing natural landscapes of Texas. His interest in wildlife and wildscapes led him to Southwest Texas State University where he completed his BSc in Wildlife Biology in 2003, followed by an MSc in Wildlife Ecology in 2005. In 2006, Adam moved to San Angelo, Texas, to study skunks at the Angelo State Natural History Collection under the tutelage of Dr. Robert Dowler. It was here that he finally solidified his passion for studying small carnivores and in 2008, after completing a second MSc in Biology at Angelo State University, enrolled in the PhD program in Biology at Texas Tech University. His study of the evolutionary ecology of the American hog-nosed skunk took him across the U.S. and through more than 13 Mexican states, and he also trapped mammals in Botswana, Ecuador, Djibouti, Guatemala, and Kenya. In 2014, after completing his PhD at Texas Tech University, Adam moved to Kenya to study the impacts of anthropogenic disturbance on small carnivore behavior, immunity, and parasite dynamics as a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow.