At the heart of the Serengeti lies a valley laced with permanent streams, small but constant, which support a profusion of wildlife.  The valley covers about 200 square miles and is, itself, covered by acacia trees, wild dates, candelabra and commiphora trees that rise among grasses and wildflowers.  Like islands in the plains, granite outcroppings known as kopjes (pronounced "copies") emerge from the dusty soil and grow thick with grasses, shrubs, sisal and aloe to shelter small animals like dikdiks, hyrax, and mongooses from the midday sun.

Famous for its big cats, the Seronera offers a chance to see shy leopards and fleet cheetahs as well as lions.  Laura Johnson, who took a family safari with her husband and their 10-year-old son, described the unforgettable experience of watching a cheetah kill a Thomson's gazelle.

"We came on a cheetah in the road," she said, "and scared it away from its kill.  It went a little way off, waited, and stared at us.  The gazelle was not completely dead, though.  It staggered to its feet and ran right into the cheetah's mouth.  That was it."

Photo by: Mary Loeken

Johnson said her family also saw a pride of 12-14 lions.  A small group of juveniles was toying with four eland, trying to stalk them.  Their half-hearted efforts went on until dusk, when all humans must leave the Serengeti.  The next morning, the Johnsons returned to find the eland unharmed.

Among the rich variety of wildlife in the Seronera, one might see baboons, their  French-poodle faces scowling as they forage for fruits and roots; little black-faced monkeys known as vervets; four-footed beasts such as waterbucks, jackals and klipspringers; and a range of birds from the splendid Verreaux's eagle to the long-billed sunbird, spurfowl, guinea fowl and six types of vulture.  At twilight, nightjars fly around  the kopjes, prospect in the cooling air for insects, then settle along the lengths of branches, not perched like other birds, to spend the night.

Velvet monkey