{"id":12046,"date":"2011-06-26T23:47:38","date_gmt":"2011-06-27T04:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/365saturdays.org\/blog\/?p=12046"},"modified":"2011-08-29T22:03:43","modified_gmt":"2011-08-30T03:03:43","slug":"ngorongoro-crater-reserve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/365saturdays.org\/blog\/?p=12046","title":{"rendered":"NgoroNgoro Crater Reserve"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In my opinion the top animals in the crater are zebras and monkeys. The Crater is a huge 2000 foot deep hole. It\u2019s also a great safari setting because lots of animals moved there for better food.<\/p>\n

There are thousands of zebras and monkeys and I\u2019ve decided that, along with cows, they are the subject of today\u2019s blog.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with monkeys. There are Vervet, which are grey and white and very small (see the picture above). There are baboons, with which all of you are probably familiar. Baboons are in every sense, super hairy humans. Their babies ride on their backs, they play tag, hide and seek, the elders talk while the younger baboons play\u2026 I could go on forever. Baboons are my favorite animals to watch because they do super funny stuff. When we stopped for lunch one day, the monkeys were trying to steal our bananas and the babies kept pushing each other off of trees. A few even climbed all over our car.<\/p>\n

Another time, when we were at Victoria Falls, there was a huge bendy tree right next to the path. Two Vervet monkeys were playing on it and jumping up and down. They were screaming and pointing at us like \u201cAaaahhhhhh!\u201d He points at us \u201cAh ah ah aaaahhhh!\u201d Do you think he wanted us to play or he wanted to set us on fire? It could be either. Monkeys also like to use mind control. They will come right up to you, and start edging towards your stuff. They will start nodding, \u201cMonkey is going to take your stuff, this good. Monkey going to take your stuff, this good.\u201d It will take all your power and self control to break free of the awesome mind control powers of monkeys!<\/p>\n

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Thing that makes monkeys awesome: If you taught them how, they could play hand games like Ms. Mary Mack and ABC.<\/p>\n

Thing that makes monkeys annoying: Constant screaming.<\/p>\n

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Zebras are similar to giraffes, cheetahs, leopards, and anything that has patterned fur in the sense that no two zebra pelts are alike. I have a question for you, is a zebra white with black stripes or black with white stripes?<\/p>\n

My imaginary conversation:<\/p>\n

\u201cPick me! Pick me!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKatherine?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re white with black stripes!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCorrect.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhoohoo!\u201d<\/p>\n

I know this because 1, our guide told us, and 2, if you look at the underside of the belly and the inside of the knee caps is white fur. Also a baby zebra starts out with brown and white stripes, not brown and black stripes.<\/p>\n

Zebras travel in huge herds which we saw twice. Like all things traveling in large groups they had some problems with which male got to travel next to the females. My mom enjoyed watching this. Other animals we saw fighting over females were impala, eland, wildebeest, and giraffe. What can I say? We all have issues.<\/p>\n

Thing that makes zebras awesome: They have striped tails. Judge me all you want about being shallow later.<\/p>\n

Thing that makes zebras annoying: They are really not that interesting to watch grazing.<\/p>\n

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You might be wondering what I meant by cows. Well, even if you weren\u2019t I\u2019m going to tell you. At our awesome lodge Gibb\u2019s farm, we got to milk cows. Milking cows has always been a dream of mine, next to dropping really fast in an elevator, and not taking one step on one of those flat escalator thingies in the airport.<\/p>\n

The cows immediately came in and started eating. I got some lotion and put it on, it made my hands extremely soft. The udders were washed and I sat down. I squeezed as they had showed me and a small trickle went into the bucket. The man sitting next to me sighed. He took an udder and pulled with his thumb. SHHHHHHHHH. A huge stream of milk went into the bucket. This time I sighed. When it was Carter\u2019s turn I had improved some but not much. Carter was much better than I and I watched him closely. I tried again and got much better but still not very good. Ah well, I\u2019d have to keep my eyes peeled at the next airport.<\/p>\n

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