Horny

 Horny or Mating Season in the Wild.

    T'was the season and as I sit here reflecting upon our safari trip in June counting the months it has been, I realize that many an expectant  mother out there is now showing or starting to show.
    With so many species demonstrating to us the art of copulation in the wild and with my knowledge of their times to bear so limited, I feel woefully undereducated on that subject matter.

  But horny they were those boys as they were playing the field, especially when considering the masses of wildebeests stretching out in front of us, dotting the far horizon with thousands of male and females in heat wandering seemingly aimless.

this better works I don't want to walk too far

    The ones nearby as they were plying their skills, showed clearly the difference between male and female. Even the more demure female travelers among our group eventually lost their sense of shyness and modesty, or as one would like to believe decorum, when they uttered claims of size not being seen before, which by the way does no man among us much good.

please avert eyes

    One is also coming to the realization, that even I could add some material to Wikipedia, by pointing out that some males (and here the species would have to be specified) keep it in the harem serving their own "pride" or "herd" or "clan".   
    For those of you that want to know which animal hides within those hyphenated words you may stop reading here and refer to google for a search.

may I?

thanks in advance

hmmm

afterwards bliss

    So... as I said, my possible future wikipedia contribution would allude to the fact that there are types of male animals with limited options of who they would mate with, although they do have the advantage of receiving invitations from dedicated women whose eyes never wander. While other males seem to just turn in a juvenile way to the nearest lady in the crowd and request her for an invite to "visit".

what about it?

change positions?

    A rejection here however does not seem too embarrassing as the number of available future mamas seems endless in the wild. 

is this really necessary?

the unwashed masses

    It was, and I stress this fact, a female among us that made me notice that male African buffalo have their instrument conveniently placed by their creator (and please let me not engage in the discussion between evolutionism or the proponents of intelligent design as well as those espousing creationism- all wooing me to subscribe to their view)  in front of their hind legs, thus dangling in full view. But as was also pointed out to me by her, with a hook at the end of their pleasure machine to prevent any regretful lady from changing her mind midstream - ouch!

    Of all animals displaying their skills, it was the giraffe who made me understand that the act of lovemaking in the wide open fields, which stretched in front of us as far as the eye could see, is also a dangerous activity. When we turned a corner and met this group (also named "tower") of giraffes a dominant male was preparing a mount.
    It is important to know at this stage in the story that giraffes are generally making loose associations with other giraffes, when they meet each other while traveling along in a certain direction. They are teaming up so to say for "now". 


and so we go on the road together

As the story goes while walking side by side the moment will occur that they warily eye the females among the travel party. Hence some of the boys will find them pretty enough that they want to "neck".
    For those among you, my "loyal" readers,(and here I mean those that are still reading this risque story), because I would not blame any of you who would have stopped reading, and with a sigh labeled me a pervert, especially when you are forced to see all these pictures -- anyway, those who construe the word "neck" as "making out" are mistaken.

Is this not a bit late to start necking?

    Some males at some time during their trek decide that the girls are pretty enough to lay claim to them. So they start dueling among themselves using their necks the way Irish would use their fists battling for dominance to be established, thus earning the right to gift at a time of the lady's choosing a potential pregnancy to miss giraffe. While writing this it dawns on me that nature has very few married ladies.

guard duty for the couple in the middle

    The real punch in the gut for the losing guys is that they have guard duty during the ceremonies because as shown here, the ladies are very vulnerable at the time of "donation". Their willingness requires a position for which some extreme limberness is required to achieve. And lions, hyenas and the like would at that moment in time have easy access to their prey.

the dangerous spreading position

    I could amuse you with more of the same but there comes a time that one may exclaim: Enough said about the title subject.

 

 

While the timing of our wonderful and enchanting 12 day safari brought unexpected attention to the above described rituals, so much more was learned and experienced that it may seem preposterous and wrong not to "show and tell" about other subjects, for example about our sleeping 



what hangs from that hook?



no mosquitos to fear

arrangements, our food and alcohol intake and

even the beer is elephanty!

a picture of us in our cruiser

the long bumpy rides in our eight seat toyota cruiser which lacked facilities thus allowing needy travelers under 
supervision of our driver/guide to relieve themselves in full view of the other spectators ( be it us in the vehicle or wary animals at "safe" distance).
    This immersing ourselves in nature was a privilege which in so many ways is difficult to describe because, unless you did a safari yourself, words cannot emote the intensity of sound, sight and smell when you experience the lonesomeness and the vastness of your surroundings, smelling the fresh air change as the day grew from morn till dusk, but also inhaling the dust of a passing vehicle, which, if you have an experienced driver, does not happen often.
     So my faithful reader let me show you with as few words as possible in pictures some days in the lives of our six lucky safari goers.



private deck per couple

a regular bush bathroom

nightly boozing in the fields

dinner in the wild

our guardian angels

at the gate of the masai mara

lodging at lake Victoria

front view

briefing for next drive

a meal



we are sleeping royally

our bathroom

Lodge entrance



swimming with a view and a bar



always more than enough food

We promise two more sequels to the safari adventure one on the sights of a safari and what we experienced and one about our investour experience in Dar es Salaam.


night night till next time