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The Flamingos and Other Animals of the Rift Valley Ray Chisholm, July 13, 1997 At first all I could see was one mass of pink, spread out for miles along the shoreline. As I came closer I could see that they were moving in a wavy line, carefully goose-stepping like a million WW II German soldiers, but out of step as they carefully lifted their feet from the muck. All of them had their heads down, filtering the brackish water through their beaks to glean the miniature particles that they feed on. A few were flying in groups of six to eight looking for friends or a better place to feed on the lake. When flying the flamingos looked like anorexic wild turkeys whose necks and legs had been stretched on a rack. Each one trying to catch the one in front and put his beak on its feet. Here in one group were enough flamingos to decorate the yards of every good Southerner in the United States! I was 100 meters away from the main group, but I wanted to get much closer. I did not want to startle them, so I would take a few quiet steps at a time. I moved to within about 25 meters, as close as I could get without sinking into the muck on the lakeshore. All of a sudden I realized that they were not quiet. They sounded like thousands of quiet, subdued frogs or purring kittens with asthma. Every once in a while one of them would let out with a real bird-like chortle. They seemed not to mind me at all, as if they knew I was harmless. The shore of Lake Nakuru is covered with a sand/soda ash mixture. I wanted to taste the sand but was afraid because I knew some of the things it could contain. The soda or minerals in the lake had pushed up through the sand like frost sometimes does ice crystals on bare ground in Virginia in the winter. Occasionally water had collected in tire tracks or footprints. When it evaporated it left a brownish crystalline glaze almost like ice. All of a sudden I realized that there were a hundred zebras rapidly running from something behind me. As I looked through my binoculars I could see 2-3 dozen Cape Buffalo running in the same direction in the trees beyond the zebras. What startled them? I searched the brush behind them looking for a pride of lions but I could find nothing. I did notice a few gazelle looking up from their grazing at the zebras as if to say, "What are those stupid animals doing again? Why are they running?" I looked at my
watch and realized that I had been in this one spot for almost two hours. I must
move on if I want to find any more animals. As I headed back to the bush I saw
two of the zebras fighting violently. They were butting heads and biting at each
other. Then they were neck-to-neck, going around in a tight circle and raising a
cloud of dust. As I drove
toward Baboon Cliffs I spotted a white rhino in the distance. Luckily I |
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