By Todd Gustafson

Our last morning in Ndutu, it was the first clear morning where we could expect that golden first light. In the dark before dawn, we found one of the big Marsh Pride males, all alone on a small grassy rise by the marsh. As the sun came up and hit him, the whole world turned golden for the most beautiful lion portraits I have ever seen.

We headed back for check out and the drive to Serengeti. I got the chills at the Nabi Hill Gate when I saw a book in the gift shop. It’s a book I collaborated on with David Martin called The Game Parks of East Africa. I shot the front and back covers and lots of the interior photos. It’s been out of print for years, but they must have found a box of them somewhere.

The afternoon in the Serengeti was completely taken by a leopard mom and her 2-month-old cubs. They were in a sausage tree. The two cubs hopped down to explore as a hyena approached. The mother panicked and dropped the kill. The hyena grabbed it and prevented the cubs from climbing back into the tree. The mother leaped from the tree as 15 elephants approached and surrounded the tree, chasing the hyena off. They all put their trunks up when they smelled the leopard; the two cubs scrambled into the tree as the elephants looked on....ASTOUNDING. Then they needed to nurse, and the mother growled her displeasure as if to say, “I’ve had a really bad day!”

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