Mammals and Birds                     Home   General Information    Forest Plants   Heath and Moorland Plants

Mammals:  I asked our guides about mammals, and they said we would not see many.  Guess what?  They were right.  It seems that hundreds of hikers every day are not conducive to good mammal observation.  The rain forest portion undoubtedly hosts more animals, but visibility is limited, and sightings are few.  We had a brief glimpse of Black and White Colobus Monkeys, heard the nocturnal “bark” of the Tree Hyrax at Big Tree Camp, and saw multiple Four-striped Grass Mice at Barranco Camp.  It was fun to watch a Raven try to dig out a mouse nest at Baranco.  Fresh elephant dung was seen on the trail in the rain forest.  Douglas said they infrequently see elephants themselves.   I’m sure many more mammals are out there, but seeing them is just chance.  I wonder about nocturnal forays into the rain forest.  There were no prohibitions of such, and I did walk out into the night at Big Tree Camp, only to hear the weird Tree Hyrax vocalizations.  I did not know the sound, but it was identified by another party’s guide.

                                    Four-striped Grass Mouse at Barranco Camp

Birds on Kilimanjaro:  Again, there is a much larger diversity in the rainforest portion of the hike compared to higher on the mountain.  We were neophytes with regard to the birds, and felt lost with regard to identification.  Hartlaub’s Turacau was numerous and vocal, although always on the move.  We saw one Bar-tailed Trogon, sitting as still as can be, not far from the trail.  The forest was alive with unfamiliar vocalizations.  It would have been great to have a naturalist along who could identify them.  A few other species were identified, such as Montane White-eye, White-starred Robin, Olive Pigeon, Evergreen Forest Warbler.

                                                                    Bar-tailed Trogon

In the heather and moorland zone the birds were less numerous, but we managed good views of a Tacazze Sunbird.

                                                Tacazze sunbird, sitting on a Protea kilimandscharica bud

 Around camp in the moorland zone, as well as alpine desert zone were many Streaky Seedeaters, Alpine Chats and White-naped Ravens.

                                                        Streaky Seedeater

                        Alpine Chat

                      White-naped Raven

Birds in the Alpine zone were not numerous, but were conspicuous.  Alpine swifts were twittering overhead, and I think nesting right at Barafu Camp, at just over 15000 feet.  The ravens were continuously demonstrating their aerial acrobatic play with Mawenzi as a background. I was excited to see a couple Lammergeyers for a few minutes.

                                                White-naped Ravens

                      Lammergeyer--note the wattle and distinctive shaped tail.

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