Serengeti Plain – Jadi Campbell

Meet The Ugly 5. #4: Lappet-Faced Vulture

The goal of everyone who goes on safari is to spot The Big 5: lion, elephant, leopard, rhinoceros, and Cape buffalo. It took us 3 tries to see them all, but in January this year we finally did it!

Less famous (or looked-for) are The Ugly 5. Uwe and I have spotted every single one over time. And yes, they are UGLY. It’s been my great pleasure to introduce you to them, one at a time. Today’s dubious honor goes to the vulture.

The Lappet-Faced Vulture. A bird you might meet in a nightmare. Tanzania

I was so fascinated by this description of vultures that I’m citing it here in full. First though I need to post a WARNING: Best not to be eating anything when you read this.

“They are big scavengers of the bush and often even help us locate kills and carcasses as they make their way down to a certain area. These animals play a vital role in our ecosystem by cleaning up all dead animal matter and preventing a very bad smell all around the bush. They gorge themselves when a carcass is available and are often seen going into a carcass and coming out completely covered in blood and guts as they devour as much as possible from the inside.

Ready for a date. Dining together is so much more pleasurable

Once full they will hang around either on the ground or in trees and relax in a half-awake but half-asleep state to try and digest as much as possible. As they start moving away from the carcass covered in blood and guts people tend to think that they will have a terrible smell, but that is not the case as they are very serious about hygiene, believe it or not.

They will move to a nearby water source and take a well-deserved bath, cleaning all the blood from their feathers until they feel fresh and clean enough before carrying on again.” [1]

In other words, it’s not your diet that matters. It’s all about hygiene!

NOTES: [1] https://www.sabisabi.com © Jadi Campbell 2026. All photos © Uwe Hartmann. To see more of Uwe’s animal photos and pics from our trips go to viewpics.de.

I am a Best American Essays-nominated writer. My books are Broken In: A Novel in Stories, Tsunami Cowboys, Grounded, The Trail Back Out, and The Taste of Your Name. Recent awards include Finalist for the 2025 Compass Press Book Award for The Taste of Your Name and Finalist for Greece’s Eyelands 11th International Short Story Contest.

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Meet The Ugly 5. #2 The Wildebeest

The goal of everyone who goes on safari is to spot The Big 5: lion, elephant, leopard, rhinoceros, and Cape buffalo. It took us 3 tries to see them all, but in January this year we finally did it!

You talkin’ to me? Etosha National Park, Namibia

Less famous (or looked-for) are The Ugly 5. The 5 are known for weird body builds and dull coloration, on a continent where each animal is more striking than the next. I give you #2:

Keeping their distance from everybody else. Etosha National Park, Namibia

The Wildebeest. It’s not only one of Africa’s Ugly 5: the wildebeest, along with the zebra, takes part in the largest migration in the world. In January we watched from a jeep as 1.5 million animals made the winter trek in Serengeti National Park.

the Great Migration at Serengeti Park, Tanzania

Like the hyena (who we met as Ugly #1), the blue wildebeest has short hind legs and longer front legs (for endurance) and wide forequarters (greater lung capacity). The wildebeest has a strangely flat face, both sexes grow horns, and their coloring is a dark grey, blueish sheen. I’ve heard them called the ‘spare parts critter’: the horns of a juvenile buffalo, the tail of a horse, the beard of a goat, and a sloped, hyena-like back. Definitely a strange looking dude!

NOTES: https://www.sabisabi.com/ I just discovered that the wildebeest has the honor of being the only animal on the Ugly 5 AND the Stupid 5 list. I’ll get to that list soon! © Jadi Campbell 2026. All photos © Uwe Hartmann. To see more of Uwe’s animal photos and pics from our trips go to viewpics.de.

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The Great Migration

One of the most spectacular sights I’ve ever witnessed is what’s known as the Great Migration. One and a half million wildbeests and zebras are all traveling at the same time. The animals make a huge loop from Kenya down to Tanzania and back again, following the weather patterns for water and grasses. The best times to see the Great Migration is in the summer when it’s raining and massive herds have to ford raging rivers.

Serengeti Plain. I love this picture. I think this is one of the best photos Uwe’s ever taken.

The other best time to go is in the winter during the dry season and see the herds with their babies. Uwe and I went in January for ten days of safaris on the Serengeti Plain and the surrounding national parks.

Look at this photo! Those are animals as far back as you can see.

This little zebra’s stripes will darken as it ages

The Serengeti National Park is beautiful, a stunning and stunningly impressive nature reserve. I would have been blown away by the opportunity to see it without all the animals. Getting to watch from the middle of the largest migration on the planet was unbelievable.

NOTES: We used the Wilkinson Tour Agency and I recommend them whole heartedly. A really well-informed guide is worth his or her weight in gold – or animals. https://wilkinson-tours.com© Jadi Campbell 2026. All photos © Uwe Hartmann. To see more of Uwe’s animal photos and pics from our trips go to viewpics.de.

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Meet The Ugly 5. #1 Spotted Hyena

Rosalind: I will laugh like a hyen, and that when thou art inclined to sleep.” As You Like It, IV. i. 147-9. – William Shakespeare

The goal of everyone who goes on safari is to spot The Big 5: lion, elephant, leopard, rhinoceros, and Cape buffalo. It took us 3 tries to see them all, but in January this year we finally did it!

Less famous (or looked-for) are The Ugly 5. Uwe and I have spotted every single one over time. And yes, they are UGLY. It is my great pleasure to introduce you to them, one at a time….

First up is the spotted hyena. They like grasslands and open terrain. From our tent in the Serengeti, in the middle of the night I heard them laughing hysterically. The spotted hyena is chatty!

a mud bath. Because he’s not filthy enough yet

following the Great Migration and hoping something gets killed soon

Unlike most hyenas, the spotted hyena is a social animal and hunts in packs, probably because they follow migrating animals.

When they do their own hunting, spotted hyenas kill with their teeth and not their claws. They take care of other animals’ leftovers with those sharp teeth (and lack of compunction about eating something that’s clearly been dead for ages). As Wikipedia describes them, “Spotted hyenas evolved sharp carnassials behind their crushing premolars, therefore they did not need to wait for their prey to die, and thus became pack hunters as well as scavengers.” [1]

Along with bats, the spotted hyena is one of the very few creatures that can survive a rabies infection. Their diet of rotting meat gives them powerful concentrations of antibodies in their saliva.

Our safari guide told us that lions only eat meat. The hyenas then move in. They’re able to completely digest the organic matter found in bones, and their skulls and teeth are specialized to crack large bones and cut through animal hides.

Along with the hyenas come the carrion birds – two more of the Ugly Five. You’ll meet them soon.

NOTES: [1] wiki/Hyena; The Hyena Family © Jadi Campbell 2026. All photos © Uwe Hartmann. To see more of Uwe’s animal photos and pics from our trips go to viewpics.de.

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Tag: Serengeti Plain

Meet The Ugly 5. #4: Lappet-Faced Vulture

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Meet The Ugly 5. #2 The Wildebeest

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The Great Migration

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Meet The Ugly 5. #1 Spotted Hyena

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