Who's in the zoo now?

We had a black-and-white weekend at Lake Mburo National Park where we spent hours examining the stripes on the zebras, those gentle and shy creatures who hid in the trees and slowly peeked out to see who was in the blue Rav4. And who was? The two of us and Matthias, eyes glued to binoculars to see if the stripes were real. They looked as if someone had taken a big paint brush dipped in black and very carefully painted them on. They galloped across fields, foals following mom, the black-and-white stripes forming incongruous patterns against the green acacias. (Why black and white stripes? What possible relation could that have to camouflage?) Even their tales are striped, so that they look like they are braided. Their manes stick straight up as if they've had an electric shock. Other than that, they look just like horses - and extremely healthy, sleek ones at that.

And then there were the impalas, graceful deer made for speed -- they leap straight up into the air. They have markings on the rear legs that look like they are wearing high heels. And very striking antlers on the males. (There are whole herds of bachelor impalas, all waiting for a chance to wipe out a male leading a herd of females.)

Warthogs too, wallowing in mudholes to escape the bugs. Topis, a strange kind of deer related to hartebeests. They have very short back legs, almost like a smaller version of a giraffe (without the long neck). Birds of all kinds: crested cranes, go-away birds, rare barbets. We now have an impressive list of birds, thanks to Moses, our ranger/guide at the park. And waterbucks, buffaloes, oribis, crocodiles - even an eland (look it up). We sought the leopard until after dark, but he eluded us. As did the hyenas, though we found their den (which didn't exactly smell like roses).

On an early morning walk with Moses, we met a dangerous solitary, black male water buffalo. He was staring at us and not like a friend. Moses changed course so we could make our way around him at a safe distance, but we could still see him watching us ominously. Moses had his little rifle, but it didn't seem a match for the buffalo - those things are evil.

On the boat trip on the lake, a hippo charged us - three times -- hurling its huge body out of the water toward the boat, yawning its pink mouth at us (which I later read is a threat), and creating his own bow wake. Moses laughed, but he again changed course, and pretty quickly we noticed. (I think Matthias was praying, which was a good thing.) Ditto the gun vs. the hippo.

We stayed in a tent on stilts (so the hippos can't climb in, hmm). All night we could hear snuffling, harrumphing, chewing, barking (hyenas!) and an occasional bellow. In the morning there was a zebra right outside our tent, just beneath a tree with a huge owl in the top branch. And we heard there had been a hippo too, though we didn't see him (fortunately - talk about nightmares.) The warthogs were all over the camp, huge waterbucks too. A year or so ago a water buffalo killed a guide on the little road to the restaurant that is on the lake, so now you have to have an armed guard escort wherever you go, unless you are in a car.

So it occurred to us that in Africa the roles are reversed. There we were encased in our car, or in a boat, or in a tent -- cages, really -- while the animals were roaming free, and free to do to us as they pleased. A little like we are when we go to the zoo. It feels that this is as it should be. But then, nothing is black and white. Except the zebras.