Savanna Showdown

by Kristin Earhart

  Leopards are nocturnal (active at night), while cheetahs are diurnal (active during the day).

  Cheetahs can run up to 70 miles per hour. Their speed is the key to their hunting strategy. Leopards stalk their prey and pounce on them.

  Leopards, like most cats, have fully retractable claws, which means they can pull them into their paws. These are helpful in climbing trees. Cheetahs’ claws are short and semi-retractable, so they act like cleats and give cheetahs traction when running.

  To allow for better breathing during a fast chase, the cheetah’s skull has extra space behind its nose. The leopard’s does not. Instead, its skull has extra-strong jaws that can crush the bones of its prey.

  Cheetahs look like long, lean track stars. Leopards are stout and muscular like football players.

  It was way past midnight when they arrived at their checkpoint. Mari couldn’t believe they’d seen a leopard devouring a gazelle in the high bough of a tree on their long nighttime drive. Afterward, the teammates had eventually fallen asleep and were now puffy-eyed and bleary-brained. The sighting felt like it could have been a dream. A somewhat disgusting dream, Mari thought. But it was the answer to the clue just the same.

  She swung her backpack on and stumbled out of the Jeep. Mari had expected a tent or a hut, but this place made her feel like she was still dreaming. Warm, welcoming torches glowed on either side of an impressive, carved wooden door. The roof appeared to be made of braided grass. Multiple turrets with circular windows gave the building a rustic—and showy—charm.

  Mari felt out of place. The checkpoint seemed too luxurious to fit into the rugged landscape. And among all the confident, adventurous contestants in the race, she felt … she didn’t know how she felt. Digging her hands into her pockets, she found something that made her even more uncomfortable: the tracking chip.

  A golden light escaped as the magnificent door opened. Mari recognized the tall frame of Bull Gordon. Javier quickly strode to greet the head of the competition. At once, the two seemed deep in conversation. Bull motioned to something past the parking area, and Javier nodded.

  “Come on, Mari,” Russell said as he hopped out of the Jeep and headed for the big wooden door. Sage and Dev were close behind.

  “Coming,” Mari said. “Just making sure I have everything.” She lowered the floor mat, slammed the door, and joined her team.

  “Red Team,” Javier said, tapping each one on the shoulder as they passed. “Check in and then get some sleep. You will be up early tomorrow.”

  * * *

  The next morning, Mari was roused from a fitful sleep by a knock on the girls’ bedroom door.

  Sage, who was already fully dressed, opened it.

  “What did you do?”

  “Good morning to you, too, Russell.” Sage rolled her eyes. “You too, Dev.”

  “Seriously. What did you do?” Russell asked again, his tone almost threatening.

  “I got up and took a shower,” Sage replied. “It felt really good. The bathroom here is pretty fabulous.”

  Mari was suddenly awake, fully aware of what the day would bring. “What’s going on?” she asked, scrambling out of bed.

  “I don’t know, but something happened with Team Green,” Russell said. “It sounds like they got some kind of penalty. And I’ll bet they’re going to blame it on me.”

  The look on Russell’s face was just what Mari had hoped to avoid when she had made her decision the night before. “I don’t get it,” she said. “You didn’t do anything.”

  “That’s what I said,” Dev insisted. “But Russell isn’t thinking logically.”

  Sage and Mari stepped away from the door so their teammates could come in. “Eliza from Team Purple said that Bull and some of the chaperones heard there were poachers nearby last night, so they went to investigate. And Team Green followed them,” Dev explained.

  “Poachers?” Mari questioned. Stories of people killing animals for their tusks or fur or horns had always upset Mari. Now that she’d actually seen many of the animals in the wild, it was even harder to believe that anyone would do something so cruel. “Team Green isn’t interested in poachers,” Mari said with certainty. “They only care about winning this race.” It was too early to piece so much information together, but she was starting to get an inkling of what might have happened.

  “It’s my fault,” she concluded. “I was the last one with the chip, and I purposely hid it in the Jeep.”

  “Why’d you do that?” Russell inquired, his forehead etched with confusion.

  “Yeah, why?” Sage repeated.

  “Because I didn’t like what it did to our team. Sage, you suspected Russell, but you wouldn’t even talk to him. It wasn’t fair.” Mari felt the urge to examine her fingernails or tug at her braid, but she forced herself to look each of her teammates in the eye. “And Russell, you never told us about the chip. You found it all the way back in the Amazon, didn’t you?” Mari remembered how she and Russell had hidden in the massive roots of the kapok tree on the race’s first leg. The green team had come so close to finding them. They must have followed them using the chip, even then.

  “Yeah,” Russell admitted. “I found it on my backpack and didn’t really know what to do.”

  “Dude, you should have told us,” Dev said. “I would have noticed that thing was still active.”

  “I probably should have, but those guys were my friends.” He turned to Mari.

  “So all you did was leave the chip in the Jeep?”

  “That’s all I did,” Mari confirmed. “The chaperones must have taken the Jeep out to look for the poachers.”

  “If the green team hadn’t been tracking the chip,” Dev added, “they never would have gone out last night.”

  “That’s why they got a penalty,” Mari added. She put a hand on Russell’s shoulder. “So, as I see it, those guys who were your friends can’t blame you at all.”

  “Mari, that was pure and utter genius!” Sage declared. She raised her hand for a high five.

  “I didn’t do it to trick them,” Mari confessed, her hand still at her side.

  “I know you didn’t.” Sage’s tone turned serious as she dropped her arm. “Russell, I’m sorry I suspected you. I just was looking for a reason why we weren’t in the lead.”

  “We weren’t the fastest.” Russell summed it up. “That’s why we aren’t in the lead.”

  “Then today, that’s what we’ll have to be,” Mari said. She walked to an oversized window that looked out over the crater. The crater was enormous, large enough to be its own ecosystem. Soon, they would learn what their challenge would be. “We have to be the fastest to win.”

  As soon as she said it, a knock sounded on the door, and an envelope slipped under it.

  SURVIVAL OF THE SAVANNA

  The African savanna is an ancient ecosystem. All life is connected in a delicate balance.

  But some things threaten that balance. Large herds, like zebras, wildebeests, and gazelles, require lots of space. They need huge stretches of grassland to migrate. When humans intrude on that space—building roads or homes—they interfere with the animals’ needs.

  Another problem the savanna faces is poaching, which is the illegal killing of animals. People will pay for meat, furs, tusks, and horns. They want them for a variety of reasons: for food, as trophies, or because certain animal parts are thought to have sacred healing powers. This trade puts some of the world’s most endangered animals at greater risk. Wildlife organizations are working to combat this problem. Some animals or herds have guards, protecting them around the clock.

  The animals of the savanna are an amazing resource. Tourism brings money and attention to wildlife and the areas where the animals live. When people come to see animals in their natural habitat, it proves that live animals are valuable. But tourism encourages development of modern communities in wild spaces. Finding a healthy balance for humans and animals may be the greatest challenge of all.

  “You never said
anything about being afraid of heights before,” Russell said. He knelt close to Mari, who sat cross-legged on the ground, looking out over the expanse of the crater.

  So far, Mari had been able to deal with her fear of heights, but a hot air balloon ride over a gigantic crater sounded like extended torture. She’d opt for a zip line—or even the ledge over the Mara River—four more times, rather than having to do this.

  But that wasn’t an option. Today the race would come to an end. After Team Green was penalized for their late-night outing, Team Red had moved into second place behind Team Purple. Now all of the teams were set to take off in hot air balloons. They’d have to answer a final clue while crossing over the crater, land on the other side, and sprint to the finish line. Then the race would be over.

  “Don’t worry, Mari,” Dev said, “hot air balloons are totally safe.”

  “That’s all you’re going to say? You always have super-scientific explanations, but now you’re going with ‘totally safe’?”

  “We’re kind of in a hurry, seeing as we’re supposed to take off in, like, three minutes,” Dev said, checking the time on the ancam. “I didn’t think you wanted the comprehensive ‘propane burner heats the air, hot air expands, creating upthrust, lifting the basket in the air’ explanation.”

  “Point taken,” Mari said, still gazing down into the crater. It was hard to believe so many of the animals she’d dreamed about lived together right below her.

  “What’s the deal, Mari?” Now Sage had joined them. Her hiking-boot-clad feet came to rest squarely in front of Mari’s bent knees.

  “I’m just working up my nerve,” Mari answered.

  “No,” Sage replied. “You’ve had nerve this whole race, whether you realized it or not. We wouldn’t be here without you. What happened to ‘we have to be the fastest to win’?”

  “That was before I realized we’d be floating a billion feet in the air,” Mari argued.

  “So what? This is your chance, Mari,” Sage demanded in a tone that was half cheerleader, half tyrant. “You deserve to win this, and I know you want to.”

  When Mari looked up at Sage, she felt it again. That burning in her gut. She hadn’t known what it was before, but she did now.

  * * *

  “You’re sure you have the instructions?” Mari checked with Dev one last time.

  “I told you, they’re on the ancam,” Dev assured her. “We’re set. And it’s not like I’m actually flying the thing. We have a professional pilot.” Dev motioned to a woman in a khaki vest and sunglasses who was already in position at the burners. “We just have to give her the directions.”

  The four teammates joined the pilot, packing themselves into the large wicker basket that was attached to the red-checked balloon. Not far away, a purple-striped balloon lifted into the sky. In the other direction, balloons of green, yellow, and blue lined the crater’s rim.

  Mari glanced at Russell. The teams had been separated ever since the envelopes went out that morning. No one on Team Red had spoken to anyone on Team Green.

  “You’ll get the last clue after you’re in the air,” Javier instructed them. “You need to send your answer before you touch down on the other side.”

  “We’ve got this,” Mari said to their chaperone. She was surprised by the certainty in her voice.

  “Twenty seconds,” an organizer with a stopwatch announced from behind Javier. Dev took his place by the burners, ready to tell the operator to crank up the flame.

  Ten, nine, eight, seven …

  Mari gripped the edge of the basket.

  … six, five, four, three …

  Mari closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

  … two, one, GO!

  Javier helped the race organizers untie the balloon from its anchors. Mari felt the basket lift off the ground. She opened her eyes to find the balloon hovering over the crater’s lip, just above the plants that blanketed the descending walls in green.

  Soon they floated over a small forest, and the team grabbed their binoculars to search for the baboons, monkeys, and elephants that took refuge in the leaves.

  “What? There’s a lake in here, too?” Sage cried. “This place is unreal.”

  “There’s actually a year-round freshwater source,” Mari explained. “It’s the only way the crater can support so much life.”

  Hippos hogged the swampy side of the crater floor. Snuggled in between lush aquatic plants, they stayed mostly underwater. It was the best way to protect their skin from the sun’s strong rays.

  When Mari looked beyond the crater walls, she could see small villages of rectangular huts. She remembered reading about the Maasai warriors, who raise cattle in the plains just beyond the crater. But for her, the real draw was inside the inactive volcano.

  “I don’t get it,” Sage said after a while. “Why did the clue say that this place was ‘almost perfect, or almost wrecked’?”

  “I don’t know,” Mari admitted. “Maybe it’s because the crater is closed off. Most of the animals are trapped in here, so there isn’t a lot of new blood to keep the species healthy.” Mari knew that could be an issue, but, as far as she could see, it appeared to be a vital, dynamic ecosystem.

  “The wind direction is just right,” Dev said, gazing at the open sky. “It should guide us straight over the crater.” Every few minutes, he instructed the balloon operator to turn on the burners to steady the balloon’s height. “The ancam’s buzzing,” he announced soon after they had passed the swamp. He reached into his pocket and then read the clue.

  Part 1: Take a picture of four different species.

  Do not repeat answers.

  “What?” Russell asked. “That’s the big clue?”

  “That’s what it says,” Sage confirmed, reading over Dev’s shoulder. “That’s weird.”

  “Well, you’ve got your pick,” said Dev, motioning with his free hand. “There are flamingos, buffalos, hippos.”

  Despite being hundreds of feet in the air, Mari felt let down. This was the final challenge? Take a bunch of pictures? She knew The Wild Life was just a race, but she had convinced herself she wanted to win. But if it came down to speed instead of knowledge, she wouldn’t be much help to her friends. She had never been fast.

  “We should each take one, right?” Sage suggested.

  “Well, yeah,” Russell said with a shrug. “Being a team and all.”

  “I’ll go first,” Sage offered in typical leader mode.

  They were now flying over the stretch of plains. Sage took a shot of a lion pride, basking in the sun. She handed the ancam to Russell, who scanned the crater floor. “Zebras,” he declared. “They’re cool.” He checked the screen and then offered the ancam to Mari.

  “Give it to Dev,” she said. “I’ll go last.”

  Russell tossed it to Dev.

  “Be careful!” Mari begged. “We need that.”

  Dev caught the device and looked around. “I’ll go with the hyenas, because they love a good joke.”

  Mari smiled as he took the photo. “You know they’re not really laughing, right? That’s just how they communicate.”

  “Yeah, sure,” Dev said, handing the ancam to Mari. “I knew that.”

  “And hyenas get a bad rap for being scavengers, but most predators will steal an easy meal if they can get it.”

  “Good to know,” Dev replied.

  Mari looked down into the crater. She was ready. She had been holding out, but the balloon was directly above a group of black rhinoceros now. She wanted the majestic, endangered mammal to be her shot. She had to lean over the basket edge to get a rhino in the frame. Just as the ancam focused on a rhino’s weathered face and crusted horn, Mari slipped. She tried to catch herself, but realized that it was actually the tiny device that was falling. “No!” she yelled and threw her hands out. She lurched forward and her body tipped over the basket’s edge. Her fingers fumbled around the ancam, just as three sets of arms latched around her.

  “I got it! Pul
l me up,” Mari called. Her teammates tugged together, and Mari collapsed on the basket floor.

  “That was crazy,” Russell exclaimed. “What were you thinking?”

  “We can’t win without the ancam,” Mari stated.

  “Um, we can’t win without you,” Sage insisted. “But since we have you, I need to ask if you got the shot?”

  Mari turned the ancam over in her hand and pressed the VIEW button. A blurry shot of short grass appeared. “No, I’ll try again.” She stood up and framed the photo, but something was wrong. “It’s jammed. It won’t take.”

  Dev, who knew the device best, examined it. “Mari’s right, as usual. We only have pics of the lion, hyena, zebra, and some grass. And it won’t take another.”

  “We can’t delete or anything?” Sage asked.

  Dev shook his head.

  “We should complain,” declared the team leader. “It’s not fair that their technology failed us.”

  Mari’s stomach clenched.

  “Do we have to?” Russell wondered out loud. “Grass is a living thing. It’s a species that lives in the crater.”

  Mari had been so disappointed about the black rhino that she hadn’t thought of that. “He has a point. The clue just says ‘species,’ right?”

  “We’re nearing the edge of the crater,” Dev pointed out. “And we’re about even with Team Purple. What should I do?” They had passed over Ngorongoro’s floor, and the flat plains had been replaced by the lush bushes and trees that grew up the side of the sloped crater wall. The race was almost over.

  Sage looked around the group. “Do we agree?”

  Mari and Russell looked at each other and nodded. But what if Bull Gordon and the organizers were strict about the last clue? At least the red team was together on this.

  “Go ahead,” Sage instructed. “Submit the pictures.”

  Dev punched the button and waited.

  “So,” Sage prompted.

  “Nothing,” Dev replied.

  Sage eyed the purple-striped balloon. “Can’t we make this thing go faster? I mean, they’re right there. We’ve almost caught up.”