Rutting time for plains game in the Mara - April

Weather and land


It’s great with clear mornings and cloudy afternoons followed by rain. The grass plains are turning golden, like the colour of red-oat grass and tall, reaching a height of one-and-a-half meters, which makes it suitable for elephants and buffaloes - big game that cannot be easily attacked by predators. The streams and rivers are in full spate.

Plain Game Concentration

Due to the heavy rains, there’s plenty of fodder for the herbivores, which has triggered the rutting season for elephants and the topis. There’s plenty of this going on around Olkiombo. The topis are also gathering on their breeding grounds around the Topi Plain and the Paradise Plains. There’s good game viewing east of Mara Intrepid’s towards the Masai villages where the grass is short due to over grazing by the cattle herds belonging to the Masai.  Unfortunately, the predators and the Maasai are not good associates and so the big cats avoid this area. Down south towards the Lookout Hill there are still a lot of zebras and topis.

Predators Sighting
                
LIONS
Lion sightings are still good but the prides are starting to split into small groups. This is because of the food availability. At the moment, the herbivores are migrating to the plains with shorter grass and therefore there is scarcity of prey to pounce on.


The Olkiombo Pride has fragmented into four groups. There is one lioness with cubs on her own and she is avoiding the males who might take the little prey she hunts for her cubs, leaving her and the cubs hungry.

The four sub-adult males are starting to leave the pride to be independent, but there is nothing much to hunt.


The three adult males are strolling alone and being avoided by the females. Soon they might seek other prides to join if they have not been taken up by other males. Young cubs might also suffer and be abandoned by their mothers if the prey situation does not improve.


The Paradise Pride is coming up strongly with six adult males. They have been killing hippos, which means there is enough food to sustain the whole pride.


The Ol-Kejuronkai Pride is still intact with its two males. The pride is made of thirteen lions, lioness and cubs - all well fed and looking healthy. This is one of the places that the browsers and the grazers avoid because the grass is so tall that they cannot see the predators. However there are still a few solitary buffaloes, which make for good hunting.


LEOPARDS
Leopards’ sightings have been around Olkiombo, along Talek and the Olare-Orok Rivers.
Olive, who is one of the BBC Big Cat Diary film stars, has been seen most of the time between the Mara Explorer and the Mara Intrepid camps, with her two cubs, which are now eleven months old. She has been hunting warthog piglets, impalas and Bohor reedbucks. The Ridge male who is the father of Olive’s male cubs is prowling around Olare-orok and Rhino Ridge.


Big Boy who is the father of Olive’s other three sub-adult cubs - Aya, Binti and Kali is seen around the Talek and Mara River. Big Boy is sharing the territory with his son, Kali. North of Intrepids along Intiakitiak River, there is a female with two cubs who are three months old. We’re looking for names for them. Any suggestions?


CHEETAHS
For the last four months a female cheetah with a cub of six months is at the Topi Plains. There is a lot of game here and she has been seen teaching her cub to hunt young tummies.


The three brother cheetahs are residing on top of Rhino Ridge hunting warthogs.
      

Paul Kirui, Chief Safari Guide, Heritage Hotels

You can read more on Mara Explorer and Mara Intrepids at http://www.heritage-eastafrica.com/tented-camps/

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Masai Mara

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