Wildlife sightings - March

Maasai Mara

The weather has changed again making for excellent game viewing. The skies are clear from morning to evening. The red-oat grass is a meter and half tall, only suitable for elephants and buffaloes because they can see the predators from afar.

A good number of streams, luggas and rivers can be crossed to other parts of the reserve except for the Talek River. There is only one main bridge, which is passable. The other weathered crossings are still impassable as there is a lot of sand deposition in them. To access down south from Mara Intrepid, one has to go through Talek Gate.

PLAIN GAME CONCENTRATION

Due to the heavy rains, there’s food for all the herbivores, which has triggered the rutting season for elephants and topis. It’s because of this phenomenal that we are seeing many herds of elephants around Olkiombo. The topis are also forming groups in their localized breeding grounds in Topi Plains and Paradise Plains. There’s good game viewing to the east of Mara Intrepids towards the Masai villages where the grass is short due to over grazing by the Masai cattle.

PREDATORS SIGHTING

LIONS

The lion sightings are good but the prides are starting to split into small groups because of the prey availability. The Olkiombo Pride has separated in to four groups: The lionesses with cubs are avoiding the males because they might steal the prey leaving the cubs and females hungry. The four sub adult-males are starting to leave the pride, but there is not much to hunt. The young cubs might suffer and be abandoned by their mothers if there is not enough food to provide. The three adult males are alone and avoided by the females.

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

LEOPARDS

Leopards’ sightings have been around Olkiombo and along Talek Olare-Orok Rivers.

Olive, one of the BBC Big Cat Diary film stars, has been roaming between Mara Explorer and Mara Intrepid camps, with her two eight-month-old male cubs. She has been hunting warthog piglets, impalas and Bohor reedbucks. The Ridge male who is the father of Olive’s cubs is between 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 between Talek and Mara River. He was seen with an adult warthog kill up on the tree. He has is sharing the territory with his son Kali. Whenever Big Boy crosses Mara River in to the Mara Triangle, Kali takes over that section of the territory. When Big Boy returns to the Narok side, Kali moves towards Rekero Camp.

CHEETAHS

We have eight cheetahs around Rhino Ridge. There are the three male brothers from Honey, a solitary female. There is also a female with a cub of 11 months and a female with a cub of five months. They are found in one area because of the availability of prey.

John Parmasau, Safari Guide, Mara Intrepids

Wildlife sightings - February

Following the heavy rains in the Mara, it’s been quite a challenge to drive to some parts of the reserve because of the black cotton soil which becomes a sticky mess.

Fortunately, the mornings are superb - clear skies with the sun shining but changing to clouds and rain in the afternoons and night. The rivers, like the Talek, have filled up making it difficult to reach some areas. The grass is about a meter high and therefore the herbivores are avoiding these areas because they prefer short grass which makes it easier for them to spot the predators. Most of the animals are found on the short grassed Topi Plains between the Mara Intrepids and Musiara, Paradise Plains, Talek River and Lookout Hill. These are the topis, gazelles and the impalas. And where the prey goes the predators must follow. The big game like the elephants and buffalos are found on the long grass plains because they can easily spot the predators. Towards the east of the reserve the plains are over grazed by the Maasai cattle

Predator Sightings

Lions

Lion sightings have been very good, with all the four big prides seen between Mara Intrepids and Musiara.

The Olkiombo Pride now numbers 31 individuals consisting of 15 cubs, nine females, four sub-adult males and three mature males. They have been hunting solitary buffalo bulls.

The Olkeju Ronkai Pride has 14 members and has been roaming around the Olkiombo Plains, between Talek and Olare-Orok Rivers south of Mara Intrepids camp. This pride has also been hunting solitary buffalo bulls.

The Paradise Pride, which is the strongest with six mature males, nine females and 14 cubs of different ages, has been sighted most of the times feeding on hippos. The hippo victims are those that are easy to hunt such as the males that have been injured in fights with other male hippos over territories.

The Musiara also called the Bila Shaka or the Marsh Pride has been following prey to the Mara Conservancy adjoining the reserve. The pride now numbers 25 individuals.

Leopards
Leopards have been sighted around Olkiombo, along the Talek – Olare Orok Rivers.
Olive, the BBC Big Cat Diary film star, has been seen roaming between Mara Explorer and Mara Intrepid camps, with her two 8-month-old male cubs. She has been hunting warthog piglets, impalas and Bohor reedbucks. The Ridge male who is the father of Olive’s cubs is between Olare-Orok and Rhino Ridge.

Big Boy who is the father of Olive’s three older cubs who are now sub adults - Aya, Binti and Kali is found between Talek and Mara River. A recent sighting of him was with an adult warthog kill up on the tree. He’s sharing territory with his son Kali. Whenever Big Boy crosses the Mara River and in to Mara Triangle, Kali takes over that section of the territory. When daddy returns, Kali moves towards Rekero Camp.

Cheetahs

We have eight cheetahs around Rhino Ridge because of the abundance of prey. There are three male brothers whose mother is Honey; a solitary female; a female with a cub of 11 months and a female with a five-month-old cub. Due to the big number of newly born Thomason’s gazelles, the five-month-old cheetah is under intensive training from his mother.

John Parmasau, Safari Guide, Mara Intrepids

Wildlife Sightings

Masai Mara

After the heavy rains, there is now plenty of food on the plains for the animals especially the herbivores. By the end of last year, the migrating herds of wildebeests and zebras had left for the Serengeti. The remaining animals, mainly herbivores, are concentrated in areas where the grass is short.

Unlike the time of the drought last year when the grass had dried up, it is now growing fast. This makes it difficult for the prey to see the predators until it’s too late. Unfortunately for the mammals, tall grass also harbors tsetse flies and ticks, forcing them to move to the plains where the grass is shorter.

The weather is great. The mornings are cool with temperatures as low as 13ºC rising to around 35 ºC by midday. There’s not too much dust unlike the time of the drought.

Big Cats

Lions

The two lion prides, the Ridge Pride and the Olkiombo Pride in our game viewing areas have been quite active this week. The Ridge Pride, including Notch and three other males killed an ostrich about five days ago and yesterday (30 January) killed an adult hippo on Paradise Plains.

The two males from Olkiombo Pride killed a hippo near the Double Crossing area on the Mara River. They were later joined by the females.

Leopards

Olive was seen two days ago at Olare-Orok River hunting some impala. Her two cubs were seen earlier with her on the Talek River. Kali has moved towards the Mara River north of the Talek-Mara junction.


Cheetahs

Since last week, the three cheetah brothers have been roaming the plains between the Talek and Musiara, hunting the young ones of the Topi and other herbivores.
There is a female cheetah with a cub around the Bila Shaka area. This is a very risky area because of the Marsh Pride and a pack of hyenas. Besides making it difficult for her to hunt, the lions and the hyenas are a danger to the safety of the cheetah and her cub. We will keep you posted on them.

Samburu National Reserve

With a reputation as as a dry semi-arid and unforgiving land, Samburu is in fact one of Kenya's most unknown gems. A pristine wilderness in the Northern Frontier district, the land is just as beautiful as the people, who's culture and way of life is uninterrupted as their Masai cousins found to the south of Kenya.

Our guests at Samburu Intrepids found these animals on a game drive just a couple of days ago. The ostrich and Grevy's zebra were spotted on the Buffalo Springs side while the rest were on a the Samburu National reserve side.






As skilled Samburu guides will tell you, in Samburu game is 'spotted', not viewed! They say it calls for greater skill to see animals which are fewer than in the Mara, as this picture of a leopard on the tree attests.



He obliges a photo op!



A reticulated giraffe reaches for the tastiest snacks on the highest branch.





Female members of an impala harem.


An elephant reaching for fresh shoots.


And now the latest buzz in Samburu - this pack of Cape Hunting dogs, also known as African Wild dogs (scientific Lycaon pictus) has been seen severally while on game drive.


Surely they didn't for a moment think they could bring down a giraffe!


The leopard and elephants below were seen just yesterday. The life giving Uaso (Ewaso) Nyiro is flowing and animals are easy to spot.





The elephant matriarch leads the herd across the river. They are encouraging the calf along.


Tsavo West National Park

Our resident naturalist in Voyager Ziwani Camp, Stephen Lekatoo, has sent an interesting look at things from Tsavo. This is the breeding season for crocs, and the resident crocs are laying eggs. Unfortunately they have come under attack from monitor lizards. One of the female crocs, aptly named Kasheshe, was pictured fending off an attack by the giant lizards. They also have to portend with hippos which trample on their eggs or even kill the hatchlings.



A visit to Tsavo West National Park would not be complete without a visit to Baobab tree; Lake Challa on Kenya's border with Tanzania which lies in a crater, with some of the clearest waters you'll ever see; Mzima Springs with it's pure waters from the Mt Kilimanjaro, filtered and purified through volcanic rocks; and a hike up Salaita Hills scene of the battle trenches built by the German Army during the first world war.


Lake Challa.

Salaita Hills, battle fields of German army during First World War.

Baobab tree. Legend has it that a German sniper lady used to hide in this tree and even killed 30 British troops.



Paul Kirui, Chief Safari Guide, Heritage Hotels, Francis Lenyakopiro, Resident Naturalist, Samburu Intrepids and Stephen Lekatoo, Resident Naturalist, Voyager Ziwani Tsavo

Wildlife Sightings: 2010

Happy new year to all!

It is the start of another year, with everyone making New Year resolutions and here in the Mara we are no exception - we do hope 2010 will be better. The good news is that we have started the year with lots of rain in the country including the Mara, giving us a break from the previous year’s devastating drought.

In 2009, the Mara River dropped to its lowest level. It made the famous annual wildebeest crossing from the Serengeti and in to the Mara look like a joke, because the animals just walked across the shallow river and we missed the usual action that goes with the crossing. We hope that this year will be different.

The rains have brought a sigh of relief to the pastoral communities in the country who had to search far and wide beyond their normal grazing borders in search of pasture and water for their livestock. It was a year where we saw a lot of conflict between humans and wildlife. This was because the pastoral people brought their cattle into the wildlife protected areas because there was still some pasture and water available. We saw this in Shaba and Samburu game reserves including the national parks like Nairobi National Park and others. We hope that the rains will last long enough to fill the rivers and replenish the pasture plains.

With the rains, we are seeing fantastic game, even in the arid Samburu Game Reserve, north of the Equator. The animals are regaining their health and are more active. Our guests in Samburu can now watch animals coming down to the Uaso Nyiro River to drink. The river, which is the lifeline for the animals and people living along its course, was dry for the better part of 2009.

Lions

The lions are busy trailing the herbivore herds which are now found on the drier higher grounds. In the previous week, we saw the Olkiombo Pride split into two by the Talek River which is full of water. It’s caused the lions some inconvenience as they can’t cross easily to either side.

Olive and her two cubs are near the Olkiombo airstrip. We found them on Friday (8 Jan) morning near the Olare-Orok crossing. With the rivers full, they will have to stay around longer.

The Ridge Pride has moved towards the southern side of Rhino Ridge, away from the Mara River area where they had been for sometime. It was nice seeing them recently feeding on a hippo in the water. The sub-adults are still moving around on their own. Recently, they almost had a confrontation with the Olkiombo Pride when they ventured into their territory.

Cheetahs

The three cheetah brothers (Honey’s boys) are still between the two rivers, the Mara and Talek. They killed a young warthog on Thursday (7 Jan) after a dramatic hunt.

Samburu National Reserve

Elsewhere, game viewing in Samburu has been interesting, as witnessed by these pictures provided by one of our guests, David Lawson who was on safari just a few days ago in the Samburu National Reserve.

The leopard was found at southern foothill of Koitogo, on Leopard Rocks and the majestic Somali ostrich at Larsen's plains. The following day, while on a mid morning game drive, David came across the lioness at the Leopard Rocks –– nice spotting Mr. Lawson! The Grevy's zebra was seen on the eastern side of Kiotogo Hill on the same day.







Thanks for the pictures David, and we hope to see you again soon!

Paul Kirui, Chief Safari Guide, Heritage Hotels and Francis Lenyakopiro, Resident Naturalist, Samburu Intrepids

Other Wildlife Sightings

The Big Cats Of Mara:

The Lions

The Mara cats are enjoying the last of the easy meals this month before the wildebeest leave. Many skeletons are strewn on the plains because of the big feast. As the wildebeest leave, the lion prides will become very mobile in search of prey, especially the ones with cubs. Some prides will split up because there will not be enough food to share around the pride.

Over the last few weeks, the Ridge Pride was seen roaming around the southern base of Rhino Ridge, Mara Intrepids and the Mara River area. There is one female with three-month-old cubs and one with two-month-old cubs. The females made easy kills when the wildebeest were all over their territory, which meant the cubs were well fed.

Leopards

Olive, our star female leopard and her three-month-old cubs are still around the junction of the Talek and Olare-Orok Rivers. They have lately been moving between this place and the little forest between Mara Intrepids and Explorer camps.

Binti and her daughter are downstream from where Olive is. They also took the opportunity to hunt the wildebeest when they were streaming down south through their territories and we saw a few young wildebeest' carcasses up in the trees along the river.

Cheetahs

Shakira, who for the past two years has been our star female cheetah, is still around with her three daughters. She has had some easy hunts because of the many gazelle fawns born in the past three weeks.

Honey's three male cubs, continue to roam far and wide from Musiara to Paradise Plains and south to Burrungat Plains. There is another cheetah between Talek and Olkiombo airstrip with three very tiny cubs. This is not Alama, who we reported earlier. In general cheetah sightings have been the best this season.

The Samburu Cats

Lions

Lions were seen throughout August and September. The prolonged drought has forced the herbivores to come to the Uaso River for the little grass and shrubs to sustain them. This has been good for the lions,
who have waited along the river to pounce on the poor prey. In Buffalo Springs, the Ngare Mara pride was seen thrice in a week along the Ngare Mara River.

Nanyeisho of Ngare Mara pride had two cubs, which were first seen in the beginning of September when they were two months old. The cubs were named by our guides as Ngooyeni (Lucy) and Ngayoni (Ricki) (the little couples). Many lions in the area have been forced to go to Isiolo River, which has a permanent water source in the region.

The Koitogo pride has split into smaller groups. The pride of four adults (two females and two males) with five youngsters is seen at Daraja-wire area north of the Uaso Ng'iro River. This is part of their territory, but they have also moved east towards the border of the reserves (Buffalo Springs and Samburu). Two lions were also reported at West Gate Conservancy. The scarcity of prey has forced the pride to split into three small groups.
The Ngare Mara pride has split into two smaller groups, both with little cubs. The White River females have two cubs, which were nearly six months old. Our guides named the female Uaso (Uaso was born by River Uaso which had water after a long dry spell) and the male is called Lengolong' which means; 'born during the bad drought'. The mother has been named Moduai, which is a Samburu word for 'rarely seen'. Moduai has settled in the southern part of the Uaso Ng'iro River, three kilometres east of the main viewpoint along the White River. The lion population in both the reserves is between 17 and 20.

The Intrepids guides have named all the lions in the area. The biggest pride Koitogo has Uni, a mother of two (Lentasat and Namunyak). Lentasat is the young male lion who is roughly 13 months old.

Namunyak is a Samburu word for the blessed one. The 13 female lionesses share the name with the lioness which adopted the Beisa Oryx fawn at the beginning of the millennium. Namunyak barely managed to survive a buffalo attack a few months ago when they were learning how to hunt.

Nashupai, another lioness, has three cubs Ngosouwan, Lolibuo and Naduaya. She is Naibor's daughter and Uni's sister. Her name in Samburu means 'smart girl'. Ngosouwan means the 'strong one' (buffalo like). She made her first hunt going for a buffalo during the dry season. In the normal circumstances a healthy buffalo, often stampedes towards the thicket where the young lions cubs are, doing their best to trample the cubs to death whilst warding off the lioness.

However, this time the buffalos were in for a surprise. Lolibuo, the young male was very eager to make a kill and when Ngosouwan jumped on the buffalo's back, Lolibuo followed and since it was the whole pride of seven, all the lions tried to help the little guys kill the buffalo. The enraged buffalo flung Ngosouwan into the bush and Lolibuo was left alone hanging on buffalo's back! Namunyak had nothing else to do but to help her half-brother. The buffalo saw it coming and got ready for it. Luckily, Ngosouwan came out of the bush with Uni and the two jumped on the buffalo.

Lion cubs have a rare survival rate, especially during the dry seasons when food is scarce. Furthermore, when one or more new males oust the previous male(s) associated with a pride, the conqueror(s) often kills any existing young cubs, perhaps because females do not become fertile and receptive until their cubs mature or die. Luckily this has not been experienced in Samburu National Reserve for a number of years now.

Paul Kirui, Chief Safari Guide and Stephen Tilas, Head Naturalist, Samburu Intrepids

Migration Update: Issue 7

The Outbound Migration

The migration in the Mara is drawing to a close as anticipated. The wildebeest have been trickling back to the Serengeti this past week, where they are seen to concentrate on the recently burnt patches in northern Serengeti. Only a handful of herds remain in isolated pockets in the Mara, and these are mainly in the south Mara triangle. Looking around driving through the Mara plains, it is easy to understand why these animals have left; most of the plains are bare of grass.

A combination of a dry spell and over grazing has played a major role in the grass cover becoming depleted. This is not a new phenomena for the wildebeest will move on to new pastures to give time for the old grazing pastures to regenerate.

The wildebeest will gradually stream back into the Serengeti with the last herds expected to leave by end of November. They will be away till June-July next year when they will return to graze on the rich green grasses after the long rains of April-May. It will be another season of plenty for the predators and the prey, as the cats and crocodiles keep a close tab on the grazers.

When the wildebeest finally leave the Mara, the predators have to devise smarter methods of hunting for the elusive resident animals. At times they have to go for long periods between meals. The strong ones survive but for the weak and the old, this may be their last season – in the wild, this is the survival of the fittest.

Click Migration%20Update%2009-%207.JPG for the migration map

Paul Kirui, Chief Safari Guide
Kindly contact: safariguide@mara-intrepids.co.ke for comments or inquiry on the migration and other interesting wildlifel sightings in the Mara, Rift Valley, Samburu and Tsavo West National Park

Humpback whales, Whale sharks and dolphins spotted in full view of Voyager

For the past week Humpback whales, Whale sharks and schools of dolphins 
have been spotted in the ocean from Voyager Beach Resort. Join us for daily dive and snorkeling
 excursions to see these amazing creatures.



Here's a bit of folklore. In Kiswahili, the whale shark is called papa shilingi, meaning
 "the shark covered in shillings". According to the local legend, God was so pleased when he created this beautiful fish, that he gave the angels gold and silver coins to throw from heaven onto the back of the shark. Luckily, the whale shark with its magical markings is easy to spot because it swims near the surface, catching the sun on its back. It's the whale shark's way of saying thank you to the maker.



Whale sharks have called Kenyan waters home for many years. Even though it's a shark, the fish behaves like a whale, feeding on plankton and other small sea creatures and it's completely harmless, making it a beautiful fish to swim with. Recently, there's been a significant increase in their sightings, possibly due to the post El Nino mantis shrimp invasion, which the whale sharks feed on.


However, the worrying bit about the increase in whale sharks along the Kenyan coast is that they have
 become more of a target with fishermen. Under international law, whale sharks are only given a secondary type of protection. They are listed under CITES Appendix II meaning that trade in whale sharks is allowed but must be monitored. But monitoring can only be successful if there are enough patrols at sea and the law is enforced. Most specialists are of the opinion that this level of protection is not enough and that we still do not know much about the biggest fish in the ocean.

Check with Buccaneer Diving for diving excursions with the whale shark. Buccaneer Diving is assisting with gathering information about these amazing creatures, working with Project AWARE to help protect these gentle giants of the sea.

Frederic van Lennep, Operations Manager, Buccaneer Water Sports and Diving
freshaevents@gmail.com