The Maasai Mara is continuing to witness the full wild glory of a comprehensive 'second migration', as sweeping herds of wildebeest and zebra paint the plains south of the Talek River a million hues of black, white, brown and grey. The crossing points on the Mara River below Lookout Hill have been the place to be in recent days, with thousands of animals crossing westwards into the Mara Triangle, often as early as 8am. With the grazing herds have predictably come the predators: lion prides basking in a new and unexpected season of plenty. The Olkiombo pride - named for the distinctive dominant male with a black foreleg, born near Mara Explorer - has been particularly busy, hunting in the Olkinyei area in full view of our guests.
With all the action in the southern Mara, the northern section of the reserve has slipped into a quiet period, with the area around Musiara Marsh hosting only a few wildebeest and the northern Mara Triangle virtually devoid of game. Indeed, most of the herds in the Triangle have recently been crossing en masse eastwards at the Paradise Crossing points. With the plentiful grass still covering most of the southern Mara, we expect most of the herds to stay on the Kenyan side of the border at least until early November.
Predators: Intrepids and Explorer guests have been spotting cheetah on an almost daily basis for the past two weeks. With the gazelles having their fawns in large numbers, the cheetah are having a good time - particularly the new mothers, who have been seen catching young fawns and bringing them to their cubs in an effort to train them how to hunt. Leopard sightings have also greatly improved, assisted by the crew of BBC’s Big Cat Week, who have been spending a lot of time with Bella and Chui in the past few weeks - and showing us just why the world's best leopard sightings happen right on our doorstep! The lions have also been busy, with the Ridge pride killing three wildebeest near our airstrip last week, and yesterday digging out a poor warthog from its hole.
In other recent sightings, two hunting dogs were seen 9km east of Mara Intrepids on our walking trail last week. It appears this beautiful animal is making a comeback in the Mara, with some local residents recently reporting a pup in an old den used by the dogs before they disappeared from this area in the late 1980s. This and other previous reports to the east of the Mara are a good portend of the return of this critically endangered species.
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