TANO BORA CHEETAHS

This coalition of five cheetahs in the Masai Mara moved to Olare Orok Conservancy recently taking a break from their territory in Masai Mara reserve. This famous coalition of five – the biggest ever recorded of unrelated males - could have sought new hunting grounds because it might be easier to hunt away from the Masai who take their cows to graze in the reserve at night forcing the cats to move away from their territories.

Anyway soon after crossing into Olare Orok Conservancy, the famous five hunted their first prey - a young warthog.

The Cheetahs feasted on the warthog which was just a snack for them.

As they were eating we noticed that one of the cheetahs had a severe injury on the testicle.

We immediately called cheetah researcher, Dr. Elena V.Chelysheva who is the founder of the Mara Meru Cheetah Project. She was not aware of the injury and alerted Dr. Limo who is the Kenya Wildlife Service vet. The researcher arrived soon followed by Dr. Limo who treated the cheetah.

A few days later the cheetahs crossed the Talek River and into the reserve spending most of the time in the open plains where it is easier to hunt.

The treated cheetah back on his paws.

Written by Pauline Omaribe

Photos by Mara Intrepids driver guide Silas Siele and Mara Meru Cheetah Project.

Journey of the Wildebeest & Zebra!

The great migration is in full steam. The first wave of wildebeest and zebra has crossed Sand River into Masai Mara. The recent rain in the central and northern parts of the park has triggered the herds to move faster. They seem to be over-excited with the amount of grass to feast on.  

The herds moved north from the Burungat Plains. Some crossed the Olkeju Rongai River into Possee Plains. But before they reached the Talek River, it rained on the western side of the park. This made them change direction, heading west towards the Mara Triangle.

This movement into the Mara Triangle resulted in the migration to start crossing the crocodile-infested Mara River. The river is quite high compared to last year making the crossings very dramatic with many drowning and hence providing the crocodiles with an easy feast.

There are other bigger herds migrating through the Roan Hills heading towards the Keekorok area. They are in their thousands and we hope that they will be in Possee Plains and Olmisigiyioi in a few days as the grass here is intact with plenty of water in Olkeju Rongai River.

At Topi Plains in the northwest of the park and in the northern side around Double-Crossing, there are some big herds of the Loita wildebeest. They are still streaming in from the conservancies like the Mara North and Olare Orok heading west towards the main crossing on the Paradise Plains. This might bring some major crossings along the river in the days to come.

Predators

The predators are having a great time with all the food on hooves in abundance. Some of the lion prides that had earlier disintegrated due to difficulties in hunting are back together.

The Rekero breakaway pride that had earlier split with part of the pride crossing over into Mara Triangle has crossed back. The pride hunted down two wildebeest recently.

The Enkuyanai pride

It is between the Olare Orok and Ntiakitiak rivers. The lions look very healthy. However the dominant males are not in good shape because some are injured from the territorial fights.  Oloolpapit has a really bad injury on his right hind leg. Olbarnoti, his coalition mate is not so badly off with a few minor injuries.

The Ridge Pride

It is back together. However since the demise of Lipstick, Blacky is losing his grip on the pride. Six males from the Marsh Pride seem to be taking over the territory and some have already started breeding with the Ridge Pride females.

The Musketeers

They seem to be expanding their territory. Some were seen at Maji ya Eland and Olkeju Rongai with kills. This area seems to be unoccupied by any male lions, so this might be an easy territory to establish.

Leopards

Bahati

Bahati has resurfaced.  The beautiful female has been trying to hunt in her territory along the Talek River. She seems to have a new set of cubs and appears to be nursing them as her udder seems to be big and full of milk. 

Kaboso

She and her cubs have been delighting our guests. They are seen nearly every day and at times even trying to hunt wildebeest as the migrating herds cross Kaboso River and Olare Orok River.

Cheetahs

The coalition of the five cheetahs that crossed the Talek River to spend a day at Chumvi Chumvi is back at Hammercop Tree which is their favorite spot for the moment.

Imani

She and her cub have finally crossed over from the Olare Orok Conservancy. They were there for some time. Imani was seen with a Grant’s gazelle kill at Double Crossing. Her cub has really grown big.

Nora

She is at Olkeju Rongai with a new set of cubs.  Reports from the cheetah research team shows that she has four cubs. She has been seen hunting far from her hidden cubs in search of prey.

Written By Koikai, senior naturalist and driver-guide at Mara Intrepids/Explorer Camps

Wildebeest Migration Update

The long awaited wildebeest migration has begun.

The big herds are streaming down from the northern Serengeti in Tanzania and crossing Sand River. In the past few days there have been thousands of wildebeest crossing with the zebra. There are huge concentrations of wildebeest on the Burungat Plains up to the Lookout Hill heading towards the Mara River.

In the next few days we are anticipating some major crossings in to the Mara Triangle.

In the northern Serengeti up to the Roan Hills there are big herds of wildebeest that have not been seen in recent times.

The migration will be very interesting this year as the herds are much bigger than normal and they have come in late which means that they might take longer than they usual to stay in the Mara. This is due to the heavy and prolonged rainy season earlier in the year making more grass available for the migrating herds.

The most interesting part of the migration will be the river crossings because the water in the Mara River is a lot higher than it has been in many years.

On the other hand, the Loita herds on the Kenyan side have already started crossing the Mara rivers to the Mara Triangle. Some herds are even crossing back. At Rhino Ridge and at the Topi Plains one can see long lines of wildebeest and zebra moving towards the Mara River.

As this is happening, the season for plenty has arrived for the predators. The lions have been having a feast ever since the Loita herds started streaming in. We are seeing lions, leopards, hyenas and cheetahs with multiple kills and at times not even finishing off everything!

Written by Raphael Koikai, Head Guide at Mara Intrepids/Explorer Camps

Run Free Lipstick!

Lipstick was one of the pride males of the famous ridge pride that live north of Mara Intrepids/Explorer camps between rhino ridge and double cross area.

Born around 2006 in the Mara triangle area, Lipstick and his brothers have managed to move and conquer many territories, they have also lost more territories to other rival males in the Masai Mara ecosystem.

Lipstick and his brother Blackie took over the ridge pride sometime in 2015 and that is the same pride that he ruled until his death.

On the 19 July 2018 the guides found him dead in his territory. He has been involved in many fights while trying to defend the prides territory and also sometimes when trying to expand their current territory and this often leads to conflicts with other lions.

Lipstick got into a fight with other lions probably from the Enkoyanai pride males and has been injured and limping badly for the last couple of months. With his injury, he couldn’t keep up with the pride when they went hunting and so he got very weak as he would get to the kill mostly when there was not much left. With his age catching up with him there wasn’t much chance of him recovering in the wild.

Lipstick sired many cubs in the Masai Mara and his genes have been spread across the Mara. He lived a great wild and free life that many other lions don’t usually live. He was about 13-14 years old.

Blackie his brother now has the sole responsibility to protect the pride which is a big challenge as there is always other younger and stronger males trying to challenge and take over the pride.

RIP Lipstick, You brought so much joy to us and all around the world and will surely be missed. You surely left a great legacy.

Run free Mighty warrior.

Compiled by Kang’ethe Mugwe.

Masai Mara Occurrence 2

Weather

Very wet, heavy rains.  It gets sunny in the morning followed by thunderstorms in the afternoon. Nevertheless there have been some spectacular sunsets and sunrises and on some clear nights, the moon rise.

Temperature:  12ºc -18ºc.

Wildlife

Fantastic.

The park is lush with grass and all the watering holes are full. The elephants are having a great time with big herds that have never been seen before including the big bulls with big tuskers who we believe are not resident in the park but come from the Nyakweri forest on top of the Oloololo escarpment north-west of Mara Intrepids and Mara Explorer Camps.

There are also many female elephants with some very young calves.

Buffalos are also having a great time and most of them are with calves. There are hundreds of them around.

The smaller antelopes like the Thompson gazelles, Grants gazelle, impalas, and the topi have moved to higher grounds where the grass is a bit shorter. It’s safer for them.

For bird watchers this is a very good time.  The Widow birds are in breeding plumage. Easily seen are Pin tailed whydahs, European white storks, White-faced whistling ducks with ducklings, Saddle-billed storks, and Secretary birds.

Predators

Lions

Olkiombo Pride

It is slowly falling back to its original territory along the Talek River. The pride has been moving to the north where the grass is shorter and easier to hunt. The lions have attacked some cows from the herders in the park. The dominant males, Maridadi and Kaka are still in charge of the pride.

Ridge Pride

Intact with Blacky and Lipstick in charge.

The pride is still at Topi Plains on the northern side of Rhino Ridge.

The grass is taller here so the lions are having a difficult time hunting. But they have had some success with warthogs and topis.

Enkuyanai Pride with Oloolpapit and Olbarnoti are doing okay. It killed a buffalo on the eastern side of Ntiakitiak River and devoured it in three days.

It then moved back across Ntiakitiak River and is now at Kaboso trying to hunt zebras.

Leopards

Bahati seems to have separated from her cubs. She was last seen mating with one of the resident males along the Olare Orok River. She may have another litter sometime in August.

Bahati’s cubs Hatari (male) and Bella2 (female) named after her great grandmother Bella are doing very well, hunting smaller prey like baby impala.

The Kaboso female is also doing great with her cubs in their territory along Kaboso River and Nkorbob. The river is very high and impassable but when we managed to cross the river, we saw them with a warthog up on a tree.

Cheetahs

The five male cheetahs are at Maji ya Fisi. They were last seen with a female cheetah named Nora after which they separated from the female.

They moved across the Talek River into Olare Orok Conservancy but didn’t stay long there because of the number of domestic cows that have been allowed to graze in the conservancy.

Imani has lost three of her four cubs. She is trying very hard to protect the surviving cub. They crossed the Talek River in late April and are around Murram ya Fig Tree and Lugga ya Njoroge.  Imani has been successful in hunting on several occasions.

Malaika’s male cubs are around Rekero and Lugga ya Ndege, trying to hunt, getting better by the day.

Sightings by Raphael Koikai, head driver-guide

Hunting Independently

Weather

March began with heavy rains which washed away some camps, flooded the rivers and made the bridges impassable.

However the rains brought a sigh of relieve for the wildlife and the communities that were desperately looking to the rainy season. The livestock belonging to the Masai communities had been ravaged by the drought.

It’s cool most of the time with temperatures ranging between 16ºc in the mornings and evenings to 24ºc during the day.

Wildebeest Phenomena in the Mara

The wildebeest began to drop their young in the Mara in February and are still giving birth in large numbers. This is a phenomenon because wildebeest give birth in the Serengeti and in the Loita Plains but not in the Mara.

The Loita herds of wildebeest and zebra are back in the park heading south towards the Talek River. Some have crossed to Possee Plains.

General game

Game viewing has been good with lots of plains wildlife feasting on the green pastures and water.

The topi continue to rut. Males display their dominance in the breeding grounds (leks) with females moving in and out of them.

Warthogs, buffalos, Maasai giraffes are well fed and calving. Herds of eland are common around the Mara Intrepids camps where they are marooned between the Olare Orok and Ntiakitiak Rivers.

On a recent early morning game drive we saw a python strangle and swallow a dikdik.  

Predators

Lions

The Olkiombo Pride

It is reclaiming its former territory along the Talek River. The pride has two big, dominant males named Maridadi and Kaka including four females and nine cubs.

Maridadi seems to be a bit bigger than his coalition mate and has been crossing the Talek River but does not venture far from it. He may be looking for new territory.

The Ridge Pride

It’s in its territory at the Topi Plains. The pride was seen feasting on a cow and a hippo. Blacky and Lipstick are still the dominant males. There are also three young males in the pride who may be kicked out soon as they are almost sexually mature.

The Enkuyanai Pride

It’s along Ntiakitiak River, crossing the river every time the water goes down. The lions killed a buffalo and they feasted on it for three days. The dominant males - Oloolpapit and Olbarnoti – then started to mate.

Leopards

Bahati

She and her cubs are roaming around the Mara Intrepids.  We have named the two cubs Hatari (the male cub) and Bella 2 (the female). They seem to be separating from their mother at a very early age as they are barely one year old. However the cubs are already independent and hunt for themselves. On several occasions, they have been seen with kills of young impala and scrub hares up in the trees.

Recently, Bahati killed a big male impala but didn’t bother to call the cubs. She ate for two days and left without looking for the cubs.

Kaboso

She and her two cubs are also doing well. Kaboso with the help of her older male cub Blue Eyes is keeping a serious watch over the cubs as there are many baboons and hyenas around. Blue Eyes helps his mother to hunt gazelles and warthogs.

Luluka

She’s at Olkeju Rongai and has been seen with gazelle and impala kills up on a tree on different occasions.

Cheetahs

Malaika

She and her two male cubs were on the western side of Olare Orok River when the water level was at its highest.  There are unconfirmed reports that Malaika may have tried to cross the flooded river and drowned.

Other reports are that she may have left her cubs who are now old enough to hunt.

Malaika had shown some signs of coming on heat and we our keeping our fingers crossed that she is fine. Her cubs are still searching for her.

Imani

She had a new litter of four cubs around the Lookout Hill.  She has lost one and we hope the remaining three will survive as she seems to be taking very good care of them.

By R. Koikai

Senior driver-guide at Mara Intrepids/Explorer Camps