A Wildlife-Haven in Samburu

The reserve in Kenya’s northern arid lands is one of Kenya's best-loved wildlife reserves. In complete contrast to the rolling savannah grasslands of the Maasai Mara, Samburu is filled with hills and dry riverbeds (luggas) with the Ewaso Nyiro River meandering along groves of the iconic doom palms. It has a wealth of wildlife with lions, leopards and cheetahs hunting down antelopes, zebra and other herbivores. The elephants are one of the longest studied in Africa.

Samburu Intrepids is the jewel in the reserve. With its experienced guides you will be able to see much of what the reserve has.

Lion of Samburu

These lions will rest after hunting down the rare Grevy’s zebra that is only found north of the equator. It may look easy but hunting is a strenuous exercise.

Did You Know?

Both male and female lions roar?

A lion’s roar can be heard from five miles away. Lions are also the second largest living feline after the tiger.

Leopards

Leopards climb to higher spots to look for prey. They will then prepare for a kill. One would think this one is posing for a photo shoot.

Did You Know?

Leopards are very agile, and can run at over 36 miles per hour, leap over 20 feet and jump up to 10 feet.

Elephants

Elephant calf suckling

Did You Know?

Mating Season: Mostly during the rainy season.
Gestation: 22 months.
Litter size: 1 calf (twins rare).
Calves weigh between 200-250 pounds at birth. At birth, a calf's trunk has little muscle; therefore it will suckle through its mouth. It takes several months for a calf to gain full control of its trunk.

Grey-headed Kingfisher (above) and Palm-nut vulture

Birds

Samburu boasts over 350 species of birds.

Samburu People

They are one of the few tribes who have maintained their culture. They are nicknamed the butterfly people because of their bright coloured attire as seen in the picture.

The doum palm is iconic Samburu.

Top: Lioness and elephant

Above: Elephants against a doum palm in Samburu after the rains. That’s why the grass is green.

Written by Maurice Njeru, Manager Samburu Intrepids.

Adventure at Samburu!

Elephants

Elephants form deep family bonds and live in tight matriarchal family groups of related females called a herd. The herd is led by the oldest and often largest female in the herd, called a matriarch. Elephants are extremely intelligent animals and have memories that span many years. It is this memory that serves matriarchs well during the dry seasons when they need to guide their herds, sometimes for tens of miles, to watering holes that they remember from the past. They also display signs of grief, joy, anger and play.

The mating season for elephants is mostly during the rainy season and the gestation period is 22 months.

A lone elephant heading to the bush. The elephant was the only one around this area. More elephants where spotted in the distance distance.

River Ewaso Nyiro which means ‘river of brown water’ is the only source of water for wildlife in Samburu National Reserve. This season it has little water in it. The elephants were seen at the river, taking their time to quench their thirst. A lioness walked past them for a drink also.

During the dry season, the flat top acacias bear seed pods which are healthy for livestock and wildlife. Elephants enjoy the acacia seeds after quenching their thirst at River Ewaso Nyiro.

Compiled by Chris Letur, Camp naturalist

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

Tsavo West Sightings

The week of 11th July 2016 was interesting and seeing a lot of wildlife coming closer to the camp.This is due to the drought season. Elephants started coming earlier than expected to the river and spend the whole night feeding on reeds. 

The Impalas arrives in the camp as early as 6 pm. Our guests enjoy watching them in between the tents. Impalas decrease their chances of attack when living in herds. They leap and scatter in all directions when being attacked to confuse the predator. The impala is rarely seen on its own. Females and young animals form herds of up to 100 individuals, while males live in a bachelor group of about 60 animals. They occupy a large range and make seasonal migrations from high to lower ground according to the availability of suitable food.

The number of warthog have also increased as per our observations. Mostly, Warthogs sleep and rest in holes, which at times they line with grass, perhaps to make them warmer. Although they can excavate, warthogs normally do not dig holes but use those dug by other animals, preferably aardvarks. They also protect themselves from predators by fleeing or sliding backwards into a hole, thus being in a position to use their formidable tusks in an attack.

Report and pictures by Stephen Lekatoo.

Fun Facts: Elephants in Samburu

Did you know...

• That in Samburu we have 66 families of Elephants, which make a total number of 750 residents’ elephants?
• During rainy seasons, the number can exceed up to 1200 individuals.
• Young baby elephants are weaned in their first year. The calf depends on the mother for three to five years

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• A new-born elephant at birth weighs 77-113 kg. But they weigh only 4% of an adult female's weight and only 2% of an adult male’s and may consume 11.4 litres of milk a day.
• They have good memories and their brain is 30-40% the size of an adult. Mothers allocate care and interact differently depending on the baby's sex.
• The young calves are tended not only by their mothers, but also by other females of the herd. 

There are many eyewitness accounts of the females in the herd gathering around to welcome the new-born.  Within minutes of the birth, the mother and other females trumpet, rumble and scream, oozing temporal secretions down the side of their faces.  During these initial minutes the mother also attempts to help the new-born rise to its feet. This is a matter of survival since the new-born must stand to drink its mother's milk. Without this necessary food, the calf is sure to perish.

Watch Samburu animals and elephant numbers in the video below.

Steven Tilas, Resident Naturalist, Samburu Intrepids Camp ©Heritage Hotels Ltd