Wishing you a very Happy New Year!

We have had a busy festive season. In the Mara the zebra made an unexpected return, crossing the Mara River and providing the resident lion with an opportune meal or two. With the herds of wildebeest gone on their long trek down south it was a delight to see families of elephant crossing the Mara River and returning to the Marsh on a daily basis. With new cubs in the fold the Marsh Pride have continued to delight guests and leopard sightings have also been good with Romi and her sub adult cub making regular appearances in the woodland verges between our camps.

In Rwanda, Nelis is moved and amused by the antics of the Hirwa Gorilla Family and Loldia had been busy celebrating the festive season with guests from all corners of the globe.

We were also delighted to discover that Governors Camp and Sabyinyo had been featured on Conde Nasts top 25 resorts and safari camps in Africa and that Governors Camp was featured on the Conde Nast Gold List of best hotels in the world.

We hope to welcome you to this magical corner of Africa sometime soon.

Sincerely,
Governors' Camp Collection

January Game Report Masai Mara

Weather and grasslands

Over the last month we have had some rain (around 139mm) which has brought on a green flush, although the grasslands remain relatively short. Early mornings were moderate and mid-day temperatures were warm until late evening. On the evening of the 30th there was a heavy hail storm with stones the size of golf balls, this came with a strong wind that brought down a few trees and limbs within the riparian woodlands and within the camp grounds many leaves were stripped, that evening we had only 16mm of rain.

Photo courtesy of Joelle Delloye

General game

Many of the wildebeest and common zebra who passed through our area of the Mara in late November and early this month have since crossed the river toward the Trans Mara side. During the latter weeks more zebra in small herds were seen crossing back from the Trans Mara side at the main crossing point on the Mara River at Paradise. A few were taken by crocodile although the Paradise lionesses and sub adults waited on these crossings and were very successful. On the 28th in the morning there was a phenomenal movement of zebra across the river and subsequent lion action when an estimated 400 plus animals were seen crossing at the main crossing points. Guests who witnessed this action captured some very good photographs.

Photo courtesy of Luke Davis

Elephant have been crossing back from the tans Mara, with family units arriving almost daily. Water marks across their bodies help indicate where they had crossed; some young elephant would have been submerged totally although Elephant on the whole are good swimmers.

Photo courtesy of Joelle Delloye

Cape buffalo in the Bila Shaka and Rhino Ridge plains are being seen daily. Sometimes the Bila Shaka herd can be spread across like a line of black paint the length of the Bila Shaka river bed opposite the airstrip. Defassa Waterbuck ewes and satellite males are within the Marsh grassland verges, some of the larger males have been taken by the Marsh Lion, myth states that lion generally will not eat waterbucks yet here in the Musiara Marsh they are preyed upon frequently. Impala and Olive Baboons are common roadside visitors, one of the female baboons has a bad dose of Sarcoptic mange and sadly she has now been rejected by the other troop members.

Some of Impala ewes in these breeding herds have given birth and we often see many young fawns together in a crèche. Giraffe pass through, some of the larger breeding males who are recognisable either from their coat patterns or facially are being seen often within the camp grounds, one particular male has large 'ossicones' (giraffe don't have horns per say, these protrusions are derived from ossified cartilage, and that the ossicones remain covered in skin and fur, rather than horn.) so is very well know. Large males can travel great distances looking for oestrus females. Herds of younger sparring males were seen within the woodland verges recently. Grants and Thomson Gazelles are well spread out with Thomson's preferring the shorter grass plains.

On the 16th at 4.15pm a large Rock Python had caught a female Grants Gazelle on the north side of the Bila Shaka riverbed near the airstrip. Sources at the site said the python had started to swallow the kill from an awkward angle; she then tried to re-gurgitate the meal. The Python had its lower jaw skin flap or 'Gular flap' perforated by one of the Grants gazelle's short horns and this is perhaps what caused it to abandon its kill. Another interesting note was while in the process of trying to engulf the animals from the head its tail kept being drawn into its mouth and we are not sure if there is an explanation for this behaviour, perhaps it was trying to alleviate more room to breathe with its epiglottis. The python after abandoning the kill disappeared down a nearby hole and hyena and Jackal came by and ate what was left later that night.

Photo courtesy of Dave Richards

Topi the fleetest on foot within the ungulate tribe are in good numbers, Paradise Plains, Rhino Ridge, Bila Shaka and Musiara are good places to see them. Topi are 'bite' selectors and tend to congregate where the prevalent grass bare a good leaf structure. Male Topi who hold territorial leks are often taken by hyena as the have a tendency to doze heavily and the resident Spotted Hyena clans have learnt this and monopolize on it. A few Cokes Hartebeest will be seen more prevalently on the open grassland plains, herd sizes here are no more than a dozen. Good sightings of serval cats continue and two sightings of caracal which is a bonus, one of the caracals was seen within the rocky out crops at the top end of the Mara River. Another, a male has been seen on the ridge north of the Marsh. There have been Spotted Hyena some times in large clans across Bila Shaka and Paradise Plains, the Rhino Ridge clan has 86 members, in other areas of Masai land clan sizes have been recorded as many as 275 members!! An Aardwolf was seen near paradise plains on the 29th and again on the 30th.

Lions

The Marsh Pride with their 7 sub adult cubs of varying age groups of 15 months and 18 months of age, Bibi, Siena and Charm and the four musketeers. The two breakaways Sila and Lippy are with the three cubs who are three months old, they frequent the Marsh, Culvert and woodland areas close to the marsh, on the 29th Sila and Lippy were feeding on a female waterbuck close to the Little Governors crossing. Sikio who had hurt and slightly damaged his paw earlier seems to be a much better as he was seen actively involved in the bringing down of a large bull buffalo, these large Buffalo bulls can take a great effort to take down. One of the sub-adult male cubs was seen dead near the top end of Bila Shaka on the 12th and we are still unsure of what were the circumstances.

They have been feeding on buffalo, warthog, waterbuck and Grants Gazelle; on two occasions the lionesses and sub adults have tried pulling down a hippo but this often requires the assistance of the larger males. The paradise females with three lionesses and four cubs which two that are 9 months old and the two are 14 months old. This intermit pride have been actively successful with working their dietary habits on the main crossing points, the 24th and 28th on both days they scored well while Zebra crossed.

Photo courtesy of Joelle Delloye

Leopard

Romi and her 14 month old male cub have been seen more frequently this month, latterly they have been seen on a daily basis. The 19th, 21st and 26th were dates with some good sightings of them, the male cub is actually larger than his maternal mother and within the breeches of large feline social structures he will more than likely move on and be independent in a few months time, although briefly will stay in his mother's home range. They can be seen from the BBC camp site and as far as the wooded areas close to Little Governors. The 'mortuary' male has been seen often between Hippo corner and the mortuary crossing point, he is another large tom cat and is much habituated to cars. The large male leopard at the bottom end of Bila Shaka who also sired Romi's cub has been seen near Il Moran Camp recently, this male will also be seen as far as crocodile camp on the Mara River so he covers quite a home range.

Photo courtesy of John Njoroge

The female leopard with two 7 month old cubs has been seen a few more times near the rocky hill on the Mara River close to the west ridge fan that leads into paradise plains.

Cheetah

The two large males born in the Mara North Conservancy were seen earlier on seemed to have headed out North West of the Reserve; these are two large male cheetahs and will cover large distances from the conservation areas in Masai conservation areas as far as the double crossing.

The young female cheetah who had three cubs that are 3 months old lost one to hyena early this month and now has two, she is being seen more in the Masai conservation areas that abut the southern boundaries of the reserve. She was seen a week ago near the bottom end of the Ntiaktiak River whereby she had killed a Thomson Gazelle.

Photo courtesy of Jacob Lelesara

Walking in the Mara North Conservancy.

A few walking safaris have taken this month between rain patterns. The grass levels here in the conservation area are still very short which makes walking very much easier, although they have had a little rain which has induced a green flush. Zebra in good numbers can be seen scattered in family units, the bottom 'Fly over' grassland plains are good places to see them. Topi are also in good numbers here as well as Grants and Thomson Gazelles.

Two Leopard have been seen very recently which is a bonus here, on the 31st near the croton hill a large male Leopard was seen walking along the ridge trail followed by wads of Thomson gazelles, interesting that ungulate species do know when a large cat is either hungry or passing passage.

Photo courtesy of Patrick Reynolds

Elephant are prevalent in the acacia Gerrardii woodlands, the smell of the tannin when Elephant have been feeding on the bark of this acacia is often quite strong. Some of these trees that have been watered well are very popular and elephant will feed heavily on this particular tree like a small child with a packet of sweets. Eland on the top plains are being seen taking liberty of the green flush of grass. There are some large dimorphic males on the periphery of these breeding herds. There is a large herd of Cape buffalo seen on the northern plains and sometimes on the southern plains.

The acacia lion pride have been seen twice although while those guests who are on a game drive will see them more frequently, on the 31st they had killed a zebra the night before and were seen eating it the following morning on the top 'fly over' plains near the Balanites grove.

With the recent rainfall the termites have been active colonising their numbers and structures, with this hive of activity ants of the subfamily ponerinae have also been active, worker castes of these ant are busy capturing a wide range of prey species particularly termites whom they hunt near dawn when termites are more active. Nevertheless, they also easily capture nocturnal insects such as crickets and cockroaches.

Marlin Show at Watamu Tourney

Written by David Slater "Honeylulu"