Weather and grasslands
Clear skies with relatively strong north easterly winds and with rainfall being only 32.6mm, there were two heavy showers that brought the marsh water levels up a little. Early morning temperatures were pleasantly cool at 17�C and midday temperatures reaching 26�C. Water levels in the Mara River were receding slowly although with the small rain we had levels rose a little. By end of the month the river level was seen to be receding quite quickly. Grasses are still short on many of the open areas although on deep alluvial soils grasses were still long which have kept Buffalo and Elephant who passed back and forth. The Diospyros trees are still fruiting this is an awful amount of fruit for this to continue.
Photo courtesy of Patrick Reynolds
General game
Game sightings have been well rewarded this month. Zebra from the Masai conservation areas came through during midmonth particularly after a little rain which had induced a little grass growth. Herds of them would move through the marsh and Musiara plains areas. Good numbers of zebra were being seen on the Musiara, Bila Shaka and Topi Plains. The Marsh grasslands to the west and east of the watered byways were holding large numbers of zebra. Large Herds of elephant can be seen in the Marsh, many of these came across from the Trans Mara conservancy, by end of the month many elephant could be seen scattered throughout the Marsh, a few older and large Musth bulls came through of which two of them have been seen in the Trans Mara and also in the Mara North conservancy indicating that large males will travel long distances in search of oestrus females. Very young calves have also been seen in these breeding herds with two youngsters that could only have been a few weeks old!! Buffalo are throughout the Musiara and Rhino Ridge areas, older sedentary bulls will be seen close to the camps or else on the edge of the Marsh. There is still a big breeding herd that habituate the Bila Shaka river bed.
Photo courtesy of Daniel Beamish
Topi in dense pockets will be seen at Paradise, Topi Plains and the Musiara Marsh. Small herds of cokes hartebeest will be found in smaller pockets of the reserve, Rhino Ridge, Bila Shaka and Paradise Plains see good areas to find them. Hippos appear to congregate into larger pod densities as water levels recede with deeper pools in some parts of the river seem to 'bubble' with hippo numbers. Numerous small calves can be seen, resident crocodile will always pose a threat to hippo calves as was seen at IL Moran and further down from Governors Private Camp. Many crocodile can be seen on the river banks particularly near the main crossing point, one can see over thirty crocodilians at a time with some of them being very large, an average large Nile crocodile can weigh as much as 800-900 kg and span over 15 feet long.
Two hippo were seen being eaten by spotted hyena near north end of the Marsh, guides saw males fighting, one may have killed the other, this is not uncommon with hippo, when water levels become low hippos congregate into denser and denser areas and this causes aggression amongst males.
Masai Giraffe are scattered throughout the reserve although the riparian woodlands of the river will host on occasions many giraffe as they are browsers there are many species here that will support giraffe. Dominant male giraffe will be seen eating the leaves of the Warburgia trees and this is appears to be a regular feeding habit of older male Giraffe, the leaf of the Warburgia tree or 'Elephant pepper tree' is very hot on the tongue so perhaps the Giraffe have blunt taste buds or a spicy palate!
Impala and Olive baboons are residents along the tree line and Marsh verges, large troops of baboons can be seen in the early morning as they progress out to their feeding grounds and late evening as they head back to roost, these Savanah Olive Baboon will travel far out in search of food. Males of the species will often kill and eat young Thompson and Impala fawns and then will only share with close and favourable females for that intimate contact. The Olive Baboon seem to have the varied diet of their savannah members. Female Impala will often in over exuberant activity be seen leaping while throwing or kicking their back legs into the air, this is known as 'empty Kicking' and it reveals the dexterity of their limbs. Defassa waterbuck are also marsh residents, a few of them have been eaten by lion from the breakaway marsh lionesses.
Often guests are seeing the 'big five' before 10.00 in the morning. The African rock Python in the Bila Shaka river bed area has been seen a few times again this month, on the morning of the 5th a serval cat was seen suddenly jumping and spitting at something in the grass, on closer inspection guests saw that it was the python that the serval happened upon, the python apparently paid no attention to the serval who was striking at the snake with its paw. Serval Cats at Paradise Plains and in the Bila Shaka area have been seen very frequently this month with two particular individuals who are really quite habituated. Side stripped Jackals on the north side of Rhino Ridge have been seen again, on the 22nd the dog had just caught a female Thomson Gazelle, and the bitch was seen a little later eating with its mate. There seems to be co-operative hunting between these monogamous Jackals where the males show no sexual dimorphism. Black Backed Jackals are being busy with Grants Gazelle fawns and those of Thomson Gazelles as well; these are also monogamous and co-operative canids. We have had a few sightings of Marsh Mongooses within the swamp marshes and byways. One was seen close to Governor's Camp, these are not the common mongooses we see around camp, they are a mongoose that live in the watered byway areas and feed on frogs, fresh water crabs and fish. The other two commonly seen species of larger solitary mongooses are the white tailed Mongoose, the Egyptian mongoose and the slender tailed mongoose who is very good at tree climbing. The two social species often will be seen frequenting the camps, with both the dwarf and banded mongooses being seen within the camp grounds, these are more insectivorous that their larger cousins.
Photo courtesy of Sue Lawless
Cats
Marsh pride of 25 lion all together, with their 7 sub adult cubs of varying age groups of 17 months and 20 months of age, Bibi, Siena and charm and the four musketeers. 'Red' the dominant male of the sub-adults is pulling his weight as well as being a strong worker of the pride. He now looks the part. Bibi is still looking her age and is a little thin as was seen last month. They have been feeding off the resident zebra, buffalo and warthog.
Siena and her three cubs that are two months old now are being seen mainly in the Bila Shaka region and they are becoming very mobile now.
Of the four breakaways Jicho and Sila while Kini and particularly Lippy are with the three cubs who are five months old, they will frequent the Marsh, Culvert and woodland areas close to the marsh. They have been feeding off waterbuck, warthog and reedbuck. Earlier on the month the three breakaways Lippy, Sila and Kini spent much time in the eastern plains area of the Marsh where they were supplemented with the many warthog here, the cubs earlier on in the month looked very thin and were seemingly not getting enough to eat, on a few occasions it was noted that when the large males tuned up at a kill site the lionesses were instantly chased off. Times recently have changed a bit with the lionesses killing a waterbuck on the 25th and managed to eat all of it themselves and while refusing the three young cubs to eat and were very good at sitting out while the larger ones ate their fill, latterly again they had killed a warthog and consumed it without interruption. Of the three cubs the little female who was lost last month is at home with her other siblings; this is a rare incident whereby a cub that was apparently accepted into the family without any sign of repercussion is a very moving feat of survival of a species that is under the constant threat of the human foot print.
Photo courtesy of Jack Swenson
Scar is doing amazingly well and has been spending time between Paradise Plains and Bila Shaka, later on in the month at the bottom end of the Bila Shaka river bed he had helped take down a Hippo and was the force behind it. This is one iconic male lion that has been probably anesthetised more times than any other cat in the Mara/Serengeti ecosystem. He was seen earlier on mating with Sila and we hope to see more of his progeny in three months' time.
The paradise females who are three lionesses and their four cubs, two of which are 12 months old and the two are 17 months old. This pride is still being seen in the Paradise area of the Mara River, they have been feeding off topi, buffalo and warthog who at this time of the year will supplement the resident lion's diet. Two of the marsh musketeers namely Scar and Hunter have been down here many times on the latter half of this month.
Leopard
Romi and her 16 month old male cub are still the focus of all Leopard sightings. The male is due to move on out of his mother's home range, latterly in the month he was often seen some distance away from where his mother is. They have fed off impala and Bush buck. Recently they have been seen residing between the BBC camp site and the Governors Camp woodlands.
The large male close to the mortuary crossing point has been seen a few times this month. The young male that frequents the Serena pump house area has also been seen near Malima tatu.
The female leopard with two 9 month old cubs have been seen a few times only but quite away from where they usually are found which was near the rocky hill on the Mara River close to the west ridge fan that leads into paradise plains, this time they were seen between the Hippo pool and a dried river bed known as Kwa Nyoka. There are many impala and Thomson Gazelles with fawns here in this area. On the 11th there were two male leopards sighted at the double crossing who were sizing one another up, both seemed to have had a disagreement and received minor scratches. The younger of the two males then went and rolled in Buffalo Dung, perhaps those off times it is good to be and feel different!!
Our guides and guests had an amazing sighting this month on paradise plains when they came across the big Paradise male leopard seemingly sharing his kill with a pack of hungry hyenas. It seems the leopard killed the young zebra and did not have time to drag it up a nearby tree before a pack of hungry hyenas descended. Begrudgingly the leopard shared his meal with the hyenas, this is an amazing sighting and in 40 + years of safaris in the Masai Mara one that we have not witnessed before. Last year we had a sighting of the Marsh Pride seemingly sharing a meal with a pack of hyenas around the same time of year so we think that a reduction in the number of available prey species at this times forces the top predators to share on some occasions.
Photo courtesy of Sue Lawless
Cheetah
The two brothers have been seen near Topi plains and Bila Shaka, they have been hunting and feeding Thomson Gazelles and also scrub hares. The female cheetah 'Amani' with one cub who is five months old was being seen near the double crossing and Topi Plains area. She is feeding off Thomson Gazelles and their fawns, on the 22nd she was seen with a female Thomson Gazelle, Hyena stole most of it from her, on the 26th she had killed a fawn and managed to eat most of this one. The three cheetahs are being very active in hunting impala and hares.
Photo courtesy of Dave Roberts
Walking in the Mara North Conservancy.
This month we have done a few walks in the Mara North Conservancy. There are many zebra here although large numbers have filtered down to the reserve. On the 12th we saw an unusually marked zebra; it actually looked very nice in a sepia colour!! This is probably the prettiest patterned zebra that I have seen. Good numbers of Elephant in the Acacia Gerrardii woodlands and likewise giraffe who apparently move between the Mara River and the acacia woodlands. Warthog and Thomson Gazelles dominate the short grass plains, scattered topi males and females with individual male wildebeest dot the grassland plains.
Photo courtesy of Sue Lawless
Impala and waterbuck will also be seen between the woodlands and the open grasslands. At Midday good numbers of zebra and sometimes elephant can be seen near the salt lick that is close to the Olare Orok River and this draws them to water and trace elements they get from licking the earth floor.
A small herd of Cape Buffalo were being seen mainly in white highland depression where coarse grasses are prevalent, this area has held this herd of buffalo for some time. On the 5th two Martial eagles were seen to be eating the remains of a Thompson Gazelle and this they had killed themselves, these large raptors are a constant threat to young fawns and likewise those of lion cubs. The Martial eagle is the largest of the savannah raptors.
Some very large savannah Monitor lizards have been seen one of which was seen poking its head out of a termite mound probably warming itself in the early morning sun. Flowers that have the smell of Jasmin although an Olea are being seen often out of rocky outcrops. Kalanchoe rotundifolia are also being seen within the basaltic rocky areas.
Large columns of the ponerinae ant as they forage for termite species. On the 11th a mound of the family Rhinotermitidae were discovered on the white highland ridge, this is where the soldier caste have the ability to exude noxious liquids through either a 'horn-like nozzle' (nasus) or a simple hole in the head (fontanelle). The fontanelle exude defensive secretions known as Terpenes. All termites eat cellulose in its various forms as plant fiber. Cellulose is a rich energy source. Termites rely primarily upon symbiotic protozoa and other microbes in their gut to digest the cellulose for them, absorbing the end products for their own use. Termites have an interesting social behavioural pattern and much is still needed to be learnt from them.
News on the Sabyinyo Gorilla Family
Probably one of the shortest treks to the Gorillas that I have ever done. Quite fortunate though as the rain started falling around 3am that morning. To avoid the rain, we were all huddled together under the roof of the meeting point at the park office, receiving our briefing from the guides who would be conducting the Gorilla treks that morning. With a warm cup of coffee in hand, we listened very intently to all that the guides had to say. It's so easy to spot the first time trekkers, with expressions of overwhelming excitement and a hint of anxiety.
Finally, the guides instructed the 8 of us to move to our vehicles and off we went. A twenty minute drive brought us to the starting point for our trek. Everyone was assigned a porter, given a walking stick and off we went. Not long into our trek, the first of several "how far still to the gorillas?" a question the guides hear all too often. Six hours was the reply from the guide which brought dead silence to the group.
Ten minutes later we were at the park boundary where the guide gave us another quick talk on walking etiquette inside the National Park. The trackers radioed down, informing the guides that they have found the gorillas and that we should come up. Everyone, less talkative now was trying to control their breathing in preparation for the six hour trek to the Gorillas.
Only twenty minutes later, we came across the trackers, much to the relief of many of the folks in our group. We took out our cameras and not too far from us; we could see and hear a rustle in the bamboo. We followed the guides into the bamboo forest. First off all, we came across Shirimpumu, a very boisterous Blackback, soon to turn Silverback and shortly after that we had both the old man, Guhonda and his second-in-charge Silverback, Gihishamwotsi make their way down a trail through the bamboo. Gihishamwotsi is showing off, with constant playful defensive postures.
Guhonda, not taking much notice of his antics continued down to where he settled for a nice bamboo breakfast. Above us, some of the youngsters were swinging between the bamboo clumps using vines hanging down from the bamboo canopy. With very little light for photography, most of the hour was spent just observing these incredible animals playing out their daily routine just metres in front of us. Still, even after so many treks, this is still an emotion that I cannot put into words that would justify what is felt when with the Gorillas.
Privileged am I....
Photo and Text - Nelis Wolmarans, Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge Manager
Good marlin weather holds for Watamu tourneys
Written by David Slater
The Watamu SFC Festival was fished in nice weather over last weekend, with 26 boats finding a total of fourteen marlin, seventeen sail and a mako shark over the two days with all the fish released. The first day leader was White Bear with two striped and one blue marlin, followed by Seyyida with two blue marlin and a sail, while Seastorm, White Otter, WIT and Shuwari also had a marlin each.
On the Sunday, White Bear added another striped marlin to give anglers Robin James and Jamie Shepherd the first prize ahead of the team on Seyyida in second place overall with Tim Brown taking Top Angler for his two blue marlin and two sail. Unreel, fished by Mark and Millie Jury and Jinga found two blues and a sail the second day to take third overall and White Otter with two blues was fourth, with Gael Edwards awarded Top Lady Angler for her blue marlin. Jackson Safari on White Bear won the Skipper's prize, while Jameel Khan on What It Takes won best young angler for his marlin.
A days' rest, then most of the boats were at it again in the Hemingways 'Friends of Kenya" tournament, two whole days and a night of uninterrupted fishing, with boats trying for broadbill swordfish at night. Twenty-four boats caught nineteen blue, two black and two striped marlin, seventeen broadbill and twenty-three sailfish between them, an amazing total. Notably, Richie Moller in Pintail, a small eighteen feet open boat caught a 229kg blue marlin, standing up as the boat has no chair! Simon Roache on B's Nest caught a 270kg blue marlin which died on the line, another huge fish!
Anglers Rick Lemonnier, Don Lafferty and Rich Roberts from Dubai won first prize, with four blue and two striped marlin and two sail on Neptune, fishing the North Kenya Banks for a terrific catch which put them well ahead of Pintail, with Richie Moller and Russ Brumby who came second, a fine effort in such a small boat. Third were James and Simon Redfern and Rhino Rauscher in Combava, visiting from Tanzania, with a great catch of three blue marlin and two sailfish, while Tom Cunningham, Peter Darnborough and Juma Chea in Alleycat were fourth with two blue marlin.
Unreel came fifth, Mark and Millie Jury and Sean Cremin catching a blue marlin, two broadbill and a sail, while Matt Bell, Olivia Tandane and Fernando da Silva Cruz in Seastorm were sixth with a blue marlin, a broadbill and three sail.