Masai Mara Part 1: The Prey

Our beautiful Mara lodging at the Serena Safari Lodge

Mom and Calf Buffalo

Male Waterbuck

  The Masai Mara National Reserve is the crown jewel of Kenya's parks. It is contiguous with Tazania's Serengeti National Park and is the home of the famous Great Migration of zebra and wildebeest from July to October. Even though we were here on the very back end of the Great Migration we still saw plenty of animals planning on staying and others lined up heading South.

  The Mara, as the locals call it, is also a wonderful place to spot predators. In fact, we saw so many that I will leave those till the next post and focus on the place and the grass-eaters of the African savanna that we came across.

 Masai Mara gets its name from the traditional homeland of the Maasai people who lived here, as well as the Maa language, in which 'mara' means spotted, an apt description for the random acacia trees dotting the landscape here. I had been here ten years ago during my first trip to Kenya and what I remembered most was the beautiful, golden grass that covered the savannas, and the hot air balloons dotting the horizon at first light. Both of these things still remained just as they were in my memory ten years past.

Baby Topi in Tow

Wildebeest not migrating

A new species for us on this tour of Kenya was the topi, who seemed to have little topi babies around every corner. It definitely seemed to be the season for babies as we saw tons of tiny zebras, buffalo, and gazelles. It looked like enough prey to sustain a rather large predator base here. Some of the hillsides were covered with large herds, making me wonder what it must look like at the height of the migration.

Three Black Rhinos

'watch out!'

Nuzzling Zebra

  It is a real treat to be surrounded by so much wildlife, and to have the vast openness of the Mara to witness it in all of its glory. It was totally worth the 90km of hard pack, uneven, rocky roads the led us here. One good thing about it being the beginning of rainy season is that not only do the afternoon showers keep the dust down, but it keeps a lot of possible tourists/cars out of the park as well. A lot of our close encounters were just us, enjoying all that the Mara has to offer.

Awkward Chewing Giraffe

Fighting male giraffes

   Check back in soon to find out more about our encounters with the local predators of the Masai Mara.

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