Tag: lions

Mid-year Mara

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Above: Maasai giraffe, mother and calf. In Maasai Mara. Copyright Rupi Mangat

Published: 27 Juy 2019

It’s the mid-year bonanza in the Maasai Mara. It’s lush and green after a long dry spell. We’re in the south-eastern part of the 1,510-square-kilometre park that is a continuation of the 14,750-square-kilometres Serengeti National Park.

It is this enormous space that is world-famous as big game country: big for the huge herds of wildebeest, big for the big cats, big for the world’s largest land mammal – the elephant and big for the tallest – the giraffe. There are so many superlatives that describe the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem that it is mind-boggling.

June 2019 Wildebeest arriving from Serengeti into Maasai Mara. Copyright Rupi Mangat (800x600)
June 2019 Wildebeest arriving from Serengeti into Maasai Mara. Copyright Rupi Mangat

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Female elephant in Talek River, Maasai Mara - Copyright Rupi Mangat

Magic in the Mara

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Above: Female elephant in Talek River, Maasai Mara – Copyright Rupi Mangat

Published: 15 December 2018

It’s sunrise but there’s still a full moon in the sky. The dawn light is magical while the sprawl of the Mara is enchanting. In the soft light, the gazelles gambol and the warthogs graze on knees bent, their necks too short to reach the ground.

Dawn in Maasai Mara - Copyright Rupi Mangat
Dawn in Maasai Mara – Copyright Rupi Mangat

New-born foals suckle at their mothers’ breast while the tiny warthog babies vanish into the grass nervous of people. It’s the season of plenty for the herbivores with so much grass around. Well-fed and healthy, they give birth soon after the rains turning the vast grasslands into a nursery. Continue reading “Magic in the Mara” →

Naretunoi Conservancy Neighbours Nairobi National Park

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Above: The Wildlife Foundation Centre at Naretunoi Conservancy, Kitengela
Copyright Rupi Mangat

Published: 10 November 2018

“We have everything here,” says Moses Parmisa of The Wildlife Foundation. “If you had spent the night here you would have heard the lions and the hyenas.”

We’re chatting over a cuppa tea and cakes at The Wildlife Foundation Centre on a lawn dotted with wooden sculptures collected from different parts of Africa. On arrival we’ve been met by Impi the two-year-old female antelope whose mother was killed by a predator. The foal was found on the grounds and now thinks she’s a ‘people’.

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The Wildlife Foundation Centre at Naretunoi Conservancy, Kitengela Copyright Rupi Mangat

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Soysambu’s Cats, Colobus, Raptors and All

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Published 29 September 2018

Above: Seen on Sept 13 2018 at Soysambu. The male in the photo is SM2 (collared) who is Flir’s son and the female is SF3, Valentine’s daughter. We think Flir and Valentine are sisters so they would be cousins. Unknown father’s  but  they are one or two of the males in Nakuru National Park. Copyright: Kat Combes

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Soysambu Conservancy with Flamingos on Lake Elmenteita and Delamere’s Nose. Copyright Rupi Mangat

There’s so much happening at Soysambu, the wildlife conservancy straddling the soda-fringed Lake Elmenteita in the Great Rift Valley. It draws one like magnet to keep up with its intrigues. For starters the wildlife haven is set picturesquely between the fresh water Lake Naivasha and the alkaline Lake Nakuru and being part of the volcanic upheavals from the last 20 million years or so, it’s a tapestry of little mountains with craters, volcanic rubble and an inch-thick layer of soil good only for hardy grass and trees.

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The Jaw-Dropping Migration of the Wildebeest

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Part 1 of 2

Above: The annual Mara Migration of the wildebeest from the Serengeti
Copyright Rupi Mangat

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Sunrise in thel Mara Copyright Rupi Mangat

There is excitement in the air. We’ve been on the plains since sunrise, watching the sun shed its light on the vast grass plains of the Maasai Mara, tinting the long stalks gold and warming the earth. It’s the time of plenty and the wildebeest take full advantage of the good tidings following the grass route from the neighbouring Serengeti and into the Mara, mowing the grass down as they move in a tidal wave. And we’re following them in the hope of watching a river crossing.

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