Magic Of The Masai Mara Game Park. A Safari Into The Mara Is An Escapade To The Top Wildlife Park.
Obviously the Mara is the greatest savanna of Africa Safari. A bird's eye view of the action below stirs my anticipation.
Within a few minutes of flying into the Mara, we spot an elephant and giraffes beneath, and on the banks of the Talek River, a pair of hippos partly exposed from the water.
It's end of June, just following long rains and the season before the great migration and the savanah is rich in tall golden green grass of different patterns.
As we drive through, we run into many Thomson's gazelles browsing by the roadside.
Farther, a parenting cheetah with a rounded belly gazes our way as it eats the remains of an antelope. Meanwhile the cub is still enjoying the meal, its nose reddish with blood.
"Cheetahs are diurnal. They hunt in the daytime," explains the guide. "They are not as strong as lions and leopards, thus they eat fast or else their kill will be taken. They can even be driven away by packs hyenas or vultures."
Seven minutes away, we encounter another cheetah and her two cubs on an anthill. They scrutinize us slothfully but the mother's ears pick the sounds of the cowbells and she sits up alert, sweeping the plains. The flock of Masai cows is way in the distant and not sensing any risk to her cubs, she slouches down again, relaxed.
The heavy rains have ended and the plains are full of grass making it arduous for the smaller species to graze. Mostly it is the big animals like giraffes and elephants and the bigger antelopes that can be easily seen around.
This makes hunting challenging for the cats and they wind up with strange tactics. It is not unique to see lions and cheetahs trying to climb trees and anthills to get a high vantage spot for searching for prey.
Cheetahs claws cannot retract like those of the other cats and would not mostly climb trees, but because they need to locate prey, they'll attempt anything.
Cheetahs, unlike other predators, are not strong so they hunt smaller-sized antelopes, by scurrying them to exhaustion as they go for the jugular vein of the prey to make a smart kill.
Minutes after sighting the second cheetah, we come across another cheetah Mother (Shakira).
"Shakira had five cubs but two were killed," the guide quips. "Cheetah mothers typically keep shifting when they have cubs to avoid lions and leopards killing their cubs."
Ahead a pride of twelve lions shows up consisting of a male, females and cubs. The male roars, the roar echoing beyond the plains, as it rolls over on its back. The females get up ready to roam the plains.
"This is my best time in the Masai Mara," says the guide, "because there is less traffic and makes it easy to see wildlife."
In another few days it will be July, and the plains will start to fill with wildebeests as they move from the Serengeti.
There will be a million plus wildebeests passing the Sand River and going to the far end of the Mara before whirling to make the cyclic exploration. By the end of November, all the grass will be consumed by the wildebeests and some 400000 zebras and other animals.
In one afternoon, in a radius of 10 km, we have discovered countless animals. What a way to begin our Masai Mara safari.
The next day, as the sun rises in the horizon, the plains seem quieter. This day we go out seeking for the big five.
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Magic Of The Masai Mara Game Park. A Safari Into The Mara Is An Escapade To The Top Wildlife Park.