An afternoon with Olive's cubs

I went out this morning to look for Olive’s cubs after I was called by another guide over the radio that they have been seen. However when I go there, they had disappeared into the bushes. Olive was also seen about half a kilometre away. After looking around for a whole one hour I went back to camp.


There was a brief storm over lunch, but did not last long. I set out at 4pm again to look for the cubs. I have been trying to have a good observation on the cubs to be able to identify them positively.

I finally got up with them just as they emerged form the bushes at around 5pm. They were very relaxed and gave me an amble time to have a god look at them for a whole 2 hours. I managed to get a few shots (not great ones) for identifying them. I can now confidently say that I can identify the cubs.

After this, I thought I should contact my colleague Jackson Looseyia, who has been following these cubs all along as well, so that we name them, now that I can tell the two. One of the cubs is bold enough and quite relaxed. This one I named Nkaiyoni (Maasai for boy) and the other cub, which is a bit shy I called him Paja (Swahili for twin),

We both agreed with Jackson that these will remain their names now that we can identify them. and Hurray…… that’s their names

Paja: Full face and left side

Nkaiyoni: Full face and left side

Nkaiyoni: Right side, note 3 spots over hte wiskers line

Paja: Right side, note onnly two spots over hte wiskers

The Mara is green again

The Mara is quiet and beautiful at the moment. With few tourists in most of the camps and less vehicles in the park, it is the place to be for those who love wilderness concepts.


After the recent rains which wreaked havoc in many places in the country, the Mara is now green with the grass growing tall fast especially on the central plains. On the lower areas and marshes, it is still wet though we have not had rain for a couple of weeks now.

Most of the general plains game have moved to drier areas, mainly high grounds. This is normally to avoid fungal infection s in their hooves and also to avoid being preyed upon by the predators. This also makes life difficult for lions, cheetah and leopards to hunt. This is a time when we see lions going up termite mounts or tree to gain vantage points to scan around for prey. Cheetahs too are seen doing the same, and even though they are not good climbers, they can bee seen going up trees to look around.

A herd of Elephants going through the long grass

A lion scanning the plains from a termite mount

A cheetah runs after an Impala yesterday (But was taken by Hyaenas)