Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Spending time with Siri and her young male cub Kijana

I spent a couple of weeks along the Mara, by the ''black rocks'', downstream from paradise crossing point. This is an area popularly known as the pump house. In the area, is Siri the leopard with her 7-8 month old male cub. Siri and her older son Shujaa lived in the same area until recently when the young cub came along. Shujaa seems to have moved further from here to give way to an older male we call acacia male who now frequents here and we believe is the father of the young cub. Shujaa, which is Swahili for a brave one could not have been a better name for him. He had grown to be such a calm leopard lately giving us great poses. but as it is with most males, this changes as they grow older.
I have known Siri since 2006 when she was born around the same area. Her mother was just known to a few guides as Chemorta female and later pump house female. Siri assumed the same name later when her mother is believed to have died, as she was quite old. Her mother was very she of vehicles and not many guides even had a good chance to identify her. Siri was born with a male sibling, who later upon independence of her mother, went upstream to settle near the cul de sac area.

Her current small cub is such a charm. He has grown so used to vehicle. I spend sometimes last week, 'stuck' when he went under my vehicle and stayed there. Although it was such a great experience spending time with him and his mother, we lost another great sighting of big fights between lions and between lions and Hyaenas when they some lions killed a buffalo near. But we could not move since the leopard cubs was under the vehicle. Anyway we had such a great experience with him and the mum all on our own!. While watching them last week, i noted that they are slowly taking over leopard sightings from Olives daughters who are somehow becoming less frequently seen. Otherwise i hope this will also help to spread the vehicles to avoid crowding in one place when looking for leopard.

While thinking of a name for this young male, i could not think of a any better than Kijana, which is Swahili for a young lad. I suggested this to other guides and were all in agreement. Now that you can identify him form the spots on the face, it is good to have him named so that we can follow him as he grows.


Kijana looking out of the bush near our vehicle

On his own, he can be very inquisitive

Kijana posing

Siri 

A great game experience starts the year

As we start the year, one thing that really stands out and noticeable by many in the tourism sector in Kenya and Tanzania, is that of low tourist numbers. Over the past year, the terrorism activities witnessed in Kenya, coupled with the outbreak of Ebola in west Africa, has led to so many cancellations by visiting intending to visit the region. visiting many game parks at the moment the low numbers of safari vehicles is an evidence that the traditional low tourists season normally experienced in April to June, has come early this year.
Besides the downtime as mentioned above, looking at it from a conservation point of view, perhaps the current tourists number is what we should have anyway. this is a time when you lest tread on anybody's toes since there is plenty of space. this is the time when you can enjoy a sighting all on your own even in the traditional busy reserve, like Masai Mara, Samburu, Ngorongoro etc. While on a trip recently at Ngorongoro crater, i found it unusual to see only 8 vehicles at the Nkoitokitok spring picnic spot. This is one spot that could have ten times that number in the busy season. In Samburu too, on a recent trip i saw only 2 other vehicles which is also unusual.

Generally, in all the places i visited last month and early this month, i and my guests have enjoyed solitude moments which we have not had for very long time due to increased number of visitors in the parks in recent years. This gave me gave me and my guests great photographic opportunity, without the risk of having somebody parking behind your subject. We were happy to have spent such a moment as i know it will not last. With the increased security measure by our governments this will give more confidence to potential visitors to the region and soon the numbers will be up again.



At the start of the year, with wildebeests around, we could still see active predation

We spent some times with the Samburu people in Kalama conservancy while camping.

A view of the spectacular mount Ololokwe

Isn't it nice to be children?

Samburu woman doing her bead work at one of the villages we visited



Elephants in Samburu game reserve



It has been great sunrises and sunsets lately


Leopard sightings has been very good

Siri

Siri


A great pose by siri

Siri's cub Kijana

Malaika's cubs at sunset




Siri being chased by a baboon

The marsh bride

A Hyaena baby in the Mara

A Hippo out and about

Malaika with a Buffalo in the background

Monday, January 26, 2015

A great week spent with Malaika in the Mara


I spent the past one week with Malaika, the female cheetah in the Mara with her cubs. Her four surviving cubs are such a joy to spend sometimes with. Just like any cubs, they spend most of the time playing around their mum, trying to improve their skills in stalking and chasing prey. These cubs, are so obedient, that when their mother starts stalking a prey, they stay put and keep a good distance from the mother to avoid spoiling the hunt lest they go hungry. most cheetah cubs behaves as such when their mothers go hunting.

Malaika has lately come to settle near Olkiombo airstrip. She would go out hunting on the higher ground to the east of the airstrip but in the evening will retreat back to the airstrip area for the night. Looking closely, I came to realize that her choice of spending time near the airstrip, is due to the absence of lions and not many hyenas, which could be a problem when she hunts. she is such a great mother and I have seen her before, bring up cubs successfully by avoiding prey competition and choosing safe locations for her cubs upbringing. Her current young cubs are now almost past danger from lions etc, since they can now run fast enough. Earlier on, she lost one of the cubs when she crossed the Talek (which then had high water) only to be confronted by lions after she had just crossed, forcing her to swim back across with her cubs and one of the cubs drowned in the process. This is one of the bad experience she must have gone through over the years. In general she is such a good mother and we see her current cubs living into adulthood. 
She and her cubs gave us such a great photographic opportunities.

Thomson's gazelles which forms her main prey are many in the area where she has lately settled.

This is Rekero pride, who are direct competitors currently to Malaika since they occasionally come in contact. 

She is quite a vigilant mother





She has come to like the dirt mounts near Olkiombo airstrip, where she spend the night

Watching out at sunset




Early morning lookout



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