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Kenya: Day 10: Maasai Mara

Being on an organized trip is simple. You wake up, eat and then you do what you are told and sometimes you need just that, relax and enjoy, so today we woke up, had breakfast and then we enjoyed the whole day on the safari in The Maasai Mara National Reserve.

The Maasai Mara National Reserve covers some 1,510 km2 in south-western Kenya. It is the northern-most section of the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem, which covers some 25,000 km2 in Tanzania and Kenya. It is bounded by the Serengeti Park to the south, the Siria escarpment to the west, and Maasai pastoral ranches to the north, east and west.

Food wasn't so Kenyan as we expected

 

Impala are known for their great leaping ability, reaching heights up to 3 m.

View from our van

Lioness

 

The cheetah can run as fast as 120.7 km/h, faster than any other land animal. It covers distances up to 500 m in short bursts, and can accelerate from 0 to 96 km/h in three seconds.

 

In the wild, the cheetah is a prolific breeder, with up to nine cubs in a litter. The majority of cubs do not survive to adulthood, mainly as a result of depredation from other predators. The rate of cub mortality varies from area to area, from 50% to 75%, and in extreme cases such as the Serengeti ecosystem, up to 90%.

Zebras and giraffes

Giraffe

 

African wattled lapwing or Senegal wattled plover

 

Simba

 

HKKE

Tawny eagle

Lilac-breasted roller

 

Resting in the shade

Zebras

 

Marshall Eagle with its prey

Warthogs

 

The plains zebra (Equus quagga, formerly Equus burchellii), also known as the common zebra or Burchell's zebra, is the most common and geographically widespread species of zebra.

The remains of the Wildebeest

 

Group of Topi with zebras 

B/W

Saddle-billed stork feeding the youngs

Ostrich can run at up to about 70 km/h.

 

The king

Marabou stork

 

A lion may gorge itself and eat up to 30 kg in one sitting. If it is unable to consume all the kill it will rest for a few hours before consuming more.

Cheetah with babies

 

 

Are they black and white or white and black? Embryological evidence has shown that the zebra's background colour is dark and the white is an addition.

 

Lunch time in The Maasai Mara National Reserve

Horny ostrich got lucky

Happy family

Zebra with Yellow-billed oxpecker. The oxpecker's preferred food is blood, and while they may take ticks bloated with blood, they also feed on it directly,pecking at the mammal's wounds. So the good the bird does to the mammal may be negated by its keeping the wounds open to parasites and disease. Whatever the net result, mammals generally tolerate oxpeckers.

Warthog family

 

African elephant have to eat 5% of their body weight every day and so sleep for only 4-5 hours a day and in very short bursts (often whilst standing). They communicate through subsonic calls that humans are unable to detect and Elephants may detect these even kms away, feeling vibrations in their feet also. Deceptively quick, able to reach 30 km/h they are often seen hustling to waterholes that sate their thirst (can drink up to 200 litres in one drinking session).

 

More vegetarians

Hippopotamus

After the elephant and rhinoceros, the common hippopotamus is the third-largest type of land mammal.

Waiting to cross the river

Climbing lion

 

It is somewhat uncommon for lions to actually climb trees. This one did. 

Mara river

Predators of topi include lions and spotted hyenas with jackals being predators of newborns. They are especially targeted by hyenas. Nevertheless, topi tend to have a low predation rate when other species are present.

Adult males usually live alone. Herds are made up of related females and their young, led by the eldest female, called the matriarch.

View from our Nissan Urvan

The Mara River basin covers a surface of 13,504 km2, of which approximately 65% is located in Kenya and 35% in Tanzania. From its sources in the Kenyan highlands, the river flows for about 395 km and originates from the Mau Escarpment and drains into Lake Victoria.

Crocodile near the Mara river

Red-necked spurfowl or red-necked francolin

Zebras and Wildebeest crossing the Mara river

 

Photo-session under the tree

Remains of common eland

Common elands are spiral-horned antelopes.

 

The population of wildebeest has been estimated to be around one and a half million and the population trend is stable.

View to Tanzania

Unlike most other National Parks in Kenya the Maasai Mara National Reserve is not administered by the Kenya Wildlife Service, but by Narok County government.

Unknown beauty

Birdy

To break down the plants it consumes, the African bush elephant has four large molars, two in each mandible of the jaw. Each of these molars is 10 centimetres wide and 30 centimetres long.  Over time, these molars are worn away, and new ones are grown to replace them as the elephant ages. Around the age of 15, the milk teeth are replaced by new ones that last until the age of 30, and then by another set which wear off past the age of 40, being replaced by the last set of teeth that last until about the age of 65–70. Not much later, the animal dies of starvation from not being able to feed correctly.

 

Hyenas, especially spotted hyenas, are known for killing as much as 95% of the animals they eat, and for driving off leopards or lionesses from their kills, although they have long been regarded as being cowardly scavengers.

Baby Hyenas

On our way back

Africa

Despite being an antelope, the blue wildebeest possesses various bovine characteristics.

Mwanza flat-headed rock agama or the Spider-Man agama

The plains zebra's range is fragmented, but spans much of southern and eastern Africa south of the Sahara. Its habitat is generally but not exclusively treeless grasslands and savanna woodlands, both tropical and temperate. They generally avoid desert, dense rainforest and permanent wetlands, and rarely stray more than 30 kilometres from a water source.

Unlike other antelopes, the impala is an adaptable forager and does not need to migrate long distances.

The Tanzanian cheetah usually eats medium-sized or large mammalian herbivores, such as antelopes. It preys on impala, Grant's gazelle, wildebeest, waterbuck, hare and guineafowl. It even feeds on other large mammals, such as zebras and ostriches on few occasions.

Special thanks to Nada for taking the most of the photos and editing them.

Around Maasai Mara

Previous days on blog of Kenya travel days with Nada:
Pre-Pre Day, Pre-Day, Day1, Day2, Day3, Day4, Day5, Day6, Day7, Day8, Day9.