MBT - Conservancy Diary

bull elephants fight over female

Freitag, den 06. Mai 2011 um 17:53 Uhr Geschrieben von: Philip Mbeke

Head Scout’s daily report

Reporting date: 06.05.2011

The scouts team while on patrol sighted a family of elephants running as if they were in danger. On a closer look they noticed three bull trailing them at a distance. Two of the bulls were much larger. The younger bull led the two other larger male in pursuit of the oestrus female. Onn noticing that the younger bull was a head the other two bull increased their paces out running the young bull. The two large bulls joined together then chased away him away. They ensured that he was kept at bay from the females.

Bull elephants spend much a lot of time fighting for dominance with each other. Only the most dominant males will be permitted to breed with cycling females. The less dominant ones must wait their turns. It is usually the older bulls, forty to fifty years old, that do most of the breeding. The dominance battles between males can look very fierce, but typically they inflict very little injury. Most of the bouts are in the form of aggressive displays and bluffs. Ordinarily, the smaller, younger, and less confident animal will back off before any real damage can be done. Moreover, during the breeding season, the battles can get extremely aggressive, and the occasional elephant is injured. During this season, known as musth, a bull will fight with almost any other male it encounters, and it will spend most of its time hovering around the female herds, trying to find a receptive mate.

http://youtu.be/ONWPyTfGh0o

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Game Reports - MBT - Conservancy Diary

Bull elephant meets its match

Donnerstag, den 05. Mai 2011 um 18:21 Uhr Geschrieben von: Philip Mbeke

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Head Scout’s daily report

Reporting date: 04.05.2011

Two days earlier, our scouts while on patrol noticed a huge lone bull elephant resting in one of the bushes in the conservancy. Earlier, they received reports from some young herders that the elephant had been seen resting in one of the wooded areas outside the conservancy for 7 days without leaving the area. When our scout got the message, they monitored its movement to ascertain whether it was ill or just resting. For 2 days the elephant did not leave the area where it was. Sensing that it might be ill, we notified the Kenya Wildlife service (KWS) and the Narok County Council (NCC) Wardens as well as the police who responded quickly by sending vets on the scene. Our scouts joined the KWS team and we tracked the elephant to assess any injuries before bringing him down for treatment. The bull kept us at bay by hiding in the bush. For over 2 hours we struggled to get it into an open area to enable us get closer for assessment. At some point the KWS ranger had to shoot in the air to prevent it from charging at us. We were almost giving up thinking that it would hide for the whole day when one of the memebrs of staff observed it from a distance as it came out of the bush into an open area away from where we were. He phoned us. We immediately swung into action, pursued it and caught up with it before it went into the bush. The vet quickly darted it and after 10 minutes it was overpowered by the tranquilizer. It fell and immediately the vets went to work, searching for wounds, picking pests like tick as specimens. It was found with wounds on the lower left leg and ear which was treated with antibiotics. Therebeing no major injury, it was "woken up" by an injection. In 2 minutes, he rose and walked away as if nothing had happened. The bull met its match, a doze that sent him tumbling down in the bush.

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Game Reports - MBT - Conservancy Diary

Lets go Muddy!

Montag, den 25. April 2011 um 18:07 Uhr Geschrieben von: Philip Mbeke

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Head Scout’s daily report

Reporting date: 25.04.2011

Although it has been raining heavily in many other parts of the Masai Mara game reserve, the areas bordering the reserve to the east are very dry due to lack of rain. The situation is the same in our conservancy. The few water points and pools are almost dead dry forcing the animals to share the remaining pools. Moreover, it was interesting watching the parchyderms making good use of such pools in the conservancy. The conservancy game scouts sighted a herd of 14 elepants having a mud bath at one of the pools. Owing to the dry weather and heat of the day, no one could blame the elephants for using their spare time to cool off and have fun as well.

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One horned giraffe

Freitag, den 08. April 2011 um 18:23 Uhr Geschrieben von: Philip Mbeke

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Head Scout’s daily report

Reporting date: 08.04.2011

The conservancy is now teaming with wildlife after the rains begun in the area. Daniel sighted lots of common game including impalas, Zebra, Topi, Wildebeests, warthogs, buffalos just to mention a few. Moreover, the highlight of his afternoon game drive within our private conservancy was the one horned giraffe which stood behind a bush and only his neck and head was visible. That is why his brocken horn was visible. The horn might have been broken during a fight with another male. Sometimes male giraffes fight each other to decide which is stronger. They lean their hindquarters against each other for support and swing their necks, using their horns like hammers to hit each other. The butting of necks and heads can be so loud and fierce. In fact one blow of their head could easily kill another.

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An elephant and the Sausage tree

Dienstag, den 05. April 2011 um 19:35 Uhr Geschrieben von: Philip Mbeke

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Head Scout’s daily report

Reporting date: 05.04.2011

A young elephant was spotted resting under a Sausage tree (Kigelia africana) by Daniel and his guests while on an Afternoon game drive. The young elephant which was seen mostly playing by himself was at one point seen rubbing his rear on the sausage tree. The sausage tree is known so because of its fruits which are huge, long and shaped like sausages and hang down from the limbs on long, ropelike stalks. The mature fruits dangle from the long stalks like giant sausages and may be up to 0.6 m long and weigh up to 6.8 kg.

Though known as the sausage tree, this tree is known for its use in making alcohol locally known by the Maasai as Muratina. The fruit is fermented and mixed with other herbs to create a strong spirit-like alcohol.

Elephants Love this tree and are sometimes seen shaking the tree to feed on the falling fruits and leaves. However, they also use the tree for sctatching to get rid of skin pests. Also after a mud wallow, the elephant needs to rub off the dry mud and the perfect tree for this is the Sausage tree as it has a rough bark.

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"Ole Mzee" passes on

Dienstag, den 05. April 2011 um 08:30 Uhr Geschrieben von: Philip Mbeke

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Head Scout’s daily report

Reporting date: 04.04.2011

The Oldest elephant in our conservancy passed on this week due to old age. The elephant, an adult male was a frequent visitor to the conservancy especially after the rains in the past year. Prior to his demise, he was seen in the conservancy for about 5 days. Every evening during our afternoon game drives, we passed by to see him. At one point Daniel, reported that he looked frail and limping. He spent most of his last days resting in the nearby croton bushes at Ntulele plot sometimes straying into Oloropa and Kirok Loirien plots. His behaviour was unusual at first as elephants move a lot in the day searching for food. In fact they spend three halves of their time eating. But when his body was found five days later in Kirok Loirien plot them, we knew that he must have been on his last days.

Our scouts on patrol discovered the body lying in a bush where he must have struggled as he inhaled his last breath. His tusks were intact. His boby still fresh was opened by a pack of Hyenas who managed to rip open a small hole if the belly.

We invited the Wildlife authorities KWS and NCC who came and removed the tusks for safe keeping. Both tusks were estimated to weigh about 100Kg in total. May Ole Mzee rest in peace!

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Game Reports - MBT - Conservancy Diary

Its green & lush again

Head Scout’s daily report

Reporting date: 27.03.2011

Over a week ago, it was very dry and the vegetation were drying up forcing most of the herbivores to migrate to other places outside the conservancy where they could get anough food. Nevertheless, the dry spell is over. Its been raining in the area for the past week and now the vegetation has become green and lush again. Many herbivores are seen streaming back into the conservancy. This afternoon, during our afternoon Gamedrive, we saw many Thompson gazelles, Imnpalas, Topis, Zebras, Masai giraffes, buffalos, wildebeests grazing in the conservancy. As it was getting cooler in the afternoon, Philip and his 2 guests watched a herd of common or plains zebra moving into the conservancy core area where there is more greenery.

Common Zebras live is small herds of 7 - 10 headed by a stallion with several mares and foals. They feed mainly on grasses but also eat shrubs, twigs, leaves and bark. They are quite dependent on water and need to drink daily.