Reporting Date: 25TH 0CTOBER 2011
 

Ranger Godson and Gordon had just picked their guests from Kogatende airstrip in the afternoon  and were doing a game drive enroute to the camp when they came across a martial eagle that had pinned down a very young warthog on the ground. It had stepped on its neck firmly with one leg and tearing with the other. The warthog was still struggling to free itself from the tight grip but it was all in vain. The mother and ran away into the bush with the other youngsters as the master of the air struck. At the moment there are lots of baby warthogs and most of the time they are seen running after their mothers in the open bush-lands with their tails held up. They have a lot of predators as a few days ago, we had seen cheetahs trying to hunt them although unsuccessfully. Today it was the

Reporting Date: DD.MM.YYYY

Replace this text with your own text.

Reporting Date: 25.10.2011

Female topis come into oestrus for only one day in a year and therefore females complete with each other for mating rights with the dominant males. This means that the females also synchronyze their calving in a short period of time. In fact a vast majority of births occur between October and December with half of them occurring in October. For instance, this morning during a early morning game drive we counted up to 8 calves in a harem of 10 females.

Calves can follow their mothers immediately after birth. On the other hand, females separate themselves from the herd to calve and calves commonly seek hiding places during the night especially when not migrating. Infant topis spend their first 3 to 12 days lying out and at about 3 months start growing horns and acquiring adult coloring.The maternal bond between a mother and her calf ends after a year or when she births and new calf. Both yearling males and females form bachelor herds.

To view the sighted animals table click the "Read more" button.

Reporting Date: 21st October 2011
 

Hippo defends wildebeest on river crossing.

The world of nature is full of unusual events. It never cease to amaze, today ranger Deus and his guests were waiting for a river crossing of the wildebeests coming back into the Serengeti from the Masai mara. The time was about three in the afternoon when this unusual event took place. For nearly twenty minutes these animals crossed without any bad incident taking place. Unseen by the wildebeests was a huge Nile crocodile that lay in wait near the crossing point for the right time to attack. When a great majority had crossed, the lethal killer decided that time was ripe to move into action. He dashed forwards into the crossing line and grabbed an adult wildebeest by the neck trying to drown it.  A few meters away from the scene of attack was a hippo pool from which emerged a male hippo that went in for rescue. He tried several times to lift up the wildebeest from the back with his muzzle to prevent it from being drowned by the crocodile, but each time the reptile pulled the prey a few meters away holding tight. It was now a matter of pushing and pulling. Meanwhile the wildebeests had stopped crossing and this was the only event that remained in the waters.  Finally the crocodile won by pinning the wildebeests down in the deeper parts of the water and they both submerged. The hippo then moved back slowly to join the others in the pool, he looked so miserable for losing a fellow grazer. 

Reporting Date: 23.10.2011

Alex left on a early morning game drive  focusing on his four guest request which was the rhino. On arrival to the maasai mara national reserve nature was so kind they came across three rhinos, a female with calf and one male rhino.

The calf stay with their mother until the next calf is born usually two to four years, at this age the older calf is usually driven away but often returns later or is temporarily adopted by another  female.

To view the sighted animals table click the "Read more" button.

Reporting Date: 22.10.2011

Cheetah like other big cats, kill their prey by strangulation. They hunt mainly medium-size antelops particularly Thompsons gazelles and Impala. Cheetahs hunt mostly during the first few morning hours and the last few evening hours.

This morning the two cheetahs nickname artur brothers were seen by Alex and his four guest hunting and killing a young steenbok in the Maasai Mara. After subduing the steenbok they guickly started feeding to avoid interferance from lions and hyena.

To view the sighted animals table click the "Read more" button.

Reporting Date: 21.10.2011

Alex and his four guest while out on a full day game drive in the masaai mara ecosytem came across the rhinocerous who after having breakfast he was crossing the road heading to the bushes

The rhino are mostly active early in the morning and  evenings also during the night, adults are usually solitary living in a well defined homerange. the homerange of male and female tend to overlap but males may or maynot defend  part of their range as an exclusive territory.

To view the sighted animals table click the "Read more" button.

Reporting Date: 18th october 2011

It was about mid-day on a game drive when ranger Deus suddenly came across a Bateluer and Tawny eagle feeding on the ground on what at first looked like left –overs from another animal’s kill. They were on the opposite side of each other with the meal in the middle. On getting closer,  they  found  that they were feeding  on  the remains of a leopard tortoise whose shell appeared to have been smashed  into smaller pieces. Definitely it had been killed by something else other than the two eagles as they have not been known to kill tortoises. Tawny and  Bateluer eagles are sometimes seen on scavenging  sites  where  vultures  feed  on bigger animals but they would not be at the forefront in such areas but wait patiently for some opportunity  or simply pick up tiny pieces that fall a few meters away. 

Reporting Date: 18.10.2011

While on an early morning drive Alex and his guests found a pride of 20 lions feeding on a giraffe. The kill was still fresh meaning that this large pride could have brought it down in the night. They were quite surprised to see the kill as Lions are known to kill subadult giraffes. Owing to the the enormous size of the giraffe, the pride is assured of a meal for the next 3 or 4 days. 

To view the sighted animals table click the "Read more" button.

Reporting Date. 16/10/2011

The arrival of the wildbeests into the mara brings good news to the cats as food is in plenty making  conditions favourable for breeding. The cheetah gestation period is on average 3 month and the young ones are kept into hiding for some time before being moved around in search of save places and food for the lactating female.

Philip on a full day game drive came across this delicate family roaming the Maasai Mara plains and had ample time with the happy looking family. The guests wished them a safe survival after philip explained the dangers involved in raising the tender cubs in the enemy full ecosytem which include mostly  the lions and hyena. 

To view the sighted animals table click the "Read more" button.

Reporting Date: 15th october 2011

The Serval cat is one of the smaller members of the cat families which is not well known compared to the bigger cats in the wild. It is mostly a solitary cat which feeds on small prey like rodents and birds. But on this particular day,  we  were  on our way back to the camp from a full day game drive in the afternoon when  just by the roadside  under  some acacia trees, we noticed a serval  cat  moving away with some furry  item on its mouth. We followed it for a little while and  found  that it was actually carrying a tail of a  banded  mongoose ,  this means that it was just  finishing  its meal. We looked around and saw  the  place  where  it had actually made the kill. The place   still had  some  traces of blood. This habit of preying  on  mongoose is very unusual for this cat which is mostly solitary and it amazed us. Mongoose  are usually very alert and move in large colonies.