We left early this morning and immediately saw a wild dog hunting. This dog is the only dog that remains of her pack. They say she has lived here alone for two years. She didn’t catch what she was after. Then a hyena showed up nearby so she abandoned her hunting for the time being.
Then off we went to find the male lion from last night. We found him just as he was giving himself a bath. Then he walked within inches of our vehicles off in the bushes to find his resting spot for the day.
Then we went off to the neighboring conservancy, Naboisho, to look for lions.
As we drove a tremendous cloud of dust came up and three warthogs went off running in different directions. I learned when warthogs come out of their den they throw up dust as camouflage for any predators nearby. They also run in different directions to confuse predators.
We found a very pregnant lioness. She looked uncomfortable. .
And two male cheetahs. I just can’t get over how many cheetahs I am seeing!
We again had bush breakfast. Here is the breakfast view and a picture of my two guides and vehicle.
After lunch I I told the guide I wanted to go back and see the pregnant lioness. He said it was 3 km the other way, but something told me to go so we did. We found her with four of her older (3-year old) subadult children!! In this picture the pregnant lioness is on the right and a 3-year old daughter is on the left.
Then we ran into a herd of about 50 Cape buffalo. It was awesome. They always look angry. Little birds, oxpeckers, were on them cleaning mites and ticks off of the buffalo. The birds even went inside the buffalo’s nose and ears!
It was an elephant day today! We saw a total of seven elephant families. One family had a tiny month old baby.
In the video if you look closely you can see the baby elephant walking under its mother.
We ran into two elephant families who were greeting one another with noises that sounded like low grumbles. It felt like the earth was shaking!
In another instance the elephant matriarch spent some time sniffing the air around us. (I have a video on my camera.) I guess we passed the test because she let us stay!
Just before reaching camp we found the mother cheetah and her four cubs—the cheetahs that killed the baby Thompson gazelle yesterday. They had obviously eaten more than that. Look at their bellies! It’s like they have a bowling ball in it!
Later in the day we saw a great herd of wildebeests all traveling somewhere in a straight line.
We ended the evening the same as the past two evenings—with the lion pride. For me there is no better way to end the evening. We’ve see the same partial pride each of three nights, though in different configurations. Night 1 – one mom + 6 young lions. Night 2 – one mom + 7 young lions. Night 3 – two moms + 5 young lions. Tonight one mom starting leading the lions, the young lions all formed a line, and the second mom brought up the rear. We followed them for quite a while. Quite often, a young lion would just plop down. The second mom had the difficult job of bringing all the stragglers. The first mom had to often wait awhile. It was interesting to watch the mothers work together. And then there was of course the good daughter, who was first in line and stayed right with mom. We think they were taking them to join the rest of the pride. I really wanted to stick with them but we had to return to camp.
I’ve been very lucky in that this far it has not rained at all here in the Mara. However this afternoon the wind really picked up. Here is a video of the INSIDE wall of my tent blowing.
I learned some Swahili before I came but I didn’t use any up in Samburu. Here I have been with the guides! It’s been fun!
Current count:
- Lions: 28
- Leopards: 6
- Cheetahs: 20
Looking Out Seeing Within 