Masai Mara May 2009 Game Viewing Report courtesy of Governors Camp, Kenya

May brought warm days and rainy evenings typical of this time of year. Early morning temperatures averaged around 18°C but by midday we were basking in 31°C sunshine, in the late afternoons the storm clouds would gather and most evenings brought heavy rain showers. The combination of rain and sunshine has brought on lots of growth in The Musiara Marsh and adjacent grassland areas this in turn supporting lots of resident plains game. The rain in surrounding areas has also caused The Mara River to rise.

There are still good numbers of elephant and calves spread out within the Musiara and Bila Shaka grassland areas, with good grass available these elephant are not frequenting the woodlands as often. These families of elephant often make their way to the Musiara Marsh to feed and bathe. There are some large males in Musth and a few matings have been seen. During the months of February and March the Warburgia trees in the forest were dropping their fruit. Elephant love these small apple shaped fruit and the fruiting trees drew many elephant into the woodlands and subsequently into the camps to feast. There are a few elephant individuals that we all recognise well from their frequent visits to favourite fruiting trees in camp. There was one large bull in particular who would spend hours moving from fruiting tree to tree in the forest. He would curl his trunk up the tree, then slowly ease his weight against the trunk of the tree and then push against the tree trunk to encourage the fruit to fall. This bull would visit all three camps and many staff members encountered him as he wandered throughout the camps. On the 21st of May he was feeding out in the grasslands and came across another large bull elephant, both males were in Musth and at around lunchtime the two had an almighty fight. Our bull unfortunately sustained fatal internal injuries inflicted by the other bull elephant's tusks (we think the tusk must have pierced his lung / heart area) and he met his end and died near the Bila Shaka riverbed. Vultures were soon on the scene feeding on the carcass.

Giraffe are ever present within the Musiara area, specifically near the Marsh and between the camps; large numbers of them are being seen with many calves in crèches. Both sexes have horns, although the horns of a female are quite a bit smaller. The prominent horns are formed from ossified cartilage or cartilaginous growths, and are called ossicones. The appearance of horns is a reliable method of identifying the sex of giraffes, with the females displaying tufts of hair on the top of the horns, where as males' horns tend to be bald on top - an effect of necking in combat. Males sometimes develop calcium deposits which form bumps on their skull as they age, which can give the appearance of up to three additional horns. An interesting note on the Giraffes circulatory system; in the upper neck, a complex pressure-regulation system called the rete mirabile prevents excess blood flow to the brain when the giraffe lowers its head to drink or browse at grass level.

Within the riverine woodland verges there are good numbers of Defassa Waterbuck, breeding herds of impala with young calves and Olive Baboons. Out on the plains warthog are mating with boars sparring for oestrus females.

Reedbucks (who favour flood plains and drainage areas) are resident in the swamp. Towards the end of the dry season the grasses were dying back making the reedbuck visible and easy prey for cheetah and lion, but the arrival of rain and the growth of the coarse swamp grasses has hidden them away once again from preying eyes!

There are good numbers of eland with young calves on the high plains, there are also some large dominant breeding bulls that flank the periphery of these breeding herds. Topi, with their six month old calves, are resident on the high plains with herds of females congregating in well used lekking areas.

Blue Monkeys (C. mitis) have been seen in the forest around Governors' Camp. One rather confident Blue Monkey has been known to swim across the Mara River from the conservancy side to the reserve. He would sit and wait at the waters edge for up to an hour. Once he was sure the resident Nile Crocodiles had moved away he would jump in to the fast currents and swim strongly to the far bank. Many primates particularly new world primates are quite capable of swimming though it is not common for them to swim great distances.

The large breeding herd of Cape Buffalo estimated at 300 animals are on the northern grassland plains where the grasses are long, in plentiful supply and well suited for a buffalo diet.

The influx of water in the Marsh is attracting new residents and on the 4th of May a 10ft crocodile made its way along a hippo trail from the riverine forest towards the Marsh.

Within the camps and out in the grasslands we see lots of Dwarf and Banded Mongooses who are insectivorous carnivores. Out in the Marsh another more specialised mongoose is resident, the Marsh Mongoose. The Marsh Mongoose is a solitary creature who specialises in aquatic prey. They are most active at night and in the early evening although some activity has been observed during the day. An excellent swimmer, the Marsh Mongoose nonetheless prefers to keep its head above water, frequently resting on patches of grass and floating vegetation. Regular in its habits, this mongoose follows smooth and well-defined paths near the shorelines.

Recently there are good numbers of spotted hyena and their cubs on the high plains. Much of their prey is scavenged from other predators rather than killed by them. Spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) form social groups called clans. Clans may be composed of 3 to 80 members. Larger clans generally occur in prime territory with large prey concentrations, such as the Masai Mara, whereas smaller clans occur in drier or desert type areas of northern Kenya and sub Saharan Africa. All females are dominant to all males, and females remain in their natal clan for their entire lives. The spotted hyena is one of the top predators in Africa. However, there are several species which may kill them. In one study 13 of 24 hyaena carcasses found were killed by lions. Hyenas and lions particularly in the Mara/Serengeti ecosystem compete directly for food and often scavenge each other's kills. This competition often leads to antagonistic encounters that may result in death. This was evident this month when on the 8th the six males on paradise plains killed a spotted hyena. On the 25th at Bila Shaka 50 hyena were seen scavenging on the remains of the elephant carcass. We suspect that these hyenas were from two different antagonistic clans, they aggressively harassed one another and this resulted in one hyena dying.

On the feline front the Bila Shaka / Marsh pride have been moving about within their territory. Two females and three 5 month old cubs were close to the riverine woodland and towards the end of the month three members of the pride took up residence close to Governors' Camp and roared loudly on a nightly basis!

The Paradise pride of 7 lionesses, 5 sub adult males and 'Notch' have remained close to the river on the high plains and have had an eventful month. One male has been mating with one of the females. The pride males had an aggressive encounter with a Hyena which they killed on the 8th and the pride has been feeding off Eland, Buffalo and an adult Hippo.

The Ridge pride of 6 lionesses and 9 cubs of varying ages have not moved very much recently hunting mostly down towards the Talek River. There have also been some new arrivals a lioness up on the plains has 2 young cubs that we estimate are three weeks old.

The cheetah of our area of the Mara are also doing well. Shakira and her three ten month-old female cubs are thriving. They occupy a prime territory which has provided them with abundant food and kept them healthy and well fed on Thomson gazelles and reedbuck.

A single female has been hunting close to our airstrip and has also been feeding off Thomson Gazelles and reedbuck.

The three male brother coalition have latterly moved closer to the Marsh. They have been feeding off young topi and warthog, on the 26th they killed a female warthog and had the prey all to themselves as they were not harassed by other predators.

The female cheetah (Serena) and her male and female 16 month-old cubs are resident on the high plains. The female leopard resident in the rocky croton thickets near the Mara River had a surprise this month; she killed a Thomson Gazelle which she dragged up a tree and then ate some of it. She then decided to move the kill, she came down the tree moved into a croton thicket where she was ambushed and robbed of her kill by a spotted hyena, who quickly ran off with his easy meal!

The Young male leopard Kijana of the Musiara Marsh has retreated back into the forest for much of the month; in the last week of this month he was lounging in a fig tree on the edge of the swamp with a reedbuck kill. Back in camp widlflowers cloak the riverbank bushes and frogs in the Marsh croak contentedly late into the night.

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