Day 20: Of Orphaned Elephants and Kissing Giraffes

Had a leisurely morning and left the Hotel at 10AM. Arrived at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust at the edge of Nairobi just before 11AM. This organization is committed to the conservation, preservation, and protection of wildlife. They are recognized experts in the rescue and rearing of elephant and rhino orphans until they can be released back into the wild. It is a monumental task requiring amazing dedication and skill. The BBC has filmed its award winning program the Elephant Chronicles here. The program follows the lives of elephants from their initial rescue and rehabilitation to their release and eventual integration back into a wild herd.

The baby elephants have horrific backgrounds that brought them to this place. Many have been hurt, seen their families hunted down and killed, or were injured or ill and finally fell behind their family and had their mothers make the agonizing decision to stay with the safety of the herd and leave the tiny baby behind. The babies then survived a few horrific days alone without their families while hyenas chewed off their tails and they wandered alone and afraid. The Kenyan Wildlife Service often was the first to spot them and the Sheldrick Trust was called into to rescue them.

A baby elephant can only last about 5 days without nursing so many of the babies were often in terrible shape when they were brought in. The baby spends much of its time wandering under the larger members of the herd. It is here, beneath the bellies of its family that the little one finds protection from the elements and an all-important source of shade. Without this protection from the intense equatorial sun, many of the rescued babies had lost parts of their ears to severe sunburn.

Even once rescued and its wounds and physical needs of formula and shelter are attended to, the baby is still at extreme risk for the psychological needs of the babies must also be met. Having undergone extreme emotional stress, the babies often go into a deep depression. To counter this and help give the elephants the sense of family they require, the handles are constantly with them to provide this critical emotional support.

We looked into the stalls where the babies were kept at night. Each stall had a clean hay bed for the baby and a mattress for the handler who spends literally 24 hours a day tending for their charge. Handlers are rotated frequently so the babies don’t become too attached to a single individual. There is only a single one-hour-long public feeding per day, which we witnessed. The rest of the time is spent in sleep, feedings, and walks with their handlers through Nairobi National Park where they will eventually be released to join the wild herds there. There will come a day about two years off, when the little orphan decides it would rather live with its wild family. Each baby in its own time determines when it is finally time to leave its human family. The staff said it was not unusual for adult elephants to return to visit years after their orphanage experience. The elephants really never forget the gentle care and kindness provided by their surrogate family here.

For more information on this amazing program go to: http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/

Day 19: Farewell to the Mara

Up by 5 with coffee and hot milk delivered to our tent with the now familiar “ode” (good morning) We quickly packed, had breakfast at 7:30 and I was out for a quick visit to see the progress on the hammerkop’s nest in Double Gorge. The light was beautiful, softly filtered by a high layer of clouds, perfect for photography.

The industrious pair of hammerkops was still industriously building their nest. Every few minute another twig, stick, or mouthful of dry grass was fetched, and it was all woven carefully woven into a beautifully tight basket-like nest. It was amazing the progress over the last few days, but they still have nearly a month and a half before their nest-building task is done. Then the eggs will be laid, hatch, and the real work of raising the kids begins. We searched for lions in the luggas on the way back to camp and found none. It was an unusually quiet morning that matched my mood. It will be hard to leave this place. The Maasai Mara, the spotted landscape, an unrelentingly real place as magic as dream. It is here that the veneer of life seems to be peeled back and the true nature of this land is exposed. This place transcends words, it exceeds expectations, it amazes and amuses, and above all else it is as raw and real as it is beautiful.

We returned to the Camp for lunch, gathered our bags and loaded into the Land Cruiser one last time for a drive into the National Park to the landing strip. From the strip’ we could look out across the tall golden grass and watch the elephant herd moving slowly down to the lugga to drink. The world was moving in the slow deliberate cadence of life on the Mara at midday. There always seems to be a hush at midday and the long stretched warm afternoons. Predators sleep, prey rests and a tranquil calm settles in over the land. I will miss this place so.

The single–engine plane arrived as a white buzzing dot on the horizon flying out of the towering thunderheads set against blue skies to the south - my stomach tightened. I only had a few minutes left to stand on the Mara.

The plane landed, we loaded our gear onto it and climbed aboard. I moved forward in the 12 seater and settled in behind the pilot. Once aboard the pilot turned to me and said, “Would you like to see Wildebeest?” “Yes! You bet! “I answered enthusiastically. Anything to see more of this precious place and to delay the return to Nairobi, I thought.

So the pilot took off headed farther north toward Tanzania and the Serengeti to see the first of the wildebeest migration coming into the Mara. The vast savannah, as far as the eye, could see was spotted with luggas, herds of elephant, zebras, gazelle and impala, bomas, Maasai with their tightly bunched cattle herds, and with the occasional lone thorn tree. After one massive deep gliding turn, we looked down through the aircrafts windows and saw thousands, upon thousands of wildebeest. It looked like an aerial view of black ants sprinkled across the ground. Some wildebeest were gathered in herds while others were making their way along the game trails in long winding single-file lines. The migration had begun in Tanzania’s Serengeti and would soon reach the savannahs of Kenya’s Maasai Mara.

After one long last look, we steeply banked the plane to the right and headed back toward Nairobi, 45 minutes to the south. Landed at Nairobi at about 6PM. We were met by our driver, Anthony, and taken on a wild, death defying ride through traffic of downtown Nairobi at rush hour. It was the first time in two and a half weeks that I felt nervous in a vehicle. Pedestrians streamed across the road, cars darted in and out, vendors walked along the cars stopped during the massive congestion selling everything from sunglasses, and Mickey Mouse plush toys to grapefruit and passport covers. We were, at last, back in “civilization.” How I longed for the Mara and its congestion of zebras and wildebeest and having to patiently wait for “pedestrians” while a family of elephants crossed within a few yards of us or a group of lions wandered along side of the truck.

Made it to the Fairview Hotel and checked in. Tonight the night fell on the Masai Mara without us. I spent the night dreaming of wild places, of predator and prey, of a giraffe illuminated by the golden light of sunset and dramatically set against black storm clouds, of lions hunting, of impalas snorting their warnings, of fish eagles preening in the arms of a candelabra tree, and of young lion cubs learning the rules of the hunt.

Day 18: The Mara Triangle

Our time has gone so fast. It’s just hard to believe that we are down to our last full safari day. We decided to go into the Mara Triangle National Park to look for rhinos.

There are only a few rhinos left in the area so chances are slim for success. No luck today, but it seemed we saw everything else; elephant families feeding in the lugga, cheetahs hunting in the tall golden grass, Topi on the termite mounds, large slow moving herds of giraffe, big muscular waterbuck males locking horns in the marsh, zebras rolling in the dust, crowned cranes drinking at an ephemeral pond, secretary birds stomping on their prey before snapping it up, Hammerkop hunting catfish in a shallow creek, and a black-breasted fish eagle at its nest in an alien-looking candelabra tree.

Everywhere you looked, everywhere you turned, there was something amazing, something memorable, and something beautiful. It will be hard to pack up tomorrow, take that final game drive, and board the plane to leave the Mara. However, we are still in the middle of an immense today. I am consciously trying to soak it all in and record memories that I will draw from later when I return home. I don’t want to forget the awe that I have felt for this place or the overpowering sense of wonder.

We decided it was time for lunch so we headed toward the shade of a lone acacia tree within a few hundred feet of the border with Tanzania. It was one of the few places in the park, for that matter in the region, with a picnic table. We had decided on a rather civilized location for our last bush lunch.

We pulled up to the tables and realized lunch at the table was not to be - there seemed to be an insurmountable problem. There in the cool shade of the acacia were two beautiful tables constructed from stone and concrete all right but the difficulty came from the fact that there were also two very large lions sleeping on them. The lions each had claimed their own personal table. They exceeded the length of the table so their tails hung off at one end and their head and front legs drooped over the other. The cats slept soundly in a deep contented, full-bellied, sleep and were totally mindless of the land cruiser, and its astonished passengers, which were parked only a few feet from them. I took the opportunity to take reference photos of footpads, tail, fur, and face details and then we searched elsewhere for a place to have lunch.

On our way back through the park we stopped for two mating lions at the side of the road. The lion’s idea of courtship is a bit more radical than that of most humans. The first male that gets to a female in heat becomes her consort, which handily eliminates the wear and tear of fighting among the strong males. The happy couple then leaves the pride for 4-7 days during which time they mate, on average, 2.2 times per hour and in the case of the lions we watched it can occur 4-5 times per hour. The actual act of mating lasts less than a minute after which they promptly lie down and sleep only to wake up from their nap in a few minutes and do it all again. Only one estrus in 5 results in a pregnancy; cubs are born 14-15 weeks later.

A female with cubs will not be ready to breed again for 20-30 months after the birth. Because of this if the pride is taken over by a new male the newcomer will often kill all the pride’s cubs. As soon as the cubs are gone the female will come into heat again. This infanticide is a brutal but very effective means of ensuring that the dominant male’s genes are passed on and the previous male’s are not.

Throughout the afternoon as we drove we watched towering columns of white cumulous clouds building on the horizon. Finally by late afternoon the clouds coalesced into threatening grey sky then collapsed into the thick black of a very healthy, very intense, storm. Splashing through flood waters, crawling the truck over rocky roads and slipping and sliding through the Mara mud, Dixon expertly returned us to camp by 6 pm in time for a hot shower, warm dinner, and our last night at the camp.

Day 17: Breakfast with the Pride

Out onto the savannah of the conservancy to watch the sunrise. In the cool dawn twilight, the shadows of the scrub forests of thorny Acacia trees soon gave way to the infinite views and wide-open spaces of the heavily grazed grasslands. The short grass and absence of shrubs provided no cover for the vast numbers of grazing gazelles, zebras, and wildebeest, but it instead proves to be a great advantage to the prey by failing to provide much cover for a stalking predator.

As the dawn light grew stronger on the horizon, we were lucky enough to see one of the more elusive predators on the savannah, the bat-eared fox. This little nocturnal fox is a bit smaller than our North American gray fox but with huge oversized bat-like ears which give the species its name. With those big ears, it can hear the stirrings of its favorite prey, termites and other invertebrates, deep underground. Once prey is located, it uses its well-developed claws and stout forefeet to dig them out.

We entered Masai Mara National Park by 8AM and found the Marsh Pride lions again, this time in the tall grass near the road. Most were sleeping, barely twitching, with fat, full bellies that told of their recent successful hunt. The big male with a dark full mane stirred in his sleep and rolled over just along side the remnants of their kill, a baby Cape buffalo. Just yesterday we had seen Cape buffalos successfully defending a calf. The lions apparently had returned and this time they were successful. The dance of predator and prey, of life and death continues with each day.

The big male lion slowly rose to his feet, reached out his two front paws, lowered his shoulders and slowly, in a posture known to any domestic cat lover, he stretched hard, long, and ever so luxuriously. He turned toward us, considered us for a moment with sleepy eyes, and easily dragged the 200 pound carcass of the baby buffalo farther into the grass.

We later watched a pair of silver - backed jackals cautiously work their way into a group of Thompson’s Gazelles. Twice before on this trip we had seen jackals take newborn Tommys so we waited and watched, and wondered about the outcome. The Tommys spotted the hunting jackals and two adults female gazelles, put their heads down, aimed their little 6-inch horns towards the intruders and charged at full speed. The jackals knew it was a good time to retreat and came running at full blast out of the grass at the side of the road with the gazelles racing close behind and closing. The jackals nearly ran under our truck to escape and the gazelles having safely defended their babies stopped short of the truck by a few yards and watched intently, stomping and pawing at the ground as the jackals trotted off into the grass at the other side of the road and disappeared.

After a fine bush lunch we spent the rest of the day photographing what ever came our way during our travels: baboons, Maasai giraffe, Kori bustard, secretary birds, Cape buffalo, augur eagle, elephant, ring-necked dove, spotted hyena, silver-backed jackal, crowned crane, black-breasted snake eagles, a variety of vultures, elephants, banded mongoose, Vervet monkey, lilac-breasted roller, gray-backed shrike, and the now commonplace, almost ignored, assortment of pipits, longclaws, larks, plovers, gazelles, impala, zebras, topi, and wildebeest.

Day 16: A Lion Chase

We were out at 6 AM and immediately came across two jackals picking over the carcass of a Hartebeest. The silver-backed jackals are a common scavenger of the area, although 80% of their food is actually from predation. Prey includes insects, small birds, hares, and as we had seen on other days, they often successfully prey upon newborn gazelles. Jackals are about the size and shape of our gray fox, slender in form, agile in motion, and quick to dart into a kill and grab a few tidbits from right beneath the nose of a feeding lion or hyena. Today the pickings were easy. The jackals were the only ones feeding this morning, not even the raucous vultures had shown up there yet.

We turned southward toward Masai Mara National Park and entered through the main station gates. We spent several hours watching a lone cheetah. First she was just resting in the tall grass, but as we continued to watch, we saw a lone Thompson’s gazelle grazing hundreds of yards from the rest of the herd gradually moving toward her. Good news for a hungry cheetah - bad news for the Tommy. The cheetah, barely visible crouched down in the dense waist-high grass, began stalking the young gazelle. A cheetah is one of the fastest animals on land, reaching speeds of nearly 70 miles per hour while chasing down prey, but the cheetah has its limitations. It can only sprint that fast for 300 yards before depleting it’s body of oxygen and exhausting itself. We watched as the cheetah worked its way closer and closer to get within range. Suddenly she exploded in an all-out sprint. The gazelle responded in an erratic bounding race for survival and came careening toward our truck. The little gazelle was lucky today. The cheetah was not.

We later watched a large herd of Cape buffalos that were half hidden in the tall grass down near the lugga. The Cape buffalo, with its massive build, can weigh nearly 2,000 pounds and stand over 5 feet at the shoulder. It is one of the fiercest animals the savannah has to offer. Healthy adults are vulnerable only to lions and only if they are separated from the group and taken by surprise. Today part of the Marsh Pride was checking out the availability of calf meat and the young male lions approached the buffalos a little too close.

Amazingly, as we watched, the buffalos charged them and the lions began running at top speed to escape. In the herd, a healthy adult Cape buffalo is generally too dangerous for a lion to bring down, but the babies are a favorite prey. However, the lions risk a mobbing attack by the female buffalos if they threaten a baby. Buffalo attacks can result in not only insult, but injury, or even death of the lion. Even a lion must be careful. Nothing is a sure thing for a predator and the Mara is seldom forgiving. Today, the lions and the Cape buffalo soon went their separate ways but the conflict is sure to be resumed another day.

Day 15: Visiting the Clan

We were up by five and to the Land Cruiser by 6 ready to head out into the morning mists of the savannah. Got up to the wide-open savannah in time to see the sun thundering up into a clear, cloudless sky. Wildebeest and Impala were silhouetted black against the heavy orange globe as it hung for a moment on the horizon. As the sun rose quickly, the hills blushed lilac and the daystar’s heat burned off the morning ground fog and lifted the dew from its quiet night of rest on the grass and leaves. Another day had begun on the Mara.

We saw 6 spotted hyena cubs and 3 adult females at their clan’s communal den. The babies are cute but apparently quite fierce. Born with incisors and canines, they swiftly eliminate their same-sex competition within their litter. Generally 25% of the young cubs are killed in the first month of life due to same-sex sibling rivalry.

Several weeks after birth in a secluded den, the female moves the young to a communal den that can be shared by as many as 10 females. The den is a social gathering place for them and their dependent offspring, but the members seldom offer communal care or suckling. In the golden light of dawn, we watched one female continently suckle her young only a few yards away from our vehicle.

It’s hard to believe that these cute little cubs will grow up to be one of Africa’s most formidable predators with the strength and cunning to pull down and kill a healthy 500 pound bull wildebeest, an animal nearly 3x their size.

As the sun rose higher in the sky we continued on to Double Gorge to photograph the Hammerkop nest building in the morning light. The pair was still working hard, tirelessly searching the gorge for sticks ands grass then transporting them back to the nest where they were then carefully and expertly woven into the emerging structure.

We took the rest of the morning to visit the local market at Aiton, a village about an hour away. Every Friday the village serves as the major local Maasai market for the region. It was not a tourist market but rather a combination local market and livestock auction. There were crowds of Maasai there with their traditional brightly colored robes and jewelry selling their cattle, sheep, and goats. The price negotiations and bargaining among the men looked to be loud and intense. Other areas were loosely fenced off and set aside for the sale of food supplies – vegetables, sugar cane, potatoes, onions, yams, spices, bananas and cabbages.

In still other areas there was a visual cacophony of brightly colored displays of clothes and cloth. Still other areas had nearly anything you could think of for sale - car parts, dishes, pots and pans, water bottles, and the ubiquitous sandals made from recycled tires. The recycled tire sandals are the preferred footwear of the Maasai. They swear by the sandals since the stout thorns of the acacia that can often penetrate the soles of boots and tennis shoes will seldom penetrate the sole of these stout sandals.

We returned to Serian Camp for lunch and opted to stay in camp for the rest of the day. It proved to be a wise decision. We were able to enjoy an intense afternoon thunderstorm deluge from the luxury of our warm dry tent.

The hippos and lions were noisy in the night with much energetic snorting, bellowing, roaring, and growling going on - all with a background chorus of crickets and frogs in the moonless night. The land was gently illuminated by fireflies and starlight. I slept well.

Day 14: Hunting at Dawn

Out by 6:00 am and began hunting for lions at dawn. After enjoying another spectacular sunrise, we drove on down toward the dense trees and shrubs of a lugga near camp. There we found a female lion and two cubs that must have been just a few months old. The two little ones were young enough to still be clumsy and have a long time of education and practice needed before they possess the power and grace of an adult lion. The mom was leading them through the tall grass, and we watched as the cubs played, rolled, and pounced. She led them to a tree that had been pushed over by elephants. One end of the fallen tree was about eight feet off the ground and was still being supported by its shattered stump. Agilely she jumped up onto the log and seemed to encourage the little ones to follow. It was hard to contain our laughter as the cubs kept slipping and rolling off the log. Mom seemed to give up on her agility training for the cubs and began to lead them down to water. Suddenly she went into a crouched posture that any cat owner knows is the prelude to an attack. On the far side of the lugga was a lone zebra coming down the sloping bank to drink. Within seconds, she stealthily approached closer to the zebra and then launched a sudden, explosive, brutal attack. She climbed on to the zebra’s back and wrestled down the prey. The cubs raced to join in on the lesson. Once mom had the zebra down the cubs came in and pounced. One cub moved much more aggressively than the other who stayed back a bit. Instead of killing the zebra outright, mom seemed to keep it alive so the young could experience and learn from the kill. It was only after about 30 agonizing brutal minutes that she finally grabbed the zebra’s throat, crushed its neck and choked it to death.

I have never been witness to such power. I have never seen a large animal die. But it is the way of nature - there are predators and prey, winners and losers, life and death. The zebra lost its life and the lion cubs had a meal as well as a careful lesson in skills that they would need to perfect in order to survive.

We ended our day with a celebration of new life as we visited a hyena den area where six very young hyenas and their moms were playing in the setting sun. Their fur glowed in the golden light, and we laughed at their antics. Driving away at dark, we reflect on the day knowing now, only too well, that the night will bring another kill so these young ones can grow up and be part of the circle of life on the Masai Mara.