Kenya: Part V (Masai Mara)
Apr. 6th, 2011 05:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
riontelThe next day we were woken up by our personal tent attendant at 5:45am. He brought a pot of freshly brewed coffee for N. and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice for me and made sure we were ready for our morning game drive.
Once on our way, we spent few minutes observing a sunrise over the Mara and then returned to the business of animal watching.
African Buffalo is one of the most dangerous animals in the area, it's mean, short tempered and unreasonable. It attacks without any provocation. It's recommended not to stop near buffalo for any long period of time because it will charge you. But they don't look that much different from their tamer American counterparts.
If you squint hard you can see a male ostrich in this picture, his female companions were preening a short distance away.
We saw some more lions that day but never came across a pride, unfortunately.
This was the only fully grown male lion we saw the whole time, he was alone and came very close to our car so he was captured from every possible angle.
It's easy to spot when one of the predators is close by, all the potential pray goes on high alert and stands facing in one direction. In this case, since there was just one lion, male antelopes (topi and impalas) were trying to chase the lion away. He didn't appear to be hunting and did move away.
Another group of bachelors was lounging nearby.
Back to the camp to grab some breakfast, rest, watch the hippos, have lunch and we were out to the park again. This time N.'s parents stayed behind and the driver said it was a sure sign we were going to see some animals we haven't seen yet.
As we were driving along a group of zebras crossed our path and I discovered that baby zebras are actually brown, not black.
Giraffes occasionally take time out from their busy eating schedule to just sit and contemplate
If you needed a reason besides hippos to avoid swimming in Mara river here are a few
The one on the end with its mouth open was waiting for a little bird to come clean its teeth, according to N.
You can't really tell without an adult nearby to provide a comparison scale but these two are baby giraffes, they are barely as tall as the bush.
Want to test the sharpness of your eyesight? Spot a rhino in this picture. N. managed it from a fast moving vehicle.
He is a black rhino, the meaner and more reclusive of the two rhino varieties. He also completely refused to come out from behind a bush and then another car drove up and spooked him away.
There are in Kenya what they call their "big five" signature animals: elephant, buffalo, lion, rhino and either cheetah or leopard. I don't know why giraffes and zebras were slighted, they seem pretty signature to me as well, but that's how it is. By the end of our second day and with the last game drive coming to an end we were still missing one of the five. No matter how we searched we couldn't lay our eyes on either cheetah or leopard. We were heading out when we finally saw a cheetah. No leopards for us, they are the most elusive of the big cats and mostly sit up in trees, we never spotted one.
I remember them telling us in school that zebra stripes act as camouflage. I always thought it highly unlikely and let me tell you, zebras stick out like a sore thumb out of any environment we observed them in. So, camouflage is not on their list of survivor traits, but spooking easily probably is.
Surprisingly, since they were hanging out right by our doors, we didn't manage to catch a hippo out of water until the very early morning of our departure, until then all we had were some noses, ears and some backs. But with the dawn barely breaking, two hippos were finally captured by a very tenacious N. before they submerged themselves again.
And then we were off to our next destination: Lake Nakuru.
Once on our way, we spent few minutes observing a sunrise over the Mara and then returned to the business of animal watching.
African Buffalo is one of the most dangerous animals in the area, it's mean, short tempered and unreasonable. It attacks without any provocation. It's recommended not to stop near buffalo for any long period of time because it will charge you. But they don't look that much different from their tamer American counterparts.
If you squint hard you can see a male ostrich in this picture, his female companions were preening a short distance away.
We saw some more lions that day but never came across a pride, unfortunately.
This was the only fully grown male lion we saw the whole time, he was alone and came very close to our car so he was captured from every possible angle.
It's easy to spot when one of the predators is close by, all the potential pray goes on high alert and stands facing in one direction. In this case, since there was just one lion, male antelopes (topi and impalas) were trying to chase the lion away. He didn't appear to be hunting and did move away.
Another group of bachelors was lounging nearby.
Back to the camp to grab some breakfast, rest, watch the hippos, have lunch and we were out to the park again. This time N.'s parents stayed behind and the driver said it was a sure sign we were going to see some animals we haven't seen yet.
As we were driving along a group of zebras crossed our path and I discovered that baby zebras are actually brown, not black.
Giraffes occasionally take time out from their busy eating schedule to just sit and contemplate
If you needed a reason besides hippos to avoid swimming in Mara river here are a few
The one on the end with its mouth open was waiting for a little bird to come clean its teeth, according to N.
You can't really tell without an adult nearby to provide a comparison scale but these two are baby giraffes, they are barely as tall as the bush.
Want to test the sharpness of your eyesight? Spot a rhino in this picture. N. managed it from a fast moving vehicle.
He is a black rhino, the meaner and more reclusive of the two rhino varieties. He also completely refused to come out from behind a bush and then another car drove up and spooked him away.
There are in Kenya what they call their "big five" signature animals: elephant, buffalo, lion, rhino and either cheetah or leopard. I don't know why giraffes and zebras were slighted, they seem pretty signature to me as well, but that's how it is. By the end of our second day and with the last game drive coming to an end we were still missing one of the five. No matter how we searched we couldn't lay our eyes on either cheetah or leopard. We were heading out when we finally saw a cheetah. No leopards for us, they are the most elusive of the big cats and mostly sit up in trees, we never spotted one.
I remember them telling us in school that zebra stripes act as camouflage. I always thought it highly unlikely and let me tell you, zebras stick out like a sore thumb out of any environment we observed them in. So, camouflage is not on their list of survivor traits, but spooking easily probably is.
Surprisingly, since they were hanging out right by our doors, we didn't manage to catch a hippo out of water until the very early morning of our departure, until then all we had were some noses, ears and some backs. But with the dawn barely breaking, two hippos were finally captured by a very tenacious N. before they submerged themselves again.
And then we were off to our next destination: Lake Nakuru.
