MAASAI MARA SAFARIS ON THE 4TH OF DECEMBER 2012

 Lioness with her tiny cub,she has to check on them when they are still young to walk especially upon bringing the out from hiding.

 The cub on her own.

Mum carrying the cub on her mouth.
Lions' cubs remain hidden after birth for about 8 weeks.We had great morning watching this lioness with her three little cubs.It was their first week that we saw them.

Juvenile  Egyptian Goose  looking for their breakfast.

 It was almost mid day when we came across the lioness above and the male below near double crossing area having a walk.We had memorable experience with them when we saw them crossing the small river(i couldn't get any photo but my guests did)

 Mating lions in the mara.

After mating,they were on the middle of the 3-5 days of mating.At this stage mating is their priority to hunting.

And before we end our lovely day we came across this small,solitary and elusive Serval cat.

MAASAI MARA SAFARIS ON THE 2ND DECEMBER.2012

On the said date,few minutes after we left the camp we were with the Marsh pride of lions with their cubs by the airstrip and what a play displayed by one of the cubs on the landing strip roller.At this time the operator of the machine was not yet there and it full of fun watching the cub trying to bite part of the roller or even trying to roll it!,lions would play with any object on their way,i remember one of the photographers who dropped his big camera on the ground while taking photos of the lions and because he did not want to scare them to pick his expensive camera,he continued photographing with his other cameras....what they can't play with is the safari vehicle,but they can decide to take a shade underneath if it is too hot.While the cubs were playing their mentors were monitoring them very closely.
Elephant with her calf were not too far from the lions.She was walking very close to where the lions were but they change their direction not because of the lions who can definitely kill her baby in her absence but because they went for a better pasture.Lions in the Mara do not regularly kill elephants.

MAASAI MARA SAFARIS ON THE 03.12.2012

The male lion in the photo above is called Notch,it took  several days  to find him with my Big Cat fan,Donna who she really wanted to see him.She was overwhelmed after we found him in the thickets with his two sons.The reason to why he was not spotted for almost a week was because he owns more than 5 territories,and some have very huge thickets and others have rocky hills thus making him hard to find if he is having his normal siestas after being fed well by his four sons who always accompany and protect him.
Too we had a pride of lions called Topi plains that had six cubs and we had enough time to spend on our own with them .The first cubs in the family.It is here that we saw Marsh pride of lions becoming big and four females left the pride to form the this pride I'm talking of,but again this breakaway pride from marsh pride still shares the four males dominatin the big Marsh pride.One very interesting behavior here is that the males moves into the two prides freely but the four Topi plains/Breakaway girls have never moved back to their original home.
Elephants feeding made our afternoon,Whenever you find any breeding herd of elephants you will never miss to see all of them feeding or playing,they will ensure that you get perfect time with them and above all very fascinating one .And as always when you go to Musiara marsh you will never miss these lovely antelopes called Defassa Waterbucks that i came to understand of late that they are not spread in the Mara like other antelopes but you find them in the water Marshes.
And again we had a drama to witness when we came a cross a Cape Buffalo that she had just given birth only to be got by the hyenas and lions,by the time we got their her calf was already dead but the drama was watching both lions and hyenas trying to go for the baby while the brave mum was still putting in strong defence.We later on came to know that it took her more than 10 hours protecting her dead baby.She later on left,what a drama to witness but poor Cape Buffalo and lucky hyenas and lions...this is nature and we could not intervene.Buffaloes are so strong to defend themselves but one thing that they have never done is to wait for theirs who giving birth,they will always abandon her to fight for herself and her baby.

MAASAI MARA SAFARIS ON 14TH NOVEMBER 2012

 What a lovely morning it was to find this male lion heading back to his favorite resting bush and on the other side of the mara river was his brother mating(Below).Lions in the mara can dominate two prides on both sides of the mara for they can swim very well.

 Lions on "Honeymoon",a safari term used by many field guides

 Three male giraffes play necking.Only two males would engage on serious fights.It was awesome to see the male in the middle play fighting two males one after the other one.

Common Zebras social grooming.This strengthens the family bond.