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Magic Of The Masai Mara Game Sanctuary. A Safari Inside The Mara Is An Adventure To The Top Wildlife Sanctuary.
Unquestionably the Mara is the greatest savanna of Africa Safari. A bird's eye view of the spectacle below stirs my anticipation.
Within a few minutes of flying into the Mara, we see an elephant and giraffes beneath, and on the banks of the Talek River, a pair of hippos partly exposed from the water.
It's end of June, just after the long rains and the season prior to great migration and the plains are rich in tall golden green grass of different patterns.
As we steer through, we bump into many Thomson's gazelles grazing by the roadside.
Farther, a mother cheetah with a rounded belly gazes our way as it devours the remains of an antelope. Meanwhile the cub is still enjoying the kill, its nose reddish with blood.
"Cheetahs are diurnal. They hunt in the daytime," explains the guide. "They are not as strong as lions and leopards, hence they eat fast or else their meal will be stolen. They can even be driven away by packs hyenas or vultures."
Seven minutes away, we stumble upon another cheetah and her two cubs on an anthill. They scrutinize us cautiously but the mother's ears pick the sound of the cowbells and she sits up alert, watching the plains. The herd of Masai cows is way in the distant and sensing no risk to her cubs, she slops down again, easy.
The lengthy rains have ended and the plains are full of grass making it hard for the smaller species to graze. Mostly it is the big animals like giraffes and elephants and the bigger antelopes that can be effortlessly be seen around.
This makes hunting challenging for the cats and they end up with strange tactics. It is not unique to see lions and cheetahs trying to climb trees and anthills to get a high vantage position for locating prey.
Cheetahs claws cannot retract like those other cats and would not generally climb trees, but because they must locate prey, they'll try anything.
Cheetahs, unlike other predators, are weak so they hunt smaller antelopes, by scurrying them to exhaustion as they target the jugular vein of the prey to make a fast kill.
Minutes after our sighting of the second cheetah, we come across another cheetah Mother (Shakira).
"Shakira had five cubs however two were killed," the guide quips. "Cheetah mothers constantly keep shifting when they have cubs to avoid lions and leopards harming their cubs."
Ahead a pride of twelve lions shows up consisting of a male, females and cubs. The male roars, the roar echoing around the plains, as it rolls over on its rear. The females rise ready to roam the plains.
"This is my best time in the Masai Mara," says the guide, "because there is minimal traffic and makes it easy to see animals."
In another couple of days it will be July, and the plains will begin to fill with wildebeests as they move from the Serengeti.
There will be 1.5 million plus wildebeests passing the Sand River and going to the other end of the Mara before whirling to make the cyclic voyage. By the end of November, all grass will be eaten by the wildebeests and some 400000 zebras and other animals.
In one afternoon, within the radius of 10 km, we have witnessed countless animals. What a way to start our Masai Mara safari.
The next day, as the sun rises in the horizon, the plains seem quieter. This day we go out seeking for the big five.
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