Monday 17 December 2012

17 comments:

becki-c said...

Magnificent! What a lovely view your office has!

Unknown said...

Wow....Amazing view!!!!

michaelo said...

help needed.
does anyone know, what pride/s could have been near the musiara airstrip.
we saw 1 male lion with 4 females and it looks like 4-5 cubs in the photo.
the date was 7th october 2012

Judy, Ocala, Florida said...

This guy definitely has the "don't mess with me OR my ladies" attitude!

Anonymous said...

What a stunning photograph, thank you!

Wishing everyone here a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Shotyourself said...

name of this lion ?

Shotyourself said...

any1 know how Noja is doing the little cub from last big cat week
series?

michael said...

Libby had four cubs in mid November in the Marsh Calvert; in late November a martial eagle took one, she moved her three cubs towards Bila Shaka in early December. A Martial eagle took another two while she was in the Bila Shaka riverbed. When she met up with Siena there was a fracas and the young Lioness moved away towards Bibi, perhaps she abandoned this cub where by Bibi took it over.

Nyota and Moja have been seen near the double crossing and also on Rhino Ridge. Moja is a year old now and looks well. They were seen on the 28th in a croton thicket with two of the Paradise males, Moja is the offspring of the blond male.

Notch and the four brothers are being seen on the Talk River and also the double crossing. They were feeding off a large male hippo on the 27th; these male lion are notorious for feeding off hippo and buffalo.

Paradise pride: comprises 4 females and two six month old cubs, the two ‘4km’ male Lion of which one has a nice dark mane and almost black. The two males were seen with Nyota on the 27th and 28th.

michael said...

The Olkiombo lion pride of 12 including one sub adult cub which is 15 months old, 9 females, and one lioness has three cubs that are estimated at three months old. They are in the open plains area or near the riverine woodlands at the Bottom end of the Ntiaktiak River and the Double crossing. Notch and the four males are close by of which they were last feeding off a large hippo.

Cheetah

Malaika and her one cub that is 8 months old were being seen on the Burrangat plains and we understand she is still near the lookout hill area.

The MNC female cheetah with one male cub that is 16 months old had moved out back to the Mara North conservancy briefly in November and then was seen again near Bila Shaka on the 18th of December, they were feeding off warthog and the young male killed an impala fawn by himself on the 23rd this indicates that he is getting more proficient in his hunting skills. Generally cheetah and leopard offspring start to become independent when they are eighteen months old. With cheetah the males will wander off on their own and a female may stay within a mother’s home range for a short time only. Often brothers and a sister will split at 20 months.




The young Female cheetah that was seen near the Murram pits last month is being seen on the Ntiaktiak and near the double crossing. There is another female that is being seen near Emarti on Rhino ridge and also an area known as Naibor soit which is not far from the double crossing. The female cheetah near look out hill that has four cubs that are 8 months old was seen briefly and we hear reports that she has been seen on the Posse plains. Two brothers that were being seen near Rhino Ridge and Paradise Plains last month we hear now that they have been seen in on the posse plains, early this month they were seen crossing the Talek River.



Leopard

The female leopard with the male cub that is 14 months old has been seen often at paradise below Kifuku ya Nyoka. The male has made numerous kills near the Serena pump house and is a healthy cat. When he reaches approximately 18 months he starts to be more independent. At 10.30 am on the 31st the young male was seen near the Serena pump house.

The male Leopard at the mortuary crossing point has been seen often, this Leopard is an opportunist and has taken many yearling wildebeest during the migration when the gnus where crossing at this point.

There is a female Leopard with two cubs estimated at two months old, she is being seen between the BBC campsite, Il Moran and Little Governors crossing, on the 26th and 27th she was seen in the woodlands close to the crossing. This is the Il Moran female Leopard and she was first seen by driver guide Simon Sitiene carrying two cubs on the 27th October at 9.30 am just beyond the BBC camp site. She likes to prey off impala and female bushbuck.

528ityuipan

michael said...

Walking in the Mara North Conservancy.

We have done a few walking safaris in December and have enjoyed good zebra and wildebeest sightings on the north eastern plains. With some rain falling over the Mara North Conservancy this has brought on a good flush supporting resident zebra and some wildebeest.

Eland in small herds can be seen scattered across the southern plains and white High lands ridge. Many white Tissue flowers are being seen this month, when the two colours are together it is very pretty sight.

Topi with young calves will be seen on the north east plains and close to the acacia woodlands. The Giraffe herd of 24 animals are commonly seen throughout the Acacia Gerrardii and acacia Hockii groves, these Acacia Hockii trees in some areas of MNC are very well browsed so much so the trees almost look bare.

Elephant have been feeding on the acacia Gerrardii woodlands and some of these trees give out a strong smell when Elephant have been stripping bark, this often tastes like Garlic or Onions and depends how deep the water table is will determine how strong tannin and sucrose is.



Thompson and Grants gazelles will be spread out throughout the Mara North Conservancy. Many Thomson fawns have been born, with a short gestation of 5½ months Thomson females can have two fawns.There is also some good termite activity and with this Aardvark diggings show they have been very active. After some rain in late December we noted that on the funnels of the fungal Termite (Subfamily macrotermitinae) there were Termitomyces fungi spores which come out like small mushrooms, in some parts of the world like Asia Australia and West Africa these Termitomyces fungi are edible and perhaps some of them we understand have magical powers!!

The large herd of buffalo were seen in November in the Acacia woodlands and latterly are on the north plains beyond the ‘flyover’ with only a small breeding herd and a few bachelors about in the Acacias.

The lioness with the three cubs that are six months old now have been seen in the croton thickets south of the Flyover, they have been feeding off buffalo and zebra, The 5 sub adults and 7 lionesses were last seen with the lioness and cubs on the 28th in the croton thicket that is close to the old disused Manyatta.

A female cheetah has been seen on the northern plains above the ‘fly over’ on the 22nd she had killed a Thomson Gazelle near a Balanites tree.

michael said...

There are two large clans of Spotted Hyena that frequent the northern plains of Mara North conservancy. Spotted Hyena are potential & efficient predators with over 85% of what they eat likely to have been killed by them. Clans in large numbers can be a serious problem to other feline and canine predators, they compete strongly with lion, it is true that lion will determine the number of hyena and male lion are renowned for murdering hyena. On the 28th at 12.00 midday on an open plain with a gully in the middle which is not far from the ‘fly over ridge’ we came across a group of 20 Spotted Hyena that were marking their territory and at the same time continuously greeting one another with their tails raised up; while this was going on about three/four hundred meters away to the north there was a another group of over 30 Hyena doing the same, within 10 minutes the two clans one from the north fan and one from the south fan ran towards each other while converging together, there was a tremendous amount of whopping and sounds of giggling and drunken laughter coming from both sides. Particularly the south clan who then literally started to swell into a large wall or pack then quickly converging onto one another, the south clan rushed towards a slower individual and very quickly subdued it, within a matter of minutes they had ripped it apart and killed it, The north clan tried to rush in to what was being done and managed to disperse the south group of Hyena, after this episode they all started chasing each other across the large open plain. Altogether in a total of 25 minutes three dead Hyenas littered the ground. It was a phenomenal sight which was a very gruesome and powerful feeling; almost similar to a Roman battle field.

Shotyourself said...

Happy to hear great news from Moja tnx so much and respect.

Shotyourself said...

We are waiting for new info ,happy new year and respect Jackson Looseyia

Shotyourself said...

oh well dear michael i think u are talking about Moja the young one who was filmed in planet earth live ?
Well i was askin for Moja who was in Big Cat week series 3 2006 -2007

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Shotyourself said...

http://livingwithlions.org/mara/lions/olbarnoti/

hey Jacksoon,guys take a look i think this is Sala right ?

and this is Cheza http://livingwithlions.org/mara/lions/lolparpit/

Unknown said...
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