Wild Adventures: Our last days catching up with the Lions in the Mara Triangle

We have now arrived back in Nairobi after a pretty horrendous drive back. Which unfortunately included us being stopped by the police twice and witnessing a horrendous incident in which a young girl was knocked down by a vehicle trying to cross a busy highway, really tragic. So as Andy has the arduous task of cleaning out the Land Rover I thought I would catch up on the last two days of our Mara trip.

After leaving the 'Narok side' we headed to the Mara Triangle, a part of the Mara we always cherish visiting. Our mission on this short visit here was not only to catch up with friends here but to also catch up with the Mugoro Pride as well as hoping to see the Oloololo pride.

We camped again in our favourite place in the Mara Triangle, a place where you are exposed to all elements of the bush and where we can camp totally wild. For some this maybe the idea of 'living hell' as there are no facilities at all, but for us it is a wonderful place and where you can experience all of the bush sounds at night, often with many nocturnal visitors. Sure enough 'our camp' failed to disappoint, the first night was somewhat quiet, except for hearing the Mugoro pride roaring very close. However, on the second night we had elephants crashing around in the trees next to our vehicle and Hippo grazing nearby, although they failed to make an appearance on 'bush cam' but we could hear them as we lay in the safety of our roof tent.

On both mornings we found the Mugoro Pride at first light and had around 30 minutes with them on our own before other safari vehicles arrived. They had been busy on our first evening there as morning revealed that during the night they had taken down 3 Wildebeest and found them still feeding in three separate groups before they all formed as one group. It was great to see 3 of the 4 Adult lioness there as well as the 7 cubs (the oldest being around 10-11 months old). They looked in fabulous condition, not a surprise given the migration passes right through the core of their territory. However, one concerning factor during our time with them was that we failed to find any of the '4km males' with them and nor did we hear any males roaring in the night, except for just over the Mara river on Paradise plains. We know these guys had been seen in the last couple of weeks on Paradise plains where they continue to mate with the females. Whilst it may certainly be a case that they have just not been found it does seem that that the 4km males have been MIA in the Mara Triangle for quite some time. This is hugely concerning as yet again it leaves the females and their pride extremely vulnerable to any new incoming males which could even include the Oloololo males (x4) who would perhaps start to look further afield for additional prides to control. Given in all the time we have followed these females (since 2007) they have never been able to successfully raise cubs to adulthood we desperately hope this wont be the case again and we hope that the events of Nov 2010 (in which the 4km males killed all the cubs sired by Notch and Co and born into the Mugpro pride) don't repeat themselves. For now it seems the 4km boys are too preoccupied with spreading their genes over the river.

On our last morning in the Mara we were delighted to find the 4th Mugoro adult female, the one who appears to be blind in one eye. She was on her own and did look as if she could be pregnant, although I would not want to stake my life on this fact! So all 'Mugoros' (except for the males) were present and correct!

Having spent time with 'our girls' we also looked for the Oloololo Pride and although in our time there we were not successful in finding the whole pride we did see one of the Oloololo males mating with a very young lioness from the same pride courtesy of a tip off from our friend in the Mara. We spent around 1hr 45 minutes with this 'honeymooning' couple in which time they mated only 3 times, meaning that they were likely in the last days of mating (which generally lasts anything from 3-5 days and in the first days can even mate as often as every 10 minutes). The female was quite young at around 4 years old and she was quite a distinct looking female with rather large 'mickey mouse' ears! The male looked to be around 5, maybe 6 years old and a fine looking boy indeed.

As the heat of the day took hold on both days it was a chance for us to catch up on meeting some of our good friends in the Mara, although sadly our short time there meant we could not see everyone we had wanted to, if you guys are reading we are sorry!!! You can blame the wildebeest for keeping us on the other side.

With heavy hearts our time in the Mara had come to a close and it was time for the long drive back to Nairobi. Leaving the Mara always pulls at the heart strings but everything has to come to an end and I am sure it wont be too long until we are back. Our last blog soon to be published includes a culmination of the shots from our night time camera.

Mugoro Lioness