Wild Adventures: ‘Trans-border’ lions and the sun sets on our last evening in the Mara.

On the 13th July we first took a drive down towards the Oloololo Gate, in search of the Oloololo Pride of Lions, also known as the “Out of Africa/Kichwa Pride. They had been seen the day prior close the a Murram pit so the plan was to search around this area and beyond.

Large herds of Elephants, including big breeding herds, many with small calves emerged from the Riverine forest like grey giants moving silently onto the plains. We must have seen literally hundreds during the course of the morning. Although we were not fortunate to find the pride and from talking to other guides no-one had been lucky with finding them that morning. We did find a single adult LIoness, belonging to the pride who had recently given birth to cubs and had been also seen the day before moving her cubs from one denning site to another. With the cubs still too young to be out of the ‘den’ she was alone and had left them to go and source food as we watched her scouting the plains. She moved into an area inaccessible to vehicles so we left her and decided to make a trip down to the Tanzanian border to look for the other less known Lion prides in the area, as well as to see if any of the Wildebeest herds were approaching.

The border area is a part of the Mara we absolutely love. A place where you can usually escape from the many vehicles in high season and a part of the Mara that is vastly different in terms of vegetation and landscape. A quiet corner of the Mara that leads into the Serengeti where beautiful Kopjes and small flat topped hills dominate the landscape with Savannah plains stretching far across.

The area was dotted with many species of plains game but as we scanned far and wide still no approaching Wildebeest herds could be seen. There were a small handful of the aforementioned but certainly not the large migratory herds that by now are usually headed in large linear formation across the plains.. As we looked into the distance we could see a ‘burn’ in the western corner of the Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem in Tanzania. Unclear whether this was started naturally or a man-made occurrence this could potentially further delay the wildebeest into the Mara. As the burn, combined with rain would generate fresh green shoots that would be welcomed by the Wildebeest in this area. Not even Zebra herds could be seen, the species that generally precedes the Wildebeest and that grazes on the long grasses, leaving the medium/short grasses for the Wildebeest.

We had heard that some small herds and started tracking into the Talek side of the Mara and likely that these were some of the Loita herds that were heading in. Now almost a month ‘late’ (although using the word ‘late’ is a bit of a ‘misconception’ when it comes to wildlife!) the great migration still looked to be at least 2 weeks away. With the grass dry in the Mara Triangle and lacking nutrition at this time we even wandered how long the migratory herds would stay in this area.

Knowing that we were also taking GPS references and conducting some of our own research’ of the Lion prides in the Mara our friend Chelle, one of the balloon pilots in the Mara Triangle had kindly called us whilst we were in the area and mentioned she had seen 3 male Lions near the border after her morning flight so we set out to see if we could find them, albeit the confirmed sighting had been one hour ago and in that time they could have moved some distance.

As we arrived in the area where they had been sighted, just 1/2km from the Tanzanian border we caught sight of one male sitting in the long grass, and then a further male a few hundred metres away and positioned at the base of one of the most beautiful flat topped hills, but no sign of the third. They had moved from where they had been seen earlier but not a huge distance. Fortunately we were in an area where off-road driving is allowed so we navigated across the rocky base of the large hill and to the first male. Given he was in the open and as it was starting to get hot he would be the first of the two likely to move to shade. We wanted to get some ID shots so headed straight to him, keeping our distance, knowing they may not be quite as accommodating to vehicles to the prides in the central Mara areas. He was a stunning dark maned male, aged approx. around 8 years old, sat majestically scanning his land. He was at ease with our presence and his behavior seemed to indicate he was not a nomadic male. We had met the day prior with the CEO of the Mara Triangle, who had helped us with some detail in the Lion prides of this lesser visited part of the Mara Triangle. He had mentioned three males who are part of a ‘trans-border pride’ but not seen all that often as they cross back and forth. So, it was likely that these were the males discussed and looking at the GPS references of the females we had seen a couple of days prior. We surmised that no doubt the males ruled over these ladies and as with many coalitions of this size likely ruled over another pride along the border.

Just after we managed to get a shot the male moved on and up to a large Croton bush around 1/4 way up the hill, scent marking along the way and swaggering with arrogance as he walked. At this point we thought it likely that this is where the third male who we could not see had already headed to.

We then headed to the next male, hidden partially in the long grass. Although he was not shy he was a little more wary of the car than the first male so we remained quite some distance back in the hope that he would also move and make his way to the other male(s). He was around the same age and likely the brother, or perhaps cousin of the other male. He kept us waiting for about 2 hours before he finally decided to pop his head into open view and move, again scent marking along the way. As expected he moved to the same croton as his fellow companion.

It was great to see new males we had not seen before and get some more ID shots which now number 18 males so far as part of our Lion file that we are compiling. Certainly these boys would have to watch their guard once the impending Wildebeest herds arrived as often this also brings other nomadic males who would be a threat, depending on age and numbers to these males and their prides. We spoke after the sighting to our contact at the Mara Triangle who seemed to agree we had found the three males discussed the day prior, as both age, description and location seemed to match.

Not before stopping to relax at the border markers we then headed back North and toward camp, it was a great morning at the border area and failed to disappoint as normal!

Later the sun went down on what was to be our last night in the Mara and what a beautiful sunset it was, a fabulous orange glow casting the most amazing refection over the Mara River. With the usual sad emotions we have on our last day we kept holding into the thought that hopefully in a few months time we will be back.

Male 1