In the jungle, the mighty jungle, ee-um-um-a-weh...
Safaris in Zambia are eco-amazing
Ron CogswellWhen it comes to safaris and ecotourism, Zambia often takes a back seat to the likes of Botswana, Kenya, and Tanzania. But this large country in south-central Africa is positively packed with eco treasures, and its marquis attraction is one of the planet´s most spectacular waterfalls, Victoria Falls, which it shares with Zimbabwe. In addition, there are some 20 teeming nature reserves which offer as rewarding an eco-experience as any of Zambia´s neighbors – arguably even more so,…
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Elena
A city shaped like a giraffe? A rhino-shaped town? Even one that looks from above like a pineapple? Southern Sudan has unveiled ambitious plans to remake its capital cities in the shapes found on their state flags, and an official says the government is talking with investors to raise the $10 billion the fanciful communities would cost.
Would this be a good use of money?
Hi friend,
As the rainy season tapered off June brought less rain, most of it falling at the beginning of the month. The temperature on average was fairly warm, 22 C in the mornings reaching 33 C by mid day. Towards the end of the month temperatures began to fall a little with a few chilly nights and early mornings warning us of the colder months to come.
The savannah grasses are tall, lush and green with the orange tops of the red oats grass. adding a tinge of colour to the plains. In the drier rockier areas the grass has dried out. Through July the grasses will be eaten and trampled down by the vast herds of Zebra and Wildebeest, giving the other plains game a chance to graze those areas.
The lesser known Loita migration originating from the Loita plains, east of the Masai Mara arrived in early June. Lead by the zebra and followed by the wildebeest, they occupied the conservancies on the northern and eastern boundaries of the Masai Mara Reserve. Numbering 30 000 animals they are second to the Serengeti migration which is in the region of 2 million animals. The Serengeti migration arrived at the Sand River area of the Masai Mara on the border between Kenya and Tanzania on the 17th June, this was early in comparison to recent years. After the amazing rains we had this season, the grassland is rich and full of nutrients, this could account for the early arrivals. In June and some of July the wildebeest are still rutting, the males run ahead of groups of females on the move and set up temporary territories in order to cover the females in that area. This is a noisy time.
Zebra typically lead the herds, as they are bulk grazers and tend to eat at a higher level than the wildebeest, topi, eland and gazelles that follow. The first wave, moved quickly and were soon crossing near 'look out hill' in their tens of thousands.
Towards the end of the month the front runners had already reached one of the larger crossings opposite Serena, they did cross but in smaller numbers.
June has been much the same as May in the Musiara area, with most of the pains game concentrated along the river and up on 'Topi plain'. At the start of the month, we saw huge herds of elephant numbering two hundred individuals in the marsh area. With the drying of the grasses and sensing the imminent arrival of the wildebeest migration the elephant have now mostly moved into the acacia woodlands bordering the reserve. This area is where we do our walking safaris, so it has been a great treat to see so many elephant back.
Large groups of giraffe numbering from fifteen to twenty five individuals have been passing by the camps on the periphery of the forest line browsing on the Teclea bushes. The resident herd of buffalo have been grazing around the marsh area with the bachelor males resting along the river edge in mud pools.
We have had regular sightings of three rhino from the balloon and on the game drives back to Little Governors' Camp. A male and a female rhino have been seen together a few times south of paradise plain, and we have also seen them mating. Which maybe be great news for rhino numbers in the area. The Kenya Wildlife Service were in the Mara for about five days in mid June doing a rhino count. The 2006 census numbered between twenty five to thirty individuals, some moving between Kenya and Tanzania. We await their new findings.
The Marsh pride of lions spent most of the month in the areas bordering the reserve around the leopard gorge area in search of zebra which had moved in from the Loita plains. We have had the occasional sightings between the Musiara Marsh and Bila Shaka. One lioness and the nine three year old sub-adults had spent a few days near the airstrip, following a few zebra into the reserve. The two pride males have not been seen this month, but we have had a report of one of them getting into a fight and coming off second best.
Our guests have seen a lot of the Ridge Pride recently, remaining in their core territory up on Rhino Ridge they have had good hunting up on the short grass. The pride remains stable with the two pride males, three females and three cubs.
The Paradise Pride males have spent most of June on other side of the Mara River, Notch and one of the younger males returning to their lionesses on our side during the last few days of the month. The lionesses number six in total, with four lionesses, two seven month old and three five month old cubs spending time apart from the other two lionesses with four five month old cubs. There has been plenty of game near the river where the hippo have grazed the grass down, so their hunting grounds are in good supply and they have taken two hippo this month as well.
A fully grown unidentified male lion was seen in our area around mid June, we suspect he is a nomadic male. He was in the Bila Shaka area feeding on an elephant carcass and at the same time chasing off some very excited hyenas.
The three cheetah boys have maintained a huge presence on the high plains. They have mostly been hunting warthog, but managed to take down two young wildebeest at the front of the migration.
Our guides and clients have also seen on a few occasions a new female cheetah with two almost adult cubs.
There have been a few sightings of a female cheetah and a young cub of about five months just on the boundary of The Reserve near The Marsh. The cub unfortunately has a bad eye, which will hopefully heal in due course.
The female cheetah and her eight - ten month old cub we were seeing fairly often near our airstrip has moved into the area bordering the reserve and is doing well
The cheetah we thought was pregnant in May, turns out to have just been very fat after a couple of large meals. She was seen with the three boys for about four days mating into the second week of June. She has since disappeared on us and them, hopefully she is now pregnant, time will tell.
Unusually at the start of June we found a young male leopard lying very comfortably up on a hammerkops nest. The leopard lay there for the whole day much to the hammerkops dismay who couldn't get near her nest!
Our resident female leopard has been seen a few times in the marsh and once up in a tree next to the road between Il Moran Camp and Governors' Camp.
Olive and her two cubs are doing very well, her cubs are now about fourteen months old and very playful. They are still to be found near the river.
Other interesting sightings during the month have been Serval cat, white-tailed mongoose, Egyptian mongoose and slender-tailed mongoose.
Lots of the larger birds have chicks at the moment including a family of Saddle-Billed Storks who are nesting in a Balanites tree on the other side of the marsh, the chicks are almost fully fledged and are wobbling precariously in their flimsy nest. Also a family of Crowned Crane living near the Marsh has some small chicks.
Interestingly on a recent game drive our guests came across a 2.5m Black-necked spitting cobra who was busily chasing a skink into a termite mound.
We hope to share the magic of our corner of the Mara with you sometime soon.
It's official - the annual migration of the wildebeest from the Serengeti in Tanzania to the Masai Mara in Kenya started six days ago.
http://eyesonnatureexpeditions.com/blog/?p=146
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Yours Sincerely,
STEVE
http://www.eyesonnatureexpeditions.com
Blog :http://www.eyesonnatureexpeditions.com/blog
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