Happy New Year

The 3 brothers on a termite mount before the rains

One of Olive's cubs up in a tree this morning

The trio having a drink after a hunt recently

The Ridge pride: males drinking while females feed on hippo in water

Happy new year to all:

It is another year, everyone making new resolutions for the year and all with high hopes for better things ahead. Here in the Mara we are no exception; we do hope the year will be better than the last especially on climate. The past year has seen the Mara river drop to lowest level ever, and this made last year’s wildebeest crossings just like a joke, because the animals could easily walk across. We therefore missed the usual action that goes with such activity. That was last year. Now we do hope that this year will be different climate-wise. We have just started the year with lost of rain over the Mara and many other places in Kenya, which is actually good news. In fact just as I write this, at 1400hrs Kenyan time, it is raining, and has been going on since 1.00am

The lions have to move around and follow the herds which are now congregating on drier higher grounds. The past two days we have seen the Olkiombo pride split into two by the Talek river which has suddenly gone up. They can’t now cross easily to either side. The ridge pride has now moved towards the southern side of Rhino ridge, away from the Mara river area where they have been for sometimes. It was nice seeing them recently feeding on hippo in the water. The sub-adults are still moving around on their own. The last two days, the almost had a confrontation with Olkiombo pride when they ventured into their territory.

Olive is now near Olkiombo airstrip with her two cubs. We found her this morning near Olare-Orok crossing, and now with eh two rivers full, they will have to stay around longer. The three cheetah brothers (Honey’s boys) are still around between the two rivers. They killed a young warthog yesterday after a dramatic hunt;