This Week at Angama #198

It’s a wonderful time to be in the Mara at the moment, especially if you are a birder as the migratory birds are moving through on their annual southward journey. Here, the elephants’ great strides disrupt all the insects living in the grass and the barn swallows follow in their wake to enjoy an aerial smorgasbord.

The hyenas and vultures have also been well fed this week, but they have to be lightning quick to get a mouthful. A zebra carcass, weighing about 350kg, lasted just 20 minutes before completely disappearing into the bellies of the scavengers. You can watch a video of this here.

Adam has been known to seemingly conjure lions out of thin air, but this week must have been an all-time high. He and a group of guests managed to see no less than 17 different males in just three days.

The Lamai Male, who killed Ol Donyo Paek earlier this year, has made the most of his new-found power by taking over the Sausage Tree Pride. Mating with the lovely Kinky Tail is just the start of what we hope will be a long and fruitful reign.

It’s not all sunshine and roses for the lions of the Mara though. This poor Angama Pride lioness had her zebra kill stolen by hyenas. If that wasn’t enough, the hyenas then chased her up a tree. Here, she waits it out in front of a beautiful violet sky.

A big contributor to the number of male lions sighted was the six sub-adults from the Sausage Tree Pride. This band of brothers had to scarper after their father was killed and they’ve been on the run ever since. It appears they’ve set up temporary residence at the base of the escarpment in a territory once belonging to Olalashe. They all appear to be doing quite well, despite their turbulent year.

Saving the best lions for last, well in my opinion at least, Adam had his first sighting of the River Pride cubs. While we’re still getting to know these new additions to the Mara lion chronicles, we know that they have an uncanny ability to melt hearts. You have been warned, so look with caution.

Another possible record was made this week for Adam who looked away from the countless male lions just long enough to spot the highly endangered white-headed vulture. Not just one white-headed vulture, but three on a single drive. To those birders-still-in-training, like myself, Adam has put this into perspective: there are approximately 20 of these vultures left in the Mara, so essentially, he saw 15% of the white-headed vulture population during a single drive.

As every week has its share of excitement, it has its gentle gestures too, be it the deep grumbles of an elephant herd talking to each other or the quiet floating movement of the balloons at sunrise. Watch a snippet of some of the sightings from this week in the video below.

A year ago Adam was enjoying the views from the basket of a hot-air balloon while the rest of us were wondering when the world would go back to "normal".