This Week at Angama #244

In a wild turn of events this week, large herds of the Great Migration have returned to the Triangle from the Serengeti, advancing northwards. This is a result of the smatterings of rain we have received in the last two weeks which has made the Triangle lush with green grass — a wildebeest favourite.

As one would expect, the Bila Shaka Boys are making the most of the latest arrivals as we found all five of them squabbling over the remains of a kill they had been gorging on overnight. First, we met Kibogoyo whom had had enough and sought a cool spot to cool for the rest of the day. Next, we found Koshoke hogging the remains of the kill from Kiok and Chongo. Lastly, Doa was busy guarding his current mate some distance away from his brothers.

It has been exactly one year since we featured the grandest elephant matriarch of the Mara Triangle, Millie. She is an impressive size, with beautiful long tusks unlike any other female elephant for miles. Aside from their length, another marker is that her left tusk curves a bit higher at the tip than the right. In October last year, she had a baby with her which looked to be about one year old in the photographs. A year later, the calf appears to be two years old now and both mom and baby are looking well.

With the recent addition of three new cubs to the Sausage Tree pride, the lead female, Kinky Tail, is mating with one of the Lamai males. The two Lamai males pictured here are the ones responsible for the exodus of the six Nyati males after killing their father and taking over the pride. We are looking forward to some more additions to the Sausage Tree faction.

We have been extremely fortunate with sightings of Nadallah this week. She had a fantastic time, strutting around without a care in the world despite the presence of cars. Her habituation to vehicles makes her one of the best leopards to photograph and means we can watch her go about her normal behaviour — which is often very amusing. Twice this week, she has been seen taking down banded mongoose.

Apart from Nadallah, the Salt Lick Female’s cub has also been making some appearances. About two months ago, we found her calmly resting on a sausage tree a few meters from the border with Tanzania. This week, she has traversed about 5 kilometres northwards to the salt lick area where she had a reedbuck kill stashed on a sausage tree. Guests were treated to a very beautiful sighting of this young leopardess for days as she took her time devouring her kill.

Robert, one of Angama's guides, secured a leopard hat-trick by spotting a seldom-seen male who occupies the area around Hippo Pool. We don’t know much about him or how big his territory is but capturing good images like these will help us identify him the next time we see him elsewhere in the Triangle.

Not to forget about our resident birds in the Triangle, we managed to capture some fantastic photos mid-flight.

It's hard to believe that this time last year we were following Mama Kali and four lionesses of the Angama Pride as they hunted. While we still miss her and the pride terribly we are reminded of what an extraordinary lion she was; "she walks so confidently, poised and with seemingly unshakeable confidence".