2011-07-04 – Masai Mara N.R.

A fantastic full day today. At the kill Olive and her younger cub, Bahati, were waiting for Ngayoni to finish eating. Meanwhile the dominant male crossed the plain and headed towards Olive, but she snarled at him and ran off into the river bed. His limp is already almost fully recovered. As Ngayoni finished, Bahati went up the tree to feed while Olive sat at the base of the tree to make sure that Ngayoni wouldn’t interfere. Later in the morning all three of them left the area, walking together although never really tight, making photography very difficult. One of the most beautiful moments was when the little cub Bahati greeted her older brother Ngayoni, a truly rare event to witness and photograph in Leopards’ society. As they disappeared in the forest we headed East to look for the mother Cheetah and her cubs and we were welcomed by the amazing spectacle of the Wildebeests’ migration moving into the Mara plains for the first time this year. Thousands of Wildebeests are grazing the short grass plains. Among them our Cheetahs laid resting, looking a bit puzzled by this sudden abundance of animals, which they seem not to consider a potential prey. They were extremely hungry after not eating for three days. They walked among the herds, but the mother Shingo was clearly looking for her usual prey, Gazelles. She found a herd and ran but missed. Later she finally found some Impalas and her hunt was finally successful.