2011-07-07 – Masai Mara N.R.

Today it was biggest day of crossings at the Talek, the herds started crossing at 7.30am and finished at 6.00pm. I had never seen such a huge number of animals cross all together on the same day on the Talek. Early in the morning, a male Cheetah, one of Honey’s boys, crossed the Talek not far from the herds, with his belly completely full. He is separated from his brothers as apparently he remained on the east side of the park to mate with a female. Later in the morning, a Lioness heard the commotion and came to the scene, and hunted a Wildebeest on the banks, and we were the only vehicle watching it. The migration is moving really fast across the Mara heading north-east, and they already crossed the Olare Orok river and settled on the short grass plains north of the reserve. In the afternoon, as we watched the male Cheetah rest on the side of a water hole, a lone Wildebeest calf came trotting towards him. Though the Cheetah was completely full, his instinct made him get, chase the calf and kill it. He then started calling his brothers and laid next to the kill.