This Game report is just in from Governors Camp in the Masai Mara, Kenya:



May brought warm days and rainy evenings typical of this time of year. Early morning temperatures averaged around 18°C but by midday we were basking in 31°C sunshine, in the late afternoons the storm clouds would gather and most evenings brought heavy rain showers. The combination of rain and sunshine has brought on lots of growth in The Musiara Marsh and adjacent grassland areas this in turn supporting lots of resident plains game. The rain in surrounding areas has also caused The Mara River to rise.

There are still good numbers of elephant and calves spread out within the Musiara and Bila Shaka grassland areas, with good grass available these elephant are not frequenting the woodlands as often. These families of elephant often make their way to the Musiara Marsh to feed and bathe. There are some large males in Musth and a few matings have been seen. During the months of February and March the Warburgia trees in the forest were dropping their fruit. Elephant love these small apple shaped fruit and the fruiting trees drew many elephant into the woodlands and subsequently into the camps to feast. There are a few elephant individuals that we all recognise well from their frequent visits to favourite fruiting trees in camp. There was one large bull in particular who would spend hours moving from fruiting tree to tree in the forest. He would curl his trunk up the tree, then slowly ease his weight against the trunk of the tree and then push against the tree trunk to encourage the fruit to fall. This bull would visit all three camps and many staff members encountered him as he wandered throughout the camps. On the 21st of May he was feeding out in the grasslands and came across another large bull elephant, both males were in Musth and at around lunchtime the two had an almighty fight. Our bull unfortunately sustained fatal internal injuries inflicted by the other bull elephant's tusks (we think the tusk must have pierced his lung / heart area) and he met his end and died near the Bila Shaka riverbed. Vultures were soon on the scene feeding on the carcass.>br>


Recently there are good numbers of spotted hyena and their cubs on the high plains. Much of their prey is scavenged from other predators rather than killed by them. Spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) form social groups called clans. Clans may be composed of 3 to 80 members. Larger clans generally occur in prime territory with large prey concentrations, such as the Masai Mara, whereas smaller clans occur in drier or desert type areas of northern Kenya and sub Saharan Africa. All females are dominant to all males, and females remain in their natal clan for their entire lives. The spotted hyena is one of the top predators in Africa. However, there are several species which may kill them. In one study 13 of 24 hyaena carcasses found were killed by lions. Hyenas and lions particularly in the Mara/Serengeti ecosystem compete directly for food and often scavenge each other's kills. This competition often leads to antagonistic encounters that may result in death. This was evident this month when on the 8th the six males on paradise plains killed a spotted hyena. On the 25th at Bila Shaka 50 hyena were seen scavenging on the remains of the elephant carcass. We suspect that these hyenas were from two different antagonistic clans, they aggressively harassed one another and this resulted in one hyena dying.



On the feline front the Bila Shaka / Marsh pride have been moving about within their territory. Two females and three 5 month old cubs were close to the riverine woodland and towards the end of the month three members of the pride took up residence close to Governors' Camp and roared loudly on a nightly basis!



The cheetah of our area of the Mara are also doing well. Shakira and her three ten month-old female cubs are thriving. They occupy a prime territory which has provided them with abundant food and kept them healthy and well fed on Thomson gazelles and reedbuck.