Every time I explore the vast Mara-Serengeti ecosystem I’m reminded that it truly does hold the greatest wildlife viewings on Earth. We’ve preserved some really fun and memorable moments of this magical place during a recent safari. Depending on the time of year, the Mara or the Serengeti is an absolute must for any inaugural safari, and perhaps even for a second or third safari as well! A few days under canvas in the heart of this region will be rewarded with outstanding big cat viewing, and always the chance of witnessing their mesmerizing predatory behavior.

It’s 2am and from my bedroom here in my Mara home I hear the lion roaring. There is no other sound that evokes such a primeval sense within us; a reminder that this is an animal for whom primates are on the menu. Having spent countless hours over the past 25 years watching these apex predators, I now imagine this one, patrolling his or her territory in the African darkness, and feel privileged to live here where the wild things still roam free.

There is something about “Simba”, the largest of our big cats, that mesmerizes us. Ever since humans could record their feelings, lions have featured in our art, as evidenced by the life-size cave lions drawn in the 28,000 year old paintings at Grotte Chauvetin in France (https://www.ancient.eu/Chauvet_Cave/).

Today, we photograph, study, listen to, and watch these magnificent beasts; the fascination continues no matter where we are. Last month, in the heart of New York City and far from our home in Kenya, we took Ollie and Halina to see The Lion King on Broadway and at the movie theater. The artistry and storytelling inspired by our feared and revered feline friends are truly things to wonder at – although we still think the hyenas got a raw deal!

Over the years, I’ve been so privileged to share the joy of my guests when they see their first wild lion. Of all the places in lion country, the Masai Mara in particular is perhaps the ultimate location for spending time with lions. In Amboseli, as the local lion population has increased over the past decade, we’ve also had outstanding experiences in our private conservancy there, Kitirua. This lion recovery has been aided significantly by the fantastic conservation work being done by our friends at the Lion Guardians program. Recently, several of my safaris have had the special opportunity to visit the Lion Guardians camp in Amboseli and get some insights into how this unique and dynamic project operates. You can learn more about their work here (http://lionguardians.org).

My own safari work, as well as Steph’s carnivore research, have enabled me to learn so much about lions and the immense challenges humans face living alongside lions in the 21st century living. Sharing ideas and discussing issues related to lion conservation can bring even more to the experience of seeing one of the most impressive wild animals on the planet, which in turn will help us conserve lions, and be inspired by them, for generations to come.

Photos by Max Melesi, taken on safari with me in June, 2019.

During the rainy season over April, I kept busy working on my flying hours in my (1957) Cessna 182, 5Y-KUC, known to the family now as “Uncle Charlie.” A vintage aircraft with the latest GPS navigation systems (and a new engine!) has made for some spectacular and safe flying over what I consider the most impressive landscapes in Africa. One of these flights included flying Halina over the Great Rift Valley and up to her first pony camp near Mt. Kenya – truly a stunning location to ride, fly, hike, fish, and of course enjoy the abundant wildlife that make Kenya so unique. While Halina and I were at pony camp, Oliver and Stephanie kept busy at home, graphing animal numbers and rainfall, as well as cataloging the fascinating night visitors captured with our remote sensing camera traps; trundling aardvarks, diminutive dik-diks, and hyena-chasing-hippos amongst them!

Halina and I with Uncle Charlie – about to take off for pony camp!

Kids and their ponies at pony camp, with Mount Kenya in the background. Halina and Flashman are farthest to your right.

Halina with a small family of elephants in the Masai Mara, Kenya.

I have just sent out a newsletter, and it’s all about the elephants! 

For me, across my many years leading safaris through the African bush, the stand-out animal to observe, photograph, and simply just be amongst is the elephant. 

Since Hannibal marched on Rome in the third century BC with a cavalry of these exceptional beasts, and the western world had its first taste of the their potential might, they have captured human imagination. Two thousand years ago there were most likely millions of elephants across the African continent…

Read more here! 

My first safari in Kenya this month was rewarded with some truly impressive big cat sightings! Several of our resident Mara leopards were on good form, and the entire “camp” pride of lions settled down on our driveway during the second night under canvas. Our final drive to the airstrip was even exciting as we watched a beautiful female cheetah stalk and bring down a young gazelle – what a way to cap a wonderful few days! This was particularly special as the safari was with an old school friend from my early years in Sydney; such a treat to show off the amazing wildlife to him and his family!

As Halina rides up to our almost-finished Mara house on her Ethiopian pony, I pause and consider our family story, and how it has brought us to living here, on the edge of the greatest wildlife location on earth. Our home looks out over the great plains that stretch south across 10,000 square miles of Africa’s best. A region that has drawn Masai pastoralists, safari guides and carnivore biologists alike over recent centuries. Glancing from Oliver to the Masai school children nearby it strikes me that they will also play their part in the future of this great land.

We’ve just had the satellite internet connected so now I can sit at my desk looking at the giraffes and zebras outside my window and plan out next year’s expeditions and safaris. And while I tap out emails to friends and colleagues around the globe I’m reminded that gathering the family around the hearth (or the giraffes!) here at home is the most fulfilling of all feelings; shared equally by us and our Masai neighbors.

The Mara continues to be one of the best places on the planet to observe large carnivores. On a wonderful safari in the Mara Triangle last month, we caught up with a lovely leopard and her two full-grown cubs as well as this magnificent pair of lions on their honeymoon. Thanks to Michael Lorentz for the image and video!

Lions on their honeymoon in the Mara Triangle from Stephanie Dloniak on Vimeo.

….to the Mara!!!

We LOVE the Ankole cattle – one of only three herds in Kenya!

Steph and I have just bought 5 acres of land at the northernmost tip of the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem. We plan to build our house in 2015, and we will soon be part of the Enonkishu Conservancy!

We are incredibly excited about this, as we will not only be living in the Mara but will also be helping with an important experiment for the region – determining whether diversification of local livelihoods and a holistic grazing management scheme can improve the lives of the local community AND protect biodiversity, including the guild of large carnivores found there – lions, leopards, spotted hyenas, striped hyenas, cheetahs, and African wild dogs.

“Enonkishu” is Maasai for “healthy cattle,” and the folks behind the conservancy have built the first slaughter house in the area, with the goal of improving livestock husbandry and introducing a new market to the local Maasai community – a market for healthy, grass-fed beef! On the ecological side of things, we hope to participate by applying our skill sets in new ways to measure the effects of the scheme on habitat and wildlife, and to help introduce new kinds of tourism.

We recently spent the weekend at Enonkishu and had Omondi, a big bull elephant, wade through the Mara River to access the area – including our own plot! Each time we visit we find a couple of giraffes eating the Balanites trees that mark the center of the plot and the front of our future house. There are at least three lion prides utilizing the conservancy; Steph and local guide Moses have already started identifying individuals in one of the prides, including the magnificent resident male of the Lemek Pride, who they named “Leteipa,” Maasai for “dusky.”

Building a house in the Mara, on and in thick black cotton soil, will certainly be a challenge, but we are so looking forward to working with Andy Melesi to design and build something special ‘on the ranch.’ Ollie is already picking out an Ankole calf and Halina is dreaming of her own pony…. And Steph is particularly happy to be returning to her hyenas and her original home in Kenya.

Stay tuned for updates in 2015!

The view from our future house

Showing off the plot – and one of the giraffes

This guy keeps eating the garden!

Omondi, the big bull elephant

Leteipa and his lady

The Lemek Pride, just a few kilometers south of our plot

Glorious Ankole cattle

A very exciting development for the area

A visit from the helicopter at House in the Wild, the local lodge

We do not typically go on safari in the Masai Mara in May. It is often raining, the black cotton mud is horrible, the grass can be six feet tall, and the migration is still in the Serengeti. But this year we made a trip to fisi camp, and we are very glad we did!

Stephanie first spent a few days teaching the fundamentals of science writing to students participating in the Michigan State University study abroad course Behavioral Ecology of African Mammals and to a couple of the research assistants at The Mara Hyena Project, where she did the field work for her PhD. Fisi is the Swahili word for hyena, and we were lucky to spend some quality time with the Talek hyenas at their den and on a fresh kill. Steph even saw an old friend – Yogurt, daughter of Moonpie! Yogurt was the last cub born in the clan before Steph finished her field work in 2002, and the last cub she named. The Talek clan is now the largest it has been since research on these hyenas began in 1988, and we are looking forward to catching up with the hyena researchers to get the latest news this safari season.

We were amazed by how many wildebeest and zebra were there -unusual for this time of year. It turns out that the smaller, local “Loita” migration was already in the reserve. The larger migration from the Serengeti has also just started crossing into Kenya, making it an early year for the migration – and a fantastic time to be on safari! Of course, for the kids ANYTIME is a great time to be on safari….

Howard’s car amongst the Loita migration of wildebeest.

The next generation!

Lamu feeds on a freshly killed gnu….while the lower ranking members of the Talek clan wait for some scraps.

You can see just how strong a spotted hyena is when it carries a carcass with ease.

A young adult lioness of the Fig Tree pride, who was hiding a large cub in the grass of Horseshoe Lugga

An incredible group of ostriches.

Lots of fun on safari in the Mara – where Howard and Steph first met 14 years ago!

The Mara is one of our kids’ favorite places!

A sunset picnic dinner.

Another incredible Mara sunset.

On our last full day in the Masai Mara this season, we stumbled upon the aftermath of what must have been a mighty battle between male lions. Lying battered and forlorn on the open plain was the defeated intruder, who had recently ventured into the territory of the two impressive males who dominate the part of the Mara Triangle that includes our favorite campsite.

As we pulled up to the scene, one of the resident males, huge with a blond mohawk, softly roared as he sauntered past the loser, who could barely move his front legs or even lift his head under the weigh of his blood-soaked, rumpled mane. He had suffered at least one wicked bite to the top of his head. We weren’t convinced he would even be able to make it to the shade and water just 150 meters away.

Meanwhile, over the slight rise to the northwest, the dark-maned victor – the other resident male – was now enjoying a honeymoon with one of his pride females, and he looked none the worse for wear with but a few scratches on his flanks, chest, and shoulders. He appeared truly regal in the Mara light. We may have missed the actual battle, but it was clear what had happened – we were witnessing for ourselves some of the drama recently brought to life on the pages of National Geographic by David Quammen and Michael Nichols. (Read “The Short Happy Life of a Sergengeti Lion” here)

The next morning, while reveling in our last Mara sunrise for perhaps a couple of months, we set out to find the wounded male, to see if he made it through the night. We searched the bushes lining the small stream closest to where the fight had occurred, our eyes focused downward. Solomon casually told me to stop the car. We assumed he had seen the lion, but he had actually spotted a leopard in a tree right next to us. Luckily Solomon was also looking up!

We watched the little female for at least 15 minutes in the dawn light and were actually puzzled by her reluctance to hop down the tree trunk to go out of sight. She instead moved like a chameleon and attempted to go higher into the dense foliage of the tree. Solomon enlightened us again: he spotted the injured lion in a thicket just below the leopard tree. Eventually the leopard decided the lion was not a threat, slinked down the tree, and silently disappeared upstream. We left the lion in peace hoping he would live to fight another day, but we were informed by the rangers of the Mara conservancy that he succumbed to his injuries later that day.

Watching this drama unfold reminded us of what a special place the Masai Mara continues to be. Being tucked away in our own camp in a private corner of the reserve, we were fortunate to experience – on our own – the quintessential purity of  ‘nature red in tooth and claw’, and that feeling of true wilderness that is getting harder and harder to find.

The king came away with just a few scratches

The defeated intruder under the weight of his injuries

The king mating with a pride female

The leopard went up high in the tree

She finally came down

The king’s right-hand man

The king of the Mara