….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

Elephants near Amboseli National Park, Kenya.

Two of Stephanie’s stories have recently been published, and both are about conservation issues in the Amboseli area. In February, “Can Mock Hunts Save Lions’ Lives,” about a unique method being used by the Lion Guardians program, appeared in Ensia magazine. You can read it here.

Earlier this month, Steph’s story about Nick Brandt’s art and the creation of the Big Life Foundation was published in a new Scandinavian magazine called The Collection. It is not yet available online, but you can access the pdf here: Hope for Big Life in East Africa

I am proud to work with both of these organizations through my position at the Kenya Wildlife Trust, and I hope you enjoy reading about some of the conservation solutions in action in one of our favorite safari destinations.

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

-Nairobi, Kenya.     Stephanie has embarked on her new science writing career with a story on Nairobi’s suburban lions, four of which were captured on our property! You can read it here.

– Amboseli, Kenya.

We are thrilled to share some good news – the arrival of 6 new lion cubs to the Kitirua Conservancy! We found these little guys and four lionesses hanging out near the Kitirua Hill on the border of Amboseli National Park. About 2 months old, and probably from two litters, these cubs represent the next generation of lions in the area. Their pride territory includes part of the park, the conservancy, and additional bits of the Maasai group ranches. According to our friends at Lion Guardians, who are monitoring the lions in the ecosystem, there has been quite a cub boom over the last 6 months. If most of the cubs survive to adulthood we could see a doubling of the lion population over the next two to three years!

Unfortunately, two of the lionesses in this pride have been killing livestock recently, and retaliation by the local Maasai community is a big threat to the survival of not just the cubs but the pride as a whole. We are very grateful to Lion Guardians for keeping track of the conflicts and lions in the area, and are supporting their efforts to conserve the lions and minimize conflict. Our guests have been fortunate to spend quite a bit of time with our local Lion Guardian, Metito, and Steph will soon write about a morning she and the kids spent with Metito, 4 lions, and 13 hyenas!

We will post updates when we see the cubs again, hopefully on our next visit to the area in September.