The Kill at Ol Pejeta

BY Ravi Patel

Ol Pejeta Conservancy is full of surprises. Early one morning, we hopped into the car and drove west towards Kicheche, a quieter side of the conservancy.

On the road, we came across 3 juvenile lions – 2 lionesses and a young male – relaxing by the road. In the distance, we saw 8 hyenas all staring in the opposite direction to the young lions. A few minutes later we understood why – a beautiful huge male lion in his prime was coming towards us. He stopped a few hundred meters short and sat down.

Not too long after the three juveniles got up and started walking away. Up ahead, there were a couple of zebras with a young baby. Out of nowhere, the young lions started running towards the zebra. There was no calculated move, no stalk, no plan, nothing! With sheer luck, they suddenly took the foal. We were dumbfounded by what happened, and quickly rushed to the scene and we saw the three youngsters tearing away quickly at the foal.

In the background, the big male’s interest had been piqued and he rapidly made his way down to the scene. It was inevitable that he would snatch this prize from the youngsters, who tore away what morsels they could and scattered.

Within minutes, a second large male came running into the picture, and then a third. We hadn’t seen these lions earlier, but both were huge-maned lions in their prime as well. To see three big male lions all in their prime fighting over a kill was a vision that has been etched into my memory. The third male wasn’t too bothered with the kill, he seemed to be more interested in ensuring the juveniles were kept at bay. It was a battle between two each took their share and then settled down for the rest of the morning.

This was a truly amazing sighting, something we’ve never seen before and gave us fresh insight into the dynamics of a lion pride.

Chilling with The Kichwa Pride

BY Ravi Patel

May 2012 – Kichwa Tembo, Masai Mara, Kenya

The drive to Mara itself was an adventure. The rains had recently passed and the black cotton roads going from Mara Serena to Kichwa Tembo were slick. We got stuck three times, and there was a stretch of road where we weren’t in control – the car followed whatever tracks were made before us. In the end, we made it to Kichwa Tembo close to around 2pm, close to 8 hours after leaving Nairobi!

Close to camp, the Kichwa Pride had setup shop for the next few days, and we spent a large part of our 3-night trip with them. The pride was made up of 5 lionesses, 9 cubs and 4 males. We only saw two of the males; the other two were on duty patrolling the territory.

The first afternoon was action-packed pretty much right outside camp. The pride was hungry – we watched as one by one each of the 4 lionesses spread out across the plains in front of us. They were on the hunt, and as the sun was setting over the plains, they made their move on of zeal of zebra. They were unsuccessful – getting our hopes up and then back down quickly. We turned and went back to the cubs. We hung back, close to the cubs, and kept a careful eye on them.

More Zebras were heading up to the escarpment for the night. The lionesses felt the opportunity fading. They made their move – one foal went down immediately, and close by two lionesses struggled with an adult zebra. Out of the blue, a huge male came running in (we didn’t even notice him nearby), and proved his usefulness. With one swift lunge, the adult zebra came down. A very successful hunt for the pride, less than a kilometer from camp.

The next morning, we set off from camp in a different direction – from the far side of camp towards a dense thicket of bush. We saw a huge male leopard walking into the thicket. Nearby, in a deep ravine, we spotted a leopard with a warthog carcass. Viewing was difficult. Although we went into the Mara Triangle area, we did not see a great deal of game. A lot of the action was around the Kichwa Tembo area, and by and large, we remained with in a few kilometers of camp.

We explored the area nearby and saw some other small game, but eventually we returned to the Kichwa Pride. We spent the next 2 days with them, watching their pride dynamics. Full and satiated, the adults lazed around, as the cubs played in their new-found territories.