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Experience Mara Naboisho

25 Sep 2018|Catherine Soares de Melo

Experience Naboisho on a game drive, night drive or on foot. One of our personal favourites amongst safari camps in the Maasai Mara region, Naboisho Camp, in the Mara Naboisho Conservancy (Kenya) tells all about their recent wildlife sightings.

Feasting with elephants

One late afternoon our guests in camp headed out on their first ever game drive in Africa, together with our experienced guide Dickson Kereto. He made his way down into an area where they came across a pair of mating leopards. This is amazing interaction and behaviour to witness and it is encouraging on the conservation side of things to know our population of leopards is growing. The Naboisho leopards are starting to settle down, as we also had a brilliant sighting of a male leopard with prey whilst on foot!

Just another day on safari

During another game drive in the Maasai Mara Game Reserve, guests came across a beautiful male leopard making his way towards a Balanites – a desert date-tree. He had a severe limp to his left front leg, possibly from hunting or a fight, so they did not expect him to be able to climb up the tall tree. They were clearly wrong, and he started making his way up the tree. Unknown to them, he had a Thompson’s Gazelle kill hidden away in the branches. He picked up the kill, posed for a while and began making his way back down the tree with a huge amount of effort, and limped off proudly with it onto a rocky outcrop. The most amazing part of this sighting was the strength this animal had even with an injury. An amazing sighting indeed, in very beautiful light, ensuring brilliant wildlife photography.

Up close and personal – a walking safari

Not only has the big game been giving us amazing sightings, so has the birdlife. After sightings and encounters with lions and elephants whilst on an early morning walking safari, we startled a Giant Eagle Owl out of its roosting spot after hearing it calling, when it was – unluckily – spotted by two nearby Tawny Eagles. The two eagles zoomed in, mobbed the owl for more than half an hour, with the owl defending itself by kicking at the eagles with its enormous talons, before attracting a variety of other birds to join in the commotion. Eventually all the birds lost interest, and by this stage, the very annoyed owl, was left in peace!

Sightings like this do not happen every day and this is what makes walking safaris an amazing experience. We would not have found this owl if we did not hear it calling during the walk and we were all sitting flat in the grass witnessing this most wonderful behaviour playing out.

All in all an action packed month in the Mara and inside the camp for that matter! Find out more about the Maasai Mara and the adjacent conservancies and Naboisho Camp or visit the camp’s Facebook page for their latest sightings.