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Masai Mara Special

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O ut in the acacia woodlands of Naboisho the old order is changing. Here, on the edge of the Masai Mara, the Enesikiria lion pride is about to trigger

one of those regular and bloody revolutions that reverberate through lion society. Between them its three territorial pride males – Saitoti, his brother Sadala and the veteran Saruni – have produced six feisty sons, all of whom are all fast approaching the time when they will be ejected from the pride. And when that happens, provided this fearsome band of brothers stay together, they will become an unstoppable coalition, able to terrorise all the neighbouring prides for miles around.

Naboisho is one of a handful of private wildlife conservancies that have sprung up on the adjoining Masai rangelands in recent years. Initiated by the Maasai themselves, it came into being as a result of the dramatic changes that have rocked the Mara since my first visit three decades ago, and is a partnership forged between 500 landowners and a handful of eco-tourism investors. Today, with a core area of over 200 square kilometres, it is helping to preserve a crucial part of the wildlife corridors upon which the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem and its world famous wildebeest migration depend.

Traditionally the Maasai have always lived in

MASAI MARAFew visitors to Kenya have more experience in the Masai Mara than the writer Brian Jackman. As his first book on the reserve, The Marsh Lions, written with Jonathan Scott, is about to be re-released on the 30th anniversary of the original, we thought it was a good time for him to write an extensive two-part feature on the Masai Mara of today, tomorrow and yesterday. Photography by Angela Scott.

relative harmony with wildlife. In many ways they have been as much a part of the ecology of the Mara as the wild herbivores themselves, and since they did not cultivate the plains they felt no hostility to the game that shares their rangelands.

Today the winds of climate change threaten to blow away the Maasai’s pastoral lifestyle, and the entire Mara ecosystem is itself at risk due to encroaching human activities. Since privatisation of the land, large areas have been fenced o! for commercial cultivation. While many Maasai still cling to their old ways, others are moving out of their dung-plastered huts into tin-roofed houses and enthusiastically embracing first-world technology. Nowadays it is no longer surprising to see a red-robed moran with a spear in one hand and a mobile phone in the other.

The changes in local land tenure have severely restricted the mobility of wildlife in the so-called dispersal zone outside the reserve, where wildlife moves in the dry season, and the Mara is estimated to have lost well over half of most species in the past 25 years. Some animal populations have su!ered catastrophic collapses, with bu!alo numbers down by 75 per cent, warthogs by 80 per cent and gira!e losses as high as 95 per cent. Most

disturbing of all, lion numbers inside the national reserve have fallen by almost a third in the past 20 years, reflecting a trend that is taking place right across Africa; and these figures could have been a lot worse without the presence of the adjoining Serengeti lion population.

At the same time, the Mara is under growing pressure as new safari camps spring up year after year, adding to the tourist vehicles criss-crossing the plains. Today there are at least 25 permanent camps and lodges inside the reserve, compared to a mere handful three decades ago.

Above: Is the future a dark one for the Mara’s lions?

Left: The Maasai are playing a much larger role in the greater Masai Mara

Kenya

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Stepping into the light

Brian Jackman is a freelance writer with a lifelong passion for Africa and the Masai Mara. He’s been a longstanding contributor to Travel Africa magazine, with his work dating back to our first edition.

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In those days the reserve was still relatively unknown, its existence eclipsed by the fame of the adjoining Serengeti. But all that changed when Kenya and Tanzania fell out and closed the border in 1977. Until then, Nairobi had been the main tourist gateway for both countries. Now, denied direct access to the Serengeti, visitors headed for the Mara in ever increasing numbers.

What they found was an earthly paradise that has been described as the greatest slice of wildlife real estate in Africa – 1672 square kilometres of riparian woodland and rolling savannah, bounded in the west by the Siria Escarpment, and mapped by innumerable luggas (seasonal watercourses) whose dense thickets provide shade and shelter for the Mara’s famous lion prides.

And as if that was not enough, every year, some time in July, the Serengeti zebras would appear, together with migrating wildebeest in numbers beyond counting, to create an unrivalled spectacle as they spread out through this, their dry season refuge until the onset of the short rains towards the end of October.

However, it is important to remember that the reserve itself makes up no more than a third of the Mara ecosystem. The rest of it – the area at greatest risk – lies in the dispersal zone.

Here, changing land use combined with a succession of severe droughts was threatening to sweep away the pastoralist lifestyle for ever, and at one time it seemed as if the greater Mara might be also lost forever, its black cotton soils ploughed up, fenced o! and sub-divided to oblivion. Then a miracle happened.

In the mid 1990s Jake Grieves-Cook, a far-sighted safari tour operator with a passion for conservation, persuaded 70 Maasai families to set aside 3200ha of their land exclusively for wildlife. This was the Ol Kinyei Conservancy – the first community-owned sanctuary to be established on the rangelands adjoining the national reserve – and demonstrated how Maasai landowners could earn a decent income from sustainable tourism by pooling their resources.

The idea caught on fast, and other, bigger wildlife conservancies followed in quick succession, including Olare Orok, Naboisho and Mara North, whose 20,000ha include Leopard Gorge, the scene of numerous encounters in the Big Cat Diary. The results have been hugely encouraging, with tourist numbers strictly controlled and wildlife – including lions – on the increase again. In fact Naboisho’s lion population currently stands at 70 – one of the highest densities anywhere – and the Mara-Naboisho Lion Project (www.mnlp.org) is working hard to reduce the numbers of lions being killed in retaliation for livestock losses on the surrounding rangelands.

While recent images of larking about (below), loving (opposite, top) and lunching (opposite, middle) suggest that all is well, lion and cheetah populations within the national reserve are on the decline

Opposite, bottom left: The Mara’s woodlands are being reshaped by elephant and Maasai bush fires

Opposite, bottom right: A Maasai guide from Porini Lion Camp in the Olare Orok conservancy

From Musiara Gate all the way down to the Serengeti border, only the ruts of old tyre tracks or the hum of a light aircraft heading for Governors Camp airstrip indicated that the 20th century had

ever come this far.Even in the early 1980s it was still possible

to witness the migration storming across the Mara River below the Serena Lodge with scarcely another vehicle in sight.

But in the boom years that followed the 1985 box-o"ce success of Out of Africa, the Mara began to creak at the seams as its popularity grew.

Those like me who knew the Mara in its age of innocence find it deeply dispiriting to

see how the world is closing in, and nowhere is this truer than at Mara Rianta, where you

cross the Mara River in order to enter the Mara Triangle. Here on the very edge of the

reserve a shantytown has sprung up where Jonathan Scott and I used to search for leopards 30 years ago.

Luckily, things are di!erent on the other side of the river. This is where

the 110 square miles of the Mara Triangle became Kenya’s first privately run game

reserve when the Mara Conservancy, a not-for-profits consortium took over from the local county council. Overnight, after years of neglect, roads were repaired, poachers cleared out and years of corruption consigned to history.

The Masai Mara is one of the most blessed

reserves in Kenya. With the Serengeti to the south and a number of well-managed conservancies

to the north, it is at the very heart of one of the world’s greatest ecosystems. However human encroachment,

through both tourism and pastoral communities, continues to threaten it. The creation of the conservancies is the best thing

I have seen in 20 years. They are proving daily that by reversing the destruction of habitat we can bring back the glorious nature of our childhood. For me, someone who has spent my entire life

here, this is the way forward – not just in our small arena, but in the whole of eastern Africa. It truly gives a future

to our wildlife, and through that, prosperity to the African children who

increasingly depend on it.

The Marsh LionsA bestseller when first published in 1982, The Marsh Lions portrays a vivid picture of life and death on the African savannah through the story of a pride of lions in Kenya’s world-famous Masai Mara game reserve. The story is essentially a true one. All the central characters are real, and most of the incidents described actually happened.

This 2012 re-released edition of the book is published by Bradt (www.bradtguides.com) and includes a new chapter bringing the story up to date with the pride as it is now, alongside photos of the new lions. The book is illustrated with photographs and drawings by Jonathan and Angela Scott.

Jackson Looseyia, guide, TV wildlife

presenter and Rekero camp co-owner

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Equally encouraging are the numbers of safari guides now being recruited from the local Maasai population. Today, Kenya’s best known guide is a Jackson ole Looseyia – whose friend and mentor Ron Beaton was responsible for setting up the Koiyaki Guiding School seven years ago in the Olare Orok Conservancy. Koiyaki is Kenya’s only community guiding school and has been responsible for producing most of the professional guides employed at Rekero, Kicheche and other top-notch camps in the greater Mara.

Looking back over the years we have known the Marsh Lions it is also impossible to ignore the physical changes that have overtaken their wild kingdom. Aerial photographs, and the personal observations of old-time game wardens and safari guides, bear witness to the manner in which the very fabric of the reserve has undergone a major transformation from bush to grassland.

Bush fires, elephants and the trampling of seedlings by the migrating wildebeest herds have all have played their part in causing the woodlands to shrink. In earlier times the Maasai shunned the Mara because its thorny acacia thickets were a haven for the tsetse flies that brought disease to their precious cattle.

But years of regular burning have helped to open up the bush, displacing the flies and encouraging more grass to grow. Even tour vehicles have played a part by breaking down the croton thickets in their constant search for lions.

I am never happier than

on the plains of the Mara.

No game drive is ever the same – the game,

the light, the vegetation and the skies are always

changing and its variance is as much an attraction as

its prolific nature. The distant laments of fish eagles, the

rumble of stampeding herds, the smell of wild basil, the sight

of cats in the priceless early morning, it is more intoxicating

than anywhere else in the world. It is also precarious and

I abhor those who continue to dengrade it by their

rampant over-development and nauseating

mainstream policies. The quicker the reserve

starts behaving like the properly run

conservancies adjoining it

the better.

At the same time, following the ivory trade ban in 1989, elephant numbers multiplied, knocking down yet more trees as a consequence, and systematically stripping out any seedlings they found on the savannah.

These changes have also a!ected the territories of the Mara’s lion prides, for which the importance of suitable habitat is crucial.

This is borne out by data collected by Dr Craig Packer, an American scientist at the Serengeti Research Project in Tanzania, whose studies suggest that competition for prime territory is the main reason why lions live in prides. In lion society, it seems, ownership of the choicest habitat means far more than hunting in groups or protecting the cubs.

That is why a pride’s territory is passed from one generation of lionesses to the next and why they will literally fight tooth and claw to hang on to it – a task way beyond the power of a single lioness who will always struggle to raise cubs on her own without the support of pride companions and a permanent place of refuge.

Packer’s research also revealed how river confluences and seasonal water sources are particularly sought-after, which explains why the Marsh Lions have always clung so fiercely to Musiara Marsh and Bila Shaka Lugga. These vital landscape features provide everything they need: not only plentiful shade and water but also perfect ambush sites and safe nursery thickets in which to hide their cubs.

A single lioness will always struggle to raise cubs on her own without the support of pride companions and a permanent place of refuge

Paul Goldstein, photographer,

guide, co-owner Kicheche

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How sad that just when we are beginning to understand lions more fully they are in big trouble. Lions, squeezed for space by a soaring human population, condemned as stock-raiders and shot by trophy hunters, are on the decline.

In the entire continent there may be no more than 25,000 left, of which nearly half are found in just six locations – four in Tanzania and one each in Kruger National Park and the Okavango Delta.

The general consensus is that human development and conflict with pastoralists are the main causes for the lion’s decline, but in some places a dramatic reduction in the amount of prey is also playing its part.

Strangely, the Serengeti is enjoying an all-time high, with around 3000 lions in the park, but across the border in the Mara it is a very di!erent story.

Here, numbers have nose-dived by 30 per cent since 1992 to less than 200 adults.

Drivers and guides have also noted smaller numbers of adult females in prides – particularly among prides on the edge of the reserve. And there are certainly fewer young nomadic males wandering through the area because of constant pressure from outside. Incursions deep into the reserve by large herds of Maasai cattle have become the norm. They happen mainly at night when tourists are tucked up safely in their beds, but the eerie twinkling of the herders’ torches can be seen for miles and the tinkling of cattle bells echoes all too often across the plains.

Above: During the migration there is no shortage of prey for the reserve’s big cats

Masai Mara Special

In the old days the pastoralists’ traditional way of dealing with lions was the spear. Today their weapon of choice is poison, which is far more e!ective.

In Kenya the substance most commonly used is carbofuran, a neurotoxin manufactured to protect crops. It is designed to kill insect pests but deadly enough to finish o! a lion. It has no smell or taste, making it impossible to detect when sprinkled on a livestock carcass, and will not only kill lions but any other animal that eats it, including hyenas, leopards and jackals.

The annual wildebeest

migration from the Serengeti in

Tanzania to the Masai Mara in Kenya is widely

recognised as one of the wonders of the natural

world. However it is utterly dependent

on the 85,000ha of rangelands outside the

Masai Mara Reserve’s northern boundary.

This vital grazing area is thankfully now made

up of community conservancies which benefit

not only the wildlife but also more

than 3000 Maasai families who

earn an income

from tourism.

Rob Beaton, founder of the Masai Mara

Koiyaki Guiding School and facilitator of the

Olare Orok Community Conservancy

Kenya

Spring 2012 Travel Africa 39

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In the Mara the use of poison has also had a devastating e!ect on vultures and other scavenging birds such as tawny eagles and bateleurs, all of whom have su!ered catastrophic local declines, as have the long-crested eagles and augur buzzards that used to appear during the rainy season.

Although carbofuran was withdrawn from all Kenyan stores in 2009 it is still finding its way into the wrong hands and remains one of the most serious threats facing East Africa’s wildlife today.

Yet, for all its problems, the Mara is still Kenya’s finest wildlife showcase. It is Hemingway’s Green Hills of Africa hoisted 5000ft into the sky together with its woodland glades and immense sweeps of chest-high oat grass, its endless herds of wandering animals and nights that echo to the rumble of lions.

There are also plenty of reasons to be cheerful. Leopards, so elusive when the fur trade was active, now pose in broad daylight along the Talek River. Elephants are more plentiful than ever, and even the black rhino has returned from the dead.

For me it will always be a special place because this is where my lifelong love a!air with Africa was born, on the plains where I saw and heard my first lion. Not close enough to feel the air vibrating as I would in years to come, but loud enough for me to be hooked for life.

That is why I will always think of the Mara as the land of the lion, the majestic carnivore that symbolises all that is best about wild Africa. Scar,

Kenya

Brando and Mkubwa – the three males that ruled the Marsh Lions when Jonathan and I first knew the pride – are long past. But their o!spring have maintained the Musiara dynasty, as viewers of Big Cat Diary will have seen, keeping watch from the same termite mounds over their kingdom of grass and reed beds.

As to the future, the success of private wildlife conservancies such as Naboisho has helped to preserve a crucial part of the dispersal zone. Talk of a Mara-Serengeti trans-frontier national park remains a pipe dream, and the Mara national reserve itself stumbles on from year to year without its long-awaited management plan.

Yet miraculously, despite three decades of change, there is still no better place to observe Africa’s big cats, and the Marsh Lions continue to occupy centre stage in what is still one of the world’s most treasured wild places.

Masai Mara Special

Above: The majesty of life and death is still on display in the Mara

Below: Leopards are a particular bright spot in the reserve, with sightings more frequent than ever

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Here on the edge of the Masai Mara, the Enesikiria lion pride is about to trigger one of those regular and bloody revolutions that reverberate through lion society

Kenya

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Ol KinyeiThe first private conservancy to be set up in the Greater Mara and still one of the best. It has recently been expanded to 6700ha and is a beautiful area of yellow-barked acacia woodlands, open plains and seasonal streams. You’ll find plentiful game here with large groups of elephant often seen and the Loita wildebeest migration passing through between June and November. There is a resident pride of over 20 lions as well as leopards, cheetahs and good numbers of giraffe. Wild dogs and aardwolves have also been sighted. Better still, the only camp here is Mara Porini, with six tents by the banks of Laetoli Spring, so you can have all Ol Kinyei’s big cats to yourself.

MotorogiMotorogi (a Maasai word meaning

‘Egyptian goose’) consists of 5000ha adjoining Olare Orok and the two conservancies are managed as one unit of 13,000ha, all of which are set aside for the exclusive use of a handful of safari companies including Gamewatchers (Porini Lion Camp), Great Plains (Mara Plains Camp), Kicheche (Kicheche Bush Camp) and Virgin, who plan on opening two camps in the near future. Both conservancies operate a strict limit on vehicle numbers and tourist camps, with a maximum of one tent per 285ha and no more than 12 tents per camp.

Mara NorthCovering an area of more than 32,000ha on the border of the reserve, Mara North is the biggest and most beautiful of all the private conservancies in the wildlife dispersal zone, and includes Leopard Gorge (of Big Cat Diary fame) as well as a glorious stretch of the Mara River. The open plains between the Mara and Olare Orok Rivers are as lovely as you will see anywhere. The only downside is that, in some ways, the Conservancy is still a work in progress. Unlike Ol Kinyei and Olare Orok, the local Maasai and their livestock have not completely moved out – diminishing the sense of pristine wilderness – and it has proved difficult to prevent additional safari camps springing up. However its ten member camps include some of Africa’s finest. Among them are Elephant Pepper Camp, Saruni Mara, Kicheche’s Acacia Valley Camp, Serian Camp, Royal Mara Safari Lodge and Offbeat Mara Camp.

Pushing the boundariesTHE MARA CONSERVANCIES

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Getting thereKenya Airways (www.kenya-airways.com), British Airways (www.ba.com) and Virgin Atlantic (www.virgin-atlantic.com) all have regular direct flights from London to Nairobi. Safarilink (www.safarilink-kenya.com) provide internal flights between Nairobi and the various camps in the Mara region.

When to visitThe Masai Mara and its accompanying conservancies offer rewarding wildlife viewing year round. If you’d like to witness the annual wildebeest migration you should travel between August and October, though in dry years the masses can arrive as early as late June.

VisasMost visitors require a visa to visit Kenya. Single-entry tourist visas are available upon entry (by road or air) for US$50. Multiple-entry visas cost US$100. The costs vary at Kenyan embassies and consulates – the fees for single-/multiple-entry tourist visas at the Kenya High Commission in London are £30 and £60 respectively.

BooksLonely Planet and Rough Guides both produce reliable guidebooks to Kenya for independent travellers. Bradt’s Kenya Highlights (1st ed, 2010) by Philip Briggs is great for those on organised safaris to the Mara or elsewhere in the country.

Plan your trip

NaboishoBuilt on a sustainable partnership between Maasai landowners, eco-tourism investors and conservation interests, The Mara Naboisho Conservancy is a model of community involvement in Kenya’s safari industry. With a core area of more than 200 square kilometres bordering the national reserve, its presence is crucial to the survival of the wildlife dispersal zone, and the density of game to be seen here is among the highest in Africa. Naboisho’s lions are doing well and are monitored by the Mara-Naboisho Lion Project (www.mnlp.org ). Like Motorogi, Olare Orok and Mara North, it is part of the Koiyaki Lemek Group Ranch and is home to the hugely successful Koiyaki Guide School, many of whose former pupils are employed as professional safari guides throughout the Mara. Game viewing is restricted to seven upmarket bush camps: Rekero Naboisho, Encounter Mara, Basecamp Wilderness, Basecamp Dorobo (a mobile flycamp used for walking safaris), Kicheche Valley, Ol Seki and Porini Mara (in the adjoining Ol Kinyei Conservancy).

The Mara Predator ProjectAt a time when lions are disappearing all over Africa, the Mara conservancies are bucking the trend. Here, Living With Lions, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to conserving these large carnivores, has been helping to minimise human-wildlife conflict through its Mara Predator Project. The result is a healthy and growing lion population whose fortunes you can follow by logging on to www.livingwithlions.

org/mara. Visitors to the Mara North and Olare Orok conservancies are also invited to help

monitor lions by photographing, identifying and reporting any lions you see.

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Above, clockwise from top right: Walking safari in Ol Kinei; plenty of company for those at Elephant Pepper Camp; on the march through Ol Kinei; a surreal sundowner in Mara North; driving among giants, Mara North; leopard on the prowl, Mara North

Below: Lounging in Naboisho

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Olare OrokWith 8000ha of pristine savannah in the heart of the wildlife dispersal zone, Olare Orok is among the most successful of all the Mara conservancies and is probably the best place in the world to watch lions. When Olare Orok was established in 2006 the cats were in deep trouble. Today its prides are flourishing again, with at least 50 lions roaming the conservancy. There are three great camps here: Kicheche Bush Camp (6 tents), the luxuriously appointed Mara Plains (7 tents), and Porini Lion Camp (10 tents) on the Ntiakitiak River. As at Motorogi and Ol Kinyei, vehicles and visitor numbers are restricted to ensure a more private and personal safari experience.

LemekThis vast expanse of open plains in the far northwest corner of the wildlife dispersal zone is part of the old-established Koiyaki Lemek Group Ranch. Lemek’s big game country is best explored by basing yourself at the stylish Saruni Mara safari lodge, whose six luxury cottages – hidden in an idyllic valley of camphor wood and wild olives – sit just outside Lemek’s southern boundary in Mara North (they have an access agreement with Lemek). Don’t miss a drive into the surrounding hills, ending up with sundowners and stupendous views from the summit of Kililiwoni.

EnonkishuThis community-owned private initiative consists of 9700ha of bush country in the northwest corner of the wildlife dispersal zone near the Lemek Hills. Aims to improve the life of its Maasai landowners through better education, cattle husbandry and conservation awareness as well as providing greater security and preventing poaching and charcoal burning. A women’s development group is successfully producing income from a honey business with over 1200 hives. There is only one safari lodge at present, the eco-friendly Mara Nubian.

Ol ChorroOl Chorro is a private 6900ha wilderness bordering the Mara River between the Enonkishu and Lemek conservancies. The owners – four major families and 96 individuals – obtain their income from entry fees that are divided among all landowners on a per acre basis. Accommodation boils down to a choice between the Mara Safari Club’s 50 tents beside the Mara River, or Acacia House, a private bush home overlooking the Ol Chorro waterhole in the Lemek Hills.

Images: The wildlife, landscapes and activities in the Mara’s conservancies won’t leave visitors wanting for anything

Why choose a conservancy safari?The benefits of staying in the conservancies are considerable. Not only do they offer low-impact tourism with eco-friendly camps and fewer vehicles, but also night drives, game walks with armed guides, and bush breakfasts, dinners and sundowners in carefully selected spots – activities not allowed inside the national reserve. The only thing missing is the spectacle of the major wildebeest river crossings, but you can still visit the reserve whenever you wish – provided you pay the entry fee.

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There is no doubt that

there is one unique African

savannah ecosystem that stands out as a hot

spot, and it’s the Masai Mara. After 30 years filming and

researching predators I was astounded at the sheer number,

and ease of seeing lions, cheetahs and leopards here. Of course the

prey supports that in abundance. But it’s also too easy to slip into

complacency as a result. Big cat numbers are not like this everywhere,

and even in the Mara they are on the decline. We’re standing on the edge

of a cataclysmic descent toward the extinction of large predators in

the world. Here in the Mara you’re seeing the best of the last of them.

We’re involved in protecting this core area because it is one of the

most important, it’s visible, it has hope of success and it would

be terribly sad to see fail. If we can’t save

predators in the Mara then

we can’t do it anywhere.

Dereck Joubert, National Geographic

Explorer-in-Residence, founder of Big Cats

Initiative and owner of Mara Plains camp

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Masai Mara Special