Another great day in the Maasai Mara Reserve
The trip was coming to the end so we were fortunate to have another fantastic day. We saw some zebras by the watering hole first thing in the morning and at the end of the day we saw lions lying on the rocks basking in the sunshine.
We stopped off to watch the zebras drink in the beautiful morning light.
I read that the ears of a zebra show its mood. Like horses, zebras can turn their ears in almost any direction. Zebras have excellent eyesight and it is believed that they can see in colour. These animals also have night vision although not as advanced as that of most of their predators. They also have excellent hearing and an acute sense of smell and taste.
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Like horses, zebras walk, trot, canter and gallop. They are generally slower than horses but their great stamina helps them outpace predators. When cornered, the zebra will rear up and kick or bite its attacker.
A zebra foal is brown and white instead of black and white at birth.
After watching the zebras for an hour it was time to move on.
This beautiful bird is a bee-eater. As the name suggests, bee eaters predominantly eat flying insects, especially bees and wasps. Before eating its meal, a bee-eater removes the insect's stinger by repeatedly hitting and rubbing the insect on a hard surface.
We came across more hyenas.
Spotted hyenas live in territorial clans of related individuals, sometimes up to 80 members.
Like most animals in Kenya, topis are most active in the morning and evening, resting in shade through the hot hours. Topis eat only grass, avoiding both mature leaves and very young shoots. The drier the grass, the longer the rest time is needed for digestion.
The topis actually spend much of their life with other antelope such as wildebeest and with zebras and ostriches. They can live in herds of 15 to 20, although in some places it is possible to see herds of hundreds.
The treat of the morning was coming across a family of warthogs. Unfortunately they were quite far away so the photos are heavily cropped. Still if was fun watching them. Although these animals are neither graceful nor beautiful they are very interesting. They are the only pigs able to live in areas without water for several months of the year. By tolerating a higher-than-normal body temperature the warthog is perhaps able to conserve moisture inside its body that might otherwise be used for cooling.
Before giving birth to a new litter, the female chases away the litter she has been raising and secludes herself. The juveniles may join up with another solitary female for a short time before they go on their own. Lions and leopards are the warthog's chief enemies. They protect themselves from predators by fleeing or sliding backwards into a hole and using their formidable tusks in an attack.
Warthogs live in family groups of a female and her young. Sometimes another female will join the group. Males normally live by themselves only joining the groups to mate. These animals sleep and rest in holes normally dug by another animals such as the aardvarks.
The warthog is mainly a grazer and has adapted an interesting practice of kneeling on its calloused, hairy, padded knees to eat short grass. Using its snout and tusks, it also digs for bulbs and roots during the dry season.
This tree hyrax lived on the grounds of the hotel we were staying at - the Sarova Mara Game Camp. During the afternoon break I went and took the photograph after other members of the group showed me where the animal was.
Towards the end of the day we came across this lion lying on the rocks. Unlike so many other lions I saw, this one didn't have flies on its face.
In a different area we came across more lions resting on the rocks. In the wild lions rest around 20 hours a day.
As usual it was a race to get back towards the lodge where we would stop to take some photographs of the sunset.
The end to another perfect day.
Comments
You are doing great job with the blog, Marsh, thanks!