Animals in Maasai Mara
Animals in Maasai Mara
Animals in Maasai Mara: Maasai Mara National Park is the most favorite park in Kenya that highlights the value of tourism in Kenya. The reserve is the most visited national park in Kenya with a wide range of attractions.
The reserve is one of the most highly populated reserves with animals not only in Kenya but in Africa at large. The Maasai Mara Game Reserve is a renowned national reserve with scenic beauty of the wildlife that can be viewed throughout the year. The most common dominant mammals are permanent residents, especially the African Big 5 and large herds of herbivores like Zebras, topis, wildebeest, gazelle, giraffes, and many others.
The reserve offers the best game drives where guests can easily sight the animals, especially the African Big 5, in a brief Game drive. Besides animals, in Maasai Mara, the park has over 450 animal species. One can also have a clear view of animals, catching them in action live when on a balloon safari early in the morning.
Below are some of the animals in the Maasai Mara Game Reserve;
Lions
The Masai Mara National Reserve is famous for the large pride of lions with the highest number of lions. The Mara Predator Project has been initiated to protect and conserve the lions in different conservancies as they are building a database for identification of the lions. The park has two big groups of lion prides those are The Cheli and Peacock pride and the Enesikiria pride. The lion pride is named after the nearest camp where the lions are commonly sighted during game drives.
Even though lions are the kings of the jungle, they are more vulnerable, especially at the early stage of growth, when other predators who are their competitors eat the cubs. Not only do male lions kill the young ones in order to get the lioness back in heat for mating faster. These are some of the reasons why the lion population is low even if they rule the bush.
Cheetahs
The renowned fastest animal on planet Earth, a very easy animal of all the big cats, and can even be kept at home as a pet. The cheetah population in the Maasai Mara is good and can be easily seen during your game drive at the park, as they are welcoming and can even enter your car.
Looking like Leopards at a distance, cheetahs are different in that they have a tear line running from their eyes down to the mouth and are less muscular compared to Leopards. The vegetation terrain of the Maasai Mara makes it easy for the guests to spot the cheetahs at the top of the termite hills or at the raised rocks around the reserve.
Leopards
Leopards are the smallest in all the African Big 5 but the deadliest and most muscular animal. It is very rare to spot; in fact, it is only spotted by eagle-eyed, specialized, and experienced tour guides who know the other characteristics and behavior of the environment when a leopard is present. It spends most of its time living on top of trees; it likes living in a silent, isolated area where it can easily get its food.
The population of leopards in the Maasai Mara is good to the extent that some part of the reserve is called Leopard Gorge. The leopards are known by its strange strength of carrying their prey, which is sometimes doubling their weight up into the tree.
Elephants
Elephants are the largest animals on earth; they are part of the African Big 5. Masai Mara has the highest population of Elephants not only in Kenya but in Africa at Large. According to the Elephant population of 2015, the reserve has over 30,000 elephants. It’s on record that it’s only in the Masai Mara where the number of Elephants grows rapidly, thanks to the Kenya government and the Masai community that have together fought poaching in the country.
African Elephants can be seen most of the time; they are very simple but dangerous animals if they charge. They are very gentle animals that use their trunks for most of their activities like feeding, drinking water, fighting, holding things, and many more.
Balck Rhino
Black Rhinos are the rarest among all the African big 5 in Masai Mara, in fact, at first, it was believed that Masai Mara has only African big 4 till of recent when Black Rhinos were sited at the reserve. The shy Rhinos keep themselves far away from other animals for their safety due to the high poaching rate that affected their population growth. The demand for rhino horns in Asian countries increased the poaching rates in Africa.
The population of the black rhinos in Masai Mara has started stabilizing and growing at the reserve, and this will increase the number of attractions at the reserve.
Wildebeest
Wildebeest, also known as gnus, are in the family of Antelopes; they are quite big in size and resemble cows more. The wildebeest in the Masai Mara are permanent, though not in very large numbers, as more are migratory. The wildebeest migration is the largest on-land wildlife migration in the world. When the wildebeest cross the Mara River to the Masai Mara, the population of the wildebeest goes beyond 2 million alongside other grazers.
The wildebeest migration happens annually from July to October, and these are the best months when guests flock to the Reserve, especially those who want to witness the live action of nature.
Other animals in the Masai Mara are:
Zebras, Thompson’s Gazelle, Hippos, Giraffes, Nile Crocodiles, Baboons, Jackals, Hyenas, Warthogs and many more.
Please do not get worried anymore, as your worrying question of what animals will I see in Masai Mara? Is sorted in this article. The list of animals is so long that we cannot write it all on paper, but come and view it yourself.
