Masai Mara Lions

Masai Mara Lions: Masai Mara National Reserve is one of the most popular tourism destinations in the world for its high concentration of big cats; it’s much easier for guests to spot the big cats in Masai Mara than in any other place in Africa due to its large ecosystem and the wonderful great wildebeest migration that happens annually, hence giving the lions a large share of the food to feed on.

Lions in Masai Mara are also vulnerable despite being the kings of the jungle, as their status prompts competitors to actively seek to reduce the population of Masai Mara lions in the park, such as through hyena attacks and even eating the cubs.

Leopards also, when they access the cubs kill them, and the worst enemy is the lions themselves the male ones, which like feeding on the young ones, hence making the lioness suffer to keep the young ones away from the adult males until some time when they are grown, like three weeks.

Masai Mara lions’ prides are mostly divided into groups. Those are

The Cheli and Peacock pride

This group was named after a pride commonly seen at the camp of Cheli; guests around this camp could easily spot the pride, which consisted of around 16 to 19 lions. It started small with only three lioness which were Nuru, Lilly and Siti. In 2008, the group received some cubs, but they were forced out in mid-2009 after the joining of Caesar the giant, who came from the River pride.

Sebastian and Rescue, who were two of the big lions in the group disappeared and they were last seen around 2011 leaving Caesar and the other three lions Akiki, Jamal and Joshua, with tight competition in the pride and this has affected the newly born cubs, which are mostly killed by the male lions.

Enesikiria Pride

Which has 30 group members, it’s one of the biggest prides not only in Masai Mara but also in the whole of the African jungle located in the newly conserved area of Mara Naboisho Conservancy; the group has the oldest lions in Mara like Sero, Dada and Mickey.

These pride moments are always far from local communities, with little effect on the locals but concentrates on the center of the reserve

Other small pride groups are the Acacia Pride, the Simba Pride, the River Pride and many more small prides that get split due to competition among growing young males.

Masai Mara, unlike other game parks where there is much conflict between the communities and the reserves, has Masai locals who cherish greatly the importance of wildlife and this has made it well for the lions to increase daily. Thanks go to the Mara Predator Project, which has tried its best to protect the lions.