When Hemingway titled his collection of African stories,
"The Green Hills of Africa", he must have been thinking of the Mara in the wet season. For the Mara is touchingly beautiful when the grass is long, the animals sleek and healthy, and the Serengheti hills blue on the distant horizon. So it is now on the African high plains. Rain has been unusually abundant this season, and the usual migration patterns of the herbivores disrupted. Wildebeest herds are still in Tanzania's Serengeti where it is raining in what is supposed to be the dry season. More zebras seem to remain in the Mara where their numbers are exceptionally large. Topi are dropping their calves when the usual time for mass delivery is November. The herds arrived late this year as they did last year. Cats are sleeping with hyenas--no, not really--but there is enough abundance for cheetah mother
Narasha to raise four cubs, an unusually large litter for a cheetah.
 |
| cheetah cubs |
 |
| members of the Marsh Pride |
Sadly not all the change is good. About two dozen companies run licensed safari camps for tourists in the Mara reserve. There are about 15 hot-air balloon operations. While tourism has been good for the Kenyan economy and provided profit motivation for protecting the animals that live there, the high volume of visitors in what has become Africa's premier wildlife watching destination is taking its toll on the landscape and the wildlife. Certainly wildlife is benefiting is some ways. Elephants with long, gleaming white tusks
US Person had the privilege to visit are the calmest and most approachable he has seen in five African safaris. Their families consist of several generations compared to those decimated and orphaned by poachers elsewhere. Lion prides are large and stable enough to be named after their habitual territory such as the "Marsh Pride" made famous by the BBC But off road vehicles full of photographing tourists are rutting the landscape. Erosion of the Mara by heavy vehicle traffic is severe especially at water crossings and track intersections. In the wet, the black Mara soils turns to heavy, slippery muck that easily incapacitates a carelessly driven Land Cruiser. As other guides go around to avoid the morass, the rutted area spreads. Balloon flights are becoming more popular with visitors, and while their operation has less ground impact, their looming presence at low altitude scares the animals according to experienced guides.
 |
| healthy elephants |
 |
| a crowd watches cheetahs |
 |
| monitor lizard |
Human activity which interferes with normal behavior honed by evolution to insure survival is a major threat to the continued existence of wild fauna on the Mara plain.
US Person personally witnessed the disruption of a female leopard's gazelle hunt. Twenty-four vehicles radio equipped vehicles surrounded a patch of tall grass in which the leopard was stalking her prey. She gave up when the noisy vehicles spooked the gazelles. Guides often claim that cats ignore cars, but then they have no choice but to do so. The most intrusive visitors are those in the detested white minibuses emanating from Nairobi on day trips. They worm their way to the front with little regard for proximity to the animal or the view of fellow observers. At least a dozen of surrounded lions resting in the long grass. The scene was such a disturbing harbinger of mass tourism run amok that US directed his guide to not join the crowd. When a rare black rhino was spotted trotting across the fields, eight vehicles gave chase at once. Rhinos are car shy, so the big male ran at a top speed of 35-40kmh for several minutes trying to get away from the speedier cruisers. Fortunately for the lumbering beast the morning was cool and he did not overheat.
US Person cannot deny he was thrilled by a potentially fatal encounter. One knows there are perhaps too many visitors to the Masai Mara Reserve in high season when the birds are able to perfectly mimic the sound of motorized camera shutters. If Kenya is to preserve the wild that has made it justly popular with visitors, it needs to impose greater control on tourism in the Masai Mara to make sure conservation remains its paramount purpose and not let it become just another outdoor zoo.
 |
| photos courtesy US Person |
