Governors Camp in the Masai Mara is one of the most historic and luxurious camps in the reserve. Built for the former British Governors as a hunting base, it is now one of the leading safari camps and base for the BBC team who film “Big Cat Diaries”. Here is the Camps Game Report for August, with update on the Migration. For details on staying at this beautiful camp, look at our Governors Camp trip.
“The annual migration of wildebeest and zebra has come into our area in smaller herds of a few thousand or so. They are very quick to move with various groups coming onto Rhino Ridge and down to the Musiara airstrip and then disappearing just as quickly. The main concentration we believe are still to come, they are down towards Look Out Hill near the Tanzanian border and many still in Tanzania. However we have had some large river crossings at the main crossing area near Paradise Plains, numbering 5000 – 10000. These occurred mid-month, earlier on in the morning which is not typical as the wildebeest will often wait for it to get hot and then take tentative steps towards the water for a drink and then decide to go for the plunge! There have been many crossings since, but in smaller numbers.
After a short absence of cheetah in the area our female cheetah and her young cub have returned and have taken to jumping on the bonnets of the vehicles, the cub a little small yet. Sadly the cub looks to be blind in one eye but this does not seem to impair it too badly. They seem to be preying on gazelles only as the wildebeest calves may be too much of a challenge for her. The three brother cheetahs have been seen regularly now, but they now move huge distances. They do not seem to be fraternizing with any females but are rather spending their time hunting, ranging from the Talek River to the Koiyaki area out of the reserve and back to us at the Musiara Marsh. They are confident enough to be taking on young wildebeest. The single female cheetah which was seen mating with the brothers over a month ago now has been back in the area, but not for long, moving out as quickly as she had arrived. Not looking pregnant yet, if she is it will not show for some time.
We have had some wonderful leopard sightings this month, our beautiful resident female who has been a common feature of our game drives has been seen in her usual territory around the camps and the marsh. However she tends to remain elusive during the day and mostly appears in the later evenings. A very large male leopard has been in the marsh area, perhaps he is checking on the female as a potential partner. He is a shy leopard and rarely seen.
The female leopard Olive and her two cubs are still together and well, moving from across the Talek River back onto the Olare Orok River. One of our guides had the pleasure of watching her make a kill of a young wildebeest right in front of his vehicle, amazing! There is another female leopard not very far from Olive, she too has two smaller cubs and are seen on occasion.
The Marsh Pride of lion are well ensconced near the Musiara Marsh, with so much potential prey around they are not moving very far and are spending a lot of their time together. The pride have been hunting wildebeest on a regular basis. Three of the sub adult males are still spending most of their time with one of the lionesses. She incidentally has been mating with the dominant male. There are still the nine sub adults and nine cubs of the new generation, three of which are still fairly small at about six weeks old. The smallest cubs have been coming out and following their mother around. The second pride male has been near the pride, but is looking in bad shape and is not interacting with the rest of the pride at all now. He is missing all but one tooth and is limping badly from a fight he had not long ago. It seems his days with the pride may be numbered.”