A Kenyan Trio!

[Bensound]

Hello Bush Dog,

you mention seeing the first cheetah in Meru in 1989.

Although my first visit to Meru was in 1989, the first time I saw a Cheetah was in 2013.

There were 3 Cheetahs very near to the Mulika Lodge.

In the following years I continued to meet Cheetahs again and again,

somtimes 3 and 4 Cheetahs together.

So I can confirm that there are a few dozen cheetahs living in Meru Park.

The cheetahs mostly stay near the Mulika Swamp and the adjacent Murera Plains,

but also on the plains of the Mururi Swamp in the Rhino Sanctuary.

k4

Hello Bush Dog,
you mention seeing the first cheetah in Meru in 1989.
Although my first visit to Meru was in 1989, the first time I saw a Cheetah was in 2013.
There were 3 Cheetahs very near to the Mulika Lodge.
In the following years I continued to meet Cheetahs again and again,
somtimes 3 and 4 Cheetahs together.
So I can confirm that there are a few dozen cheetahs living in Meru Park.
The cheetahs mostly stay near the Mulika Swamp and the adjacent Murera Plains,
but also on the plains of the Mururi Swamp in the Rhino Sanctuary. Kr/Ben

K

Kr/

Hello Bush Dog,

you mention seeing the first cheetah in Meru in 1989.

Although my first visit to Meru was in 1989, the first time I saw a Cheetah was in 2013.

There were 3 Cheetahs very near to the Mulika Lodge.

In the following years I continued to meet Cheetahs again and again,

somtimes 3 and 4 Cheetahs together.

So I can confirm that there are a few dozen cheetahs living in Meru Park.

The cheetahs mostly stay near the Mulika Swamp and the adjacent Murera Plains,

but also on the plains of the Mururi Swamp in the Rhino Sanctuary.

 

 

Hello Bush Dog,

you mention seeing the first cheetah in Meru in 1989.

Although my first visit to Meru was in 1989, the first time I saw a Cheetah was in 2013.

There were 3 Cheetahs very near to the Mulika Lodge.

In the following years I continued to meet Cheetahs again and again,

somtimes 3 and 4 Cheetahs together.

So I can confirm that there are a few dozen cheetahs living in Meru Park.

The cheetahs mostly stay near the Mulika Swamp and the adjacent Murera Plains,

but also on the plains of the Mururi Swamp in the Rhino Sanctuary.

Hello Bush Dog,

you mention seeing the first cheetah in Meru in 1989.

Although my first visit to Meru was in 1989, the first time I saw a Cheetah was in 2013.

There were 3 Cheetahs very near to the Mulika Lodge.

In the following years I continued to meet Cheetahs again and again,

somtimes 3 and 4 Cheetahs together.

So I can confirm that there are a few dozen cheetahs living in Meru Park.

The cheetahs mostly stay near the Mulika Swamp and the adjacent Murera Plains,

but also on the plains of the Mururi Swamp in the Rhino Sanctuary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 5, 2023 by Bensound

[Bush dog]

 

Thank you so much! @Zim Girl

 

Hari @madaboutcheetahwill really like this post!

[Zim Girl]

John said it was a good morning for a sunrise, so he wanted to get us down to the flamingo lake as soon as possible.  Apparently it had been cloudy for quite a while and this was the first clear morning.  We arrived at the lake in time to see the sun just appearing. 

 

 

Behind us on the other side of the lake there were many groups of flamingos.

 

 

 

The outline of Mt Kilimanjaro was creating a lovely reflection.

 

As were the flamingos.

 

 

 

 

 

More reflections.

 

 

 

 

 

We drove slowly along the track from the lake towards the marsh and dead wood opposite Amboseli Lodge.

 

 

The birds were amazing.  So close to the vehicle.

 

 

 

 

We stopped to watch a mother and baby elephant.  The calf was initially enjoying his stick and then after a quick drink from mum, found a much bigger one to play with, pushing it up and down.

 

 

 

While we were watching, John got word that Craig had been spotted.  For anyone that doesn't know, Craig is one of the very old big tuskers of Amboseli.  In fact, possibly now the oldest at 51 years.  He is a member of the 'CB' family as designated by the Amboseli Elephant Research Project which was set up by Cynthia Moss in the early seventies.

A history of all the Park's elephant families can be found here    Family histories | ATE (elephanttrust.org)

Apparently Craig had been 'out of area' for a while so John was very pleased he had been seen.  We headed off in the general direction of the sighting.  On the way we were getting really good views of Mt Kilimanjaro.  Not clear ones, but at least the mountain could actually be seen, which is definitely not a given.

 

 

 

 

Then a bit further along the road we find Craig.  There were surprisingly few vehicles around.  I think only two others and it was really quiet.

 

 

 

His huge tusks can be seen a bit better with this angle.

 

And with Kili as a backdrop.  Today was Adrian's actual birthday and John said this was his present from Amboseli .

 

By now it was breakfast time so John carried along the road to one of the Park gates.  Here there were toilets and we could get out of the vehicle to eat.  Rules in the Park are very strict.  No getting out of the vehicle is allowed even for breakfast/sundowners etc.  Tortilis normally do their breaks in the Kitirua conservancy where only they are allowed to visit.

 

 

After breakfast, John said he wanted to take a road that if we were very lucky and Craig had kept walking it might mean we could get a front on view of him.

Well, we were either not lucky enough or Craig had decided to take a break, but we didn't see him again.

Instead we were entertained by these courting ostriches.

 

 

The one on the right got a bit distracted!!

 

 

 

We circled round back to the main road and saw two groups of elephants in the distance coming towards us.

 

 

 

And the second group.

 

 

 

So that was a pretty good elephant morning.

 

As we passed by one of the lakes on the way back to camp, we saw some interesting behaviour by a group of pelicans.

They swam in a circle and then all ducked under at the same time.

John said they are known to hunt co-operatively, herding fish together and then all striking at once to catch them.

 

 

 

 

We arrived back in camp at 12.30pm.

 

 

[Zim Girl]

For such a big camp, I think it has 17 rooms, it is very well laid out.  The main lodge is on a small hill and the rooms are all spread out down the slope.  We were in room 9, furthest away at the bottom.

 

View from the lodge across their grounds and beyond.

 

View from our room.

 

There is a big enclosed bathroom at the back behind the mirrored door.

View of main buildings from walking back up the hill.

 

We left for the afternoon drive at 4.15pm.  We were going to stay within the conservancy.

 

 

 

One of many small groups of elephants.  These ones were covered in dried mud.

 

 

 

John got a call from a Tortilis vehicle to say they had just found a lion pride on a kill.  It wasn't far away so we joined them.  

After a bit of debating it was decided the kill in question was a cow that must have got left behind and so an easy meal for these lions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had our sundowners in the vehicle watching the lions.

 

The wildebeest and zebra on their evening march away from the marsh areas.

 

 

Back in camp at 7pm.

[Towlersonsafari]

I really like the marching elephants @Zim Girl

[TonyQ]

Your change of guide really paid off.

The flamingo lake is beautiful, and wonderful elephants 

[Treepol]

All the flamingo photos are beautiful, especially the sunrise shots. I enjoyed the "synchronised" pelicans.

[Zim Girl]

19 hours ago, Towlersonsafari said:

I really like the marching elephants @Zim Girl

Thank you @Towlersonsafari.  Classic Amboseli, and right place, right time.

 

15 hours ago, TonyQ said:

Your change of guide really paid off.

The flamingo lake is beautiful, and wonderful elephants 

Did it ever, I couldn't have coped with the other one.  John was so much better.  The lake was brilliant.  So many waders, so close.  Birdwatching in the UK will never be the same again!

 

6 hours ago, Treepol said:

All the flamingo photos are beautiful, especially the sunrise shots. I enjoyed the "synchronised" pelicans.

Thank you @Treepol.  We spent quite a bit of time with the pelicans, as they were doing this multiple times.  Very interesting to watch.

[Zim Girl]

The next day started off much more cloudy with quite poor light for much of the morning.  We saw a bat-eared fox just as we left camp but too dark for a photo.  We went back to the site of the lion kill to see if there was anything still around.  Nothing.  The area had been picked clean.

On leaving the conservancy we always passed across a spring before entering the Park.  It was a good place to stop and check, as there were often birds there.  This morning there was a Pied Kingfisher pair.

 

After entering the Park we found a female lion sitting not too far from the road.  She got up and slowly walked alongside the road for a while and then crossed over to the other side before circling round and walking towards the marsh.  She looked to be quite pregnant.

 

 

 

 

 

At this point she was very close to some zebra and for a moment she looked quite interested in them.

 

But in the end she just sat down and so we left her in peace.  You can see just how fat she looks in this picture.

 

We didn't go out as far as the lake but stayed in the very open area around the marsh.

Small groups of elephants were common.

 

Then John spotted another bull elephant he knew, called Palmer.  A member of the PC family, he is 30 years old and known to be very friendly and sociable.

 

 

 

More elephants.

 

We came back around to the spring which was now a lot busier.  If you look closely at the right hand end of the branch in the water, you can still see the pied kingfishers sitting on their perch, an hour and a half later.

 

A Black-backed jackal passed by quickly but then we saw an animal we had been hoping to find.  A Golden Jackal.  John told us that after much research it has been proposed that the jackal should be renamed Golden Wolf, Canis anthus.  Separate from the Eurasian Golden Jackal, Canis aureus.  For anyone interested, there is more info here  Golden jackal: A new wolf species hiding in plain sight | Science | The Guardian

 

Black-backed Jackal

 

Golden Wolf.  John told us this was the juvenile of the resident pair.

 

 

 

A few pictures giving a feel for the general landscape in this area.  Note the dust devil in the background.  These were seen all over the Park.

 

 

There were many ostriches with the wildebeest on the other side of the marsh.

 

 

Two juvenile fish eagles having a dance 

 

Female reedbuck in the marsh

 

And a male seen not long after

 

Driving down one of the bigger roads we saw a herd of elephants that looked like they would come towards us and cross, like the ones did yesterday.  We parked up and waited.  However, other vehicles had also spotted them and soon there were five or six on the road in front of us.  Several were obviously from the same photographic outfit.  Instead of giving the herd space to come forward and cross they just kept driving backwards and forwards and filling in any gaps.  Presumably trying to get that front on shot.  Idiots, the lot of them.  We pulled back well out of the way and I took a couple of shots of an elephant on the edge of the group having a bit of a dust bath.  As we were going the whole herd gave up and turned and walked away from them.

 

 

 

 

 

We went back to a small area of wood, where first thing in the morning we had seen a Verreaux's eagle owl.  It had been too dark for photos then but it was still there so I could get one now.

 

Back in camp at 12.20pm.  

View in a different direction from our tent.

 

We also had a pair of resident bats roosting in the eaves of the front of the tent structure.  I have no idea what species they are but they were very cute.

[Zim Girl]

Out for the afternoon drive at 4pm.

View of the Park as we leave camp.

 

We generally spent most of the time bird watching.  

We did, however, have a nice close up encounter with a female elephant who was stood eating with her calf.  They were actually blocking the road across one of the lakes.

 

John said he knew her so he stopped the vehicle to see if she would come over.

Indeed she did.  She came up beside John and carried on eating from the grass verge.

 

 

Then she walked over to my side but there wasn't room for her to come any closer sadly.

 

She stayed blocking the road, so not wanting to disturb her, John reversed and we carried on alongside the lake.

 

We watched another elephant getting into the marsh and eating the vegetation.

 

 

We drove back to the flamingo lake which was looking a lot more choppy now as the breeze had got up.  Not as much birdlife around the edges this time.

 

Back in camp at 7pm.

[Zim Girl]

Out at 6am in the morning. 

Our flight back to Wilson wasn't until 3.30pm so we were able to have a full mornings drive.

Saw the bat-eared fox again but still too dark for a good picture.

Again the morning was very cloudy which shows how lucky we were on that first day.  In hindsight, I wish I had spent even more time playing with the reflection shots on that morning.

We passed a herd of buffalo while driving into the Park.

 

 

 

The lake was a bit more moody and Mt Kilimanjaro was hidden.  So again, we were very lucky to see it on the first day.

 

 

This little malachite kingfisher was very accommodating though. 

 

We spent a while down near the old Amboseli Lodge bird watching and then made our way back to the conservancy.

Quite quickly we found the juvenile Golden Wolf again.

 

We stopped for breakfast and as we were getting back into the vehicle we saw a hyena walking towards us.

 

We kept very quiet and he walked up to us.  Gave us a quick sniff then sauntered off again.

 

Then we saw the Golden Wolf again.  John said this one was the adult male.

 

 

Grey crowned crane

 

We were having a bit of fun with John bird watching and trying to mop up some of the small birds we had missed so far.

This giraffe was helping out with a couple.

 

We found this lone buffalo tucked away in the bushes.

 

He wasn't massively impressed to see us so we left him and carried on looking for birds.

 

We timed it so we got back at camp for around 12pm.  This gave us time to pack and then go up for lunch at 1pm.  We were told we could keep our room until we needed to leave for our flight so that was handy, and we chilled out on the seating in front of our room for the time that was left.

 

Our Safarilink flight left on time and we were picked up at Wilson and taken back to the Four Points Sheraton at the airport.  We had dinner there and they were quite happy for us to wait in their lounge until our pick up for the international flight home. There were no problems with any of the flights and we were back in Manchester at 10am the next morning.

 

We really enjoyed the whole trip.  All the places we visited were very different.  Meru was a great experience.  Very few visitors and a lovely variety of landscapes. Could easily have spent longer there, although we may have been quite lucky with the weather being so good.  For us, I think 5 nts would have been perfect.

At Kitich we felt we definitely needed another night.  The time went very quickly, and we loved being able to walk.  No other visitors made it feel very exclusive and the team there were wonderful.

Amboseli was better than expected in that we thought it was going to be very, very busy with vehicles.  Apart from the daft behaviour around those elephants it really wasn't too bad.  It definitely helps that Tortilis has access to the Kitirua conservancy.  As many sightings were had there, as in the main Park.   The flamingo lake in good weather was stunning with the sunrises and the amount of birdlife.  I think as were able to have 3 full am drives then 3 nts here was enough.  I doubt I would return but definitely worth at least one visit. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Towlersonsafari]

hurrah1 sounds like you had a splendid time @Zim Girl

[Alexander33]

Good for you for promptly addressing your guide and vehicle concerns at Tortilis. I found the staff there to be very amenable on both of our visits, so I’m glad the manager was able to rectify your situation.  Good food there, too, as I recall. 
 

I think of all the places I’ve visited in Kenya thus far, Amboseli is the least pleasing from an aesthetic point of view. But — there is Kilimanjaro. And — it always seems to produce. The herds of elephants crossing the dry lake bed. And the opportunity to see big tuskers — Craig!  (Isn’t he a sight to behold?). And Golden Jackal/Wolf. I’ve never seen that, and you got some really great shots. 
 

Thanks for an excellent and enjoyable report. 

[Zim Girl]

19 hours ago, Alexander33 said:

Good for you for promptly addressing your guide and vehicle concerns at Tortilis. I found the staff there to be very amenable on both of our visits, so I’m glad the manager was able to rectify your situation.  Good food there, too, as I recall. 
 

I think of all the places I’ve visited in Kenya thus far, Amboseli is the least pleasing from an aesthetic point of view. But — there is Kilimanjaro. And — it always seems to produce. The herds of elephants crossing the dry lake bed. And the opportunity to see big tuskers — Craig!  (Isn’t he a sight to behold?). And Golden Jackal/Wolf. I’ve never seen that, and you got some really great shots. 
 

Thanks for an excellent and enjoyable report. 

Thank you @Alexander33.  It seems we were quite lucky to see Kili on that one day we had very clear weather.  Our guide said that September had been very cloudy. I agree that the herds of elephants are quite something and again we were lucky that Craig made an appearance.

The lunch and dinners at Tortilis were very good but the packed breakfast was pretty sparse in comparison to Elsa's, which was excellent.

[AfricIan]

I'm very late catching up on this TR @Zim Girlbut glad I have.  I've enjoyed reading about Meru & Mathews Range, places we've not been to and reliving Amboseli, it's been great - thanks so much for taking us with you.

 

I don't want to photobomb your report but you might like to compare/contrast my 2010 vintage Amboseli elephants with yours, they look to have been taken from almost the same place!

 

 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

Good on you to push for a change of guide and vehicle, and it paid off. 

wow on the Craig sighting, how awesome it is to meet a rare super tusker!

 

Thanks for sharing a most enjoyable TR!

[Zim Girl]

14 hours ago, AfricIan said:

I'm very late catching up on this TR @Zim Girlbut glad I have.  I've enjoyed reading about Meru & Mathews Range, places we've not been to and reliving Amboseli, it's been great - thanks so much for taking us with you.

Thank you very much@AfricIan.  Nice elephants, seeing those big herds walking along is pretty cool.

 

9 hours ago, Kitsafari said:

Good on you to push for a change of guide and vehicle, and it paid off. 

wow on the Craig sighting, how awesome it is to meet a rare super tusker!

 

Thanks for sharing a most enjoyable TR!

Thanks @Kitsafari.  Yes, not often I would complain about something, but you can't compromise on the guiding.

[michael-ibk]

You really had a great time, and what a splendid report you shared with us. Thanks! It's always good to move between several very different locations, almost feels like several trips in one that way. 🙂

[JimS]

On 11/10/2023 at 11:26 AM, Zim Girl said:

Yes, not often I would complain about something, but you can't compromise on the guiding.

 

I'm generally easy-going and take things as they come, but I fear the possibility of being assigned a guide (or vehicle companions) I don't get on with: I don't like conflict, my natural tendency is to not make a fuss. It sounds like you dealt with it well and got a great outcome however.

[Zim Girl]

16 hours ago, michael-ibk said:

You really had a great time, and what a splendid report you shared with us. Thanks! It's always good to move between several very different locations, almost feels like several trips in one that way. 🙂

Thanks Michael.  I agree about moving around.  It's not something we have always done but it definitely worked on this trip.

 

14 hours ago, JimS said:

I don't like conflict, my natural tendency is to not make a fuss. It sounds like you dealt with it well and got a great outcome however.

Me neither.  I had to take a deep breath before speaking to the manager, but these trips are too expensive to compromise on something so important so had to be done.

[Atdahl]

Great report @Zim Girl

 

Your pictures are fantastic and it was great to see some camps that I didn't know anything about.  Might have to get back to Kenya now...

 

Alan

[Zarek Cockar]

@Zim GirlSo happy you got to see the Golden Wolf. Not many visitors to Amboseli see them (knowingly).  So many guides just incorrectly ID them as Black-backed Jackals.  A small correction: the correct species name is Canis lupaster and the subspecies in East Africa is C. lupaster bea. There is another subspecies C. l anthus, but that's found in West Africa around Senegal. 

Also, the bats in your thatch roof are Nycteris sp. Slit-faced Bats (Nycteridae). It's almost impossible to get down to a species level from photos as they're often distinguished only by tarsal measurements or counting the ridges on the palate (inside the mouth). 

[Zim Girl]

1 hour ago, Zarek Cockar said:

@Zim GirlSo happy you got to see the Golden Wolf. Not many visitors to Amboseli see them (knowingly).  So many guides just incorrectly ID them as Black-backed Jackals.  A small correction: the correct species name is Canis lupaster and the subspecies in East Africa is C. lupaster bea. There is another subspecies C. l anthus, but that's found in West Africa around Senegal. 

Also, the bats in your thatch roof are Nycteris sp. Slit-faced Bats (Nycteridae). It's almost impossible to get down to a species level from photos as they're often distinguished only by tarsal measurements or counting the ridges on the palate (inside the mouth). 

@Zarek Cockar, thank you very much for the clarification re species name of the Golden Wolf, and nice to know what the bats were, so thank you again.

[TonyQ]

Excellent report on what sounds like a great varied trip. Lovely photos throughout. Thank you for posting.

[offshorebirder]

On 11/8/2023 at 7:39 AM, Zim Girl said:

John said he knew her so he stopped the vehicle to see if she would come over.

Indeed she did.  She came up beside John and carried on eating from the grass verge.

 

What a fantastic experience.  She is lovely.

 

Congrats on the Golden Wolf sightings @Zim Girl.