It’s worth going to Kenya even to visit the Masai Mara conservation area, which is Africa’s most famous national park. By the richness of the fauna, it can only be compared with the Tanzanian reserves of Ngorongoro and Serengeti. The Kenyan Reserve is home to many birds (over 450 species) and approximately eighty species of mammals.
Its territory is an open grassy savannah, plains and small hills with sparse vegetation.
The article describes the features of the Masai Mara National Park (Kenya) and its inhabitants.
Location
Masai Mara Park extends to the southwest of Kenya. The reserve area is 1510 square kilometers. It is the northern extension of the Tanzania National Park - Serengeti.
Geographically, the Masai Mara Reserve is completely located in the area of the Great African Fault, the borders of which extend from Jordan (the Dead Sea region) to southern Africa (Mozambique). The territory of the park is mainly represented by savannas with rare groups of acacias in the southeastern part. In the western regions, many species of animals live, as these are marshy places, there is unhindered access to water. And the number of tourists here is small due to the difficult cross. The easternmost point of the reserve is located 224 kilometers from Nairobi. This area is a favorite place for tourists.
Features
The reserve is named after the Masai tribe, whose representatives are the indigenous people of the region, as well as in honor of the Mary River, which carries its waters through the park. The Masai Mara National Park is famous for the large number of animals that inhabit it, as well as the annual wildebeest migration (September-October), which is an amazing sight. During the migration period, more than 1.3 million wildebeest travels around the reserve.
The warmest time of the year in these places is December-January, and the coldest is June-July. In the park, tourists do not have a night safari. This rule was created so that no one bothers the animals to hunt.
Masai Mara is not the largest Kenyan reserve, but it is known throughout the world.
Fauna
To a greater extent, the park is famous for the lions that live in it in large numbers. Here lives the pride (family group) of lions, called the Swamp. Observation of it has been conducted since the late 1980s. It is known that in the 2000s a record number of individuals in one family was registered - 29 lions and lionesses of different ages.
You can meet in the Masai Mara National Park and endangered cheetahs. Influences such factors as animal irritation, tourists quite often interfere with daytime hunting of predators.
Leopards also live here. Moreover, there are a lot of them in Masai Mara. Much more in comparison with protected areas of similar size in other parts of the planet. Rhino live in the park. Wildebeest - the most numerous animals of the park (more than a million individuals). Every year, in the middle of summer, they migrate in search of fresh vegetation from the plain Serengeti to the north, and in October they again return to the south. You can meet here herds of zebras, giraffes of two species (one of them is not found anywhere else).
Masai Mara is the largest spotted hyena life research center.
Birds
Many birds fly to Masai Mara National Park. Here you can see vultures, crested eagles, marabou storks, predatory guinea guinea fowls, Somali ostriches, crowned cranes, pygmy falcons, etc.
The park is home to fifty-three species of bird of prey.
Park Features
The word "Mara" in the language of the Mao people (or Masai) means "spotted." And in fact, if you look from the air, the plain seems to be covered with spots due to rarely standing small trees.
Once a year during the migration period (July-September), the plains of the Mara are painted in black stripes in connection with the movement of huge masses of ungulates from the south, from the Serengeti plains. This is truly a unique and grand spectacle. At this time, about two million wildebeests, about two hundred thousand zebras, about half a million gazelles and other herbivores are moving across Kenya. And without fail they are accompanied by such predators as leopards, lions, cheetahs, hyenoid dogs, as well as hyenas, jackals, vultures and marabou. During this period, to see predators in the Masai Mara National Park is much easier and simpler, since they are always well-fed and become lazy, thick and most often relax in the sun.
