A family of elephants.
The Maasai Mara is a wildlife-packed savannah in southwest Kenya, which immediately conjures images from the Disney classic “Lion King.” Lone acacia trees stand against red sunsets. Deep rumbles of hippo families reverberate river banks. Every vista is dense with herds of cape buffalo, antelope, gazelle, waterbuck, eland, zebra, and wildebeest, all of which support a large population of lions and scavengers, such as hyena and vultures.
Wildebeest crossing the river during the tail end of the Great Wildebeest migration.
Our main purposes for the visit were two-fold: to visit the location of the great wildebeest migration (which sees millions of wildebeest roaming across the landscape) and to learn about the culture of the Maasai, the namesake for the Maasai Mara Park. Setting off in a lifted, open-air Land Rover, specifically modified for Safari, we trampled over bumpy ground in the rugged 4X4. Our driver, Dixon, is both a veteran of Safari and a grizzled Maasai warrior ready to kill a lion; highly knowledgeable of the animals and their habits, with an eagle-eye for spotting various species, Dixon is a man of very few words. He would point far in the distance and say, for example, “Elephants.” Then, crushing the gas pedal, we would bounce aggressively towards our target. After a few moments of taking pictures and musing to ourselves, Dixon would ask, “Okay?” Oftentimes before we even had a chance to respond, we’d be off towards our next target.
When asked about the various animals, Dixon would give us some information but it felt a bit like pulling teeth to get information from him. That being said, he was actually a great driver for our adventure on the open savannah. He knew the animals favorite hiding spots and we saw lots of animals up-close, sometimes to our great surprise. For example, our first lion encounter came as we silently crept around some green vegetation next to a stream. There in the bushes were 2 lionesses sleeping with full bellies only 10 feet from us. Once we realized what was in those bushes, Ryan and I both lept from our seats and recoiled toward the other side of the vehicle. Dixon, in his nonchalant manner, looked at us and eventually said, “they just ate, so they are not hungry now. Very lazy. See the carcass over there?” Motioning far in the distance, we saw vultures flying around something. Dixon continued, “They probably just ate that.” Then, moments later, we were off to go look at the carcass.
The Maasai have an interesting relationship with lions. In the not-so-distant past, men who were to be warriors were required to kill a lion (in close-quarter combat, thrusting a spear) in order to confer their warrior status. On the other hand, the Maasai realize that the environment is precious and they strive to live in harmony with the ecosystem and their fellow inhabitants. We were told by our guides on Mount Kenya that it is not uncommon to see lions in close proximity to the Maasai and a herd of their cattle. They told us that lions will not attack a herd of Maasai cattle for fear of retaliation by the Maasai warriors. During our Safari, Dixon was driving us around, again searching for lions. We found a male/female pair of mating lions and, moments after stumbling upon them, they began their mating ritual, punctuated upon completion with earth-shattering lion roars. Thinking to ourselves, “Wow, what timing to witness this!” Dixon told us that the lions will rest for 10 minutes and then they will mate again. We were interested to learn this tid-bit, but were also content to move on to the next sight. Sensing this, Dixon asked us, “Can we stay for the next round?” Ryan and I shrugged, “Sure...” As predicted, the lions resumed shortly thereafter.
After our tour was over, we enumerated all the different animals we had seen over the course of a single day. We had seen 3 of the Big Five (Elephant, Lion, Buffalo, Leopard and Rhino, we saw the first 3 but not the last 2), along with a huge variety of hoofed-animals and birds, hippos, crocodiles and cheetahs. What a treasure-trove.
Cape buffalo with a couple birds eating ticks off of him.
The Maasai Mara wildlife reserve was once the grazing lands of the Maasai people, the first tribe of Kenya, prior to British colonization. Today, they still live in the region maintaining a traditional way of life. One of the few Kenyan tribes to resist British cultural assimilation, they wear distinctive checkered red robes and colorful beads that have become a hallmark image of Kenya. As cattle herders, the Maasai sustain themselves almost exclusively on cow blood, milk and meat. They are tall, thin warriors who always carry a sword, spear and club. Men go through harrowing coming-of-age rituals where they are determined to be brave or cowardly by whether or not they twitch when they are publicly circumcised as teenagers. Their statuses as brave or cowardly men are known to the community from the moment of their circumcision and affect their role in the community for the rest of their lives.
Ostriches were one of the most surprising animals to see in the wild. They are easily spotted standing alone in stark contrast to the horizon. Apparently one of their defenses is lying down and disguising themselves as a pile of dirt. They don’t bury their head in the sand, but rather under their body.
Before circumcision, Maasai children spend 4 years living away from the village in the forest. This is done as a group of similarly-aged kids (early teens) and is necessary to complete their transformation into Maasai warriors. Until recently, girls would also undergo a genital mutilation (‘female circumcision’) until it was banned by the Kenyan government a few years ago (2011). Now the more important ritual for women is marriage.
Our only photo of Dixon, driving us under the gate to enter the park. A herd of Maasai cattle jam the road.
All this information was related to us by Dennis, an always-smiling young Maasai warrior who worked at the camp (as the waiter, of all jobs) that we stayed at in the Maasai Mara. We had an incredible evening at the camp. Around a bonfire, Maasai warriors performed some traditional songs and dance for us. The actual singing was performed by one member of the Maasai — he had this high-pitched singing voice, rapidly rattling off Maasai words in a trance-inducing sing-song chant. Meanwhile, the other members of the tribe exhaled deeply creating low-pitched, guttural noises, setting the baseline rhythm. During one of the songs, the men took turns jumping as high as they could into the air doing what I would call ‘the salmon dance’. In another song, the singer would alternate singing a single refrain of chorus with each of the other men taking turns to say something to the group.
We took no photos of the Maasai, oops! This is a stock image of them doing the jump! That right guy does look a bit like Dennis though.
During the performance, we were watching and enjoying but really had no idea what had transpired. Afterwards, Dennis explained the meanings of the songs and told us about the Maasai culture. For the jumping song, we learned that every year, the young men practice jumping and compete in a contest to see who could jump the highest. The best jumpers gain special influence among their generation for the year and will have many girlfriends (Maasai men are polygamous, but women have the inequality of having only one husband...). Dennis was the second best jumper this year, and he was quite proud of that accomplishment (especially being a person of quite small stature). For the other song, we learned that each person was invited forward one-by-one to say something to the group; the rest of the group would listen to that man, without interruption, and at the end the other members would reply with a sound of respect. This song symbolizes that everyone has a voice and has something important to contribute to the group.
Sunset view from our camp.
We only spent two nights at the camp and were really surprised how much we learned about the Maasai and how many animals we saw on safari!