Masai Mara-Elephants

We went to Masai Mara on a camping safari when Leslie and Joel came to Kenya a few weeks ago.  When they arrived, we stayed in Nairobi for a few days, then came to Eldoret to meet up with our safari guide, then went to the Mara, and then back to Nairobi, then to Mombasa, then back to Nairobi, where they (along with Evan) flew away to Europe.  All in all, they were here for around eleven days.  I took a bunch of pictures, but rather than put all the pictures from the Mara on one post, I wanted to break it up by animals.  The Mara is an amazing place, with the tall grass extending off into the horizon.  I find it to be very spiritual, thinking about the Mara along with the Serengeti, which is just to the south of the Mara, to be fascinating as the places where our species went after we left the forests.  The grasslands are immense and teeming with all sorts of animals.  Much of it is protected today, though there are incredible challenges with poaching in all the parks of Africa.  The coming of the Chinese in the last ten years has seemed to really increase the pressure on poaching, due to China's insatiable appetite for things like ivory.

Regardless, the first animal I thought I would put on for the day is the elephant, truly an amazing animal to see in the wild.  After seeing them in the grasslands of Africa, roaming free, it will be hard to see them again in a zoo, and particularly in a circus.  It seems unconscionable.  But here are some of my elephant shots.

Actually, this is before the Mara, this is me at the Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi.  Most of the elephants are here because of poaching.

This is the first group of elephants that we saw on our first day in the Mara.  Notice the tall grass.  Also, you can see that this isn't a flat grassland, there are some hills here.  The elephants move so silently through the grass it is amazing.

They move as a herd, but not completely together.  Here is a family.  You can see the little one in the middle.

They are just such interesting and beautiful animals!

I hope these videos work, to give you a feel for how incredible it is to watch them walk right by your car...

They are just so majestic to watch.

And on our second day in the reserve we came across the same herd again, making their way across the grasslands.  For some reason, they seemed more agitated.  here is one glaring right at us.

There apparently were some old codgers in this herd, and when they get old they kind of lose their status.  So they sometimes get mad....

One of them, and I think it was this one, finally decided he had had enough of our watching, and charged the car.  Pretty exciting stuff, even for the driver!