Latest News
28 January 2008
Report from Dave McKelvie, Nairobi
I generally go through park everyday, mostly in the evenings to miss traffic, but recently mornings too. I see from previous news posting that there was a question about dikdik: I see a few on the tarmac near main gate. Warthogs seem to be increasing.
From main gate to east gate Nairobi Park has been transformed since they decided to burn it, after 5 years+ of dead grass and only seeing a kongoni, its now herds of buffalo with young, must be around 100+, eland with young 50+, kongoni with young 100+, zebra with young 100+; I came across a herd of 26 giraffe too. I saw the steinbuck, they hang around no 5. Rhinos I see everyday, one near number 1, 2 near water crossing just before number 4 and a mum and calf just between 4 and 5, I came across 3 this morning just past 6am.
I have heard of sightings of cheetah, a huge male near Cheetah gate, 3 just near Masai gate and I personally saw a big one near burning site just before Christmas. Lots of ostrich with young, too. Impala herd of about 20 with young seen too, Tommies and Grants slowly coming back, but numbers are very low. 2 Servals hang around number 7 and are seen often.
Leopards I haven't seen, but through network of friends, sightings near burning site, just below Impala Ob, a female and 2 cubs from Impala Ob to Langata gate.
Lions, what can I say, lots and lots, 2 young males wander all over the park, been seen near burning site, with pride, last saw them near Cheetah gate with a kill just a couple of weeks ago, main pride has big male, 3 females, teenagers and 2 little cubs they are hanging around number 4, but move from burning site to number 7, they seem to be happy to stay as game plentiful.
We had domestic dogs in park, which were reported to KWS and they tried to get them, but eventually they were killed by lions a few weeks ago, wandered down road right into pride and were killed, not good, hopefully they didn't have distemper or rabies, pride look ok. I hear madman had dogs and enters park frequently, he started the fire just before December, but he has been arrested by KWS.
I also hear that Hopcraft farm had 18 cheetahs last year. Hopefully, now that grass has been burnt, they will come back.
Just after Christmas of 2 young males at burning site, a single female near water crossing trying to join pride but was chased, pride at number 4 with big male and then another 2 females at number 5, all in one trip to airport. Also hear another pride near hippo pool of about 6.
Wildebeast were sighted last Sunday coming in near Cheetah gate.
14 January 2008
A report from Will Knocker, Maasai Lodge
The weather is up to its tricks as I write and a long dry spell is being dispersed by convectional showers at night and we seem to be benefitting from an unusual flow of moisture from Arabia.
The Park is still fairly green in contrast with the dispersal area, where all available stocks of grazing have been exhausted. As a result Maasai cattle are grazing in the park at present, which is not a bad thing for the rangeland, but breaks all the Rules of a National Park and probably impacts on the rhino population, which enjoys peace and quiet...
An accidental fire in late December has consumed another few thousand acres of rank grazing on the Embakasi Plains and I would estimate that about a third of the whole park has been burnt in the last couple of months one way and another. This is great news in the long term and all right, given the current possibility of rain, but if there is a drought, all this burning may prove to be a waste of precious standing hay. Time will tell.
Dave Maskell, who looks after 9 lions at the Animal Orphanage, informs me that 'GammyLeg', one of the lionesses, has produced 3 small cubs, now a month or two old. She is so called because of a withered rear leg, but this lion is a real survivor! In early January I saw her on a kill of a pregnant zebra, which she appeared to have pulled down herself, perhaps in the act of giving birth. This brings the total of lions to 19 and, as long as dry conditions prevail, there should be plenty of prey for them.
On the burnt areas one sees wonderful mixed species aggregations of grazers and the kongoni in particular have produced many young this season. The last wildebeest herd stays stubbornly on the Sheep and Goat Land on the periphery of the park and I'm sure will only be forced in by extremely dry conditions. Gazelles are back in the park in good numbers, having been tempted in from the dispersal area by the burnings. The ostrich broods are doing well, with several different lots of chicks in different stages of growth to be seen at present.
I am worried about the lack of cheetah reports, but hoping that any cheetah in our ecosystem will be attracted into the park where antelope are flourishing: impala are doing well, as are waterbuck in the Athi Basin and I've seen a pair of steenbok in the burnt area.
The raptors are back: there are plenty of migratory Tawny and Steppe eagles in the park along with black shouldered kites and harriers. At Maasai Lodge in early December a flock of about fifty Lesser kestrels went thrumming overhead and a juvenile Martial eagle (no doubt bred in the nest in the Sosian Gorge) has taken up residence in our area (the lower Kiserian valley) where the local guineafowl do not appreciate its presence.
I have never seen a dikdik in the park itself, but in our area, the Silole Sanctuary which surrounds Maasai Lodge and abuts the park, they are doing well and expanding their local range. We also have plenty of warthogs, which MUST be good news for the lions and other predators, as they breed so fast.
It is going to be an interesting few months until the Long Rains arrive, but in the meantime our new shortgrass plains are turning green as the carpet of ash in the burnt areas is drawnup by the grass rhizomes underground to be converted into primo grazing.
