Amboseli; classic wild Kenya #1

Last year, as I have written before, we finally got to East Africa, celebrating a major new stage of our life. I have posted already on two magnificent Tanzanian parks which we were privileged to explore; see here and here for posts on Tarangire and Serengeti. Today I want to take you to (or perhaps back to) Amboseli, our introduction to Kenya and a superb one. As I have done before when introducing major parks I'll break this story into two chapters (well postings anyway), starting with an introduction to the park, and some of its mammals (along with a couple of lizards). Next time we'll meet some of the wonderful bird life. 

Distant elephant in one of the very significant wetlands of Amboseli, with the flanks of Kilimanjaro
far beyond. I love the tide marks on the elephants which have been enjoying the water.

For very good reasons Amboseli is associated with elephants and Mount Kilimanjaro which, though just across the Tanzanian border, 45km from Ol Tukai Lodge where we stayed, dominates the skyline to the south.

Our first view of the mighty mountain; at nearly 6000 metres above sea level it is Africa's highest peak.
It was swathed in cloud for much of our stay, though we have an enduring memory of the glaciers
gleaming in the moonlight as we returned to our cabin from dinner on the first night.

Late on the second day the peak cleared completely, and the lower flanks were still clear,
but we never really saw the entire mountain in daylight.

And a closer view of the glaciers. These glaciers have famously shrunk by at least 90% in the past century,
but unlike melting glaciers in higher latitudes, the loss of Kilimanjaro's glaciers (comprising ice walls
40 metres high on the flat peak) cannot be simply ascribed to rising global temperatures.
As long as you don't mind a bit of solid physics (something I'm not very good at)
this is an interesting read on the topic.

The history of the peoples of Kenya, including Amboseli, is complex, with waves of arrivals, especially from the north-east, displacing those already in place. Initially the area was inhabited by nomadic people related to the modern Khoisan of the arid parts of south-western Africa. They were moved on by herdsman from what is now South Sudan around 1500 years ago. Five hundred years later Bantu speakers from west Africa arrived; their language was the basis of modern Swahili. Around 500 years ago the ancestors of the modern Maasai, from the Nile Valley to the north of Kenya, also came and largely dominated. Needless to say, the story is much more nuanced than that.

The first European in the area where Amboseli is now was an impressive young Scotsman named Joseph Thomson (of Thomson's Gazelle fame), as late as 1883. He is arguably one of the greatest of European African explorers, not least because he apparently accomplished his achievements with no loss of life to either local people or his porters. He spoke glowingly of the wildlife spectacle in the Amboseli area. The British colonial government in the early 20th century declared a massive game reserve to try to stem elephant poaching in particular. In 1948 it was expanded to a 326,000 hectare Natural Reserve, but after independence in 1974 it was declared National Park - but this park only included some 10% of the original reserve. Today Amboseli covers a relatively modest 39,000 hectares, though its sweeping plains seem bigger than that. It was declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1991.

We were there just before the start of the rains, so the wetlands we enjoyed were clearly permanent.

All such wetlands were rich in birds, especially flamingos; here are Egyptian Geese,
an African Spoonbill and Black-winged Stilt, all common species but nonetheless always welcome!

Other open areas are seasonal wetlands, and would have been flooded soon after our visit.

Here Vervet Monkeys and Helmeted Guineafowl are foraging in such a situation.
In the background is dense thorny acacia woodland on slightly higher ground; this is
probably a mix of yellow Fever Trees Vachellia xanthophloea and Acacia (Senegalia) mellifera.

Some raised 'islands' support stands of Ol Tukai Palms Phoenix reclinata, from which
our lodge takes its name.

However the bulk of the reserve comprises open plains with various acacia species.

This is Umbrella Thorn Acacia, Acacia (or Vachellia) tortilis,
a characteristic tree of East African savannahs.

We saw only a couple of reptiles - it wasn't especially warm - but they deserve a mention here.

A somewhat ghostly-appearing gecko on the bathroom window at night.

Variable Skink Trachylepis varia.

And as promised, a few Amboseli mammals. We saw twenty species, but I didn't photograph all of these, probably because I'd already photographed many of them in Tanzania. However you can never have too many elephant photos!

This is a small part of a file of 66 magnificent African Bush Elephants with babies moving down
out of the forests on the slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro and scattering into family groups across the plain.

A big lone bull who came out of the bush and walked alongside us before crossing the track right in front of us.

I mentioned the 'tide line' on the elephants before; this photo and the next were taken from
the verandah of our cabin. There was however an electric fence between us and them!

These two were testing their strength - or at least the smaller one on the right was.
The big one knew he was stronger, and the other one wandered off after a while.

There were hippos in and by every sizeable water body.

This one was accompanied by African Jacanas.

The greatest diversity among larger mammals was provided by several antelope species, including a couple I'd particularly wanted to see.

Grant's Gazelles Nanger (or Gazella) granti are everywhere, as they are in other East African reserves.
This is a handsome male.

We were delighted to spot this female Grant's encouraging her just-born calf to take its first steps.

This Gerenuk Litocranius walleri was high on my wish list! A gloriously lithe and elegant
antelope which, giraffe-like, browses high on bushes and smaller trees. Ungiraffe-like it
even stands up on its hind legs to reach the highest foliage. It's a dry country
animal and we saw it in drier bushland just outside the reserve.

A real treat too, and an unexpected one, was this lovely but very shy Lesser Kudu Tragelaphus imberbis.
I hadn't really expected to see it, and this was the only one, again on the access road to the park.
This is a male, the females being coppery coloured - even more relevantly, they don't have horns!

In addition to the Vervet Monkeys, Yellow Baboons hung around the lodge, though I think must be severely discouraged as they didn't come close. This was the only place we saw them too; elsewhere in Tanzania and Kenya we saw only Olive Baboons.

Yellow Baboons Papio cynocephalus are found across south-central Africa from Angola to
Tanzania and up to Djibouti.

Common Warthogs Phacochoerus africanus are widespread and fairly cautious;
the pretty mauve flowers are Oxalis sp.

 

Which brings us to the carnivores and again we had a couple of very pleasant surprises.

Black-backed Jackals Lupulella mesomelas were not surprising, being widespread and common,
but nonetheless welcome.

This Serval Leptailurus serval however was definitely a bonus, only about 20 metres away,
hunting rodents, reptiles and small birds in the grass. This medium-sized cat
is not a common sighting, and this was the second of the trip for us.

However the most exciting sighting came almost on sunset on our last day in Amboseli. Our driver and local guide Peter had made a spontaneous decision to try a secluded lakeside road before heading home in the dusk. We were enjoying a Chestnut-banded Plover on the lake shore when he noticed a couple of distant heads down in the grass - we could barely see them with binoculars. Lions! They are scarce in Amboseli; I suspect the small size of the park and the high risk of conflict with neighbouring cattle herders keeps their numbers well down. But when we got closer we realised that it was a greater prize still - Cheetahs! Peter had only seen them once in Amboseli and our tour leader Gareth had never done so. Moreover there were four of them - a mother with two near-adult sons and a daughter.

We watched them for nearly 30 minutes while the sunset turned on a spectacular display, Kilimanjaro glowed and the family sprawled by the road.

The mother periodically chirruped bird-like to the youngsters, presumably reassuringly. Eventually she turned and stalked off into the long grass, the others trailing behind, more or less behaving like adults, though a couple stopped to chase each other and wrestle. All entrancing.

This image of the two youngsters playing in front of mighty Kilimanjaro in fading light is one that will stay with me for a long time. A special moment indeed, in a special park.

Back soon with the rest of this introduction to Amboseli, when we'll look at some of its birds.

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