Tag: Mara

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Pangolins are returning to Kenya

Long thought to be extinct in the country, one was caught, back in 2018. As a result, effort is being put into protecting this species. Farmland around the Serengeti erected electric fences in order to stop elephants from stealing their crops, however, unfortunately, they have been having an unintended consequence.

Pangolins need to be able to roam large distances, and they have been regularly being electrocuted. Unfortunately, they roll up in a ball, as a natural reaction to threat, and this has lead to many rolling up around the wire, thereby being electrocuted.

This discovery in 2018 was of a dead pangolin, and as a result, many farmers have changed how their electric fence works to help protect this creature.

There are only thought to be 30-80 pangolins left in the country, but by making these small changes, the few pangolins that remain will be able to thrive, and the population is likely to grow.

This is a pangolin sighting that was filmed on the Massai mara

Primate family tree main and great and lesser apes

Primate family tree

Great apes
Lesser apes
Old world monkeys
Lemurs
New world monkeys
Lorisidae & allies
Tarsiaforms

The primates are in some ways one of the most successful families. It is true that many are now endangered, however, unfortunately, that is as a result of the run-away success of the most successful member of the primate family us! Having left the rainforests behind, we have been reducing their coverage dramatically over the last few centuries. 

The sad thing, is that while we have pushed many of our closest cousins towards extinction, the loss of forests may well cost us dearly in the future as well. As a species, we need to pull together to meet this challenge. in order to jump to the various families, click on the family of interest above – though all can also be reached by scrolling down.

Great Apes

Range Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda
Boonobo
Sumatran Orangutan
Borneon Orangutan
Tapunali Orangutan
Humans on the beach
Eastern Lowland gorilla
Mountain Gorilla
Western lowland gorilla
Cross river gorilla

Great ape Family split is thought to have split from its nearest relative – the gibbon family, around 17 million years ago.

4 million years later the Orangutan family split from the gorilla line and the human/chimp line.

3 million years after this (so around 10 million years ago) the gorilla family split from the Homo (humans) and Pan

Finally the human line (homo) split from the Pan line 5-6 million years ago.

It should be noted, that chimpanzees and Bonobos split from a common ancestor just 1.8 million years ago. This occurred as the two populations ceased to be able to have contact with each other – the Congo rive formed between 1.5 and 2 million years ago.

For more information on each species, click on their photo and this will take you to their page

It should be noted that while I have grouped eastern western and skywalker gibbon together, there is some contention that the skywalker gibbon should be in its own genus, having diverged around half a million years aog

Gibbons

siamang gibbon genus Symphalangus
hookock gibbon (Eastern, Western and Skywalker) Genus Hoolock
genus Normascus (crested gibbon)
Genus Hylobates (dward gibbons) Agile gibbon

Genus Nomascus

This family is the Genus: Nomascus or crested gibbon.

The last Genus of gibbons is Hylobates: dwarf gibbons.

Black backed jackal

Black backed jackal                                                                                                                                                                      Photo credit flowcomm – Black-backed jackal and kill, Masai Mara, Kenya

Found across much of southern

 and eastern Africa, they are relatively small (similar size to a red fox) and for the most part are scavengers, though when they have to, they can be successful hunters in their own rights.

If you spend more than a few days in the wildernesses in either country, you are likely to encounter black backed jackals.

In the Drakensburg mountains of South africa, they have been recorded at a density of 2-3 per square km, while in the Serengeti, they are found at densities of 50-80 per 100 square km.

They are far from endangered, but not the easiest animal to spot.

We aim to list some places where this is an easy animal to see, at the bottom of the page

Cheetah

Cheetah

Cheetahs are the undisputed king of speed – at least over the relatively small distances. They are stunning animals, and any sighting is a memory to be treasured.

Cheetah numbered as much as 100,000 wild members just one century ago. Now there is just 7000-8000. What happened? Well a large part of their decline is down to habitat loss. Unlike other cats, cheetah thrive outside protected reserves. This is not because cheetah never get killed by farmers – there are certainly problems, and some will be killed, however compared to the problems that the cheetah have when pushed into small reserves which dont allow enough space to get away from lions and leopards. In South Africa, as much as half of the cheetah population (which is about 1000) live on farm land. Despite the fact that they kill very little livestock, and indeed can actually benefit farmers by eating vermin that might eat crops.

Generally, cheetah live at low densities (except in the best reserves- places like the Serengeti, where their sprint ability is so useful) for instance, the Kruger which is the size of Wales, tends to only have a 100-200 cheetah in the whole area.

This makes them hard to see in the wild. On the other hand, one of the benefits is that Cheetah tend to hunt in the day (they hunt by site) and as such, if you go out in after lunch when most wildlife are lying in the shade.

All this means, that there is definitely a possibility to greatly improve their wild numbers, through a combination of removing poaching, and reintroducing them to places where they existed in the past.              

This is a cheetah that we encountered on a kill, on our last trip to the Kruger

There are currently 5 recognized subspecies of the cheetah, 4 in Africa, and the last few remaining in Iran. 

  • The northwestern africa cheetah is close to extinction (200 maximum – also known as the Saharan cheetah) is only seen occasionally and so is not one tourists go to see.
  • The north-east cheetah lives in South Sudan and Ethiopia and numbers between 1000-4000 (its status in Sudan, Eritria, Doubouti and Somalia is unknown.
  • The only remaining habitat of the Asiatic cheetah is in Iran where it is thought only 12 animals remain. It was lost from India 70 years ago.
The other two subspecies – are both well protected and well studied. These are represented in many of the reserves that we have listed (We hope to add reserves that cover the other subspecies as well, but these will be far harder to find the animal). 
  • Southern African Cheetah 
  • East African Cheetah                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Some of the biggest and most well protected Cheetah populations – to go and see them for yourself.

  • Kruger -400 with the south African population being around 1300
  • Serengeti massai mara ecosystem up to 1000
  • Namibia – reserves and free roaming, account for up to 3500 ( that high may be lower)
  • Botswana hosts around 1700 cheetah

Limpopo Transfrontier park including Kruger sabi sands and other conservation areas
Greater Serengeti

It should be noted that adding up these estimates already exceed the African cheetah population, but this is the case with plenty of reserves – an overestimate in the number of the species in an area often makes people more willing to visit. Possibly as this website grows we might be able to help in correcting this.

The Saharan cheetah roams a large area around the fringes of the Saharan desert, and only has around 100 wild members at the current time.

Other species in the Cheetah lineage (it shares its clade with nothing else) include the Jaguarundi and the Mountain Lion

Alternatively, to visit the rest of the cat family click here.

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It seems that the mara river is threatened as well as the ecosystem

There are many threats to the Serengeti mara ecosystem, from roads crossing to global warming and more. Unfortunately fish in the river are now being driven to extinction as well – putting the livelihoods of millions of people in jeopardy.

Could sites like this become a thing of the past?

From farming deforestation mining illegal fishing and invasive species, there are many different factors damaging this population.

Continue reading “It seems that the mara river is threatened as well as the ecosystem”

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