The Maasai
Mara National Reserve (also known
as Maasai Mara and by the locals as The Mara)
is a large game
reserve in Narok County, Kenya;
contiguous with the Serengeti National
Park in Mara Region, Tanzania. It is named in honor of the Maasai people(the ancestral inhabitants of the area) and their
description of the area when looked at from afar: "Mara," which is
Maa (Maasai language) for "spotted," an apt description for the
circles of trees, scrub, savanna, and cloud shadows that mark the area.
It is globally famous for its exceptional population
of Masai lions, African leopards and Tanzanian cheetahs, and the annual migration of zebra, Thomson's gazelle, and wildebeest to and from the Serengeti every year from July to October, known as the Great Migration.
The
Maasai Mara National Reserve is only a fraction of the Greater Mara Ecosystem,
which includes the following Group Ranches: Koiyaki, Lemek, Ol Chorro Oirowua,
Olkinyei, Siana, Maji Moto, Naikara, Ol Derkesi, Kerinkani, Oloirien, and
Kimintet.
History
When
it was originally established in 1961 as a wildlife sanctuary the Mara covered
only 520 square kilometres (200 sq mi) of the current area, including
the Mara Triangle. The area was extended to the east in 1961 to cover
1,821 km2 (703 sq mi)
and converted to a game reserve. The Narok County Council (NCC) took over
management of the reserve at this time. Part of the reserve was given National
Reserve status in 1974, and the remaining area of 159 km2 (61 sq mi) was returned to
local communities. An additional 162 km2 (63 sq mi)
were removed from the reserve in 1976, and the park was reduced to
1,510 km2 (580 sq mi)
in 1984.
In
1994, the TransMara County Council (TMCC) was formed in the western part of the
reserve, and control was divided between the new council and the existing Narok
County Council. In May 2001, the not-for-profit Mara Conservancy took over
management of the Mara Triangle.
Geography
The Maasai Mara National Reserve (MMNR) covers some
1,510 km2 (583 sq mi) in south-western Kenya.
It is the northern-most section of the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem, which covers some 25,000 km2 (9,700 sq mi)
in Tanzania and Kenya. It is bounded by the Serengeti Park to the south, the
Siria escarpment to the west, and Maasai pastoral ranches to the
north, east and west. Rainfall in the ecosystem increases markedly along a
southeast–northwest gradient, varies in space and time, and is markedly
bimodal. The Sand, Talek
River and Mara Riverare the major rivers draining the reserve. Shrubs and
trees fringe most drainage lines and cover hillslopes and hilltops.
The terrain of the reserve is primarily open grassland
with seasonal riverlets. In the south-east region are clumps of the
distinctive acaciatree. The western border is the Esoit (Siria) Escarpment
of the East
African Rift, which is a system of rifts some
5,600 km (3,500 mi) long, from Ethiopia's Red Sea through Kenya,
Tanzania, Malawi and into Mozambique. Wildlife tends to be most concentrated
here, as the swampy ground means that access to water is always good, while
tourist disruption is minimal. The easternmost border is 224 kilometres
(139.2 mi) from Nairobi, and hence it is the eastern regions which are most
visited by tourists.
Altitude: 1500-2180m; Rainfall: 83mm/month; Temperature range: 12-30℃
Wildlife
Wildebeest, topi, zebra,
and Thomson's
gazelle migrate into and occupy the Mara
reserve, from the Serengeti plains to the south and Loita Plains in the pastoral ranches to the north-east, from
July to October or later. Herds of all three species are also resident in the
reserve
All members of the "Big Five" (lion, leopard, African elephant, cape buffalo, and black rhinoceros) are found in the Maasai Mara. The population of black
rhinos was fairly numerous until 1960, but it was severely depleted by poaching
in the 1970s and early 1980s, dropping to a low of 15 individuals. Numbers have
been slowly increasing, but the population was still only up to an estimated 23
in 1999.
Hippopotami and crocodiles are found in large groups in the Mara and Talek
rivers. Leopards, hyenas, cheetahs, jackals,
and bat-eared
foxes can also be found in the
reserve. The plains between the Mara River and the Esoit Siria Escarpment are probably the
best area for game viewing, in particular regarding lion and cheetah.
As in the Serengeti, the wildebeest are the dominant
inhabitants of the Maasai Mara, and their numbers are estimated in the
millions. Around July of each year, these animals migrate north from the
Serengeti plains in search of fresh pasture, and return to the south around
October. The Great Migration is one of the most impressive natural events
worldwide, involving some 1,300,000 wildebeest, 500,000 Thomson's gazelles, 97,000 Topi,
18,000 elands, and 200,000 zebras.
These migrants are followed along their annual, circular route by predators,
most notably lions and hyena.
Antelopes can be found, including Grant's gazelles, impalas, duikers and Coke's hartebeests. The plains are also home to the distinctive Masai giraffe. The large roan antelope and the nocturnal bat-eared fox, rarely present elsewhere in Kenya, can be seen within
the reserve borders.
More than 470 species of birds have
been identified in the park, many of which are migrants, with almost 60 species
being raptors. Birds that call this area home for at least part
of the year include: vultures, marabou storks, secretary birds, hornbills, crowned cranes, ostriches, long-crested eagles, African pygmy-falcons and the lilac-breasted
roller, which is the national bird of Kenya.
Administration
Unlike most other National Parks in Kenya the Maasai Mara
National Reserve is not administered by the Kenya Wildlife
Service, but by Narok County government. The more visited eastern part of the
park is managed by Narok County Council and the western part, known as
the Mara
Triangle, by the Trans-Mara county council,
which is contracting management to the Mara Conservancy, a local nonprofit organization formed by the local
Maasai that contains several anti-poaching units.
The
outer areas known as Maasai Mara Conservation area is administered by the Group
Ranch Trusts of the Maasai community who also have their own rangers for
patrolling the park area. The wildlife roam freely across both the Reserve and
Conservation areas which are a continuous wildlife ecosystem.
Research
The Maasai Mara is a major research centre for the spotted hyena. With two field offices in the Mara, the Michigan State
University based Kay E. Holekamp Lab
studies the behavior and physiology of this predator, as well as doing
comparison studies between large predators in the Mara Triangle and their
counterparts in the eastern part of the Mara. Since 2008, Amanda Subalusky and
Chris Dutton have been working in the Mara River Basin to help develop a trans-boundary river basin management plan between Kenya and Tanzania.
In 2010, they had completed a flow assessment for the river to identify the
river flows that are required to sustain the ecosystem and the basic needs of 1 million people who depend
on its water.
The Mara Predator Project also operates in the Masai Mara, cataloging and
monitoring lion populations throughout the region. Concentrating on the
northern conservancies where communities coexist with wildlife, the project
aims to identify population trends and responses to changes in land management,
human settlements, livestock movements and tourism. Sara Blackburn, the project
manager, works in partnership with a number of lodges in the region by training guides to identify lions
and report sightings. Guests are also encouraged to participate in the project
by photographing lions seen on game drives. An online database of individual lions is openly accessible, and features information on
project participants and focus areas.
Since
October 2012, the Mara-Meru Cheetah Project is working in the Mara monitoring
cheetah population, estimating population status and dynamics, and evaluating
the predator impact and human activity on cheetah behavior and survival. The
head of the Project, Dr. Elena Chelysheva, was working in 2001-2002 as
Assistant Researcher at the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) Maasai-Mara Cheetah
Conservation Project. At that time, she developed original method of cheetah
identification based on visual analysis of the unique spot patterns on front
limbs (from toes to shoulder) and hind limbs (from toes to the hip), and spots
and rings on the tail (Cat News #41, 2004. Collected over the years,
photographic data allows the Project team tracing kinship between generations
and building Mara Cheetah Pedigree. The data collected helps to reveal parental
relationship between individuals, survival rate of cubs, cheetah lifespan and
personal reproductive history. This work has never been done before and the
team is sharing results with the Mara stakeholders and respondents. The ongoing
research is a follow-up study, which will compare results with the previous one
in terms of cheetah population status and effect of human activity on cheetah
behavior and surviving. The project is working in affiliation with Kenya
Wildlife Service, Narok and Transmara County Councils and with assistance of
Coordinator of Maasai-Mara Cultural Village Tour Association (MMCVTA). The team
is cooperating with Mara Hyena Project and working with managers and
driver-guides from over 30 different Mara camps and lodges. Rangers and
driver/guides are trained cheetah identification techniques and provided with
Catalogues of the Mara cheetahs.
A study funded by WWF and conducted by ILRI between 1989 and 2003
monitored hoofed species in the Mara on a monthly basis, and found that losses
were as high as 75 percent for giraffes, 80 percent for common warthogs, 76 percent for hartebeest, and 67 percent for impala.
The study blames the loss of animals on increased human settlement in and
around the reserve. The higher human population density leads to an increased
number of livestock grazing in the park and an increase in poaching. The
article claims, "The study provides the most detailed evidence to date on
the declines in the ungulate (hoofed animals) populations in the Mara and how
this phenomenon is linked to the rapid expansion of human populations near the
boundaries of the reserve."
In the Serengeti National Park, a proposed 50-kilometre
(31 mi) road from Musoma to Arusha,
with tarmac touching the Serengeti, is raising criticism from
scientists who say that the road will disrupt the annual migration of the
wildebeest, and that this disruption would affect predators such as lions, cheetahs and African wild dogs, as well as the grasslands themselves.
According to CCTV "The route is expected to carry 800 vehicles a
day, mostly trucks, by 2015 and 3000 vehicles a day an average of one every 30
seconds by 2035, a campaign promise made by Tanzanian President Jackaya Kikwete in 2005".
In
late June 2011 the Tanzanian government decided to cancel the Serengeti road
plan due to global outcry.