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By Corrine Kendall
The rains have arrived and Masai Mara is alive as the vegetation
turns green once more. Rainbows litter the sky each day and make for
amazing photo opportunities as the multi-colors drop from the clouds
making a great background for the animals. Though the migrating
wildebeest are yet to arrive, animals are still plentiful.
Wildebeest, zebra, topi, Grant’s gazelles, buffalos (in huge herds)
and Thompson’s gazelles cover the plains.
Yesterday we spotted two cheetah cubs playfully chasing after each
other and jumping up on their mother, who was trying to hunt. The
mother cheetah crept on top of a termite mound for a better view as
she surveyed the area for some of her favorite foods – Thompson’s and
Grant’s gazelles.
This morning we had an amazing lion sighting – four huge males with
great dark manes and two females feasting on a buffalo, probably
killed the previous evening. The lions’ bellies were engorged as they
took turns consuming huge chunks of meat and getting small sips of
water in a nearby puddle. |
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May 16, 2009
 I am a field biologist and am based at Ilkeliani, which lies along
the Talek River in Masai Mara National Reserve. I am just starting my
PhD at Princeton University in the USA and am working in
collaboration with The Peregrine Fund and the National Museums of
Kenya’s Ornithology Section. My job this summer will be to study the
behavior and community ecology of vultures and other scavengers.
Scavengers play an incredibly important role in the environment by
controlling disease and helping to process the nutrients of dead
animals. They are the original recyclers and act as natural “garbage
men”, cleaning up any dead animals or carcasses that might be around.
You can imagine with the wildebeest migration and such an incredibly
large number of animals, this clean-up role of scavengers is
particularly important in the Masai Mara.
Unfortunately these animals are threatened by habitat degradation and
the effects of poisoning. Some pastoralists, frustrated with losses
of goats and cows to lions and other predators, place a pesticide
known as Furadan on carcasses in order to kill these animals. If you
watched the CBS 60 minutes special a few weeks ago, you would have
seen the devastating effects such toxins can have on the wildlife. In
addition to poisoning, land use change also threatens scavengers and
many other animals. Currently cattle herding and wheat agriculture
have expanded considerably around the park. Research has already
shown that these new land uses have caused declines in the number of
wildebeest and other large mammals, however little work has been done
to document the effect on birds or scavengers.
This summer I am trying to determine how the scavengers are doing in
the park and around it and to understand how their survival and
behavior might be affected by these land use changes. Information on
the population status of avian scavengers (especially vultures) and
on how land use changes affect their behavior and ability to find
carcasses will be essential for designing effective management and
conservation plans.
 As part of my research, I get to spend time where the action is
next to the remains of animals or carcasses. Many animals are
attracted to these food sources including hyenas, jackals, lions, and
of course vultures. Today I saw an amazing encounter between a Lappet-
faced vulture and a tiny Black-backed jackal. As I drove up to the
carcass of an impala, the jackal charged the huge vulture causing it
to leap into the air, but not fly away. As the jackal moved in and
pulled a piece off the carcass, the vulture waited patiently only a
few feet away. He would have his turn at the food yet
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