Up at 5am and through the park gates by 6:25! A fantastic morning - first of all we spotted a family of bat-eared foxes - 2 adults with 3 cubs playing outside their den. We watched for ages as this was a very special sighting for us - the only other time we've seen them was in the Masai Mara, and then they were in long grass, here we had a clear view and the cubs were obviously enjoying the cool of the morning.
A little further we found three spotted hyena making their way through the remains of a buffalo - must have been a lion kill from the night before. You could hear them crunching bones! They tore and pulled the carcass to bits - quite gory really.
Yet later we spotted a line of lions moving to a shady patch of grass and disappearing into the scrub - 9 females followwed up at the rear by a male - he's a grizzled old guy that I saw last year - he's obviously managing to hold onto his harem!
As we were leaving the park we came upon yet more lions - this time already under shade trees, 5 females with a single cub.
During the day we spotted a lot of herds of cattle within the park - very disappointing as they aren't supposed to be there, the consume the grass and water. We queried this at the gate, they said they would send someone out, but that they had to live with their neighbours (or something like that). we didn't have the impression that they would really be doing anything about it, later on in Nairobi we discovered that this has been going on for ages.
By lunchtime we were back at KimanaA big surprise - we haven't seen rain in Amboseli before.
A little further we found three spotted hyena making their way through the remains of a buffalo - must have been a lion kill from the night before. You could hear them crunching bones! They tore and pulled the carcass to bits - quite gory really.
Yet later we spotted a line of lions moving to a shady patch of grass and disappearing into the scrub - 9 females followwed up at the rear by a male - he's a grizzled old guy that I saw last year - he's obviously managing to hold onto his harem!
As we were leaving the park we came upon yet more lions - this time already under shade trees, 5 females with a single cub.
During the day we spotted a lot of herds of cattle within the park - very disappointing as they aren't supposed to be there, the consume the grass and water. We queried this at the gate, they said they would send someone out, but that they had to live with their neighbours (or something like that). we didn't have the impression that they would really be doing anything about it, later on in Nairobi we discovered that this has been going on for ages.
By lunchtime we were back at KimanaA big surprise - we haven't seen rain in Amboseli before.