KENYA – Samburu : Chasing Cheetah
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Mar 1, 2009 | by Adrian Binns
It has been almost 6 hrs since we left the Castle Forest by the time we reached Samburu – Buffalo Springs National Reserve, though we did stop several times for a number of odds and ends as well as a bit of birding. Samburu is currently very dry and the Ewaso Nyiro river is lined with sand along most of its course. A lot has to do with the below average rainfall in the Aberdare Mountains which feed the river, but I also found out that locals are diverted some of the water for, what else but cattle!
We spent a good deal of our remaining 3 hours of daylight in the Buffalo Springs area as there had been a report of a Cheetah and cub. Actually we came across a wonderful showing of mammals including a large herd of African Buffalo, many Reticulated Giraffe, and the three arid specialists Grevy’s Zebra, Gerenuk and Beisa Oryx (above).
There was a humorous encounter with a extended family unit of Warthogs (above) that decided at the last moment not to cross the track in front of us. We watched two small herds of elephants join up and what followed could only be described as a telling off to one of them as they all huddled together with several trumpeting their disproval. Amongst the gazelles there was the usual Impalas and Grant’s and a couple of Thomson’s. If that was not enough we did indeed locate the female Cheetah and her well grown cub (below) resting in the shade of an acacia tree having just finished a meal.
Several northern avian specialties, all those with Somali in their name, reach the southern end of their range in this dry habitat and the Somali Courser (right) is one of them. We were lucky enough to come across four of them in the short grass beside the track. As they are prone to do as soon as you stop they turn their backs and begin to wonder away.
A peculiar sighting was a group of birds huddled together in the track. It turned out to be a Somali Golden-breasted Bunting (below) and Speckled-fronted Weavers mourning a Black-capped Social-weaver that had met its demise. Sorting through these smaller birds we came across a Red-fronted Warbler and a couple of Yellow-bellied Eremomelas.
all photos © adrian binns