A few mornings ago Jaros our head guide experienced a morning that his guests were privileged to see. A morning jaunt below the lodge unveiled a pack of 20 African wild dogs trotting through the long grass, past a herd of a hundred or more buffalo. A head turned to the right revealed a leopard in a tree, within touching distance of a herd of elephant ambling down the dry riverbed. As the animals all slowly slunk into the undergrowth, with the guests dumbstruck at this surreal apparition, Jaros turned the car to move up the hill, and bumped into a pair of lion nonchalantly sauntering past the car – looking for a quiet spot to curl up in amongst this most bizarre of morning rush hours. You would have been forgiven for thinking you had been transported onto the lid of a novelty box of chocolates!
Extraordinary though this was, it’s very difficult to describe what’s happening here with the wildlife. We are looking at exciting times here.
As I’m sure you have gathered, Borana has become part of the Kenya Wildlife Services wider strategic plans for the conservation of and the establishment of a viable population of Black Rhino. As prime black rhino habitat, we are hoping to introduce 20 individuals here by 2011. While this is a no-brainer really in terms of our obligation to protect this highly endangered species, it also represents a break through in creating what I feel is becoming one the most important conservancies in one of Kenya’s great wildlife habitats.
Already, we have a predator population per square km that rivals wildlife habitats all over Africa – record of 100% lion sightings for guests since March is testament to that. We have a healthy and stable but transitory cheetah population; abundant (if shy) leopard, and we are now visited by Wild dog much more regularly. This, coupled with the reoccurrence of Spotted Hyena onto Borana, is suggestive of an extremely healthy eco-system – which is plainly obvious when one sees the vast herds of buffalo, elephant and other plains game in the area.
The return of Rhino does, in my opinion, represent a return to the old order of things – endless space full of its original wildlife, unimpeded by the encroachment of human development. I would guess that Borana hasn’t been like this since the turn of the last century!
And we’re all so excited! Our herdsmen are enthusiastically reporting sightings of their old nemesis – lion. Our grooms are tip toeing around all the elephant as they exercise the horses, and the scouts are rushing from hilltop to hilltop, frantically trying to keep up with their added work load monitoring all the game here. We are doing a game count next week. I hope we’ve got enough fuel in the plane!
