Kenya Adventure Safari

Normally game drives are very interesting in the early morning and late afternoon in most of the national parks and game reserves in Kenya or Tanzania. Maasai Mara game reserve is very famous for wildlife and cultural tours. I am writing about what I saw, never seen before while on safari in Maasai Mara.

I was on a trip as a Spanish-speaking professional guide when we met a very mature leopard hunting a fully grown Impala. A leopard(panthera pardus) is one of the big five found in Mara-Serengeti eco-system. It's a very rare mammal to find in daylight, mostly hunts at night. My clients, a family of five from Barcelona Spain had a very wonderful evening game drive having seen most of the wild animals. However, we were in search of a leopard since we had not seen one during our five night stay in Kenya having visited parks such as Mt. Kenya, Aberdare national park and Lake Nakuru national park.

I first spotted a black rhino(dicerus biconis) hiding in the thick bush between Keekrok lodge and Mara river but beside Sand river.

We did not bother so much with the rhino since we were in search of this rare cat. Under a sausage tree I spotted a leopard struggling to kill an impala. It was really amazing as we concentrated on taking photos. Just next to the kill was a python showing signs to attack the leopard. We really had fun when the leopard saw the python and climbed the tree very fast.

It was time for the python to take advantage of the kill. Slowly, the python swallowed the impala from behind. It took about half an hour to swallow up to the neck leaving impala horns and head exposed.We left at around quarter to seven to Sarova Mara tented camp where we spend the night. We woke up very early the next morning and drove past the balloon safaris picnic site. It took us about fifteen minutes to arrive at the scene. Unbelievable, the leopard was lying very comfortable on the trunk and beside it was a prey hanging. The leopard looked very tired. On looking on the ground we found an open skinned python. We were shocked on realizing that the prey hanging on top of the tree was the same impala the python had swallowed the previous day. Its not common to see such kind of python in an African savanna.