"Memories" from Kenya

Assaf Rosenthal looks closely (and sometimes - almost from the inside) at animals of prey in Kenya.

lionesses

The Maasai-Mera Reserve in Kenya is described as: "the place where there is the greatest density and diversity of mammals in the world", species of deer graze in the grasslands, zebras and wildebeest in droves, herds of buffalo and elephants, large and small carnivores "making a living" from the herbivores, ranging from mongooses, jackals, hyenas and cheetahs And to the "king" of the animals...the lions.

Anyone who visits the reserve will immediately notice the efforts of the drivers to show their passengers the "big five": elephants, buffaloes, rhinoceroses, lions and tigers, elephants and buffaloes are often found in the reserve, only rhinoceroses, tigers are hard to find, so the kings are (again) the lions that can be found and see easily (relatively).

In the reserve there are many good "lodges" (excellent hostels) when the index is centrality and proximity to the large herds, according to this index one of the best is Kikorok, therefore if possible I always asked to stay there, the central structure of Kikorok is built in the shape of the letter H around a grassy area and in front of a pit -Water, the water attracts many animals and so does the lawn, therefore the best rooms are considered to be those in the main building. The water hole and the lawn are illuminated, almost every evening zebras come to the lawn enjoying the grass and entertaining the crowd.

I was lucky (and fortunately for the members of the group) and we got rooms in the main building. After an interesting, fun and tiring observation trip we returned to the lodge and towards dark we gathered on the balcony in front of the grass, it didn't take long and a herd of zebras mixed in the garden arrived on the grass for the spectators to enjoy.

Dinner time approaches and the balcony gradually empties, I shuffle past the people sitting, see that two walkers are missing and decide to wait for them before entering the meal, and then the "drama" begins, someone spots a lioness lounging in a far corner, the rumor spreads and all the diners leave the food and leave to the balcony, apparently the commotion makes the zebras more alert and give warning calls so that when the lioness charges they all (Zebras and wildebeest) run away, the lioness glances at the crowd of spectators and walks away into the darkness created by the structure.

The crowd of spectators returns to the meal and so do we, after everyone is seated, each busy with his plate. I notice the absence of the two female travelers, a brief investigation of their neighbors who say that they heard them talking in the room removes from my heart a slight worry/doubt, a quarter of an hour passes... and the girls are gone, thinking that they might have fallen asleep I ask one of the security men of the place to go over and comment.... After five minutes the guy returns, his face changes colors from black to green to gray to yellow and all his attempts to explain come up in the chaos of an incomprehensible message, after a few minutes and after he calmed down I was able to understand that as he approached the room he saw two lionesses... And ran as long as his spirit was in him.

I asked him to summon the person in charge of security and in a joint "discussion" we decided that the lionesses should be expelled, with the help of the entire security team of the lodge who created a "wall in the form" and approached the place while screaming and yelling, saw how a lioness and her cubs ran away and under a "guard of honor" escorted the The two hikers to the restaurant.

Of course, all the activity made everyone on the lodge island come out and watch so that the hikers who arrived were greeted with loud applause. After the spirits... and the travelers calmed down, it became clear that: the shower, make-up, small talk and various activities made the travelers notice that they were late after we were all sitting in the restaurant, as one of them says: "When we noticed that we were late, we quickly got organized, opened the door to leave and were greeted ... two lionesses crouching in front of the door.

In a panic but quietly we closed the door, locked all the bolts, closed and bolted the windows and then sat down and to cheer ourselves up we sang (homeland songs?) loudly to the point of loud screams, for about half an hour until the "rescue" arrived.

Two weeks later I was in Kikurok again, but this time I took the room where the girls were.... the lionesses were not waiting for me.

Tiger

As with every trip in nature, this time too when the travelers ask "what does it look like"? I explain that: "We are not visiting a zoo but nature, in this "show" we have a detailed and clear plan, not so for the "actors", therefore I can say who we will look for.... The degree of success depends on the cooperation of the "actors" / the animals

And yet there are times when I can guarantee an "appearance" of whoever we are looking for. Tigers are common almost all over the (old) world, but because of their "shy" and hidden way of life, it is not easy to see them, so when I knew that there was a high chance of seeing a tiger, I promised the travelers a special observation.

The promise and its fulfillment is made possible at the Ngulia Lodge in the Tsavo Reserve. Tsavo is a huge reserve that covers about 40 thousand square kilometers and houses many species of mammals, birds, reptiles and plants. Because of its size, the chances of meeting the less conspicuous "shy" animals are small, therefore guaranteeing a tiger...sounds a bit unreliable, but from my knowledge of the lodge where we stayed, I knew that every evening at 18:30 p.m. a meat bait is placed in a position that you can see from the lodge's balcony, and every evening a large tiger appears and eats the bait to the delight of the spectators.

That's why when I knew that we would arrive in Ngolia, I told the travelers that "tonight looks like a tiger", but the trip to the reserve got longer and when we arrived at the lodge it was 1835 I hurried the travelers to get to the balcony immediately... When we arrived there was no bait, I asked the "bartender" who was responsible for placing the bait what was going on and the answer was The tiger would eat and leave.

One of the female travelers did not complete the "mistake" and demanded that I loudly and forcefully fulfill my promise, the "bartender" who understood what was happening came with a goat's leg in his hand and offered it to the female traveler for her to place as bait...thinking that he would be refused out of justified fear, but the bartender did not know his customers , we should note that already in previous years I was engaged (in Israel) in tracking tigers, capturing and marking them, which gave me confidence (Excessive).

Therefore, without hesitation, I took the bait from him and went towards the tree on which it should be placed, tying it well so that when the tiger arrives it cannot take it and disappear but will be forced to eat in front of the spectators. The separation is a meter-high stone wall.

With the bait in my hand, when everyone in the lodge is aware of the event and takes a place on the balcony, without hesitation I crossed the fence, climbed the stump and tied the bait, to ensure a good tying I "spent" on the tree stump for about three minutes, in the meantime the observation deck was filled with scouts, I finished tying the bait and went down And when I turned to go to the balcony I saw how the eyes of the spectators opened wide, I didn't pay attention because I thought maybe it was out of appreciation to my actions, except that when I passed the separation wall and turned around I saw the real reason, a large male tiger was sitting on the stump and chewing the bait.

That is to say: when I was busy tying the bait, the tiger crouched in the nearby thicket watching my actions with interest and impatience, and as soon as I got off and turned to go, the tiger was already on the tree. In retrospect, my mistake turned out, because after a number of weeks I saw an announcement in the newspaper about "a tiger that devoured an employee of the Lodge in Tsavo" some time later, when I arrived in Ngolia, it became clear to me that the employee who was devoured was the bartender. The tiger was captured and removed from the area and thus ended an event that may be at least partially my fault, since anyone who associates himself with food may be eaten.

Painted

In our immediate environment, relations are painted with strange qualities: "hypnotic ability", "bisexuality", "embodiment as ghosts" and more, this is mainly because of his different appearance, because of his barking that reminds of human laughter or crying and more.

But the striped hyena (ours) is a solitary production that eats innocent carcasses and is essential (as a "sanitizer") to the environmental system. Not so the spotted hyena in Africa, it is twice as big as the striped hyena, lives in large family groups and is considered a skilled hunter, robbing food from other hyenas that does not hesitate to attack larger prey including humans.

At the end of one of the trips, we (Gyora Ilani and I) decided to try to enter Tanzania (there was no entry for Israelis), we managed to "pass through" and headed to the Serengeti Reserve where we settled in a "camping" near a central lodge, Seronera. Since we arrived in the afternoon we did not have time to organize a trip to the area by car and therefore we went for a walk... which is strictly forbidden.

We walked towards a waterhole in front of the lodge's observation deck and continued walking while maintaining a fixed direction so that we would know how to return, after about two hours we turned around to return, after a while we saw the general lines of the lodge in the distance and turned towards it, the sun was setting and the savannah around us was "changing shifts" The two days are getting ready for the night and the night ones are waking up to activity, I look back and see a painted hyena (dotted) walking after us We both watch, enjoy and continue towards the lodge (we both know the stories but knowing if the striped hyena dulls the need for caution), after a few minutes, we turn around to see the hyena after us... the one "breeded" followed by three hyenas.

We continue and notice that there are "dancing" figures on the observation deck, with strange hand movements, the sun has almost set and the savannah is flooded with a strange silence, a look back reveals that we are being closely followed (threateningly?) by about 5 hyenas, since it will soon get dark, we speed up, and now we already notice Because the figures on the observation deck are the lodge workers who wave their hands and shout, shout: Pisi, Pisi, Fisi, – (painted dot in Swahili).

We passed by the water hole and a group of about 15 hyenas followed us, now we are at the foot of the balcony... the shouting... hysterical... the hyenas who were already 10 meters away, are frightened by the shouting and stop, we go up to the balcony and are greeted by the lodge employees as... heroes? Crazy? Fools? It turns out that about two weeks earlier, the hypocrites (probably the same group) attacked a German researcher who went out in Shen-Vain.

We returned to Nairobi to receive two groups for the trip, Giora takes a group on a trip under "camping" conditions, sleeping in sleeping bags, and I go on a parallel trip in "lodges", in the Maasai Mara reserve it is customary to spread out on the trip to cover a wide area and spot animals, since Giora's camping car park was close To the lodge, we decided to go out in the morning together to increase the chances of finding the animals. We arrive at the campsite at first light, get ready to leave, and then it turns out that Giura's group is missing a female hiker, clearly Mahir quickly recognizes the place where her belongings are arranged in the place where it was... for her head, a sleeping bag is missing.... and traveling?

With the help of a local inspector, we identify signs of drag, follow what are identified as hyena tracks... At a distance of about 70 meters from the camp, we notice the sleeping bag that from a distance looks torn and open, we approach while identifying many hyena tracks, we arrive and it turns out that "there is a female traveler in the bag"... there is a sleeping bag. We woke her up and asked "what happened"? And she doesn't understand "what the commotion is about", according to her she slept well all night and didn't feel anything...

It turns out that the hyenas came to her and dragged her about 70 meters to get away from the camp. To the traveler's great luck, apparently a guard passing by made them leave the "packaged meal" and run away, luck?