What you should know about Masai Mara

‘Mara’ means ‘spotted’ in the Maa language, which is spoken by the area’s ancestral residents, the Maasai people. It refers to how the Mara is dotted with acacia trees, indentations and craters when looked at from afar. Its wide open plains provide an oasis-like sanctuary for an abundance of wildlife like elephant, buffalo, zebra, giraffe, hyena, and the Mara’s celebrated big cats: lion, leopard and cheetah. And, from about July to November every year, its savannah provides nourishment for wildebeest herds of epic proportions.

Location and Landscape

The Masai Mara National Reserve covers about 370 000 acres in south-western Kenya – an area slightly bigger than greater Los Angeles – and shares unfenced borders with a number of private conservancies, which are administered by the Maasai. It’s the northern-most part of the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem, famous for the annual Wildebeest Migration. The landscape is dotted with thorn trees, kopjes and craters, and the reserve is drained by its major rivers: the Sand, Talek and Mara Rivers. The Mara’s terrain is mostly open grassland with small seasonal rivers.

The Mara River provides the chief obstacle for the wildebeest herds to cross at about mid-year but smaller break-away groups also cross the Talek and Sand Rivers. Outlying stragglers have been known to cross the Talek as late as November!