Experience Maasai Mara scavengers in Kenya safaris

Maasai Mara in Kenya is the best park that guarantees you wildlife game viewing with great birding safari. Most of these wild animals dependents from each other for their survival in this ecological niche thus booking to Kenya safari holidays will enable you learn more on how these animals survive in their natural environment. Among the hyenas, jackals, marabou stork and vultures are known to be the scavengers of the Maasai Mara plains that clean up the Mara ecosystem. The park has various types of vultures namely;

African white-backed vultures

This type of vulture is the most common scavenger in Masai Mara.

White-back vulture

 These vultures can eat over one kg of meat in just two minutes and feed in large groups. They are found mostly resting on top of tall trees surveying the Mara plains so that they may spot any animal that might have been killed and thus became an advantage to them to feed on the left over. 

Rüppell’s vultures  

This type of vulture can be identified by their white streaked feathers and yellow beak. Unlike the other vultures that nest in trees,

these birds hatch their chicks in tall cliffs far outside Masai Mara’s borders but later fly back when they are fully mature to scavenge in the Mara ecosystem.

Lappet-faced vultures  

Lappet –face vulture is one of the biggest vultures and are named for their bald, red heads.

Lappet-faces vulture

These vultures tend to travel in pairs and are dominant over all the other vultures in the Mara ecosystem. Given a whole gazelle they tear up and finish within seconds leaving behind only the carcasses to the hyenas.

White-headed vulture  

White-headed vulture are known

White-headed vulture

to be rarest vultures in Masai Mara triangle, they are characterized with red-beaked, pale-faced birds. Not quite as big as the Lappet-faced vultures, tend to be shy and solitary nature and thus rarely seen.

Hooded vultures  

Hooded vultures are one of the smallest vultures and tend to pick around the edge of the carcass. They have a slightly more varied diet than the other vultures, sometimes they are spotted eating the dung of other animals or feeding at garbage dumps like elephant dung in the Mara ecosystem.

Black-backed jackals  

Black-backed jackals are usually seen traveling in small groups or pairs. They are small in size but cunning and intelligent guys.

Black back jackal

They quickly snatch a piece of meat from vultures or hyenas and often rush into a carcass, steal a piece of meat, and run off with it.

  

Spotted hyenas 

Spotted hyenas are known for its laugh and thus reason why they are call laughing hyenas. Their sounds are often heard during the night when these carnivores are celebrating meat or hunting time. They have the greatest jaws which enable them to chew through even the toughest bones, making them formidable scavengers in the Maasai Mara national reserve

Sharon Sheery

Kenya safari holidays

www.soinafricasafaris.com