An Introduction to the Masai Mara

The Mara is a land that forever changes; lush green, stretched out plains gradually become golden waves of tall red oat grass, gently parted by herds of visiting wildebeest that clear the canvas for another painting.

A lack of fences allows this ecosystem to reach all the way down to Southern Serengeti and right across the entire Masai Mara. One morning you can wake up to a herd of five hundred elephant making their way slowly through the Ol Punyata swamp, the next day they're gone. 

Our large swamp, streams, salt lick, meandering Mara River, and a rainfall of up to 1,500 millimetres a year, means that there is enough food and water to keep wildlife in the Mara Triangle even during the dry months. 

Mara Timeline

1750	Estimated arrival of the Maasai people to the Serengeti-Mara area.
1880s	Prolonged drought followed by epidemic of bovine disease pleuropneumonia; large numbers of wildlife and Maasai cattle lost.
1900	Maasai population leave traditional grazing grounds to concentrate around newly-developing centres like Nairobi.
1930s	Woodlands become more established, providing the perfect habitat for tsetse fly and close to uninhabitable for humans and livestock.
1948	The Mara Game Reserve is created and covers the area referred to today as the Mara Triangle. Hunting is regulated.
1950s	Immunisation campaign in cattle results in disappearance of rinderpest among buffalo and wildebeest, creating significant rise in populations.
1954	Lion, cheetah and rhino given total protection from hunting.
1961	The Mara Game Reserve is extended to become the Masai Mara National Reserve.
1984	Three sections of the reserve are excised to give Maasai access to watering points.
1994	The reserve is divided between Narok and the newly formed Trans-Mara County Council, with the Mara Triangle now part of Trans Mara.
2001	Local leaders initiate the Mara Conservancy to manage the Mara Triangle on behalf of the Council.