Cheetahs, rhinos and elephants

Today was another very early wake up to go on a rhino patrol. We walked for about an hour today before our first sighting, Noango another black rhino, who really was gorgeous. The great news is that this year so far, two black rhino calves have been born, bringing the total number of black rhino to 97! More great news is that we caught a glimpse of a mother and calf, and went to follow it, but then came the bad news...the wind changed and they were out of there like a shot so I didn't manage to get a photo.

We kept on walking for a few hours, and came across more Burchell's zebra, impala and warthogs.

A little while later, we ran across a giraffe calf's carcass, and spent a while looking at the skull and molars.  

You can see really clearly the flattened, grooved teeth which help to strip leaves off branches.  

Just before we headed back, we saw out of the corner of our eyes movement in the nearby trees. Upon closer inspection, we could see that they were actually Grevy's zebra, which are larger than Burchell's and much rarer. You can distinguish between the two because Grevy's has thinner stripes that are closer together, and they don't reach its belly, which is fully white. 

:ater that day, we drove to see Baraka, a "tame" black rhino, actually he is blind rather than tame, so he is put in a boma by himself for protection, for further protection, his horn was cut off, so he wasn't a sitting target for poachers. I got to hand feed him, which was just incredible! Afterwards we got to meet the four southern white rhinos, which are even bigger than the black ones!!

Black rhino(above, left and below)

Northern white rhino, left and below

Me and a giraffe's neck

Impala

Elephant

Young cheetah

On the way back, we went back via elephant marsh, and saw gorgeous bull elephant, its just incredible in real life, especially when contrasted agains the bright green of the marsh, just look out of this world. 

On the way back we saw a bunch of jeeps all stationary, facing one way, so we stopped to see what was going on. To my amazement, after a few minutes of adjusting my eyes to the scenery, I see in the grass three gorgeous cheetahs. Two young cubs, which you can distinguish in the photos by the tufts of hair that remain on the back of their necks, and a mother. We stayed watching them for ages, they are absolutely stunning animals. 

Earlier in the day I met with Nancy, who is the community group manager and she gave me a thorough introduction to the five focus areas that Ol Pejeta supports with the communities (Education, health, water, infrastructure, agriculture), I look forward to actually visiting the sites, particularly the schools.