Keeka!
The last time we were at Keekorok was during the annual Wildebeest migration and it was great to be back but boy what a difference. The grass was tall and spotting animals was not going to be easy, driving in to camp, the surrounding areas were full of vegetation, not an animal to be seen.
4pm came round quick and it was time to head out in to the bush. Approaching our vehicle I asked Godfrey if he had been able to find out from the locals and rangers where the prime sightings have been, as always Godfrey looked like he had something up his sleeve. With a cheeky smile “lets just see what we can see” he replied. As we pulled out from camp we headed up a track leading towards the near by air strip, less than half a kilometer from our camps main entrance we stopped. To our right, 30 meters away in the middle of a large bush there was movement. Deep in the heart of the bush an impala carcus lay – there was a Leopard…!
A prime sighting, when all looked to be stacked against us our trusty guide had once again pulled the rabbit out of the hat, this was where we would stay for the next 3 hours. Over the next 4 days we had sightings of her every day. Climbing trees, walking along the road, in and out of the bush… then we discovered she had cubs! It was not until I studied her neck markings marking’s that I realised we had met before during the migration, the last time we were in the Mara. It could not get better than this, we had multiple sightings of a female Leopard that we had discovered 18 months earlier as an adolescent, and now she had cubs of her own!
Around camp no one knew the name of this leopard, so I decided to call her Keeka as she seemed to be the resident leopard of our camp Keekarok! If anyone knows Keeka’s real name, if she has one please let me know.