Masai Mara
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Masai Mara National Reserve
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 Mara River in the reserve |
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| location |
Narok County , Kenya
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| surface | 1510 km² | |
| WDPA ID | 1297 | |
| Geographical location | 1 ° 29 ' S , 35 ° 9' E | |
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| Setup date | 1974 | |
| administration | Kenya Wildlife Service | |
The Masai Mara (also Maasai Mara ) is a nature reserve in Kenya . It is part of the Serengeti and connects directly to the Serengeti National Park ( Tanzania ) to the north and has an area of approximately 1510 square kilometers. The area is at an altitude of 1500 to 1650 meters above sea level , in the southeast of the same are two mountains of 2200 meters. The annual precipitation, which is divided into two rainy seasons, is 800 millimeters in the east and 1200 millimeters in the west.
origin of the name
The name Masai Mara consists on the one hand of the name of the tribe of the Maasai who live in this area . The second part of the name "Mara" (from the Maa language ) means "spotted" or "spotted". This designation represents a reference to the appearance of the landscape: viewed from above, the many individual trees in the savannah appear like individual points.
vegetation
The vegetation is mainly formed by grass savannah. There is also a bush and tree savannah with a gallery forest along the Mara River . There are also Inselbergs .
Wildlife
Masai Mara is Kenya's most animal-rich reserve, both in terms of number of species and individual animals. Although it is not a typical elephant area, there are good populations of them. In 1973 720 animals were assumed, in 1977 703 elephants were counted and in 1982 and 1987 there were 1,100 elephants. They migrate across the state border in both directions. Since Kenya's government has recognized its show value for tourism, efforts to conserve the elephants are remarkably large. From September to November, herds from the Serengeti roam the Masai Mara. The wildebeest , zebras , Thomson's gazelles and eland in the area are known for their extensive migrations, which they undertake depending on the dry and rainy seasons. Since the Pleistocene, you have been hiking through the entire Serengeti from north to south to the bordering Masai Mara and back over the course of a year .
Steppe elephant
Blue wildebeest cross a river
Male lion with prey
Leopard in the Masai Mara
Masai giraffes and impalas
Topi- lyre antelope
Hyena fighting with vultures
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Threat to the Masai Mara
After the unrest after the presidential elections in December 2007, fewer and fewer tourists came to the nature reserve for fear of attacks. Due to the resulting financial losses, the rangers responsible for animal welfare could hardly be paid any more, which led to a sharp increase in poaching. According to the ZDF foreign journal on May 28, 2008, less than 50 percent of the nature reserve could only be monitored during the day. The animal welfare organization "Wildlife Direct" described the effects as "catastrophic".
literature
- Wally and Horst Hagen: The African national parks as habitats for elephants . In: Vitus B. Dröscher (Ed.): Save the elephants of Africa . Rasch & Röhring Verlag, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-291-9 , p. 226.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ World Database on Protected Areas - Masai Mara (English)
- ↑ Richard E. Leakey, Virginia Morell: A Life for the Elephants. Fischer-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-596-16052-9 , p. 219.
- ↑ Thilo Thielke: Massai Mara in Kenya: The fall of paradise. In: Spiegel Online . January 27, 2008, accessed January 4, 2017 .