Maasai Mara - The Greatest Wildlife Spectacle on Earth

The Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya is witness to the most spectacular wildlife migration on earth. Wildlife photographer KALYAN VARMA captures the poetic beauty of the Mara in monotone.

© KALYAN VARMA

Black rhino in Maasai Mara. Africa has two species of rhinoceros -- the White or Square-lipped Rhino and the Black or Hook-lipped Rhino. Both are highly endangered and protected in Africa, though many still fall to hunters. Rhinos are poached for their horns, which are believed to possess aphrodisiac properties. The horn, which is in fact made of matted hair-like tissue, fetches insanely huge prices in the black markets of China and Southeast Asia. Rightly, conservationists believe that for the killing to stop, the buying must first be stopped.

© KALYAN VARMA

"The tree where man was born." The continuity of the savanna, the great grassy plain of the Masai Mara, is broken by these hardy acacia trees. 

© KALYAN VARMA





Three cheetah siblings, known locally as Honey's Boys, bring down a wildebeest. The migration is eagerly awaited by lions, cheetahs, leopards and hyenas, for it brings a treasure trove of food for them. Most wildebeest calve on the way to the Mara and the young ones become easy prey for opportunistic predators

 

© KALYAN VARMA

             

Cape Buffalo in Maasai Mara. Among the most impressive of herbivores, buffaloes are strong and formidable. They are known to be unpredictable and aggressive, often chasing away lions and other predators. Big game hunters of yore wrote that bullets ricocheted off the animal's great horns.

© KALYAN VARMA

Two zebra strike a pose in Maasai Mara, watched by an oxpecker, a bird that frequently follows grazing animals seeking out insects in their skin. Of the three species of zebra in Africa, this (the Plains Zebra) is the most common. The other two -- the Grevy's Zebra and the Mountain Zebra -- are endangered. 


© KALYAN VARMAElephants in the Maasai Mara. African elephants are larger than Asian elephants. There are two recognized species of African elephants -- the African Bush Elephant shown here and the smaller African Forest Elephant, which is found in the rainforests of the Congo.

© KALYAN VARMA

A giraffe stands in the shade of an acacia tree in the Maasai Mara. Giraffes, the tallest land animals (adult males are up to 20 feet tall), are among the residents of the Mara.
© KALYAN VARMA

The alpha male of the marsh pride, this African lion represents the majesty that has so often translated to myth and legend. Lions once ranged all over Africa and West Asia including India. Today, they are restricted to pockets in Africa and one subspecies is limited to a small sanctuary in Gujarat. Wild lions were mercilessly hunted across Africa and now remain relatively safe only in the great wildlife reserves