Urithi Ya Ranger – Ranger Diaries

Today my unit and I went on a very long foot patrol through some hilly areas and we came across a female hyaena who was relaxing in the early morning sun. She saw us but she was not bothered by our presence. We continued on towards the base of a very large hill and we began to climb it. We saw fresh lion tracks near the edge of a spring, solidly imprinted in the mud and soon after we saw two male lions, they were quite a distance away but after studying them carefully we saw that they were our resident boys, Sau and Wah. We have known these two brothers since they were tiny cubs and we are glad to know they are ok and looking very healthy.

We moved on and Ranger Mutunkei sighted two old bull buffaloes higher up on the hillside. We watched them as they lay down and enjoyed the sun. Early morning is often the hour when all the animals come out to sun bathe. The buffalos sniffed the air looking for any sign of danger and then they relaxed. We were down wind of them and so our being there did not disturb them. We watched them for a while, listening for any human sounds. Poachers often communicate using animal noises but if we listen carefully we can distinguish the difference.

We heard nothing and moved on quietly, meandering between the dense bush. Ranger Koiyata pointed to something on the ground ahead of us and we saw that it was a female leopard’s tracks from the previous night.

We climbed all the way to the top of the hill and watched the area below for an hour, one of the other units were monitoring a herd of elephants near the Ropile river far in the distance. A beautiful Greater Kudu bounded out of a thicket in front of us and galloped away, even higher up than we were.

After descending the hill it was just minutes before we heard the very familiar trumpet of elephants. Following the sound and rounding the bend of the hill’s baseline there was a herd of about twenty munching on the lush green grass and trees. We found a strategic place to watch them from without disturbing them. They had not noticed us and continued about their day. After 20 minutes the herd started moving off in the direction towards the opposite hill. We immediately recognized one of the matriarchs to be Serafina, who was leading them. We followed them quietly, watching and listening for anything out of the ordinary. The herd settled down once again once they felt safe in the thick bush at the bottom of the smaller, but bushier, hill. Ranger Mutunkei commented on one of the babies who was tugging on her mother’s tail, “That one has a sense of humour!” We all chuckled in agreement.  Dark grey clouds rolled across the sky above us, warning us of the approaching storm. The elephants didn’t seem to mind.

Thank you for listening to our stories!

–          Ranger Nairuko

N.B. Some of these stories have been translated from Maa to English.