wildlife — Motorsports & Wildlife photographer Chennai , India

Masai mara is one of my favourite wildlife destinations, I have travelled by both migration season and by November, here are the five reasons why I personally love visiting mara by the month of November...

1. Green and Dramatic

While the main focus is on mammals, the green background makes the frame more pleasing...

By November, the water flow by the mara river will be very good, eventually it will be all greens everywhere. It will not only please your eyes but your cameras too..

See how green Mara by November. A View thro' window of our Safari flight, just before landing.

Getting a green background on your wild-portraits is a pure bliss. Where in by migration season all you get is a yellow grass with a very mild tint of green in it.

2. Less Crowded

During the wildebeest migration period (Jul - Oct), you can literally see citizens of almost every known country in the world. Being one of the largest natural history event in the planet, this will be in every nature lover's wish list, eventually this season becomes the busiest season across the year. But, by November it will be like an empty endless golf course. You need not stand behind any other vehicle to get a good angle. For example, we witnessed a cheetah hunting down a Thompson's gazelle and shot the whole sequence for an hour, It was only us with two more vehicle witnessed the whole scene. If this was by August, there would be easily thirty plus vehicles in that scene.

If you are a photographer, you would personally love the place with very less crowd with ample opportunities to frame the mammals and wild Scape as you prefer.

3. Wallet Friendly

Like in any business, tourism also operates on system of 'Demand Vs Supply'. lesser the crowd more the offers. Package rates goes down. Availability becomes much easier.

Right from the flight tickets to the camp charges, the overall package will be 25% to 30% less than that of high season rates. You will also have the advantage of getting your favourite camp's availability on desired dates.

4. More opportunity to witness live hunts

A Live hunt just in front of us, witnessed during our last trip by Nov 2017.

While hunting happens all through the year, the probability of witnessing a live hunt is very high during this season. During migration time the savannah will be full of prey and predators, so most of the time it's a quick catch & eat scenario. All the action will be over by the time you track down and reach the location.

5. You get the best naturalist

'Sons of the Soil' Our extremely knowledgable naturalists ! — 'Sons of the Soil' Our extremely knowledgable naturalists !

The role of a naturalist is very important while on a safari. Not just for sighting and photography purpose but, to get aware more about the African savannah and enhance your knowledge on animal behaviours. Going along with the local has so many advantages, you also get to know more about the Masai villages and their culture from the local naturalist.

Disclaimer: The statements and conclusions in this blog are purely based on my personal opinion with my own experience on visiting Africa. As you may know opinion varies person to person. So please translate it accordingly, or join for an exclusive trip to experience nature at its best !

I am personally excited to start this "Story Behind the Shot" series, with this one.

There is an exciting story behind this capture..

It was a hazy afternoon while we were on safari by the beautiful savannah of Masai Mara, spotted two young lions sitting casually by the plains and a herd of wildebeest behind casually grazing by the fresh greens.

While we expected some action to happen between the lions and the wildebeest, a Hyena from very far ran towards the herd. My naturalist told that hyenas will be more active after rains.

The hyena ran straight across the herd and made smart split, gone round, did repeated splitting and ended up chasing one at last, the wildebeest made a sprint and made enough lead over the hunter, but being open land it couldn't hide or move off from hyena's view...

The chase continued for couple of kilo-meters, while we followed from far off distance. The wildebeest reached the banks for the mara river and took a decision to cross the river...

The chaser came close to it but not enough, the wildebeest started crossing the river, thats when the TWIST happened !

A huge Croc came from nowhere straight from the bottom and locked the wildebeest's head with its powerful jaws, took it down in single shot.

Between the powerful jaws, the Prey had no choice !

Within minutes, the croc took control of the whole scene. meantime, one more croc joined the party. The wildebeest has no other option other than giving up...

The hyena who chased down so long watched the whole thing happening. Gone around the river and tried to frighten off the crocs but in vain.

A disappointing walk after a long chase...

The crocs casually dragged off the prey. When the blood comes off to the surface the hyena decided to leave the scene. The drizzle started again.

The Hyena walk by the banks watching his prey taken by others..

This whole thing happened between two consecutive drizzles, in less than 30mins. We anticipated the powerful Lions to do the job but it was the long-range runner Hyena who started.. at last it was the opportunist Crocodile who grabbed the prey.

The final Drag off, and the drizzle starts..

Apart from witnessing this amazing nature's event, I personally learnt a lot from this experience. Hope you also have some takeaways of your own, hence keeping my learnings without mentioning here.

Please do share your comments and views, which will fuel me further to write more. I am currently writing a blog on travel to Masai Mara.

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