Once again we headed out looking for big cats.

We had another beautiful sunrise. We leave the camp at 6 am giving us this opportunity.

This is what much of the area looks like with the drought. As you can see, there is not much vegetation left for the animals to eat. There is a narrow green area around the river. 

We spend part of the morning once again tracking the 2 adult male lions and a leopard. We were following prints for all 3, but were unable to find them. We determined that the lions likely left the area, but we could not find any tracks showing the leopard leaving, so it was likely lying low somewhere. 

We did manage to find the lion cubs we first saw 2 days ago. They were hanging out without mom, who was probably out hunting. We spent a while watching them because they were active.

Three of the cubs. One tends to hang off out of the way by itself much of the time.

Yawn.

Stalking birds.

Chasing after a bird.

Gotta rest after hunting birds.

This is an East African oryx, the last of the Samburu special 5 for us to see. They are gray with striking black and white markings. They are bovine and are about 3 feet tall at the back, but are not terribly heavy animals, usually about 175 lb. They have impressive, straight, ringed horns. 

This is a doum palm tree. These are found in the Arabian Peninsula and northern Africa. these produce palm dates. They have this branching pattern.

Giraffe

White-backed vulture: These are critically endangered. 

elephant

baby elephant

White-headed buffalo weaver

And then we heard the news. Someone found a cheetah! We hurried over to see him as we have never seen a cheetah in the wild before. He did not disappoint.

We did get to watch him hunt, but he missed his dik dik prey. It was a short run so I didn’t get pictures. We heard that another group which stayed around watching him longer saw a successful hunt.

There are weaver bird nests all over. Some are hanging down like Christmas Tree ornaments while others are more attached like this. They are very detailed.

We found the lioness with the 4 cubs again. Momma had just made a kill: an oryx. This was the 3rd kill this lioness has made in 4 days.

Male and female Somali ostrich. I think I caught the female blinking.

This is our last day at Samburu as we move to another camp tomorrow. We had a great time here seeing all of the Samburu special 5 animals plus a beautiful leopard and cheetah.