Watched rerun of Season 2 of Big Cat Diary before I went to work this am.

It still amazes me that Shadow is alive and kicking in the Mara after all these years.

I always try to catch the reruns whenever they are shown.

Dom

Sounds like I’ll have to check out the book when it comes out.

I agree it is ‘better to light a candle than to curse the darkness’.

Whether it’s the Florida Panther or Manatee in my home state or Big Cat’s in Africa and around the world, they and many other species are holding on to dear life or are on the brink of extinction.

I will someday have to come to Africa to see all the wonders myself.

take care in your travels,

Dom Citrullo

Now where we are going to find the time to do all this we don’t know!

But our new Website to be launched in August – earlier if possible – will certainly help us in this mission and will be a way to pull all the Social Media strands together.

Do I sound if I know what I am talking about??? I can imagine a lot of you who know us will be saying ‘if that was Angie speaking then yes, but Jonathan with all his ADD quirks – maybe not in a month of Sundays!

At the beginning Notch had five Boys around, but always one of them was elusive and more independent. In January 2010 Sarah Skinner wrote:

“While Notch took a ‘sabbatical’ his 4 handsome sons chose to stay in the Mara Triangle and to our delight were joined by the ‘5th son’, the one which we had always heard about but never yet seen. There appears to be a very strong bond between 4 of the boys in particular, with the 5th son seeming to be slightly more detached from the group.”

At some point the 5th boy dissapeared, but I don´t know exactly what happened with him, even I don´t know if he is still alive. Currently Notch coalition has five members including Notch. One of the current Boys, Grimace, used and use to has a bizarre behaviour as Sarah Skinner also explain in March 2011:

“Although admittedly he is one of the more troublesome members of this 5 male coalition (Including Notch) as he had been responsible for killing many cubs in the Mara, even those from prides they have control off. The exact reason of this is unknown to an extent but I suspect it´s due to the fact that he has not mated with many of the females bearing cubs and therefore will kill any cub that he knows is not his. He is one of the only Notch boys that rarely seems to gets the opportunity to mate and the females view him with a degree of distrust, In addition, even if he has mated with females and sired cubs because he spends a considerable amount of time away from many of the cubs, its possible he loses the scent that the cubs are his and therefore potentially driven to kill them. In a nut shell Grimace is a lion with ‘issues’!”

Pepe Puy

Wow, what a highly informative conversation is going on about the wonders of our planet! As a 16 year old, I am inspired.

Reading these posts reminds me that up in the UK in Oxfordshire, Abingdon, there has been a successful story on the population and the reintroduction of Red Kites. Years ago, the population on Red Kites was very low in our area due to hunting. Not so long ago, they were reintroduced in a protected area not so far from where I live and now they have made a really good comeback. I once saw 5 in one day! Slightly strange looking birds compared to other birds of prey but still very graceful and elegant as they soar on the wind. It is also amazing to hear that in a school not so far away the Red Kites have become a problem, coming down when children are having their lunch and stealing off their lunch boxes. So, they are sometimes irritating to some people now there are so many.

Hope everyone has a great week,

many thanks,

Matthew

Wow, Yellowstone, what a place, just yesterday after my passionate blog I watch the BBC amazing series about the park: astonishing. The wolves, the impressive bison, the elk herds, the grizzly bears, the bald eagles.. I have right now a very detailed map of the area in front of me – I love maps, with them I can travel with the imagination -, the Lamar Valley to the northeast where the Druid Pack used and still use to roam – a pack so famous that seems to be a legend, such as the Marsh Lions -, the Gallating range, the Madison Plateau… Amazing places to be. Some day I have to go there.

Really USA has an impressive network of National Parks and Reserves, one of the most alurring on earth, from the Everglades and the Big Cypress National Preserve in the southeast, to the Artic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, fron Olympic in the northwest to the Monongahela National Forest in the Appalachian highlands. To the north, in Canada the places seem to be so wild that easily rise my dreams, specially this amazing extension called Wood Buffalo, have you watched The Frozen Planet (BBC) and these incredible battles between bisons and wolves….

Nature, nature, I love it.

I hope Dom, and Rich, and jonathan, and Camilla, and Barbara, and Bob, and kris, and everyone to keep speaking about the wonders of our planet, the blue planet, with all of you. What a place, what a place.

Pepe Puy

I don’t do facebook either. Have enough to do, following emails and all our Mara Blogs!!
As long as we go on having Blogs from you Jonathan, we can’t grumble.
It has been good hearing from you recently, but, although it looks good having nearly 200 Blogs between your Blogs, I don’t think it satisfied us too much. We need your fresh input, as many of us need to be kept up to date.
You have had an extraordinarily busy schedule though, haven’t you?
It must have been good to slow down a little and appreciate your home and pets – and the Mara.

Look forward to hearing about your trips.

Hi everyone!

Barbara.

As long as we still get to read your wonderful blogs ….