Kenya - Maasai Mara National Reserve

A lioness and her cub sharing a tender moment in Maasai Mara National Reserve.

Sent by Margaret from Nairobi, Kenya.

Maasai Mara, sometimes also spelt Masai Mara and locally known simply as The Mara, is a large national game reserve in Narok County, Kenya, contiguous with the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. It is named in honour of the Maasai people, the ancestral inhabitants of the area, who migrated to the area from the Nile Basin. Their description of the area when looked at from afar: "Mara" means "spotted" in the Maa language because of the short bushy trees which dot the landscape.

Maasai Mara is one of the wildlife conservation and wilderness areas in Africa, with its populations of lions, leopards, cheetahs and African bush elephants. It also hosts the Great Migration, which secured it as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa, and as one of the ten Wonders of the World.

The Great Migration usually happens in July depending on weather as the wildebeest moves in large numbers crossing the Mara River from Tanzania.

The Greater Mara ecosystem encompasses areas known as the Maasai Mara National Reserve, the Mara Triangle, several Maasai group ranches, and Maasai Mara conservancies (read more).