Wanyami

Wanyami means ‘animal’ in Swahili,

the official language of Kenya,

where all of the following photos were taken.

Northwest of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, is Lake Naivasha, one of Kenya’s fresh water lakes. As such, it plays host to hippos. Hippos are only territorial in bodies of water, and when feeding they guard their own territory, be it lake Naivasha or in rivers, by leaving behind one member of the group while the rest forage for food.

Groups can be referred to as a pod, herd, dale, or bloat.

A bloat of hippos. Brilliant.

While they do stay together in bloats, they’re not the most social of animals, so nobody really understands why they do.

In fact the males, or bulls, of a bloat can become incredibly aggressive towards other males, no matter the rival’s age. Because of this, if a female gives birth to a male, they must quickly get him out of the water and hide him in bushes and foliage - somewhere sheltered from both predators and the sun - where she’ll visit him frequently. When he grows big enough, he’ll head back into the water to confront the bull, which will often end in one of their deaths.

On the southern border of Kenya lies the Maasai Mara National Reserve. Across the border it becomes the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. Both are known around the globe for their extraordinary populations of wildlife such as lions, leopards, cheetahs and elephants as well as for the annual migration of wildebeest, zebra and various antelopes, which is aptly called The Great Migration.

The name Maasai Mara comes firstly from the Maasai people, one of Kenya’s 42 tribes. They live across northern, central and southern Kenya and northern parts of Tanzania. The Maasai people believe that all the cattle on earth belong to them. So all of your cows are on loan and need to be looked after well.

The second part of the name comes from the River Mara that runs through the reserve. Around two thirds of the River Mara lies in Kenya, while the last third runs through Tanzania before draining into Lake Victoria.

The word ‘Safari’ means journey in Swahili, which itself originates from the Arabic word ‘safar’.

It’s not quite as exotic as a safari is to the rest of us, however, as they use it to describe any type of journey, such as a bus ride out of town.

Maybe they even use it just to pop to the shop.

This lizard above is called Mwanza flat-headed rock agama. An easier name to remember it by is Spider-Man agama. However only the males – as is often the way in nature – are colourful. The females are mostly brown. This particular agama lives in Tanzania, Rwanda, and Kenya.