Bahati Is Walking

Masai Mara National Reserve

Like a lot of us, my introduction to the lives of the wild was thanks to television channels like BBC, National Geographic, Animal Planet and Discovery. There was nothing else to watch on TV at night and I’d be up at night a lot back then. Most of the stories were from Africa in the beginning with Indian programmes slowly being developed and all of them fascinated me so much. Little did I know then that I’d get into it with hook, line and sinker as my main hobby down the line. BBC’s Big Cat Diaries was a path breaking T.V programme back then. Im talking mid 90’s here and it wonderfully brought out the secret lives of African big cats.

It was no surprise that my wife and I chose to honeymoon in Masai Mara. Her newly found fascination with wildlife and my insistence made it an easy pick actually. It was to be and was in many ways the adventure we were after for sure. What I didn’t know even on our way there thought was that we’d meet some of the legends that I had been watching on TV. In fact, when we reached our camp in Mara, we got to know that one of those legends, the leopardess called Bahati had chosen the wooded area like 200 mtrs from us for herself and her cub at that time. Now, areas with trees are rare, small and far between in Masai Mara. They are like little oasis in a huge grassland. We were overjoyed that she was so close. Us novices didn’t know that Bahati the expert had chosen very well indeed. Those trees surrounded by bush were very difficult to get to by safari vehicles or other animals alike and we weren’t even going to be allowed to get off our vehicle even 200 mtrs from the camp’s gate.

So we tried. We tried every morning while headed out from camp and we tried at lunchtime when we came back. We tried after lunch and we tried again in the evenings when we’d come back. I also watched others trying all throughout the day. Lions, Antelope and people in safari vehicles all passed through that area as I watched. None of us set off an alarm and it became pretty clear that one of Masai Mara’s fiercest mothers knew what she was doing all too well. We got no news of a sighting of Bahati from that oasis for days. We’d catch partial pictures of the cub but the cub was always seen alone and Bahati would be gone all day and knew just how to give us all the slip. Such was her confidence in the spot and honestly it was testament to why she is referred to as one of the super mom’s of Masai Mara. We gave up trying for Bahati at that spot after a week or so.

A couple of days after we stopped, we were mid safari at around noon when our radio in the vehicle crackled to life suddenly to announce that “Bahati is walking” and that was all it said.  David grabbed his phone and made some frantic calls to learn that she was approaching the trees where her cub was from behind our camp. We rushed. Now cat sightings inside the Mara are usually not a chaotic event like Tiger sightings in India or even sightings at the edges of Masai Mara itself with many vehicles trying to get close to one cat. We were a few hours inside the reserve and here, people come and people go and the cats do their thing usually (with the exception of The Migration perhaps when the whole place is full). Not so the case with Queen Bahati’s walk. When we got to where she was, the area was full of safari vehicles. Everyone who could, had come to see the Queen’s walk and it kinda made me understand why she had been giving us the slip and travelling incognito all these days. Pretty much every safari vehicle which had guests in the Rhino Ridge area was there to see Bahati’s walk. I honestly never thought I’d see African safari vehicles fight for spots to take pictures and rear end each other over photographs this far inside the reserve. Such was the influence and legend of Bahati.

And that kids, is how I danced the safari dance with my first Leopardess. I was actually surprised to see David shift to beast mode and show off his star guide and driver status as he easily picked the gaps and lined up our old vehicle with the best there over and over again as she walked past. It was a hot afternoon and Id’ve preferred less light. But more is better than less with light and I did pretty ok I think for my first Leopard and her star power. Her walk to me had the confidence of a Tiger’s walk. She didn’t care about the vehicles around. She was used to this and strut her strut like an Alpha. Leopards in Masai Mara were not an easy find. We saw another leopard a couple of days later and this male in no way had her confidence and courage. It’s not behavior that we see in Indian Leopards usually either. Indian Leopards are much smaller as well and don’t live as long as the African ones. But then Rana who I saw in Jhalana a few years later had the same confidence and boldness that Bahati from Africa showed Ref : Jhalana Ke Rana Jee ). I guess some characters in the wild make themselves Alpha by deed despite their shortcomings of stature just like some characters in the not so wild kind of life.

That sighting peaked my interest in Leopards and has led to three trips to Rajasthan so far to satisfy my curiosity about them. I don’t think Id’ ve worked out that the Leopard is probably the smartest and the most successful big cat if I hadn’t seen Bahati that afternoon. Interestingly, in my two weeks in Masai Mara, the only time that Radio crackled to life was when it did about her and said “Bahati Is Walking” and fell silent again. 

She’s the Queen man. Of course she gets a broadcast.