Not so the cheetah , who needs to be able to see to use his principal weapon, speed. Visitors will see a range of the smaller carnivores - serval cat , genet and jackal are examples. Even the most common jackal, the black-backed, finds only one third of its food from scavenging. But of the predators the average visitors first seeks out the lion . He is unlikely to be disappointed for they are quite common in most of the parks and reserves but nowhere more numerous nor more splendid than in the Masai Mara .
Lions are remarkably catholic in their tastes.
On the whole they kill antelope and zebra, but warthog, baboon, ostrich and jackals are all killed and eaten. A lion eats around 20-25 kg at a meal, sometimes more. Elephant range across a wide spectrum of habitats from the hot coastlands to the cold moorlands of the Aberdares and Mount Kenya at 3600m. Very few other animals have this range. Elephants are found in most of the parks, herds of 100 or more can be found in Meru , Amboseli and sometimes in Samburu .