Wilderness Magashi News – January 2023

A Busanga Plains-based Senior Guide, Isaac Kalio has spent the last two seasons working in this beautiful park. He recently caught up with three of the legendary lions – which were settled here by African Parks all those years ago – and had the safari sighting of a lifetime. Here is his story:

A coalition of two males, Ntwari and Ngangare, and their female, Amahoro, settled into the Magashi Concession some years ago. Ntwari is estimated to be around 13 years old, is blind in one eye and is slowly losing a couple of teeth. In short, age is catching up with him!

Ngangare too is getting on in years at around 12, and is missing the tip of his tail. He still seems energetic, but has shown cowardice in battles. Amahoro is thought to be about nine years old, and currently has four cubs estimated to be around six or seven months old.

Now here is where it gets interesting! Ntwari is known to be the father of a coalition of three, with the two males born in 2016 from a female called Umwari. At about the age of two these boys were evicted by Ntwari and Ngangare, to find a new home. Now seven years old, the boys are back, full of energy and bigger in size than their father Ntwari, whose mane is also starting to fall out.

The trainees also spend considerable time out on the concession practicing the practical guiding skills necessary to give our guests the best possible experience at Magashi. They also focus on the interpretation of sightings, and how to read a situation to make the sighting as personalised as possible. This skill takes practice and will ultimately give our guides the know-how on how to make every sighting special.

The guides also practiced how to change a 4x4 tyre and use a hi-lift jack, use sensitivity while approaching animals, and interpret some rather difficult tracks left by the smaller nocturnal animals we have on Magashi.

A productive time for all involved. 

Training at Wilderness Sabyinyo

Rachel Mafubo Hakizimana, Magashi’s Trainee Manager and Charles Nkunda, our famous Magashi Barman, both had the opportunity to experience Wilderness Sabyinyo during their time off this month. As we like to encourage our team members to learn about the other Wilderness destinations in Rwanda we try to facilitate these requests as much as possible.

Both Rachel and Charles enjoyed getting to know their colleagues at Sabyinyo, and to see how things are done in the Volcanoes area.