Masai Mara: History

The Maasai people have lived in the area for more than 300 years, living in harmony with the wildlife and their cattle. The Maasai people have never hunted game for food, except in times of famine. The first Europeans came in the late 1800s, and after the Second World War, the region was opened to hunting, and the fires set by poachers and honey gatherers laid waste to much of the thick bush.

The Mara Triangle (between the Siria escarpment, the Tanzania border and the Mara River), first became a National Game Reserve in the late 1940s, and it was in 1967 that the local authority, Narok County Council, made the reserve three times it original size, adding 386 sq m on the eastern side of the Mara river, to create the Masai Mara National Reserve we know today. Musiara, a former group ranch was incorporated into the area in 1992. The swampy area is best known as it is the location for the Big Cat Diary series on TV. Another group ranch, the Sekenani section on the south east of the Masai Mara, was also added in 1992.