Maasai Mara National Reserve is an area of preserved savannah wilderness in southwestern Kenya, along the Tanzanian border. Its animals include lions, cheetahs, elephants, zebras and hippos. Wildebeest traverse its plains during their annual migration. The landscape has grassy plains and rolling hills, and is crossed by the Mara and Talek rivers. The area nearby is dotted with villages (enkangs) of Maasai people.
Maasai Mara elephants are iconic, intelligent, matriarchal mammals facing threats from habitat loss and poaching, with conservation efforts by groups like the Mara Elephant Project (MEP), monitoring their movements via GPS collars to mitigate human-wildlife conflict, especially crop raiding, and protecting vital corridors for survival, highlighting their ecological importance as keystone species within the broader ecosystem.