Dogs are getting very confusing, with the resident pack of 11 still being seen regularly, but with occasional sightings of one pack of 8 dogs (two pale male dogs, and one pale alpha female, and five sub adults) as well as another small grouping of two tawny coloured male dogs, and one dark female. The resident pack are running between their previous dens, inspecting the area. The alpha female does not look pregnant as yet, but the alpha male is sticking close to her.
Two young male lions from the Solo pride have taken several opportunities to fight the large male lions this month – as the young lions have matured, it appears they do not want to leave their natal area, and are prepared to take on lions bigger than themselves to make that point clear. They have been moving back and forth through the territory, trying to establish it for there own, even trying to force the other lions off kills. These aggressive two young males have perhaps resulted in six of the males from the ‘magnificent seven’ being seen together several times this month – a great thing to be able to see. The four intruder males have not been seen this month, but are probably around the Shindi area, as we can hear roaring from that direction quite often. In addition, the female lioness from the Splash pride looks as though she is nursing – the cubs have yet to be found, and are hidden away somewhere in the north eastern side of the area.
Three male cheetahs are spending a lot of time in the Splash area – providing excellent sightings most days (seen for 13 days out of 16 days!) – and they have yet to move back to the Tsum Tsum area. They were found with several different kills, after which they generally find time to relax and ‘unwind’ for a while. There was a spectacular sighting this month where the three cheetahs and pack of wild dogs met shortly after the wild dogs had made a kill. It’s unusual for cheetahs to come up against a predator that is lighter than themselves, and the back up of there being three of them gave them an extra bravado. A stand off occurred, but both sets of animals were unwilling to risk injury by a direct altercation.
This month we also saw some lovely herds of elephant – around 30 individuals in number – and a group of 70 zebras, including 10 young, that were seen out in the open grazing areas of Splash. Other unusual sightings included a serval cat, and a porcupine.
One of the normally rarest sightings in the Delta, proved to be not so rare, when five different boat drives managed to see a sitatunga! Add to that, a special sighting of an otter – these animals inhabit the waterways, but are very rare to see.