Whatever happened to the leopards in Lagoon, it appears the ones in Lebala also attended the same conference. Leopard sightings proved excellent this month, with all of the sightings being relaxed, and some very unusual sightings also occurred.
One female that was seen several times with her cub, was also seen with her older cub – now approximately 18 months old. The mother had killed an impala, and hung that in a tree and the older cub was also seen in attendance. Sadly, a day or two later, returning to the same area, the mother and young cub had relocated, but surprisingly, the older cub was found dead on the ground, being covered by a hyena. No one is sure how the leopard died – perhaps baboons killed it, or even another male leopard that also passed through the area. However, the strangest thing was to see the hyena lying on the leopard, as if cuddling it. A dead impala was nearby at the base of a tree, but the hyena paid no attention to it.
Earlier in the month, guests also witnessed an unusual event whereby a leopard had the tables turned on it by a troop of baboons. When the baboons saw the leopard, they went into attack mode, and scuttled along the ground chasing the leopard. Since a baboon’s canines are similar in length to that of a lion, it was not a tough decision for the leopard to turn tail and run when severely out-numbered.
The northern pack of wild dogs have been seen several times in the area – sometimes in front of the camp hunting, and also making successful kills. With the dogs not having denned so far this year, they are covering huge territories, and moving between the two key game drive areas of the Kwando concession every few days.
At one point, towards the end of the month, five dogs split off from the Lagoon pack, for a few days. They were seen resting after having killed an impala, with a hyena, jackal, and two eagles all waiting at a slight distance to see if they could scavenge any remains.
Needless to say, with the slightly warmer weather, the elephants are out in full force, tramping through the camp every day, and moving in and out of the marshy area in front of the camp. There are lots of breeding herds, always watchful of who is around, and never stopping in one place for too long. Then there is the case of the elephant that is afraid of water. This is a tricky situation to be in if you are an elephant growing up in the northern part of Botswana, which has much of the land given over to marsh, floodplains and river channels. Every afternoon for several days running, the little elephant’s mother came down to the edge of the camp, and crossed the narrow channel that runs in front of the rooms, to graze on the other side. Each time, her baby stopped at the edge, and no amount of coaxing would get him to cross. Eventually, she moved across by herself 100m or so away from him. Torn between losing sight of mum, and the strange wet stuff he was being asked to wade through, he teetered too and fro on the edge, waiting for her to come back. A couple of times he plunged in, only to hotfoot it back to the bank, trunk and ears waving in contempt. One afternoon, his mother wandered out of sight on the other bank, and he let out a distress call. Within seconds, aunts, cousins and grandma were running across the floodplain, surrounding the little one with deep reassuring rumbles, concerned for his safety. His mother, remained unmoved, and continued grazing. It seems the grandmother had a few things to say about the parenting skills of the mother. One hopes that the warmer the weather gets, the more inviting the water will seem, and then hopefully the little elephant will be able to follow mum wherever she wanders.
The young male cheetahs have also been providing the camp with some good sightings, and two shy male lions have been seen several times. The fact that they are shy, indicates that they have come from deep in the wilderness, where it is not common to see cars. Hopefully, over time, they will get used to the cars, and relax when they are spotted on drive.
There was a lovely sighting one early evening of a honey badger digging for mice, with a baby honey badger keeping watch along side, and an even rarer sighting of an aardvark!