As the dry weather continued and temperatures started to rise, the numbers of elephants at the camp waterhole continued to increase daily. We were surprised to see a tuskless elephant amongst the herds. The numbers of elephants grew and grew, to the frustration of other general game species such as zebra and kudu who could do nothing but wait in the dust for a chance to drink. In addition to the elephants, a herd of twelve buffalo frequented the camp waterhole.
A spotted hyena was seen passing between the staff village and the guides’ rooms and later that night we heard lions and spotted hyena calling close to the camp. The camp manager thought that he heard a hyena make a distress call and, sure enough, the following day we found the dead hyena just in front of Room 5. Judging by the tracks, the hyena had been killed by the resident male lion. The following day we did a short walk with the guests to look at the hyena carcass and found it being scavenged by black-backed jackals and pied crows.
One of the resident lionesses was lactating, so we can expect to see new cubs soon.
General game species included zebra, wildebeest, springbok, impala and giraffe.
A family of bat-eared foxes was seen near the pan, and in the same area we saw ostriches and kori bustards. Raptors included pale chanting goshawks and greater kestrels.
(Note: Accompanying picture is from our Kwando Photo Library which consists of all your great photo submissions over the years, it may not be the most up to date, but we felt it was worthy of a feature alongside this month’s Sightings Report!)
