Month: July 2023

4 Rivers Camp, July 2023

4 Rivers Camp, July 2023

Published July 31, 2023 by Kwando Safaris

We enjoyed plenty of successful African wild dog sightings from the beginning of June, with a pack of 20 African wild dogs denning south of Maboa Island.

Early in July, we visited the den of the Golden Pack at dawn to find the alpha female nursing her pups. Ten pups surrounded her while the rest of the pack was preparing to venture out for an early morning hunt; we watched their ritual greetings and followed them hunting. One morning, a short distance from their den, they located a herd of wildebeest, which they chased towards the marshes but failed to seize anything.

On the 19th of July, the pack relocated and brought their pups very close to the 4 Rivers camp. All ten pups were present, and we watched them play beside their burrow in the early mornings and late afternoons.

Leucistic African wild dog pupdate

Towards the end of the month, early one morning, the pack relocated to a new home again to the far east of the camp, which required three deep water crossings!

It was a tough day for the Alpha female to carry her ten pups over three kilometres, and unfortunately, three pups didn’t make it to the new home and died of cold, including the rare leucistic white puppy.

Nature walks in the Okavango Delta

The nature walks in this area were fantastic. We were fortunate enough to spot leopards some mornings and safely encounter elephants and buffalo.

Additionally, the camp provided excellent opportunities for wildlife viewing. Guests loved watching elephants crossing, Cape clawless otters splashing about, and crocodiles gliding through the Tsum Tsum River in front of our main area. At night, we even glimpsed Pel’s fishing owl in camp several times, while Verreaux’s eagle owls nestled in the towering trees during the daytime. Pied and striped kingfishers were also common.

Introducing the War Pride

We often located the War pride of four females, two sub-adult males, two adults and two cubs, which were usually playful and well-fed. The War Pride got its name because the first time we found them, they were fighting, and they have very scarred faces! Mid-month, the pride rested among the blue bushes west of camp along the JD spillway (named after the tracker JD, who made this road), and we observed one of the males mating with a female.

Three large male lions successfully hunted an adult giraffe, and we observed their behaviour around the carcass. As we watched, vultures began to circle overhead. The male lions covered the giraffe’s dung and internal organs with sand.

In addition to various species of vultures this month, we also saw bateleur eagles, brown snake eagles, martial eagles, ostriches and ground hornbills.

Fresh lion tracks around camp one morning lead east, and we tracked them to a male waterbuck killed by two female lions, two males and two cubs. The kill was fresh from the same morning, and the young cubs were feeding heavily on the internal organs while the adults fed on fleshier parts until the mother dragged the carcass under the nearby bush, where they rested the whole day.

Three lionesses made themselves at home south of 4 Rivers camp following a big herd of buffaloes. We, in turn, followed them on a game drive until they gave up and rested under a nearby bush.

In late July, we spotted one of the two dominant male lions from the War Pride west of our camp. He roared loudly in search of his brother, and we followed him on the main road until he located his sibling. Their investigation? Two unfamiliar male lions had invaded their territory and fought with two younger males from the War Pride. The mother of the young males tried to defend them but ultimately gave up, and the youngsters escaped across the river. The rest of the pride followed them, leaving their mother behind with the two intruding males.

Another day, we tracked two male lion footprints in the Kalahari sand to a roan antelope kill.

During our expeditions, we had successful counts of roan antelopes and sable and saw a herd numbering over a thousand buffaloes in the western region. The area was abundant with giraffes, zebras, kudus, waterbucks, hippos, red lechwe, common reedbucks, and tsessebe antelopes. Our night game drives also allowed us to witness small spotted genets, civets, and lesser bush babies. One night, we observed a male leopard confidently marking his territory as we returned to camp. On another occasion, a different male leopard drank water in the afternoon near Tsum Tsum but quickly moved into the marshes.

(Please note: For the safety of the animals, we do not disclose the precise location of either rhino or pangolin sightings. Accompanying pictures are 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!)

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Tau Pan Camp, July 2023

Published July 31, 2023 by Kwando Safaris

Have you ever seen a cheetah trip? Turns out speed is only part of the picture.

One afternoon drive to Tau Pan, guests located a cheetah chasing a springbok, but a piece of stray limestone tripped up the predator. It was a lucky day for the sprightly springbok – and everything else. As the quarry ran away, all the other animals in the area were alerted, and alarm calls resonated through the valley.

A different cheetah in the company of three subadults was seen along the second pan from Tau Pan, and we enjoyed a fantastic sighting of a male on the hunt. Black-backed jackals started following him, and the male cheetah twisted about to chase the scavengers until they gave up. The predator proceeded with its quest but didn’t catch anything that day.

Strangely, we found a black-backed jackal feeding on a yellow mongoose for a while before picking it up and carrying it away to provide for the rest of the family. We also saw (living) slender mongooses, yellow mongooses, and bat-eared foxes. One day, we watched some of the foxes fleeing from a cheetah!

Kalahari birdlife in July

Birdlife was rich, especially at the camp waterhole. Watching from the deck, we logged a pale chanting goshawk feasting on a dead dove until a tawny eagle swooped in to steal it. Unfortunately, the meal was lost in the bush when the goshawk took off in surprise. A gabar Goshawk also killed a tiny red-billed quelea, and he enjoyed his dinner to the end. Elephants also came to drink at the water hole, chasing away other animals and dominating the area. Or so they thought… we observed plenty of dung beetles in their wake.

We frequently saw lions from the Tau Pan pride at the camp waterhole this winter. One day, they feasted on a young kudu and another occasion, we tracked a young male and female lion to the south of the pan, where we found them with a wildebeest.

We observed a female leopard in the west of the camp pursuing a little steenbok. However, the prey became alert and quickly spotted the predator, causing it to flee. Later, we spotted another female leopard at the airstrip crossing, eyeing a springbok as its next meal. Despite the predator’s attempts to hide in the bushes, the springbok herd heard their warning calls and evaded the attack. We also witnessed another female leopard hunting bat-eared foxes, but the black-backed jackals intervened, alerting the foxes to flee. In retaliation, the predator chased the jackals but ultimately failed to catch anyone and disappeared into the bush.

At Tau Pan and San Pan, we witnessed various animals and plains game. The grasslands were teeming with frolicking and fighting wildebeests. We watched as they challenged one another and rubbed their horns on tree branches, leaving the trunks almost ringbarked as a territorial display.

The grass species have dried up and moribund in a state of hibernation, waiting for the summer rains to spur new growth. However, the trees remained relatively green, particularly the acacias like the umbrella thorn, camelthorn, and shepherd’s tree.

Bushman walks and Milky Way moments at Tau Pan Camp

During nature walks in the Kalahari desert, experienced San trackers at Tau Pan taught guests about their cultural heritage. They demonstrated methods for obtaining water, creating traps for birds and animals, and starting a fire using friction.

We gazed at the stars in the evenings and learned about constellations such as Canis Major, Canis Minor, Scorpio, and the Seven Sisters. On the 28th and 29th, we observed a series of satellites moving in a line, likely part of Elon Musk’s Starlink program, a stirring counterpoint between the ancient San tracking and the most modern of technologies at Tau Pan.

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Kwara and Splash Camp, July 2023

Kwara and Splash Camp, July 2023

Published July 31, 2023 by Kwando Safaris

Even though the floodwaters continued to pour in, the plants were still dry and wintry. Many trees shed their leaves, and bushfires burned in the Bat-eared fox area. The waterholes were also drying up, but the floodplains around Kwara were still waterlogged, drawing in plenty of wildlife.

Large herds of buffalo grazed at Mmoloki Mabala, while vast groups of elephants have been wandering through the woodland in search of water. Most elephants were seen in the floodplains during hot afternoons, taking mud baths. Other common sightings include tsessebe, wildebeest, kudu, giraffes, and zebras.

The Kwara and Mmaleitho lion prides

There were 15 lions in the Kwara pride, comprising six adult females, three males, and six cubs. Recently, the pride has been frequently spotted around the Bat-eared fox den area, as antelopes prefer the shorter grass from the previous bushfire. The Kwando guides at Kwara Camp observed that the pride’s movement pattern has become more complicated due to the freshly bare area. Additionally, they have extended their territory towards 4 Rivers and Last Mabala. One morning, we found the lions together, feeding on a giraffe along the main road.

The spotted hyenas were less active at the Kwara den area, but we saw them moving around close to the camp, and twelve hyenas scavenged on the dead giraffe carcass during the absence of lions. They often ventured into Kwara Camp at night, and we sometimes saw them creeping about. A business of mongooses also hung about in Kwara Camp. One morning, we observed a slender mongoose acquiring scraps from the giraffe carcass!

Males from the Kwara pride actively patrolled and defended their territory thanks to a new pride of seven lions that moved to the game-rich area to hunt buffaloes. One day, we followed the new pride on a buffalo hunt. It took them about half an hour to take the beast down because the pride had two full-grown females without a big male to help. Instead, the youngsters stepped up and quickly became highly skilled hunters. As we watched the hunt, an elephant came in to drink water, and the pride took up a horseshoe formation targeting the elephant. Eventually, the elephant wisely moved away from the water puddle.

The Mmaleitho pride was active around Splash Camp early this month (often roaring until one or two in the morning!), and new male lions rolled in to find them feeding on a zebra south of the camp. These two new males chased the Mmaleitho pride off their prized kill and hounded the subadult males. We later found the two new males on an elephant kill south of Splash Camp, and streams of spotted hyenas visited the carcass every night until nothing was left. The hyena den south of the Bat-eared fox den remained active with at least three cubs.

Kwando guides noted that these two new male lions forced the whole Mmaleitho pride out of the area so they could better protect their two young males.

One young female leopard roamed around the environs of Splash Camp, and leopard tracks in the Kwara Camp road networks evidenced another frequent patroller. The resident female leopardess at Kwara Camp enjoyed climbing higher into the trees, and there was a shy new leopard at the boat station area.

Coqui francolin spotted!

We got up close to African harrier hawks and handsome Long-crested eagles during our boating safaris along the Maunchira channel. On another day, we drove down Upper Wild Dog Road and spotted a Coqui francolin, the smallest and rarest francolin in the area! Additionally, we observed Wattled Cranes, Ground Hornbills, African Barred Owlets, Giant Eagle Owls, and Marsh Owls.

During one morning game drive, the resident male cheetah, Mr Special, picked up the scent of a female around his marking post, and we observed as he tried calling her and visited every marking post, but she was nowhere to be found. He preferred Splash Hippos and Bat-eared fox area. One morning, we located him feeding on an impala, and later that evening, the hyenas and jackals appeared, and he had to abandon to move away from the carcass. We also saw another young male cheetah in the area.

The African wild dog dynamics of Kwara

There were sightings of two different packs of African wild dogs near Splash camp. One group consists of three dogs: two females and one male. They tend to roam between the northern mopane woodland of Splash camp in search of prey. The second pack comprised six dogs, including four females and two males.

They are active between Kwara and Splash camps but were also observed moving westward towards Kwara and beyond. Although another pack of nine dogs was spotted further east, they were rarely seen due to the increased number of lions in the area, making it difficult for them to settle in one place.

Kwara night drives were exciting, and every outing differed, but we often logged large-spotted genets, African wild cats, servals, civets, aardwolves, springhares and scrub hares and water mongooses on several occasions by the airstrip bridge.

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