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Category: Tau Pan

Tau Pan May 2013

 

Towards the end of April, the two intruder male lions successfully caught and killed a young adult male giraffe – an exceptionally risky but very profitable catch. This provided food for the two male lions for the next ten days – and guaranteed entertaining sightings of not just lions, but all the associated scavengers that came in to try and get a piece of the action, including the jackals and vultures. You can imagine, even by day number 3… – the smell was not that attractive, but with plenty of meat still to get through, the lions persevered. By day 10, it was very tough biltong… At the end of May, the same male lions spent several days – and nights- patrolling the area around Tau Pan, roaring, with the sound reverberating through the air.

Another lion group – three lionesses – also had good hunting luck when they caught a blue wildebeest at the junction of San Pan and Phukwe Pan road. They were found feeding on the carcass, which they appear to have killed the previous night.

One thing that is quite commonly seen in the open area around Tau Pan are giraffe. In particular this month, a lovely grouping of 19 adults and 4 young were seen often. This month, the males were continually checking on the sexual status of the females, so it appears that at least one of the females will be coming in to heat soon.

Late May we had a lovely early morning encounter with a male cheetah, close to Tau Pan airstrip. He was squatting down, scanning the surroundings, and saw a big herd of springboks and kudu in the distance, with their calves. He burst out at lightening speed, and gave the kudus chase. From the onset, the cat had miscalculated the distance between him and his prey, and they managed to escape.

A family of bat eared foxes – two adults and four young- were finding the weather a little cool one morning when they were found at Tau Pan. They were all lying down with their bushy tails curled tightly around their heads, cuddling up against the chill.

A pale chanting goshawk was observed flying very low in and around some bushes. When we approached, we saw that the goshawk was chasing a guinea fowl chick, which he eventually succeeded in catching.

And what is it with May and aardvarks??? Another camp, another aardvark sighting: bizarrely, seen in the late afternoon, around 5pm, this aardvark had not read the book on “nocturnal and extremely shy aardvarks” and happily stood about 15 meters from the vehicle, digging away for termites and ants.

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Tau Pan April 2013

DJSmithBig5lion Tau

Some good sightings of cheetah this month, with a female that was found at Lekhubu area, having just killed a baby springbok. The cheetah was still panting from the exhaustion of the chase. The next day, a healthy male cheetah was seen close to Tau Pan, relaxing in the shade. In the middle of the month, a male cheetah spent a couple of days around Tau Pan, and was calling through the area, looking for any females.

The Tau Pan are itself attracts lots of game, with over 250 springbok being seen, giraffes and kudus moving across. 20 of the kudus came to drink at the waterhole, a nervous business as they are vulnerable when bending their head down to drink, in an area that they know lions and other predators come to drink often.

At San Pan, a male leopard was found stalking bat eared foxes – the cover was not very good, with the grass very low, and the foxes soon saw his plan and escaped. A few days later, a leopard (possibly the same one) was found relaxing in a tree at San Pan.

One day at Phukwe Pan a pride of seven lions were located, to be followed the next day by 8 lions not far from the lodge – the Tau Pan pride of two females and their adult off spring. Although they were relaxed at this stage, times are tough for them, and later in the month they were seen fighting with the two intruder males that moved into the Tau area about three months ago. The young adult males of the pride are still not big enough to overpower two fully grown males, and need the help of their sisters and mothers. Even with eight lions against two, the sheer aggression of the male intruders was enough to make the pride extremely nervous, and they now come in to drink at the waterhole very shyly. On the 22nd of the month, the two males were found on a giraffe kill – a big meal for just the two of them, but they are unlikely to share it with the pride of eight, unless the pride can force them off the kill themselves….

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Tau Pan March 2013

TAU PAN 2013-03-15 3

March has been an active month for predators at Tau Pan. A takeover in territory could happen any time. The Tau Pan pride is currently restricted to a quick sweep to drink then straight out north of the airstrip.

Sightings of lion, cheetah and leopard were frequent at the beginning of the month. With the rains abating, and the season changing Botswana experienced some heat waves which forced thirsty predators to venture to the Tau Pan waterhole.

The camp was visited by a sub-adult young male leopard who resided around the camp for a week. It is possible that this young leopard, aged between 18- 24 months, had been to camp before as he was relaxed when spotted.

Two new male lions have moved into the Tau Pan from the Letiahau area where the waterhole is closed and their territory is overlapping with that of the resident Tau Pan Pride. The area of overlap includes the camp water hole, so we have heard and seen a lot of lion activity.

In case you missed it last month we felt we had to re-share this spectacular sight of qualia taking a dip in our pool.  They had been drinking at the camp waterhole, which is a flat pan, easy for birds to stand and drink at, but the large number of raptors were swooping down on them and hunting them. A few smart individuals – obviously followed by a huge flock of not-so clued-up hangers on – began drinking at the swimming pool at the camp, where the raptors were too wary of humans to follow. The flocks swarmed in and around the camp, but the sheer number combined with the high sides of the pool meant that many drowned when trying to drink. Having people in or around the pool made no difference. A form of net was laid over the pool, but this also didn’t help. And who really wants to swim when 10, 000 birds are whizzing round your head? Eventually a type of mesh was found that helped the situation somewhat, but nothing could really be done until the queleas themselves decide to move off in search of better feeding grounds.

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Tau Pan February 2013

TAU

Ten snoozing lions started the month – with a little nap by the waterhole. Lions are one of the few animals that can sleep with complete ease, as nothing (other than another lion, or an upset elephant) is a potential threat to them. It’s also a great way to conserve energy – important when you have to expend a lot of energy to catch your food. So, lions have a tendency to do just that: sleep. And then sleep a bit more. And then perhaps a short nap before the afternoon siesta? This, however, doesn’t impress a lot of people who have spent a lot of money and travelled many thousands of kilometres to see the Majestic King of the Jungle. Thankfully, they do tend to get up in the cooler part of the day, and move around, coming into their element as night falls, the acoustics are perfect for a roar to carry over 6km (particularly impressive if the lion happens to be standing next to your room) and the guests, safely tucked up in bed, then wonder how they dared scoff at the ‘lazy sleeping kitties’ earlier in the day…

Mid-February, the pack of eight wild dogs (five adults and three sub adults) spent a day relaxing in camp, behind the staff accommodation. Although wild dogs have a fierce reputation, due to them being the most successful hunter of any of the large predators in Africa, there is no record of them in the wild ever attacking a person. This is in spite of them being able to hunt as a pack much larger species. It’s still a little unnerving having them close, so everyone, including the dogs, was watchful! Interestingly, another wild dog couple (alpha male and female) were seen at passage water hole this month, so the wild dog sightings are doing remarkably well for an area that its normally highly unusual to see them!

The 22nd February was a lovely day for the cats, with three separate sightings of lions (including one female with three six-month old cubs) and two sightings of cheetah. All were found close to different pans, on a day trip through the Kalahari.

Although January had those three days of heavy, record-breaking rainfall, February has had hardly any days with anything but clear blue skies. This means many natural pools have already dried up, and more animals are coming to drink at the man-made pan in front of camp. One day had a parade of lions coming in one at a time, with cheetah sneaking in to drink as well.

Obviously, it’s not just the animals that need to drink in the Kalahari: birds do too. One can imagine a pleasant little birdbath in a nice garden setting, but the reality is somewhat different. Queleas come in flocks of thousands – probably even hundreds of thousands. These small birds – about the same size as sparrows – can decimate crops when they descend on a farm after the rains. In the Kalahari, they feed on what vegetation they can get that sprouts after the rains, but they still need to drink. Seeing a flock in flight is a truly beautiful sight, as they swarm and turn in waves, like a huge group of fish in the sea.

However, a call came from the Tau Pan camp manager one day to alert head office that he was going to have to empty the swimming pool – an irregular request when it’s a hot time of year and the camp is busy, with guests wanting a swim. However, it was a humane reason: the queleas were drowning en masse. They had been drinking at the camp waterhole, which is a flat pan, easy for birds to stand and drink at, but the large number of raptors were swooping down on them and hunting them. A few smart individuals – obviously followed by a huge flock of not-so clued-up hangers on – began drinking at the swimming pool at the camp, where the raptors were too wary of humans to follow. The flocks swarmed in and around the camp, but the sheer number combined with the high sides of the pool meant that many drowned when trying to drink. Having people in or around the pool made no difference. A form of net was laid over the pool, but this also didn’t help. And who really wants to swim when 10, 000 birds are whizzing round your head? Eventually a type of mesh was found that helped the situation somewhat, but nothing could really be done until the queleas themselves decide to move off in search of better feeding grounds.

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Tau Pan January 2013

DElledgeBig5LionTeeth TAU

Tau Pan lion pride (currently just the two females and six young lions from the litters two years ago) had a good start to January, and killed an oryx on the southern side of the pan. They were seen feeding on it, after having taken it down during the night.

By the middle of the month, they had killed another oryx, which they seem to finally be developing a skill at catching!

A couple of days later, a cheetah was seen hunting to the west of the waterhole, and managed to catch a duiker. He was able to feed on the duiker for some time, before the jackals that had moved in on seeing him catch something, irritated him too much and he left.

A large number of white storks arrived in Tau Pan- 105 to be exact (!)… – and spent the days feeding on insects. The jackals – several families live on the Pan – tried their luck at catching them, but were unsuccessful. Jackals have an interesting family structure – the parents normally mate for life, and one or two pups from the first litter they have stay with the parents to help raise the next litter, before moving off and finding their own mate.

Our lovely visitors from last month – the wild dogs – also came back this month to the waterhole in front of camp. Numbering seven – two adults and five sub adults – spent time running through the waterhole and playing. All look healthy, though the alpha female does have some scars on her shoulder and back, but these seem not to be bothering her. Last month there were eight in number, so we are hoping that the missing one was busy out hunting at the time they were seen.

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