Lions were found almost every day this month, with the two male lions being seen nearly every second day, including when they were found feeding on a buffalo they had killed. Two females were found on the same day, also feeding. There was a pride of three females that were also seen regularly, once feasting on a warthog kill.
The pack of nine dogs (four male and five female) were seen just three minutes from the camp, with a fresh kill. We also watched whilst they moved to drink water from the pan along Old Lebala road. A pack of five dogs (four male and one female), more commonly seen in the Lebala area, were also found closer to Lagoon in the middle of the month. However, at the end of the month, the pack of nine appeared to have lost one male – they were seen twice with only 8 members. Perhaps one was injured and unable to keep up with the pack as both sightings were of when the pack was hunting. That may just mean that the rest of the dogs go back to him later, and regurgitate food for him.
This month was also good for leopard sightings, with a lovely male that allowed us to watch him and follow him for about an hour, before he slinked off through the bushes. Two different females were seen on consecutive days hunting for impala. One female was found resting in a sausage tree, and then clambered down some minutes later. She looked rather hungry, and disappeared off into the bush on a hunting mission.
The three cheetah males made a return and were seen just five minutes from camp, well fed, and then again the next day. Their irregular visits to the area continue to baffle us!
With the first sprinkling of rain, the herds of elephants decide to try their chances in the mopane woodland, where the trees would have their fresh leaves, and the water will have collected in the clay soils that mopane favours. Although they are right in thinking the mopane will have nice leaves at the moment, there has not as yet been sufficient rainfall for much water to collect in the pans, so they are likely to still need to ‘commute’ and come back to the rivers edge to drink. Similarly, the buffalo herds – although still congregating in large numbers – will slowly start to disperse, looking for a wider range of grazing grounds as the new grass shoots start to emerge.
Although most of our guests like to focus on the comings and goings of the larger animals, it is sometimes easy to overlook the hierarchy of the bird world is also running alongside this. This month, we had a wonderful sighting of a martial eagle – the largest raptor in Botswana – feeding on a monitor lizard that it had caught. Waiting ‘in the wings’, so to speak, was the slightly smaller tawny eagle, hoping for any off cuts or dropped bits!
Lovely herds of eland, zebra, roan, sable and giraffe were seen this month. We also saw two porcupines in one night – one whilst out on drive, and another only a few minutes from camp.
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