Lions cross the flood to follow the hunt – July brought plenty of movement among the lions of the Kwara Private Concession, and the flood was clearly influencing where they travelled.
The Kwara Pride, including two lionesses and seven cubs of different ages, spent more time moving west and were seen as far as the Bat Eared area. The pride remained closely tied to prey movements and did not hesitate to cross flooded sections when following game.
One morning, three unfamiliar males moved towards the northern part of the concession where resident males had been calling. The two groups saw one another and the resident coalition immediately gave chase. Other intruding males also moved in and out of the area during the month, keeping the territorial picture unsettled.
The Mmaleitho Pride faced pressure of its own. Two males moved into the area and harassed the resident males, while three males from the Mababe side were also seen trying to drive a young subadult male away from his family. The encounters were filled with roaring and short chases through thick Kalahari apple-leaf woodland.
Another pride from the east, known as the One Eye Pride, gave guests a very different lion experience. Guides followed five lions as they hunted and eventually brought down a zebra.
The Kwara Pride also produced one of the month’s best family scenes. A lioness was found walking away from a kill towards the place where the cubs had been hidden. As she approached, she began calling and the youngsters emerged from cover to join her. Guides followed the group for more than 45 minutes until they reached the rest of the pride feeding on a wildebeest along the graded road. Around eight lions gathered at the carcass, growling and jostling as they fed.
Lions, leopards and hyenas converge on a reedbuck kill
A female leopard near Katsotso’s Road was in the final stages of killing a common reedbuck when three lionesses from the Kwara Pride heard the commotion.
The lionesses charged through the water towards her and forced the leopard away from the carcass. Within minutes, spotted hyenas arrived too and carried off what remained.
It was a perfect example of how quickly a successful hunt could attract attention in an area with so many competing predators.
Elsewhere, the old resident male leopard regularly moved through Kwara Island and between Kwara and Splash. One evening, impalas alarm-called repeatedly around the staff village, signalling that a predator was nearby. The following morning, guides found the male feeding on a warthog piglet. He later hoisted the carcass into a tree and fed on it for several days.
Along Nare Pan, a female leopard was found with two black-backed jackal kills, one on the ground and another cached in a tree.
Rra Tsebe was also active during July, patrolling and scent-marking through parts of the concession and occasionally resting in trees with kills.
A cheetah hunt ends with hyenas taking the prize
Cheetah activity stretched from the eastern sections of the concession towards Lion Pan, Bat Eared and Nare Pan.
One male was followed through the morning as he searched the woodland for impala. Although guides eventually had to return to camp, they went back in the afternoon and found him feeding on an impala near Bat Eared.
A female cheetah produced another dramatic hunt after guides followed fresh tracks from Splash Mabala-a-Matotse. The uneven terrain made tracking difficult, but the search continued into the afternoon and she was eventually found north-east of Nare Pan.
As the temperature cooled, impalas moved into the area. The female flattened herself into position, launched her attack and successfully caught one. Her meal did not last long. Two spotted hyenas arrived soon afterwards and took the carcass.
African wild dogs wait out the impala
Two packs of African wild dogs moved through the concession during July, one numbering eight and another comprising six males.
Around Splash, the dogs chased red lechwe into deep water but abandoned the pursuit when the animals moved beyond reach.
Another hunt near Motsweri Pan turned into a much longer contest. An impala escaped into the water with the pack waiting around the edge. A crocodile grabbed the impala whilst the wild dogs looked on, and then a curious hippo also moved in to rake a look at the commotion which scared the crocodile off. After many hours of being surrounded by so many sets of hungry jaws, the impala miraculously managed to make its escape.
The African wild dogs remained around the pan for several hours before the action slowed. When guides returned later, an impala eventually came out of the water and the pack managed to bring it down.
A solitary African wild dog was also seen regularly in the concession while the larger packs moved between Kwara and neighbouring areas.
Hyenas test zebra defences
Spotted hyenas were active both around Kwara Island and further east around Sethabana Sabasarwa.
One morning, five hyenas attempted to isolate a zebra foal east of Impala Pan. The adult zebras repeatedly moved in to protect the youngster and the hyenas eventually gave up.
Three more hyenas were found scavenging from a zebra carcass on Lechwe Plains, with more than 40 white-backed vultures waiting nearby.
The resident clan continued to move through Kwara Island after dark, and individuals were regularly heard around camp.
Elephants pour onto the floodplains
The seasonal flood transformed large parts of the concession during July.
Water spread into areas that had remained dry for several years, changing both wildlife movements and the routes available to guides. Elephant herds regularly emerged from the woodland onto the floodplains during the warmer part of the day, with one group of around 60 animals seen coming out of the bush together.
Bachelor groups of Cape buffalo remained around Kwara Island, while larger breeding herds spent more time in the woodland where water and grazing were widely available.
Zebra, impala, wildebeest, common reedbuck, waterbuck, tsessebe, greater kudu and sable antelope were all seen across the concession.
Smaller mammals included African wild cats, servals, slender, dwarf and white-tailed mongooses, large-spotted and small-spotted genets, springhares and honey badgers. Two honey badgers were seen around Willie’s Lediba, while a water mongoose was found hunting through the grass on the way back from the boat station.
A mokoro outing ends with lions calling nearby
July’s high flood made mokoro excursions particularly interesting.
During one morning outing, guests heard lions calling while they were out on the water. Once back at the mokoro station, the guides changed pace completely, climbed into the vehicle and headed in the direction of the calls.
Fresh lioness tracks were found and followed until the cat was located nearby, still calling.
Mokoro excursions also produced sightings of Angolan reed frogs among the reeds, together with fish and water monitor lizards.
Elsewhere, an African rock python crossed Maporota Road, while large crocodiles basked around Willie’s Valley and smaller individuals were seen near Double Crossing.
Birdlife reflected the spread of water through the concession. Southern ground hornbills, saddle-billed storks, pelicans, wattled cranes and black-bellied bustards were among the larger species recorded, while a Verreaux’s eagle-owl was found around Wild Dog Pan.
The floodplain vegetation remained green beneath the water, and there were no fires during the month. With so much of the concession inundated, July felt very different from the dry years when some of these same areas held little or no standing water.
