Wonderful game this month, with great predator sightings of lions, cheetahs, leopards, and the dogs.
The three adult cheetahs are generally found every two days. The guiding team is now familiar with their pattern of movement, so we have had good success in tracking them down. At one point, one of the cheetahs has an injured leg and was limping badly.
The leopard commonly known as Ramasedi was watched for over an hour one day as he carefully stalked some greater kudu. The wind direction was to his advantage, but the prey species adrenalin was high at all times, as they seemed to sense something was near. They continued to move every time the leopard got a little closer. Eventually, Ramasedi moved off, in search of less alert prey.
A mating pair of lions was located for a few days close to the western side of the concession. Another male was located to the east of the Splash area. Lions walked through the camps on several occasions, producing loud roars in the middle of the night, that resonate through the canvas walls!
The last day of June produced a litter of puppies at the wild dog den. Although 11 were initially counted, only 10 can now be seen, with the 12 adult dogs. The puppies are growing fast, and each day, they get more and more curious about their habitat. The adult dogs do hunting forays, and return to the den to provide food for the alpha female that stays with the pups, and snips of food for the puppies as well, as they learn to eat meat, and not just suckle. This has provided some wonderful sights, and the dogs have also been busy defending their dens site from wandering hyenas, who given a chance, would kill the puppies. Twice we have seen dogs attacking hyenas in the area, and there was even a fight between the dogs and one of the three cheetah brothers.
This year seems to be a good year for elephants, with a lot more of them appearing in the area than previous years. This may be due to the flood waters not being as high in the three prior years, so they are making use of the wooded areas and the permanent water in Kwara. Breeding herds are normally shy of game drive vehicles in the area, but several relaxed herds have been seen this month.
Elephants, as you may be aware, are rather large creatures. However, they appear to have some connection to an alternate universe, as their bodies can apparently go through spaces that are far too small. Coming to dinner one night, a big bull elephant was wedged between the curio shop and the main stair case railing, hoovering up some jackalberries with his trunk. Measuring the distance the next morning, we discovered it is less than 50cm, so how something that is several meters in width can squeeze himself in, remains to be one of life’s little mysteries. Just like why you never see a baby baobab tree, and why a leopard can seem to materialize only when it wishes to be seen, even if every one has been looking in exactly the same spot for 10 minutes.
Flood waters are continuing to drop throughout the Delta, as if three years of large floods has made everyone complacent. We are returning to the more normal situation of watching the water ebb, as the winter progresses. However, late in July, the Kwara area received a second ‘push’ of water, as the ever unpredictable waters cut through new channels as it recedes in other areas.
