October – a crazy month for wildlife sightings! Thankfully, the world of photography has changed to digital, or there might not have been enough film available!
Predators in particular were making successive appearances, where difficult decisions had to be made… shall we go watch that lioness hunting? Or those male lions snoozing? The wild dogs with their puppies playing, or the cheetah that’s just made a kill? The benefit of spending a few days in Kwara, is that at this time of year, you can probably catch up with all of the above – though there were quite a few mokoro and boat activities abandoned at the last minute as leopard sightings or hunts were called in from the cars out on drive…
The beauty of nature was slightly called into question one afternoon, when guests were enjoying seeing a very young zebra foal suckling from its mother. After watching this wonderful scene for a while, one car left, leaving another car behind to enjoy. Ten minutes later, the remaining car called the first car back to the scene, in order to watch a cheetah feeding on the very same zebra foal…. Life in the African bush can be very harsh sometimes.
Lion sightings were great, with the four male lions being seen at the airstrip – and heard – as they roared along the way. The female from One-Eyed pride was seen with her cubs, having killed a baboon. The hyenas came and stole it off her, but two young male lions suddenly appeared and then chased the hyenas off that as well! Three days later, the lioness was more successful with a red lechwe kill.
A male lion decided the heat of the morning was enough, and it was time to head for a shady patch, under a large tree. A female leopardess obviously was keeping slightly different hours, and the two cats surprised each other, as she was in the middle of a hunt for reedbuck.
Three male cheetahs were found one morning, with two males having fought a third male. The third male was injured in the fight, and was seen trying to recover in the area close to Splash Hippo Pool.
The big pack of wild dogs were seen often and were very successful at their hunts. They were being followed regularly by hyenas, who would also grab any chance to take part of a kill away. Unfortunately, one of the pups became ill, and was not seen there after, bringing the total number of surviving puppies to 14, and the same number of adults. We also saw a pack of six dogs hunting near Lion Pan – first time in many months that we have seen these dogs. On two occasions we saw just three of the dogs – feeding on impala and resting – we think these are from the pack of six, and the rest may have been hunting elsewhere.
A big herd of buffalo has arrived in the Splash area – about 300 individuals! This size herd is more often seen in the Lebala/Lagoon region, so its nice to have a good size herd in the Kwara area as well.
A bush fire leapt across the southern boundary with Moremi Game Reserve, and before we knew it, had moved around to one side of the airstrip, and continued along towards Splash. Staff leapt into action, and made sure that all areas were not burning out of control. You could almost hear the zebras, wildebeest and antelope rubbing their hooves together gleefully – its just going to take one light rain fall, and the area will have to be renamed Kwara Golf Course, with fresh, succulent new grass shooting up. Zebras are not known for their talents at arson, but they do seem to have a vested interest in the results…
