Lions were announcing their presence, and could be heard calling often from camp. Sometimes they were a little elusive to track down, slipping away into the thickly wooded areas along the waterways, for a bit of R&R – or perhaps a bite to eat. As the guests arrived for the lead up to Christmas, so too did the predators come out. Several days of game drives included multiple sightings – lions, leopard, wild dogs, and hyenas.
The pack of 23 wild dogs was seen several times, hunting, and patrolling their territory. Moving huge distances each day, we would see them in the morning and never be exactly sure that they would still be in the same area later that day! They bounced between the Lagoon and Lebala areas, seemingly apportioning out fairly their time. They also managed to tree (as in, chase up into a tree where it waits for safety!) a serval cat – not normally known for its tree climbing skills!
With several leopard sightings this month, we were also lucky enough to see a female leopard at at John’s pan, looking heavily pregnant. Perhaps we will be lucky enough to gain some more leopard cubs in a few months?
Although we have not had much rain, at the beginning of the month, the elephants had all but disappeared, having gone into the mopane where it may have rained more. The first week, just one bull elephant was seen. They soon came back when they realised there was not a lot of water over there to drink. Even late in December, there was still a good-sized herd of buffalo around – highly unusual for this time of year.
It’s great to see all the ‘big’ stuff on safari, but the highlight for many guides is when they have guests that are just as excited to see the smaller things that often get forgotten. In amongst all the sightings of lions and leopards and dogs, are the guests that mark down as their favourite sighting things like ‘coqui francolin’ (a lovely golden-shaded version of the more common drab, noisy francolins) and the ‘suicide bird’. With no bird officially named as such, this can perhaps be attributed to the northern black korhaan – a fairly large, mostly ground based bird, that likes to impress the ladies of his species by flying high up, and then plummeting to the ground like a stone. Rather like a base-jumper, pulling the cord at the very last minute, he spreads his wings to stop his fall as late as possible. For some, a much more impressive sight than a snoring lion!
And just to prove that not all heavily wished for animals have to have large teeth, Santa provided a special sighting on Christmas day: Aardvark!
