September – winter was only 4 weeks ago, but the Botswana summer is quick to arrive. Knowing this, the summer migrants have started flying in from afar: the first ones in are the kites and bee-eaters, ready to start their breeding season again. Soon, the air will be filled with the calls and colours of all the visitors – for us, an easy way of telling the change of the seasons.
Great lion sightings this month, with the pride of 2 males, 2 lionesses and 3 cubs being sighted as well as the large pride of 17, which included 10 cubs. The pride of 7 were found feeding on a young elephant – estimated to be around four years old. The two males from the large pride were also found on a different elephant carcass. With so many elephants moving into the area, there are bound to be natural deaths from individuals – it’s not clear if the lions themselves have killed the elephants.
A few leopard sightings, a shy male, and a small female in the area around Half Way Pan. We also found a small cub hiding behind a tree. Later in the afternoon, her mother returned. We then saw this female and her cub several times through the rest of the month. Other predators include the regular visitors – the hyenas. They were regularly seen hanging around the dogs, waiting to try and get a free meal from the left overs, or to force them off a kill if they could. Their calls sounded through the camp at night – territorial, and calls of courtship.
The wild dog pack were seen regularly in the beginning of the month, as they were still at the den site. However, they soon left the site and spent the rest of the month moving around the area. As the month progressed, the pack was moving larger distances as the pups became more comfortable keeping up with the adults. The dogs remained fit and healthy, and hunted regularly. Four of the adults appeared to split away from the pack from time to time before rejoining, an indication that they may eventually split off on a more permanent basis.
Elephants are massing in large numbers, and every waterway or shady area seems to have a congregation waiting. Many are moving in from across the Caprivi strip, cutting across Namibia, seeking a safe haven in Botswana. Some will even have moved down from Angola. All are waiting eagerly for the first rains, as is the rest of Botswana. Joining them are the large herds of buffalo, dotted over the marshes and floodplains throughout the concession.
Almost at the end of the month – a rare sighting of cheetah. This time, it was not the two brothers that made a foray through the area, but a shy female – with two young cubs in tow. We stayed with her for about 20 minutes, as they slowly moved along the edge of the bush line.
Lots of porcupine seen this month, as well as civet spotted regularly on the evening drives.
The most unusual sighting, probably for the year, was a lovely sighting of a big herd of buffalos, mingling with herds of elephants on the waters edge, not far from the edge. A nice enough sighting as it is, but whilst we were watching them, running through the middle of them all was a male sitatunga!
Another exciting and unusual sighting was of a martial eagle, that dove down and scooped up an ostrich chick, to the alarm of the parents!
