The Lebala landscape has taken on a sepia filter, but birds delivered a welcome paint of colour. Carmine bee-eaters have migrated back to Botswana from their winter “holidays” in the equatorial savannahs of Central Africa.
They weren’t the only birds seizing attention. We have had some splendid ostrich sightings on the floodplains. With the breeding season falling mostly between June and October, we started to see the chicks emerging and even saw them appearing to have races on the airstrip!
African wild dogs visit Lebala Camp
The African wild dogs had mixed hunting success, although, on one occasion, we caught up with them just as they had taken down an Impala and feasted in a frenzy. These lean animals need to eat quickly, clearly illustrated when half a dozen hyenas arrived on the scene. The wild dogs abandoned the antelope, having managed to feed on most of their kill and opted for a conflict-free escape.
As is often the case, one sometimes never has to leave camp. Vehicles departed to track the wild dogs one day after reports that they had moved south, only to have the pack dutifully trot straight into camp and rest in the wide-open firebreak for two hours.
Lions of Lebala: an update
As mentioned last month, the dynamic of the Wapuka Pride has been interrupted by the Golden Boys taking the mantle from Old Gun and Sebastian, and these old lions continued a semi-nomadic existence.
The rest of the pride remained a strong and collaborative unit in the hunt and were triumphant, but we detected a fractured relationship between the lions. They ate three buffalos and two hippos this month. The area close to the hippo carcass looked like a war zone with the fodder ploughed up, broken trees and general destruction all around. The teamwork it must have taken to bring down this behemoth shows that the pride is still formidable. However, tempers quickly frayed. The pride subdued a buffalo on Tsessebe Island, but an enormous fight broke out between the lionesses as they came to feed, and two were chased off into the bush, not to return. Despite this fractious family make-up, the twelve cubs are healthy.
Resident leopards had a terrific month of hunting, and we’ve enjoyed watching them lift Impalas and Red lechwes into the trees. This feat of strength always defies belief!
A mating pair has taken up territory near Lebala Camp, and with the gestation period of a leopard being approximately 100 days, we are hoping this gives us new cubs at the start of December. With the influx of newborn antelope, it would be perfect timing for a new leopard to be born.
Speaking of pitter-pattering paws, the Spotted hyena den now has eight cubs.
An awesome owl hunt
As the African sun intensified, the withering grass (helped along by the considerable elephant and buffalo numbers) opened up the flood plains to reveal Honey badgers digging in search of scorpions and worms, Serval, Aardwolf dens, and African wild cats taking advantage of limited coverage of their prey species. Raptors also kept a keen eye on the situation. Owls, for example, can easily spot a small mammal almost a mile away and even further in the dark when their eyesight really comes into its own.
This was the case for an unfortunate Scrub hare as we watched a Verreaux’s Eagle Owl swoop in from a distance at sunset and, in an explosion of dust and feathers, crash straight into the hare, killing it instantly. Content with its prize, the owl began feeding there and then on the ground!
(Please note: For the safety of the animals, we do not disclose the location of either rhino or pangolin sightings. Accompanying pictures are from our Kwando Photo Library which consists of all your great photo submissions over the years, it may not be the most up to date, but we felt it was worthy of a feature alongside this month’s Sightings Report!)
