The first two weeks of the month, Lebala closed for maintenance to rebuild the airstrip, so we didn’t have much opportunity to get out and about and see what was happening in the bush. However, reopening on the 14th of December, our first day provided a lovely sighting of five lions with two cubs, close to Baobab Pan. Wild dogs had also been through the area, though we only managed to find their tracks and the abandoned remains of a kill.
The pack of 14 wild dogs continued to be seen several times – hunting for themselves, but also scavenging from the remains of an elephant that had died after a fight with another elephant!
Plenty of breeding herds of elephants are around – unusually for December. This is due to the lack of rain. Should we get sufficient rain, for a few weeks, the large numbers of elephants head to the mopane areas to feed on the fresh leaves, knowing that there will be pools of rainwater available for them to drink.
An exciting early morning drive came across a female leopard, just as she was hunting a reedbuck. She didn’t manage to keep her kill for very long, as a group of hyenas arrived and stole her meal.
Two male lions were seen regularly throughout the month, and made several attempts to hunt whilst we watched. Although we didn’t always witness a kill, they seemed pretty well fed so were obviously managing something! We did see them take down a baby zebra – not much of a meal for two big adult males.
In general, lots of nice general game in the area, with plenty of zebra, giraffe, impala and wildebeest with their young.
