The Bonga pride of lions were still in the Lebala area during May, though it appeared that they had started to move = back towards their usual territory nearer to Lagoon camp. Whilst the Bonga Pride had been around, the Wapoka Pride had moved south of the Kwando Reserve, but towards the end of the month they seemed to realise that the territories were shifting and we found them back in our area again devouring a wildebeest. As they were feeding, one of the dominant males known as Big Gun came to claim his rights at the carcass. One of the young males from the Wapoka Pride tried to defend the food but was very quickly put in his place by the mature lion in a swift but dramatic fight.
We saw eleven Bonga lions hunting amongst a big herd of wildebeest. They managed to bring down and kill two of the wildebeest at once. Another time the lions killed a wildebeest in a waterhole and as we arrived the big male was seen dragging the carcass out of the water. Although mainly seen targeting wildebeest, the Bonga pride were also seen successfully hunting buffalo at the large end of the prey scale, and warthog at the other. One day, we had been watching the pride hunting zebra when they encountered a puff adder which became aggressive. True to its name, the snake inflated its body to make itself appear bigger and try to scare the lions.
A mother lioness with three cubs of approximately nine months old appeared to have split away from the rest of the pride and was occasionally joined by the dominant males. A sub-adult male appeared to have been kicked out of the main pride by the dominant males and was seen on his own for most of the month.
We enjoyed seeing some of the smaller rare mammals at Lebala during May. A sighting of two aardwolf was enjoyed near to Skimmer Pan. The two animals were moving through the grass. We were also lucky enough to find a porcupine running in front of the vehicle during a night drive. A serval was also spotted hunting after dark and to cap off a great month we came across a pangolin on the road looking for termites and ants.
Our guides were delighted to find the resident female leopard, Jane, with her two cubs. Last time we had seen her a couple of months previously she appeared to be looking for one of her cubs, so it was a huge relief to see the family back in the area, and apparently all doing well. On a morning game drive to Motswiri Pan our guide noticed impalas, birds and squirrels all shouting alarm calls. He quickly followed up and found a resident male leopard, known as Fisherman, feeding on a banded mongoose.
A pair of wild dogs have been coming to Lebala from time to time and the female appears to be pregnant. In the middle of the month they pulled down and ate a bushbuck within the camp surrounds. At the hyena den, there appeared to be just two cubs.
As the weather stayed fair and the inland waterholes started to dry up, big herds of elephants started to return to the riverine area. There were also plentiful giraffe and buffalo coming out of the woodland to find water. A big herd of eland, grazing in a mixed herd with zebra, was sin the area. Guests were also happy to locate some sable bulls. The water levels in the marsh had started to rise with the incoming flood waters, bringing with it large herds of red lechwe. We had good sightings of them running and splashing through the shallow waters.
(Note: Accompanying picture is 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!)
