A nice beginning to the month with several lion and leopard sightings. There was a very interesting sighting of a female leopard that was found excavating – she was trying to dig out a warthog from its refuge. In spite of her hard work, she was unsuccessful and the warthog remained safe for another day. The last day of the month, we had a lovely sighting of a mother and her cub, sitting in a sausage tree, feeding on a baby wildebeest that mum had killed.
Several times we also came across the small pack of wild dogs – five adults and just two young pups from this years litter. This pack stays in the southern section of the concession, and ranges through to the Selinda area. Although a small pack, they still work very well together and we saw them having great success at hunting impala. The bigger Kwando pack also spent time down at Lebala, seeming to alternate a week in Lagoon, with a week in the Lebala area, to make sure all their territory is patrolled.
Our most frequent lion sightings have been of the two males. As it has been a very warm month, when we have found the lions, they have not been the most active of all animals, and have been seen sleeping much of the time! In fact, the first six sightings of them at the beginning of the month were all of them resting and relaxing… one assumes to maintain their healthy look, they are doing plenty of hunting in the middle of the night, and are not surviving on thin air! By the middle of the month they had joined forces (or bumped into… ) a female with two young. The lioness had just managed to bring down a young zebra, and was feeding on it. Rather than being forced off the kill, the males were rather gentlemanly, and allowed the lioness to feed, though they did help themselves as well. The next day, their energy renewed, the two males were seen actually walking through the area to the south of the camp. Probably heading for a well earned nap…
