April 1st was a rainy day, but that didn’t stop intrepid guests heading out on a morning safari. Low contact calls could be heard from the junction of Middle road, indicating that a lion was looking for his or her colleagues. Upon reaching the waterhole, a heavily lactating lioness was observed being followed by two fully grown males. She continued to make contact calls, looking for the rest of her pride, having moved out from the den where she had hidden the cubs for the day. The next day, she was seen in the same area, with the cubs out in the open, and the male lions not too far away: it appears she is ready to begin introducing the cubs to the rest of her pride.
With the first few days of April having rains, the elephants and giraffe disappeared. As there were sufficient puddles away from the roads, they were not dependant on the waterholes to drink from – a nice relief for the animals as they don’t have to compete with the bully elephants. A few days later, as the water dried, the queuing system at the waterholes returned, and with them, a surprising group of animals standing in line: zebras. With the peak of the migration being in December and early January, and no rain since, the zebras had dispersed to areas where the water and grass was more plentiful. However, the heavy rains for the few days at the end of March and early April, had made several herds return, ready to feast on the new grass shoots that grow as soon as there is a chance.
Around the Baines Baobabs, in the first weeks of the month, the pans filled again with water, attracting more water birds – Abdims storks, and even flamingos – heading back the way they had come several months previously on their migratory routes.
Around about this time, the lion cubs were seen one day on their own at their den-site. Without their mother around, anything is a potential danger, and as they get bigger, they get more and more curious – potentially getting themselves into situations that they can’t get out of. When they were seen this time, the zebras, were dangerously close to the cubs, and if the zebras had been spooked by the lion cubs, they could easily have been trampled in the panic. Luckily, they remained safe!
As the month progressed, and no more rain fell, the area slowly returned to ‘normal’, with lions and cheetahs being seen regularly around the waterholes, and groups of giraffe, oryx, zebra and of course the elephants, moving along the open areas. We had a nice sighting of a family of eight bat eared foxes, a honey badger digging out furiously after something, and plenty of black backed jackals calling to each other.
The pride of 15 lions – four lionesses, ten cubs, and one male – were also seen along Baobab loop, with the cubs playing around. The cheetah mother with her two subadult cubs were also seen regularly.
