One of August’s most exciting sightings happened right in front of Nxai Pan Camp when a pack of African wild dogs arrived at the permanent waterhole.
The pack comprised four adults and seven puppies, and their appearance brought plenty of activity to the waterhole during an otherwise dry winter month.
With natural water increasingly scarce across the park, the permanent waterholes became important gathering points for wildlife, particularly as daytime temperatures began to rise.
Lions take a liking to the lodge swimming pool
The lions also made use of the water around camp, although some preferred the swimming pool.
Two lionesses and a cub came in to drink from the lodge pool before relaxing along West Road. Later in the month, another lioness visited the pool during the evening.
A lioness and her cub were also found at the permanent waterhole early one morning with blood around their faces, indicating that they had recently fed. They disappeared into thick trumpet thorn before guides could establish what they had been eating.
A male lion made his own appearance at the waterhole, drinking before roaring and advertising his presence across the pan.
More than 150 buffalo gather in the dry season
Large herds of buffalo were a feature of August, including gatherings of more than 150 animals.
The buffalo were far more concentrated than during the wetter months, with the dry conditions drawing animals towards the remaining water. Lions appeared to be following these herds into less accessible sections of the park, with tracks providing signs of their movements even when the cats themselves were out of sight.
Springbok and wildebeest remained across the pans, while sizeable elephant herds also gathered around the permanent waterholes during the hotter parts of the day.
Bat-eared foxes were particularly active around the open pans, alongside steenbok and scrub hares. Black-backed jackals were frequently watched hunting rodents.
Zebra travel between Baines’ Baobabs and the Boteti
Zebra herds remained a prominent sight along Baines’ Baobabs Road throughout August.
The animals moved between the open pans and the Boteti River, travelling to the river for water before returning to the Nxai grasslands to feed.
The dry landscape made these movements particularly visible. Grasses had turned golden and many trees stood bare, opening long views across the pans. Blackthorn and candle-pod acacias had begun flowering.
Cicadas signal warmer days ahead
There were subtle signs that spring was on its way.
The first cicadas could be heard buzzing during the day as temperatures gradually increased, while skinks began appearing around abandoned termite mounds. African monarch butterflies were among the few insects still regularly seen.
Changes were noticeable in the birdlife too. Fiery-necked nightjars had returned and their calls were heard after dark.
Secretary birds and ostriches were regularly encountered across the open country, while pale chanting goshawks provided some interesting feeding sightings when they were found with snake kills.
Marico flycatchers, red-billed queleas, violet-eared waxbills, common scimitarbills, African hoopoes, chestnut-backed sparrow-larks, Sabota larks, scaly-feathered weavers, crimson-breasted shrikes and southern white-crowned shrikes were among the resident species recorded.
Clear winter skies over Nxai Pan
August’s dry conditions left the horizon open and the skies largely cloudless.
Sunrise and sunset stretched across the unobstructed pans, while clear nights provided excellent stargazing above camp.
As winter drew towards its end, Nxai Pan remained dry and open, but the flowering acacias, returning cicadas and calling nightjars offered the first small indications that another seasonal change was beginning.
