December was a month of change in Nxai Pan. At the start of the month we were still receiving enormous numbers of elephants at the camp watering hole. Old bulls, younger bachelors and breeding herds congregated in their hundreds, together with wildebeest, buffalo and jackals. The desperately thirsty animals had to compete hard for their turn to drink, making for amazing game viewing from the main lodge area. One day, a young elephant climbed into the camp watering hole and then got itself very confused as to where the exit was. It’s elephant family and the camp staff watched nervously for a while as the calf tried in vain to clamber out. Eventually the matriarch elephant and her sisters worked together to show the youngster how it should be done.
Then, on the 4th December the first of the heavy rains arrived filling the natural watering holes. The trees, including the magnificent baobabs, all came into leaf, with many other species showing spring blossoms. These changes finally allowed the elephants to relocate to other areas of the National Park to drink and browse.
Nxai Pan is well known for the seasonal migration of zebras and wildebeest who move into the area because of the highly palatable and nutritious grasses that grow in the pan once the rains have fallen. The number of zebras started increasing day and night in the pan and viewings were easy due to the short grass and wide open spaces. Lots of giraffe were arriving to the region as well.
The two dominant male lions and three lionesses with six cubs were seen together regularly in the area and seemed to be making the most of the zebras arriving into the area for their diet.
The resident cheetah family of three were located frequently and in some cases hunting. One day we watched them for an hour trying to catch a baby wildebeest, however they didn’t manage because it was too open for them to get within close range. The Nxai Pan male cheetah was also seen, especially on Baobab loop, and we witnessed him killing a male springbok.
The alpha male wild dog with a female were spotted with full bellies near to the National Park watering hole.
With the start of the rains some water birds arrived to the area including African jacana, black-winged pratincoles, Abdim’s storks, yellow-billed storks, painted snipes, egrets, white-faced ducks and black-winged stilts.
(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!)
