After some good early rains in November and December, January was much drier than expected and as the natural watering holes dried up, the game started to concentrate once again on the two man-made watering holes. The camp watering hole was extremely productive with lots of elephants and mixed herds of giraffe, zebra, impala, buffalo and wildebeest, many accompanied by their new offspring. Jackals were often seen active in front of the camp. At the wildlife watering hole, the mix of game was a little different including kudu, springboks and oryx.
The unexpected dry spell in January seemed to confuse the zebra, wildebeest and giraffe herds who usually congregate in their thousands at this time of the year. The animals had started to arrive, but as the heat continued we saw their numbers decline again. Eventually towards the end of January the rains started in earnest, so it will be interesting to see what the herds decide to do next. There have been occasions in the past when the migration has returned for a second time in similar circumstances.
Three lionesses with six cubs were located trying to hunt some zebras, but as the area was so open they were not able to stalk close enough to launch a successful ambush. A couple of days later they obviously had more luck and were seen feasting on a zebra kill, surrounded by vultures and about twenty black-backed jackals. One time these cubs provided delightful photo opportunities by climbing some trees, to make the experience even better their three mothers started roaring.
One afternoon the guides spotted a single lioness who was previously known to us as part of the “Seven Sisters” walking from the middle of the pan to some bushes when all of a sudden two tiny lion cubs came out of the undergrowth to greet her. We were delighted to find this unexpected little family in Nxai Pan. The new additions brought the total number in the Nxai Pan pride to twenty, although they were most often seen in smaller sub-groups.
The resident male cheetah was seen looking in very good condition. Meanwhile the female cheetah with her two sub-adult offspring was venturing further afield and even seen towards Baines Baobabs.
At the start of January we started to see migratory birds in the area such as Abdim’s storks, steppe buzzards and blue-cheeked bee-eaters. Once the rains recommenced towards the end of the month we started to see new birds in the area that we would usually associate more with wetter areas such as African jacanas, black-winged practincoles and spurwing geese.
The increase in herbs and flowers in the area made for some interesting explanations during the bushman cultural walks. Along the road to Baines Baobabs there were lots of berries for the trackers to talk about in terms of their value to the hunter-gatherer lifestyle of the San tribe. In this area, the guides and trackers were also able to show guests some of the smaller points of interest such as dung beetles rolling their balls, and aardvark tracks. The famous baobab trees themselves were looking beautiful with seed pods and leaves.
(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!)
