Predictably, as the natural water sources dried up and the weather stayed dry the herds of elephants returned to the camp waterhole in huge numbers. With the clear viewpoint from the main area and rooms, guests were able to spend their siesta time watching lots of interesting interactions within the elephant family groups.
A resident pride of nine lions (three lionesses with six sub-adult cubs) were spotted on different occasions hunting. As the natural waterholes dried up we noticed that the lions’ movement pattern became more predictable. They would visit the camp waterhole, then move in a clockwise direction around the pan before completing their loop via the Department of Wildlife waterhole. They appeared to be specialising in killing giraffe calves as there were lots of them in the area.
At the start of the month we saw the two resident sub-adult cheetahs very regularly, including hunting. A male cheetah was also seen hunting in the middle of the pan but without success.
There were only a few zebras remaining in the pan, but plenty of giraffe, wildebeest, warthogs and black-backed jackals. Bat-eared foxes were also seen resting. Springbok, oryx and steenbok were mainly towards Baines Baobabs with just a few in the Nxai Pan area.
Plenty of raptors were seen in the area including lanner falcons, pale chanting-goshawk, Gabar goshawk, martial eagles, black-shouldered kites and secretary birds. Smaller species included scaly-feathered finches, black-chested prinias, bee-eaters, ant-eating chats, and various species of larks and flycatchers. Kori bustards and ostriches could be seen striding out across the pans.
At Baines Baobabs the trees were starting to lose their leaves, their bare branches looking remarkably like inverted roots, earning the species their nickname of ‘upside-down tree’. On a day trip to Baines Baobabs we saw an interesting fight between a Mozambique Spitting Cobra and a Puff Adder; these two highly venomous snakes engaged in a deadly duel.
(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!)
