Have you ever seen a cheetah trip? Turns out speed is only part of the picture.
One afternoon drive to Tau Pan, guests located a cheetah chasing a springbok, but a piece of stray limestone tripped up the predator. It was a lucky day for the sprightly springbok – and everything else. As the quarry ran away, all the other animals in the area were alerted, and alarm calls resonated through the valley.
A different cheetah in the company of three subadults was seen along the second pan from Tau Pan, and we enjoyed a fantastic sighting of a male on the hunt. Black-backed jackals started following him, and the male cheetah twisted about to chase the scavengers until they gave up. The predator proceeded with its quest but didn’t catch anything that day.
Strangely, we found a black-backed jackal feeding on a yellow mongoose for a while before picking it up and carrying it away to provide for the rest of the family. We also saw (living) slender mongooses, yellow mongooses, and bat-eared foxes. One day, we watched some of the foxes fleeing from a cheetah!
Kalahari birdlife in July
Birdlife was rich, especially at the camp waterhole. Watching from the deck, we logged a pale chanting goshawk feasting on a dead dove until a tawny eagle swooped in to steal it. Unfortunately, the meal was lost in the bush when the goshawk took off in surprise. A gabar Goshawk also killed a tiny red-billed quelea, and he enjoyed his dinner to the end. Elephants also came to drink at the water hole, chasing away other animals and dominating the area. Or so they thought… we observed plenty of dung beetles in their wake.
We frequently saw lions from the Tau Pan pride at the camp waterhole this winter. One day, they feasted on a young kudu and another occasion, we tracked a young male and female lion to the south of the pan, where we found them with a wildebeest.
We observed a female leopard in the west of the camp pursuing a little steenbok. However, the prey became alert and quickly spotted the predator, causing it to flee. Later, we spotted another female leopard at the airstrip crossing, eyeing a springbok as its next meal. Despite the predator’s attempts to hide in the bushes, the springbok herd heard their warning calls and evaded the attack. We also witnessed another female leopard hunting bat-eared foxes, but the black-backed jackals intervened, alerting the foxes to flee. In retaliation, the predator chased the jackals but ultimately failed to catch anyone and disappeared into the bush.
At Tau Pan and San Pan, we witnessed various animals and plains game. The grasslands were teeming with frolicking and fighting wildebeests. We watched as they challenged one another and rubbed their horns on tree branches, leaving the trunks almost ringbarked as a territorial display.
The grass species have dried up and moribund in a state of hibernation, waiting for the summer rains to spur new growth. However, the trees remained relatively green, particularly the acacias like the umbrella thorn, camelthorn, and shepherd’s tree.
Bushman walks and Milky Way moments at Tau Pan Camp
During nature walks in the Kalahari desert, experienced San trackers at Tau Pan taught guests about their cultural heritage. They demonstrated methods for obtaining water, creating traps for birds and animals, and starting a fire using friction.
We gazed at the stars in the evenings and learned about constellations such as Canis Major, Canis Minor, Scorpio, and the Seven Sisters. On the 28th and 29th, we observed a series of satellites moving in a line, likely part of Elon Musk’s Starlink program, a stirring counterpoint between the ancient San tracking and the most modern of technologies at Tau Pan.
(Please note: For the safety of the animals, we do not disclose the precise location of either rhino or pangolin sightings. Accompanying pictures are 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!)
