Ten snoozing lions started the month – with a little nap by the waterhole. Lions are one of the few animals that can sleep with complete ease, as nothing (other than another lion, or an upset elephant) is a potential threat to them. It’s also a great way to conserve energy – important when you have to expend a lot of energy to catch your food. So, lions have a tendency to do just that: sleep. And then sleep a bit more. And then perhaps a short nap before the afternoon siesta? This, however, doesn’t impress a lot of people who have spent a lot of money and travelled many thousands of kilometres to see the Majestic King of the Jungle. Thankfully, they do tend to get up in the cooler part of the day, and move around, coming into their element as night falls, the acoustics are perfect for a roar to carry over 6km (particularly impressive if the lion happens to be standing next to your room) and the guests, safely tucked up in bed, then wonder how they dared scoff at the ‘lazy sleeping kitties’ earlier in the day…
Mid-February, the pack of eight wild dogs (five adults and three sub adults) spent a day relaxing in camp, behind the staff accommodation. Although wild dogs have a fierce reputation, due to them being the most successful hunter of any of the large predators in Africa, there is no record of them in the wild ever attacking a person. This is in spite of them being able to hunt as a pack much larger species. It’s still a little unnerving having them close, so everyone, including the dogs, was watchful! Interestingly, another wild dog couple (alpha male and female) were seen at passage water hole this month, so the wild dog sightings are doing remarkably well for an area that its normally highly unusual to see them!
The 22nd February was a lovely day for the cats, with three separate sightings of lions (including one female with three six-month old cubs) and two sightings of cheetah. All were found close to different pans, on a day trip through the Kalahari.
Although January had those three days of heavy, record-breaking rainfall, February has had hardly any days with anything but clear blue skies. This means many natural pools have already dried up, and more animals are coming to drink at the man-made pan in front of camp. One day had a parade of lions coming in one at a time, with cheetah sneaking in to drink as well.
Obviously, it’s not just the animals that need to drink in the Kalahari: birds do too. One can imagine a pleasant little birdbath in a nice garden setting, but the reality is somewhat different. Queleas come in flocks of thousands – probably even hundreds of thousands. These small birds – about the same size as sparrows – can decimate crops when they descend on a farm after the rains. In the Kalahari, they feed on what vegetation they can get that sprouts after the rains, but they still need to drink. Seeing a flock in flight is a truly beautiful sight, as they swarm and turn in waves, like a huge group of fish in the sea.
However, a call came from the Tau Pan camp manager one day to alert head office that he was going to have to empty the swimming pool – an irregular request when it’s a hot time of year and the camp is busy, with guests wanting a swim. However, it was a humane reason: the queleas were drowning en masse. They had been drinking at the camp waterhole, which is a flat pan, easy for birds to stand and drink at, but the large number of raptors were swooping down on them and hunting them. A few smart individuals – obviously followed by a huge flock of not-so clued-up hangers on – began drinking at the swimming pool at the camp, where the raptors were too wary of humans to follow. The flocks swarmed in and around the camp, but the sheer number combined with the high sides of the pool meant that many drowned when trying to drink. Having people in or around the pool made no difference. A form of net was laid over the pool, but this also didn’t help. And who really wants to swim when 10, 000 birds are whizzing round your head? Eventually a type of mesh was found that helped the situation somewhat, but nothing could really be done until the queleas themselves decide to move off in search of better feeding grounds.
