A couple of extremely unusual sightings happened in Tau Pan during June, the first of which involved no animals at all. On 2nd of June an asteroid collided with earth over western Botswana and our team at Tau Pan were some of the last humans to witness the huge flash it as it turned into a meteor fireball. Hearing the loud explosions our guests came running out of their rooms thinking that our generator had blown up, only to find very startled staff looking at a trail of smoke across the sky. Experts descended on the area from all over the world and partly helped by our team’s eye-witness accounts were able to retrieve fragments of the asteroid. This was only the second time in history that remains have been able to be recovered from a meteorite hitting earth.
Closer to home, another extraordinary sighting at Tau Pan was a leopard who approached our vehicle and then decided to crawl straight underneath it. Guests held their breath as the animal could be heard underneath banging against the metal. It eventually came out and then lay down to sleep right next to the game viewer in a most unconcerned way. A really incredible encounter which thrilled the guests.
Another complete surprise was the appearance of a bull elephant at Tau Pan camp who was frequently seen by the rooms and at the camp waterhole. Elephants are not common in the area and definitely not something our team expected to come across as they walked to the rooms. It goes to show you never know what will happen next in the bush!
The Tau Pan pride of lions were doing well. They were seen regularly at the camp waterhole and seen feeding on wildebeest carcasses.
An aardwolf was located in the evenings heading southwards across the pan. Honey badgers were seen much more regularly than they had been during the summer months and could be viewed digging at the pan for rodents and barking geckos most days. Bat-eared foxes and black-backed jackals were also regular sightings. Guests enjoyed watching ground squirrels digging and foraging around their burrows, always keenly checking the skies to ensure that a raptor wasn’t about to swoop down on them.
The resident cheetah was seen towards the west of Tau Pan and another cheetah mother with two cubs was seen on day trip to Deception Valley.
General game included oryx, red lechwe, wildebeest, steenbok, springbok and large numbers of giraffe.
Every morning huge flocks of birds were descending on the camp waterhole. At around eight o clock it was hundreds of doves and then by nine o clock it was the turn of Burchell’s sandgrouse. Ostriches were seen often during game drive as well as white-backed vultures and white-headed vultures.
The weather in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve during June was exceptionally clear and cold, making for very beautiful star-gazing conditions in the wide open skies.
(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!)
