Now that all natural waterholes are dry in the Kalahari, more animals are attracted to the camp waterhole, and some make a short cut through the camp itself to get to it. A leopard took a short cut past room 1, apparently on her way from drinking at the waterhole. That night, the lions followed suit, with three lionesses and two cubs spending the night calling around the camp, before deciding that the best place for a quiet nap for the day was in front of the managers house (a fairly reasonable excuse for not getting to work on time….)
Although roaring lions is a common enough sound at Tau Pan, probably even more common is the call of the black backed jackal. It was the alarm calls of jackals that alerted us to a great sighting – a male and female cheetah who had caught a springbok, and were beginning to feed on it. Many jackals were in the area around them, hoping for a chance of getting something to eat themselves. It’s quite rare to see caracals, and they are normally very shy, but we were particularly lucky to see a mother and her kitten walking along one of the quiet tracks in the area. On seeing the vehicle, they quickly moved off the road and disappeared into the bush.
Our most regular predator sightings this month were definitely lions and cheetahs – the lions were seen both around the camp, as mentioned already, but we also saw large male lions with beautiful dark manes at Deception Valley.
