The Tau Pan pride were seen very regularly in different configurations. The impressive coalition of five males were seen together on occasion, but sometime separated from each other to patrol. This usually then resulted in a night of roaring as the males made contact calls to find each other again. A group of six adults and a cub were seen feeding on a wildebeest and two of the males were seen trying to hunt giraffe but failed in their attack due to lack of cover. Two mothers with three cubs were located drinking from the camp waterhole every few days, sometimes accompanied by one of the males. A different pride of lions consisting of a big black-maned lion and a female with her two sub-adult cubs was located at the Passarge waterhole. They looked well-fed and showed little interest in the surprisingly relaxed oryx grazing very nearby.
One morning the guides were surprised to find elephant tracks going through camp as they went to do their wake-up calls. Eventually they found a large bull elephant browsing next to Room 1. Elephants are not very common in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and it is very unusual for us to have one staying in the camp area.
A shy male leopard was seen a few times. On one occasion we found him being mobbed by a few jackals which stopped him successfully hunting the springbok which he had his eye on. A young female who is the daughter of a well-known resident was seen mobile towards the old camp site.
Two young cheetah brothers were sighted towards the west of Tau Pan, although they were a bit skittish.
As is often the case in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve there were many species of raptors including bateleur eagles, tawny eagles, goshawks and secretary birds. Kori bustards and huge flocks of red-billed queleas were also seen.
A beautifully relaxed herd of twenty adult oryx with ten calves was located at Phukwi Pan. Other general game species included springbok, red hartebeest and wildebeest. As the mornings got progressively colder, the antelope could be seen lying on the roads to warm themselves up. There were plentiful giraffe in the area and we were able to see them licking at the soil to gain extra minerals into their diet. At the camp waterhole we watched two kudu bulls testing a female by sniffing her and grimacing in a pose known as the flehmen response. This behaviour is done in order for males to better detect pheromones that might indicate whether the cow is in oestrus.
Black-backed jackals and bat-eared foxes were seen foraging. On one occasion the jackals and foxes started growling at each other, raising their hackles and eventually fighting. An African wild cat was seen hunting birds. Honey badgers were seen hunting, accompanied by jackals and southern pale chanting-goshawks who were always on the lookout for any rodents missed by the honey badgers during their digging. The bat eared foxes could be seen huddling up together in family groups in the early morning chill.
(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!)
