The Tau Pan pride of lions (10 adults and 5 young) spent the first week loitering at the camp waterhole, too hot to budge to anywhere else. They do disappear from time to time, roaming to protect their territory from any
Towards the end of the month, there was the beginnings of change in the lion dynamics: the three males made an attempt to push the currently dominant male, out of the area. The dominant male is also injured, so will be unable to fight against three of them. Although nothing was finalised at the time, it looks like there will be some interesting times ahead for the long stable Tau Pan pride….
An interesting observation from a guide at Tau in regards to the cheetah of the Kalahari. Having been based at Tau Pan for many years, prior to that coming from the Delta, he has noticed that the cheetahs in the Kalahari tend to favour the more wooded/vegetated areas than the open plains. In the Delta – oddly where there are less open plains – they prefer to spend their time in those areas. Perhaps this is because with a higher density of other predators in the area, it affords them more time to spot them coming if they frequent the more open areas.
A big male leopard was seen drinking at the camp waterhole. Its harder for us to see leopards in the Kalahari, but this one was very relaxed, and we enjoyed a good sighting.
On the 17th, two wildebeest came to drink at the waterhole whist guests were watching from the main area. Whilst they were drinking, three of the lionesses charged out of the bush at the wildebeest, and they picked one to aim for. Luckily for the wildebeest, he chose the right direction to run in and quickly made it to a hard surface where he could pick up speed and outpace the lions. Had he chosen the other direction, the sand ridge, the lions would have outmanuevred him.
