Cats and their innate memory of water

It is often said that cats don’t like water.  Undoubtedly, this has some truth in it, but for cats living in and around the wetlands of northern Botswana these days, coping with water is a reality.

The Okavango Delta in particular is an area that is well-known for sightings of big cats moving through water.  What I find most fascinating though, is seeing the behavior of big cats in a place that once was completely dry, and is now again a wetland.  The return of water to the Savute channel provided us with this opportunity.

The Savute channel dried up in the early 1980’s, and the only water around for years was that found in pans and rain-fed pools.

In 2006 it showed some very sporadic signs of revival, with water just beginning to push down into the old grassland covered channel bed…, but then a year later the water came back in earnest.  Today the once-dry riverbed is a deep, flowing channel, and a home to catfish, papyrus and hippopotamus.

The local lion pride, known as the DumaTau pride, had their territory neatly bisected by the revived channel.  This provided us with a chance to see just how quickly the big cats are able to adapt to such a change.  One could have expected young lions here to have been very nervous of entering deep water, as they would have had no prior experience of it.

Instead, these lions have shown this to not be the case at all.  The photographs here show lions from the DumaTau pride, crossing the Savute channel.  Not only are they clearly not afraid of the water, but they are actually chasing and playing with each other, and appear to be enjoying it.  Instinct never ceases to amaze me!

Text by Grant Atkinson
GrantAtkinson.com

Images copyright © James Weis / Eyes on Africa



2 Responses to “ Cats and their innate memory of water ”

1. Ryan says:

   August 31, 2010 at 5:11 pm

   James and Nicky: I’m really enjoying the site, thank you it is helping get me inspired to finish documenting my trip *ahem* 7 years ago *ahem*.

   Can you tell me what I am seeing with the first photo? The male appears to have a blind eye? I guess with the females doing the majority share of the hunting it doesn’t impact him too badly?

   Best Regards
   Ryan
2. James Weis says:

   September 6, 2010 at 9:17 pm

   Hi Ryan,

   WE have seen this “milky eye” in several lions over many years in the Okavango.

   It is quite likely that this is a condition brought about by Feline Panleukopenia Virus; also known as Feline Distemper among other names as well.

   The virus attacks and kills the white blood cells and manifests in many ways, sometimes affecting the retina and optic nerve.

   James