Africa Travel Journal » Botswana

Working Mothers

James Weis — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 05:59:59 +0000

Leopards are solitary cats by nature. They are comfortable on their own. Female leopards lead less solitary lives than males, as they bear young and spend much time with their cubs. Male leopards have little to do with raising their offspring.

It is sometimes said that the big cats are poor mothers, but it should always be remembered that the task of raising cubs is not an easy one.

A leopard and her cub playing in Botswana.

Mother leopards have to leave their cubs almost every day in order to go hunting. Very young cubs have to stay behind where the mother leaves them and very quickly learn to wait. There are a number of other animals that will kill and eat very young leopard cubs, including pythons, baboons and hyenas. Despite the serious challenges and dangers involved, there are many mother leopards that do a good job of looking after their cubs. Some even find the time and energy to spend playing with their cubs.

We currently have just such a female in the game drive area around At Savuti Camp in Botswana’s far north Linyanti region. At the time of these images, the cub is approximately five months old and very playful.

A young leopard plays with her mom's tail.

I recently managed to spend some time watching the pair after the female had killed an impala and carried it up a tree. Both mom and daughter had full stomachs and were asleep when I arrived at the sighting. As the afternoon came to an end, the cub decided that it was no longer time to sleep and set about trying to wake her mother. The cub was particularly fascinated by her mother’s tail and attacked it continuously. The tolerant mother leopard at first tried to ignore her daughter, but when this failed, she gave in and began to play.

Mom and daughter enjoying some play time.

The next day when the two cats had completely finished their meal and were walking away, the cub again took to playfully attacking her mother, who responded with enthusiasm, as the images show.

For me it is always a privilege to witness this special bond that exists between mother and cub.

Text and images by Grant Atkinson
GrantAtkinson.com

The Cost Of Predation

James Weis — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 19:50:15 +0000

Life can be tougher for large carnivores than it may at first appear. Africa’s big cats are equipped with dangerous claws, long, sharp teeth, and powerful muscular limbs to enable them to kill their prey. On the other hand prey animals come with their own defensive armory.

Warthogs have sharp, penetrating tusks in their lower jaws. Zebra have sharp hooves, a powerful kick and can bite hard. Buffalo are legendary self-defenders, and have horns and bulk in lethal combination. Porcupines have sharp quills that they jab into the flesh of an attacker.

Lioness with a large belly wound.

On a recent safari I was reminded of just how well some prey animals can defend themselves by observing the injuries that were apparent on some of the big cats that we saw.

At Savuti Camp in Botswana’s Linyanti region, a lone lioness was sporting a big, ugly wound on her belly. Although the wound was clean and in the process of healing, it must have caused her some very serious discomfort. My colleagues from the camp had seen the lioness in an uninjured state one day, following a small herd of buffalo. Next morning she had the injury, so it seems safe to assume that she ended up getting a buffalo horn in her side. Fortunately she seemed to be recovering well at the time that I took the accompanying image, and not causing her any trouble.

Leopard with a shoulder wound, perhaps inflicted by a warthog.

A territorial male leopard busy patrolling his territory along the Linyanti River near DumaTau Camp had a deep gash on his left shoulder. You can just see it in the image above. This particular male is well-known by the guides in the area for his habit of hunting warthogs and it was quite possible that his injury could have come from one of those feisty pigs. This was a month back, but as of the time of this writing the wound is almost completely healed.

Lioness with a porcupine quill in her cheek.

Still in the Linyanti region of Botswana, I saw a lioness with a full belly, and a porcupine quill stuck in her cheek. With some luck, this quill might fall out, but it could also remain embedded in her flesh and cause serious infection.

Fortunately the big cats have strong immune systems, and they heal fast, so in most cases they will heal themselves from their wounds.

Text and images by Grant Atkinson
GrantAtkinson.com

Cats and their innate memory of water

James Weis — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 22:34:53 +0000

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

A Week in the Wilds of Mombo

James Weis — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 05:25:38 +0000

A safari report from Mombo camp in Botswana’s Okavango Delta related by our guide extraordinaire, Grant Atkinson.

I spent the last week of May guiding out of Mombo camp. It is a time of year in the Delta which brings with it very comfortable temperatures, with cool mornings and gentle warm mid-days.

The vegetation at Mombo was still green and quite lush after our excellent rainy season. Water levels in some of the seasonal channels that fringe the area were very high. However, the only effect that this had on the game-viewing was to drive many of the grazing animals onto the higher-lying parts of the game-drive areas.

A lioness watches and listens as dusk falls, and she slowly begins to get ready for the evenings activity. This imagewas taken at Mombo camp, Okavango Delta, Botswana.

The wildlife highlights during the week were many. They began with a sighting of lions: The Mathata sub-pride with their cubs, two afternoons in a row. On our second sighting a couple of the lionesses with their cubs really posed for us on a termite mound. We saw the cubs playing, flexing claws and the whole pride slowly getting ready for the evening hunt. We also saw the coalition pair of males that spend time with this pride, the Western Boys. One of them stole an impala from a leopard.

Leopard cub at Mombo camp.

It was in fact the leopards that stole the show during the week. First the female who had lost the impala to the lion posed in a tree for us. Then, the female leopard known as Legadima showed up with her two cubs and an impala kill. The cubs are almost four months old and are incredibly cute. They kept us totally entertained. They climbed trees, chased one another about, and jumped from one branch to another, at times almost falling and catching themselves by one paw at the last second.

A leopard cub, one of two, belonging to an adult female that has long been resident in the Mombo area of Botswana's Okavango Delta.

When the impala carcass was half-eaten, the mother leopard pulled it up into a jackalberry tree. Overnight a group of spotted hyenas showed up. For almost a whole day the hyenas were at the base of the tree. What little was left of the impala carcass was just out of their reach, and the two little leopard cubs were seemingly trapped, higher up in the same tree. Eventually a hyena managed to reach the impala and pulled it down. Shortly after eating the remains, the hyena left and to our relief the mother leopard showed up. She collected the two cubs, totally unharmed, and they moved off together.

One of the leopard cubs posing on a tree branch.

We also enjoyed several sightings of the lone African wild dog at Mombo. This dog has lost the other members of its pack and is now socializing with groups of black-backed jackals. We saw the dog heading off on hunting forays with the jackals in tow. This is most unusual behavior, but serves to show how strong the dogs’ social instincts are.

A lone African wild dog searches for prey at Mombo in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. These dogs typically hunt at dusk, as this one is preparing to do, and again at dawn.

Mombo's 'lone' wild dog, which is associating with jackals.

Spotted hyena, buffalo and hippo close to camp were further highlights, and we also had excellent viewing of both breeding herds of elephants with youngsters, as well as some very big, old bulls, who were competing for courting rights with an estrous female.

Black rhino at Mombo camp.

The week’s game-viewing was rounded off by a single sighting of rhino, which was again unusual in that we located a group of three white rhino, accompanied by an adult female black rhino. The two species don’t typically spend time together, although there is no reason that they shouldn’t, as both feed on different types of vegetation. Although brief, we had a good sighting.

A group of elephants, both male and female, photographed at Mombo, in the Okavango Delta, Botswana.

I had a great week at Mombo watching and photographing these fascinating sightings, and it has left me looking forward a whole lot to my next visit, which will take place in July 2010.

For more of Grant’s photography, check out his website.

Summer Safari in Botswana

James Weis — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:03:00 +0000

A summer safari through three of Botswana’s prime wildlife habitats led by guide extraordinaire, Grant Atkinson.

The guests on this safari had all visited Botswana before for wildlife viewing. None of them had been at this time of year though and we had an interesting and varied itinerary. We made use of two vehicles at each stop. Some members of the group were very interested in photography.

Our first stop after a 45-minute flight from Maun was at the new Kalahari Plains Camp, where we spent two nights. Accommodation was comfortable and the roads were smooth. The weather was extremely hot. We were lucky enough to have a lion pride that frequents the area turn up very close to camp on our first morning. We returned to the lions in the late afternoon and enjoyed a spectacular sighting as they woke up, came together and bonded. The highlight was having all 8 lions roaring at once. Later that night they walked by very close to camp. We enjoyed an outdoor meal and sleeping on the specially made decks on the roof of each room, enjoying the desert skies in the dark.

A herd of springbok seek shelter under the leaves of an acacia tree in Deception Valley in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Botswana. Midday temperatures in the summer force virtually all mammal activity to cease as the animals do their best to hide from the sun's scorching rays.

We left Kalahari Plains in our two expedition vehicles and made our way deeper still into the Central Kalahari Reserve to meet up with our camping crew, where they had erected our camp at a place called Letiahau. This was home for the next three nights. Game viewing highlights were herds of oryx and springbok and a late afternoon lion walking by. A giraffe at sunrise kept the photographers in the group happy. During the warm mid-days, we visited the artificially pumped waterhole, which was just a few kms from our camp, to watch the small birds flocking and drinking. Harriers, goshawks, ostrich and secretary birds were seen each day.

A young springbok takes to the air in a series of leaps known as pronking. This behaviour may serve a function in sending out messages to potential predators of the fitness of an individual springbok. This image was captured at sunset in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Botswana

On our fourth and fifth nights we changed venues and relocated our camp close to Deception Valley itself. Following very localized rain showers, the herds of general game were more abundant here and each afternoon several hundred springbok, oryx and wildebeest would flood out of the sheltering woodland and graze in the open grassland of the valley floor. This made for spectacular viewing. We also had a great sighting of a pair of male lions roaring and marking as the sun rose. There is a no-off-road driving policy in the reserve, but we were fortunate that most of the wildlife showed up close to the roads, at one time or another. Jackals and bat-eared foxes were abundant. The heat in the middle part of the day was so great that very few mammals remained active during this time, but some pools of water attracted a good number of vultures, eagles, kites and falcons. We sat out to watch and photograph some of these impressive birds during the middle parts of the day.

A flight of egrets, accompanied by a sacred ibis, fly in formation as the setting sun colours the sky. Waterbirds are abundant in the Okavango Delta in Botswana, and are very capable of taking advantage of the ever-changing water levels in this dynamic system. This image was captured at Duba Plains, in the northern part of the delta.

Next stop was reached by means of a ninety minute flight that took us to DumaTau camp in the north. Here we spent three nights. The hot weather broke and we experienced several thundershowers, but to accommodate this we just changed the timing of our game drives and went out after the rain. We had many excellent sightings of elephant, giraffe, kudu, impala and hippo almost every drive here. We also witnessed a short-lived but savage fight between three male baboons along the Savuti channel.

An in-flight image taken of an adult southern carmine bee-eater. These brilliantly coloured birds are also extremely agile fliers and catch insects in the airl. They nest in burrows along sandy riverbanks. This image was taken close to Dumatau camp in northern Botswana.

With water levels on the rise in the Linyanti River, the numbers of red lechwe antelope were also increasing and we saw herds of them crashing through the water. This time of year also brings with it a whole variety of migratory birds and these include some of the most colourful birds to be seen anywhere. Carmine bee-eaters, woodland kingfishers and broad-billed rollers are some of these species. There are also raptors moving through the region and Amur falcons, steppe buzzards and Montagu’s harriers were some of these.

A view of the main inflowing channel that feeds water into the Duba Plains area. Over the past ten years this channel has changed from being a seasonal trickle to a permanent waterway, inhabited by hippo and fish.

We flew south to the Okavango Delta and spent our last three nights at Duba Plains Camp. The roads at Duba are bumpy and torturous and there are incredibly deep water crossings. The reward for getting through the mud and water in the Land Rover is some wonderful wildlife viewing on the open plains that lie close to the camp. Buffalo, elephant, red lechwe, tsessebe and lions are all to be found here. Birding is exceptional too, with flocks of waterfowl abundant, as well as herons, egrets and a good number of birds of prey too. The open terrain makes for excellent viewing opportunities and in this regard we weren’t disappointed.

A pair of mating lions photographed at Duba Plains in the Okavango Delta.

Mating lions and then a lion hunt were some of the highlights. The lions were moving around the edges of a buffalo herd, but never quite managed to separate a buffalo from the herd. Instead they snatched a young red lechwe which wasn’t nearly enough food for all seven of them. We were also treated to the sight of these swamp lions leaping over a small channel as they kept following along behind the buffalo. On another afternoon we watched 3 lionesses stalk to within a few meters of a large, solitary buffalo bull, but at the last moment, the lionesses decided that the bull was too dangerous and pulled out of a direct attack.

An adult lioness stalks a bull buffalo at Duba Plains in the Okavango Delta. On this occasion the bull was too big and intimidating and the lioness didn't make a serious attack. The lions in this area prefer to catch younger buffalo or females whenever they can

Our very last morning at Duba produced more special sightings when we came across some lionesses with three young cubs playing on an island in the shallow water.

A male lion leaps across a channel in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. This image was taken at Duba Plains camp.

This summer safari turned out to be an unusual one with regard to predator sightings in that whilst we didn’t see leopard or cheetah, we did have lion sightings of exceptional quality. We also enjoyed some wonderful summer skies, with dramatic cloud-build ups adding colour and depth to our viewing. Exceptional summer birds added still more colour and interest to the experience. Combined with the bright green-grass landscapes, it all made for an excellent photographic safari and one that left me with good memories all around.

Grant Atkinson
Specialist Guide – Botswana
For more of Grant’s photography, check out his website.

Baby leopards in den at Zarafa camp

James Weis — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:04:28 +0000

A rare sighting of 3-week-old leopards and their mother, carefully secluded in a den under a fallen tree in the Selinda region of northern Botswana.

During our recent visit to Zarafa Camp in northern Botswana’s Selinda Concession, Nicky and I enjoyed superb game viewing, both on game drive and from the boat. This area is so lovely during Botswana’s summer months, with the green landscapes, the abundant baby animals and the dramatic skies that it makes one pause at the grandeur.

Our favorite sighting at Zarafa was that of two 3-week-old leopard cubs and their mother, hidden in a den under a fallen tree. It is not often that one has a chance to see leopard cubs in the wild and this was our first chance to see kittens this young.

As we approached the den site, we were very quiet and saw the two young cubs in the shadows at the back of the den. However, we could not see the female leopard anywhere and so we decided to leave the area, as we did not wish to attract any attention to the unprotected cubs. But just as we were turning the vehicle around to leave, we noticed some movement in the bush to the side of our vehicle…

Moments later, a gorgeous female leopard emerged from the fever-berry bushes and silently moved toward the den. It was the mother of the cubs, returning from an absence that may have been a day or more in duration. Female leopards spend only 50-60 percent of their time with cubs at this age, as they must hunt to provide the cubs with milk. The timing of her return was fortuitous for us, as we now could now stay a short while to take a few images and watch the cubs with their mother.

This female leopard is well known to the guides here and she is quite used to being around game drive vehicles and is very relaxed, so Foster (our guide) assured us that we were not causing her any stress by being at the den. This was quite clear as she calmly passed within 2 meters of our vehicle en route to her cubs, whilst barely casting us a glance.

What followed was a pleasure to watch, as the purring cubs were greeted with nuzzling and licking from their mom… but she lay down almost immediately so that the cubs could suckle and fill their tiny bellies with her milk.

After feeding for perhaps 5 minutes, the little cubs were full and ready for more affection and they proceeded to clamber all about mom’s head and shoulders, looking for more grooming and nuzzling. With fat tummies, they soon tired and fell asleep under their mother’s chin and all three were soon dozing peacefully. This is how we left them. What a privilege to have witnessed this.

Life for a baby leopard is extremely tenuous at this age, as they are completely reliant on their mother for sustenance and protection. The cubs will only venture from hiding at about 6 weeks and then only to make short excursions with their mother, as they are still extremely vulnerable. At this time they also start to eat meat. Weaning occurs at around 3 months, but they will stay with their mother for over a year before they are ready to fend for themselves.

Leopards will often move their cubs to a new hiding place, especially at this early stage, and in fact all three were seen a week later in a new den site, this one a burrow dug into the side of a termite mound. If all goes well, then perhaps future visitors to Zarafa will have a chance to see these leopards as they grow. I hope so!

James Weis
January 2010

Lions and the Savute Channel

James Weis — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:53:05 +0000

Lions and other wildlife living along Botswana’s Savute Channel are faced with new challenges due to the water that now flows in the channel after 17 dry years.

During our most recent safari in Botswana, Nicky and I were fortunate to spend an afternoon with a pride of lions that resides along the now-flowing Savute Channel. This sighting demonstrates the dynamic nature of this region and specifically, some of the effects that the “new” water has on the animals living here.

The Savute Channel, which connects the Linyanti river on Botswana’s northern border with the Savute marsh in the Chobe National Park some 60 kilometers away, only began filling with water again in 2008. Before that time, it last flowed from 1967 to 1981 and so until recently, the resident animals here only experienced this Channel as dry grassland. However, this cycle of wet and dry is a phenomenon that has occurred on and off here over the centuries.

We encountered the lions, alternately known as the “Selinda pride” or the “DumaTau pride” and consisting of 5 adult lionesses and three young cubs, all of which belonged to one of the females, in the late afternoon – just when the light was turning to the gold tones so advantageous for photography.

The pride had just begun to move again after waiting out the 90-degree heat of the day and we followed them, enjoying the playful antics of the little cubs, which were clearly relieved to finally be moving again after a long day of rest.

The lionesses seemed to be hungry and we hoped we might get an opportunity to watch them hunting. We kept a respectful distance as we followed, in case they encountered impalas or warthogs, both of which species we had passed on our way to the lions a short time earlier. However, the lions never encountered anything to hunt, so we spent our time watching and photographing the cubs as the females walked through the bush and along the sand road leading to the Savute Channel a short distance away.

As the lions reached the main transit road, they turned toward the Savute Channel, which now covers this track in the sand for some 70 meters or so, with a small island in the middle. The water in the Channel is now deep enough in many spots to sustain pods of hippos and we have seen numerous crocodiles, some of them quite large, all along the length of the Channel down to and past Savuti camp.

On previous visits since the arrival of the “new” water, we have seen lions, cheetahs, wild dogs, hyenas, zebras, impalas, giraffes, ostriches, kudu and various other animals crossing the water of the Channel and it is not an uncommon occurrence. However, with the arrival of hippos and especially crocodiles further and further down the Channel, it has now become far riskier for the animals that dare to swim across this growing river and I suspect that some are having close escapes or are even losing their lives doing so.

The lions stood on the bank of the Channel and drank from the fresh, clean water and the four lionesses without cubs gazed intently at the opposite bank. These four seemed very keen to cross to the other side of the Channel and we worried that the female with cubs would try to follow with her little babies. The crossing in this location is not deep enough to force adult lions to swim a long distance, but for the small cubs, this would be an extremely strenuous swim and full of potential danger.

As we watched, the four other lionesses all waded into the Channel and the female with cubs followed a short way into the water as well, her cubs battling through the reeds and fighting to keep their heads above water as they tried valiantly to keep alongside of their mom. Suddenly one of the cubs slipped completely under the water and his mother had to quickly reach in to fish him out with her jaws. The poor little guy looked more like a wet rag than a furry little lion as he dangled limply in his mother’s mouth…

It was now becoming a bit stressful to watch the unfolding drama and we all hoped that the mother would not force her cubs to follow the other lions, which had now begun crossing the Channel in earnest. We spent some tense moments watching her as she called forlornly to her pride sisters and we could see that she was torn between her desire to stay with her pride and her instincts to protect her cubs from danger.

As the four lionesses reached the far bank and shook off the water, the female with cubs continued to watch and call to them, but they strode off into the trees and out of sight. Long moments passed as we nervously watched her now in silence as the light faded and her cubs shivered in the shallow water.

Finally she made her decision… she turned around and led her cubs back to the dry and sandy road beside our vehicle. We were all very relieved and happy to see that she had made what we felt was the “right” decision and we left them playing with their mother happily as dusk turned to darkness.

The flowing Savute Channel has obviously changed the lives of all the animals that live in this area. This pride of lions has its territory on both sides of what was once open grassland, but that land is now split by a flowing river. The act of simply traversing across their territory now poses new and potentially life-altering dangers.

James Weis
January 2010

Northern Botswana Safari

James Weis — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:07:44 +0000

Our itinerary for this trip began with two nights at the River Club in Zambia. A cultural visit to Simongwe village and a walk around the Victoria Falls kept us busy there. We also did a sunset cruise on the Zambezi river.

The next day was our transfer day to Botswana. Along the way we spent the midday on the Chobe River, taking in some wonderful viewing of hippo, crocodiles, buffalo and many water birds. A herd of young male elephants also put on a show for us by playing in the river in front of us.

A female leopard guards her impala kill. Leopards do not always carry their kills up trees immediately but will often feed extensively first in order to lighten the load. This leopard was photographed along the woodland fringing the Linyanti River in northern Botswana.

A female leopard rests under the shelter of a fallen tree in woodland fringing the Linyanti River in northern Botswana.

We flew into Linyanti Discoverer camp for the next 3 nights and our best leopard sighting came before we even reached camp. A female leopard was feeding on an impala she had killed and we had a good, long sighting of her feeding and resting.

Hyena resting in water.

We also encountered three lions which were feeding on a giraffe and we visited these lions several times during our stay. Five hyaenas and many vultures took over when the lions walked away and they reduced the carcass to just bones very rapidly.

This ten-week old lion cub was photographed close to Savuti camp in northern Botswana. There were three cubs in the litter, and the mother was close by.

Savuti Camp was our next camp and the first summer rains began falling during our stay here. On our first afternoon, just minutes after the rain had stopped, we found a lioness with 3 young cubs. We watched them till dark.

A pair of dwarf mongooses peer from the refuge of a fallen tree stump. These social mongooses are active during the day and live in highly social groups. This image was taken at Savuti camp in northern Botswana.

Still at Savuti, we had a sighting of a pack of 12 African wild dogs. Adding to our excitement at seeing these endangered animals, the resting dogs were chased off by 3 lionesses while we watched. Luckily the wild dogs were alert and they managed to escape without any incident, other than getting a nasty scare. We also had a nice time watching some dwarf mongooses as they went about their business on a fallen tree.

A lilac-breasted roller in flight. These brilliantly coloured birds are active hunters of insects and small reptiles. They nest in cavities in dead trees, and are resident over most of Botswana. This individual was photographed at Savuti.

This bull elephant was walking through permanent water near Jacana camp in the Okavango Delta. He was feeding on emergent vegetation on the edges of the islands. Deep water in the delta presents no barrier to these elephants.

After two nights at Savuti, we flew to Jacana Camp, deep in the Okavango Delta. While there, we enjoyed some boating along the pristine channels and water birds in great numbers and variety. We also enjoyed some interesting mekoro (dugout canoe) trips to some of the nearby islands.

An African fish-eagle perched in a fig tree. The bulging crop indicates that the bird had fed recently. Fish-eagles are common in many parts of the Okavango Delta.

A game drive on the Jao flats produced still more waterbirds, as well as herds of red lechwe antelope and a sighting of the local lion pride one morning.

An adult male baboon shows his curiosity as he gazes at the camera. This baboon was part of a troop of over 40 animals and was photographed near Tubu Tree camp in Botswana's Okavango Delta.

We spent two nights at Jacana and then boated to our next destination – Tubu Tree Camp. The water levels in this region rise and fall through the course of a season, and ours was the last boat transfer to take place. The water is just now becoming too low for boating. Any transfers between now and April next year will be by aircraft or by vehicle.

Wattled Cranes flying overhead.

Tubu is a dry Delta area, with game drives being the main activity. There were herds of zebra, wildebeest, giraffe and impala. We saw a leopard in a sausage tree and another highlight was a flock of 54 wattled cranes flying to roost in a floodplain. These are highly endangered birds and Botswana’s Okavango Delta is one of very few strongholds they still have. We also saw big troops of chacma baboons, as well as very good birding to end off another successful safari.

Grant Atkinson
Specialist Guide – Botswana
For more of Grant’s photography, check out his website.

Great Wilderness Journey

James Weis — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 02:05:24 +0000

This report details our recent safari called the “Great Wilderness Journey“. There are multiple departures of this itinerary throughtout the year.

Our itinerary was Xigera Camp, Motswiri, Linyanti, and Toka Leya Camp. The first three of these camps are in Botswana’s Okavango Delta, Selinda concession, and Linyanti concession, respectively, while Toka Leya is on the Zambian side of The Victoria Falls. We had seven very enthusiastic guests.

A pair of African skimmers fly in tight formation over waters of the Okavango Delta in northern Botswana. These birds were breeding on sandbanks in Xigera Lagoon, close to Xigera camp.

During our three nights at Xigera we boated to Xigera lagoon, where we had fantastic viewing of African skimmers flying over the clear water. Skimmers breed on exposed sandbanks and are rare birds. We also did a full-day boat trip to the north, passing through a wonderful variety of habitats on the way, some permanent water, and some seasonal. We saw hippo, elephant, giraffe, crocodiles, and the highlight was a pride of lions moving about near the water’s edge.

A breeding herd of elephants drinks as one from the Linyanti River in northern Botswana. Rising water levels in this river as well as other rivers in the region benefit wildlife like elephants, especially during the dry times of the year. This image was taken in September, towards the end of the dry season.

Some of the lions looked as if they might cross through the deep water channel we were boating in, but they never quite built up the nerve. Hundreds of waterbirds kept us entertained as we cruised along through the channels. We had a midday picnic under some shady trees. Birding highlights of our Xigera visit included Pels’ fishing-owl and Western-banded snake-eagle.

We flew onward to Motswiri Camp for 2 nights where our activities were more physically active, with some canoeing on the Selinda Spillway, as well as some game drives on which we saw elephant and buffalo.

A lioness and her three-month-old cub shelter from the September heat in the shade of a jackalberry tree. This lioness was photographed along the Linyanti River in northern Botswana.

Next we flew along the now-flowing Selinda Spillway to the Linyanti concession in the north, where we stayed for 4 nights. We hadn’t even reached camp when we found one of the Linyanti pride lionesses with her 3-month-old lion cub, but she was stressed and searching for a second cub, which was missing. I had seen her on my last safari with both cubs, so it was sad to see that one had gone missing.

A pack of twelve African wild dogs setting off on a late afternoon hunt along the Linyanti River, in northern Botswana. Some of the dogs had noticed a herd of red lechwe antelope in the distance and were gazing with interest in their direction.

Before reaching camp that evening, we also got to watch a pack of twelve wild dogs on the move along the river. Aside from these large carnivores, the road provided us with a steady procession of elephant, kudu, baboons, warthogs, impala and red lechwe, all moving about close to the river.

A bull elephant dust bathes in late afternoon sunlight after emerging from the Linyanti River in northern Botswana. Elephants frequently dust bathe. This behaviour may serve to help keep them cool by forming a muddy coating on their skin.

This is a great time of year for the Linyanti concession, as the rising daytime temperatures push many animals towards the river, especially from the late morning onwards. More highlights were to follow. Many elephant herds were to be seen each day, especially in the afternoons. Several elephant bulls also visited us in camp.

A female leopard rests on a termite mound with her eight-month-old cub beside her. This pair of leopards were photographed in the Linyanti concession of northern Botswana. The two cats moved off after some minutes, stopping only to play with one another several times.

Early one morning we came across a female leopard and her cub sunning themselves on a termite mound. They provided us with excellent photo opportunities and as we had several very eager photographers on board, this was most appreciated. Male lions at rest the next morning, one called ‘Silver Eye’ and his coalition partner ‘Romeo’ were additional highlights.

A male leopard sits on a termite mound, close to the Linyanti River in Botswana. This male was on a territorial patrol, and had just caught sight of some baboons in the distance.

On our last afternoon drive we found a male leopard on territorial patrol. At first we had some difficulty trying to approach him, as he was continually diverted off his course by a herd of elephants, but then he went up a termite mound and sat down. Next moment he put his head into a large hole at the base of the mound and two warthogs exploded out of a hole on the other side of the same mound, leaving the leopard standing in a cloud of dust. If only the other hole hadn’t been there, he may have gotten lucky with a meal.

Apart from spotted hyena, our stay in the Linyanti also turned up some great birds like white-breasted cuckooshrike, rednecked falcon, gabar goshawk, and white-fronted and carmine bee-eaters to name but a few.

White-fronted bee-eaters line up on a branch close to their nesting colony. These bee-eaters nest along the Linyanti River in northern Botswana. In some areas of southern Africa there are two nesting sessions in each season.

We flew again to Kasane where we spent our midday on a Chobe boat cruise, viewing great herds of elephants along the river bank, as well as many crocodiles, buffalo, hippo and scores of birds. One more very short flight took us to Livingstone where we had a sunset cruise on the Zambezi River and then had a very comfortable night in the luxurious accommodation at Toka Leya Camp.

I said goodbye sadly to the group next morning at Victoria Falls itself, from where they were heading to the airport and home. This is a great time of year for big game viewing in Botswana and the Linyanti in particular and we were more than pleased with our good fortune with the wildlife sightings on this Great Wilderness Journey.

Grant Atkinson
Specialist Guide – Wilderness Safaris
For more of Grant’s photography, check out his website.

Three days at Mombo Camp

James Weis — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:56:55 +0000

I just returned from 3 days of guiding at Mombo camp. I guide several times a year at Mombo, but I am not able to remember any time when the game viewing was quite as strong as on this trip.

Perhaps part of the reason for the strong game viewing is related to the falling water levels. Floodplains are being exposed to the sun and with a healthy dose of sediment from the receding water, the new grass is sweet and abundant. Herds of red lechwe, zebra, and impala abound. Warthogs, elephants, kudu and giraffe are also moving onto the edges of the plains in large numbers.

As for predators, we had phenomenal viewing. Our first afternoon we found the well-known female leopard ‘Legadima’. This large female leopard was featured in a documentary called ‘Eye of the Leopard’, filmed by Dereck and Beverly Joubert. The leopard was resting near an impala she had killed. Whilst we watched she dragged it up a low, slanting tree and began to feed as it got dark. Legadima appears to be pregnant and it seems likely that within the next few weeks she is going to have more cubs.

All that night we could hear lions roaring, so when we set out the next morning, we immediately went in the direction of the roaring and we found the male lion pair known as the ‘Western Boys’. The big lions were lying down and resting at a place called Drift Molapo. After a few minutes they got up and continued east on a territorial patrol. This provided us with wonderful viewing as well as some good photo opportunities, as they scent marked and walked along.

Minutes after leaving the lion sighting, our attention was attracted to the sounds of vervet monkeys making alarm calls. After a brief search, we located the reason… a female leopard high up in a rain tree. Upon approaching we saw that the animal was a young female leopard and also that it was ‘Pula’, the offspring of ‘Legadima’. This young female has only recently become independent, so it was good to see her doing well. She was restless, perhaps in the high tree to avoid attracting the attention of the lions who had passed by earlier.

The leopard eventually came down the tree in a series of leaps from one trunk to the other. She then made a rapid attempt at chasing an impala, gave up and climbed high into a fig tree and deep under the canopy.

Over the next two days we saw spotted hyenas and vultures competing with one another at the carcass of a dead giraffe. We spent some time with the Moporota lion pride, all five adult females, two adult males and the 8 cubs. We parked alongside a huge old bull elephant having a mud wallow whilst other smaller bulls waited respectfully for him to finish.

Some other highlights were the Mathata lion pride with their young cubs, a nice sighting of banded mongooses, and an excellent sighting of an African civet very early one morning.

We saw a male leopard eating on the kill that Legadima had made. We saw the lone surviving wild dog that has been seen regularly at Mombo over the past year or so. We saw a very shy female leopard hidden in a bush with an impala kill. Flocks of open-billed storks were gathering on the floodplain edges, feeding on snails. We had good viewing of several herds of elephants up close and almost all had young baby elephants in their midst.

Perhaps one of the most fascinating of all our sightings took place on our last morning when we drove to a hyena den and were entertained by four young hyenas of varying ages and sizes. One youngster in particular was extremely curious and approached to within a metre of our vehicle’s door, using its nose to try and smell exactly what our vehicle and its occupants were all about.

I returned to Maun to get ready for my next trip and to sort through the images I had taken. I hope you enjoy the pictures; I sure had fun taking them.

Report by Grant Atkinson
For more of Grant’s images, check out his website.