Leopard on the Move - 07:18 pm

15 Jan 2010

The clouds have cleared and the animals and birds are more active.
The Xakanaxa pride’s roars could be heard far off to the west during the night. It seems like they are off on another excursion to Marula island.





Vervet monkeys alarm barking in the distance changed the planned route for the day. One can never ignore these alarm calls as they generally result in a predator being sighted.
There was a male leopard moving north up one of the many dry channels. He was fringing the open channel, sticking to the thickly vegetated sand islands.





There was no hunting success as the already alerted impala spotted the leopard instantly.
The leopard watched them closely for a couple of minutes and then walked straight passed the bachelor herd into the next thicket.






There was one more brief glimpse and the leopard dissappeared. The rest of the day was spent working the area, unfortunatley without seeing him again.





This appears to be another new sighting. Back at camp, no whisker patterns or markings could be matched to any of the leopards already sighted in the Xakanaxa area.

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Out of the Ordinary - 07:14 pm

13 Jan 2010

It was a relatively quiet in Moremi today.
The rains have now filled most of the pans and animals are able to access water closer to their food supply.
After spending the last 15 months in Moremi, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing the bush like never before.





Pel’s Fishing Owl (Scotopelia peli). Sightings are becoming more regular and these owls are now spotted on a monthly basis.



Sightings of the Slender Mongoose (Herpestes sanguineus) are not as fleeting and they are always entertaining to watch.




Watching how an adult Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus) tries to drown a juvenile was a violent affair.



These lovely feline’s spoor is seen nearly everyday and incredibly 2 African Wild Cats (Felis lybica) were spotted in the last 3 days.



The Black Crake (Amaurornis flavirostra) is my latest first sighting.

I’m certain that moremi still has a lot more to show me.

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Swimming Monitor - 07:04 pm

12 Jan 2010

The Xakanaxa pride has moved further west, still following the buffalo.
The day was spent searching for leopards. It was uneventful with not even a single spoor being spotted.





Crossing off Dead Tree Island, there was a Water Monitor hunting in the newly formed stream.
This channel was completely dry only a couple of weeks ago and was now attracting many species of animals and birds.
The monitor moved slowly through the water, barely creating any ripples. It was constantly tasting the water with its tongue, trying to locate potential prey.
A monitor will eat just about anything from frogs and birds to snakes and invertebrates.






It was a brief sighting and the monitor moved off into the thicker reeds.

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Full Strength Pride - 07:30 pm

11 Jan 2010

The Xakanaxa pride are all back together.
Not only has the female cub returned, but also the male who was not with the pride for the last week.
The lions were following fresh buffalo tracks north from 2nd Bridge. Judging by the freshness of the spoor, the lions were not far behind the buffalo.






It was mid morning when the sun finally managed to burn through the clouds. As the temperature increased the pride stopped following the buffalo and moved into the shade.
We headed on to locate the buffalo and found them less than 1 kilometre away. They were wallowing at a pan and moved west, further from the lions.
Returning to the lions, who were still where we had left them, they did not seem to interested in continuing to follow the buffalo herd.






The clouds returned and once it started to rain there was very little chance that the pride would move.
It was a big relief for me that the female cub has rejoined the pride.

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Lingering Lions - 07:21 pm

09 Jan 2010

The Xakanaxa pride are still on Mboma Island.
They are looking well fed, but their excursions further south may have cost them a pride member.





It is the only remaining female cub that was not with the pride. She may have lost the pride during the night and there is still a chance that she is alive and well.
If she has been killed the survival rate for these cubs has dropped to 28%, which is well below the norm of 40%. It will also mean that after having 14 cubs in total the prides ranks will not grow as all the remaining cubs are males and they will be chased from the pride within the next year.

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Illusive Leopard Spotted - 01:11 pm

07 Jan 2010

The illusive leopard showed its face today.
It was almost impossible to spot, resting in the fork of a Mopane tree. A troop of Vervet Monkeys had already seen it and it was their alarm calls that gave away the leopards position.






This male has been so harassed by monkeys in the past that he has moved off very agitated, but this morning he was completely unfazed and mealy watched the monkeys between short cat-naps. The Vervets eventually moved on and left the leopard in peace.
His restful morning was not to last. A troop of Chacma Baboons were moving towards the tree he was in and as soon as they spotted him their pace increased. The baboons here do not seem to fear leopards and this male must have known this as he immediately dropped out the tree and moved off. The baboons followed closely, alarm calling and making threatening gestures. Everytime the leopard would try and stand his ground, he was surrounded by the baboons. There was nearly a full frontal assault by the baboons but the leopard quickly moved into thicker bush. This was the cover he needed as the baboons did not follow.






After losing the tailing baboons the leopard continued onto Dead Tree Island. There he was more relaxed and as he moved through the forest he scent marked and sniffed at the bushes. There is a resident female on the island and she could have been in the area recently. The leopard eventually found a shady spot under a Motsebe and went to sleep.

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Monkey Business - 08:36 pm

06 Jan 2010

It is wonderful that the regular summer rains have returned to Moremi.
The morning was soggy and wet. The rains do cover the tracks of any animal movements, which makes tracking a little more difficult.
In the Mopane forest near Jessie’s Pools was a troop of Vervet Monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops).





This was a large troop with about 40 members.
There were many young babies, who could only be a couple of weeks old. The youngsters are still figuring out their co-ordination and it was hilarious to watch them struggle to climb branches, only to be knocked off by one of their siblings.







The majority of the troop was foraging in the forest with a small group playing a game of ‘Rule the Pond’.
The seed pods which were in the water had softened making it easier to get to the seeds inside. The ruler was the monkey who could hold its ground in the water and collect as many seed pods as possible before being chased off. There was an aspiring swimmer who would completely submerge itself at every opportunity.

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Quiet Days - 08:11 pm

05 Jan 2010

It was a long morning trying to relocate the Xakanaxa pride.
Following their tracks, they moved further south and their spoor disappeared near first bridge. Hopefully they will not continue south and will turn north crossing the channel back into the heart of their territory.





The day panned out to be a quiet one and it was mid-afternoon before we located some elephant bulls.
There were only 2 bulls feeding in the floodplain west of Dead Tree Island. The water in this channel has been receding and the elephants were taking advantage of being able to get easy access to the newly sprouted grasses and reeds.






Breeding herds with calves will avoid these drying areas as the black cotton soil becomes very sticky and smaller calves could become trapped in the mud.
This I found out the hard way. The ground seemed firm but instantly gave way under the weight of the vehicle. It was a race against the setting sun and the approaching storm, but the vehicle was free after 45 minutes.

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Hungry Pride - 10:17 pm

04 Jan 2010

The Xakanaxa pride has been on the western edge of their territory for over a week.
They are looking in good condition but do not appear to have killed anything substantial as only the male and a couple of lionesses look well fed.





They were not at all active even though it was a cool cloudy day.
There was a brief moment when it seemed that they were going to start hunting, but the young female cub had only spotted a Water Monitor. The pride has encountered this species of lizard before (lions monitor lizard) and the cubs interest was brief.







It was early evening before the pride became active and started to move off south. They are reaching the edge of their territory and run the risk of bumping into the Mboma pride.

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Snakes Alive - 08:35 pm

30 Dec 2009

The December rains have returned to their normal cycle and it was a grey cloudy rainy day in Moremi. The pride are still west of 3rd Bridge but have not been seen.
We took this rainy day to do some maintenance around camp. But there is no need to have to leave the camp in order to experience the wildlife.





Yesterday it was the Wild Dogs near camp and today it was an old resident that showed its face.
It was a Boomslang (Dispholidus typus typus), who was shown to us by the resident birds. Their intense chittering alerted us to the snakes presence and after staring into the bush we spotted the snake. It seemed distracted and did not actively hunt but instead hung its head off a branch and regurgitated a few balls of undigested animal parts. Snakes cannot digest the fur and bones of their prey and need to remove these remnants from the digestive system.







Once the snake was done, it moved deeper into the Setshi (Acacia hebeclada) and we had a couple of brief views before it moved off.
Thanks to Connall Oosterbroek for the pictures.

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