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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Hunting Dogs - 11:59 am

29 Dec 2009

The morning started with an unproductive search for the Xakanaxa pride. Hearing their roars during the night to the west of camp meant a trip across 3rd Bridge onto Mboma Island.
The prides tracks were at the bridge and after following them for about 4 kilometres, they vanished in the thick Mohata (Lonchocarpus nelsii).





While heading back to camp there was a radio call that a pack of Wild Dogs had been spotted. They were hunting and heading towards the film camp. This resident pack of the Xakanaxa area has not been seen since mid September (wild dogs on the move)





The pack was only 1.5 kilometres from camp and appeared to have already killed something. There was not enough left of the carcass to determine what it was. It was not long before they were again on the move.






There are now only 12 dogs in the pack. Judging from their sizes it looks as if 2 of the smaller pups are gone.
As soon as the lead dog had spotted the Impala the adult dogs broke into a full sprint straight at the herd, with the pups hanging back. Their bellies were already full and this kill was going to be for the adults who had not fed yet. They managed to bring down an Impala lamb, which was immediately torn in two. This kill was shared by 2 of the adults and when the rest of the pack arrived there was no begging or squabbling over it. The pack was very relaxed and it was only once the carcass was finished that they all gathered at the nearby pan before trotting off south.

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Band of Mongoose - 08:08 pm

28 Dec 2009

The rain stayed during the night and the sky was completely clouded over at sunrise.
It was a soft drizzle that persisted throughout the morning but as the day drew on the sun managed to show itself.





Moremi was rather quiet with not much about. After finding a pack of Banded Mongooses (Mungos mungo), we followed them.
They were constantly on the move, searching for food. There were many pups who were all around 8 weeks old. They would never venture far from any of the adults and communicated with constant chittering and twittering. If one pack member found a tasty morsel it was immediately mobbed by others and mongooses are not known for sharing meals, so it would have to run off with its meal before being overpowered by the others.
At the first sign of any danger there would be an alarm call and the youngsters would run for the safety of the nearest adult.






By early evening the clouds had opened up enough to allow yet another spectacular Moremi sunset.

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Pula - 09:16 pm

27 Dec 2009

Today was the first rain that has fallen in the last 3 weeks.
The Xakanaxa pride has moved north towards Marula Island and could possibly stay in the area for the next week.





There was a herd of Burchell’s Zebra and 2 of the stallions were in a frisky mood.
This was not a serious dominance battle as the younger and smaller stallion stood little chance against his older and more experienced opponent.






They moved passed a mare and her foal. At first the foal just watched the combatants, but it sensed the tension and became agitated, rearing up at them.
The mother eventually calmed the foal, who went back to suckling while the stallions continued on.

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