Wilderness Chitabe & Chitabe Lediba news – July-August 2024

It’s always special to see an assortment of vulture species at a kill. Whited-backed, hooded, white headed and lappet faced vultures are the most commonly seen here, and it is never a dull moment with them around a carcass. The thrill of watching some vultures being brave and in conflicts with both large and small predators at a kill is always astonishing.

This is the dry season and the grass cover is reduced, making animals easily visible, and our guests are being rewarded with wonderful and exciting game viewing around Chitabe. Many of our guests witnessed extraordinary sightings and returned every day from game viewing in high spirits. We also witnessed different behaviours involving various predators that understand each other’s strength and weaknesses very well, as shared below.

At the wild dogs’ den, the pack is raising puppies and our guides shared interesting observations of the dogs’ lives with our guests as the puppies made their first public debut. Puppies born in this area, with lots of other large predators such as lions and hyenas, need a lot of luck to survive. Already there has been conflict between lions and the wild dogs, which forced the dogs to move their puppies to their second den. 

Ultimately, this was a great decision as it wasn’t easy for them to run two separate dens, both with puppies, at the same time. With the dogs denning not far from camp, we have had consistent sightings of them for the last three months. When wild dogs are denning, it is always an opportunity to observe the minutiae of their lives. While out hunting, the dogs will leave a couple of guards at the den; then on their return from a successful hunt they will regurgitate to feed both the puppies and the guards – a most fascinating activity to watch in season every year. As the puppies’ energy requires constant feeding, they have been eating lots of fresh meat on a daily basis, making them strong and healthy. 

Recently, they all embarked on a long journey – the first in their lives (approximately one-and-a-half miles) to their new den after the threat from a couple of lions that was getting too close to their first den – too dangerous for the entire dog family. After their safe arrival at the new den, we counted 11 puppies, which means they lost two in the process of the move, though we do regard that as a successful trip. A lot could have happened considering that most of them are still very small to run that distance.

The lion dynamics have truly been incredible over the last two months, making for amazing sightings. With a total of four different prides being sighted, the majority of the sightings took place along the Gomoti River, where we regularly encountered the pride of four females with six young cubs. The four males were also regularly seen along the Gomoti River. Around the airstrip area, the Matsebe Pride of 14 was also sighted regularly.

The highlight of our lion sightings was the discovery of a new pride of 11 on the western side of camp – four females, four magnificent sub-adult males and three young cubs. This pride has been encountered hunting on several occasions, which provided our guests with lots of unforgettable experiences. Although they have the young males with their muscles, they still lack hunting experience and had a few failed attempts. They are in the territory of the Mmakgosi Pride of five, and recently they were seen in the vicinity of each other. However, the Mmakgosi sneaked away out of their sight in order to avoid physical contact with a pride that out numbers them.

The departure of the two dominant males, Limpy and his brother, about three months ago has left their main territory around camp open to becoming the playground of some nomadic males. The four males that came in three months ago and mated with the six young females keep coming in and out of the area. They seem unsure of exactly where they want to settle. The choices are with the pride at the Gomoti River, the Matsebe Pride around the airstrip, or with Tsame Pride around the camp area. These four males also went and destabilised the Matsebe Pride around the airstrip, leaving the pride scattered; however, they later reunited.  Since they have been in the area, they have not had opponents – until few days ago, when we discovered two new males still in their prime. They arrived in the area from the south, are very vocal and appear to be in search of a new home. They have not physically encountered the four males and the pride females yet, and we haven’t seen them again since them. The impression these five males gave seem to be not what the pride wants at the moment, and the pregnant six females need strong males their protection and for their cubs when their birthing time comes very soon. We very often see these males in smaller groups between the three prides’ territories; hopefully they will eventually prove their worth and spend more time in the area of Tsame Pride and protect their coming-soon cubs. They are seemingly confused because all three territories have what they need – lots of lionesses and prey species.

The Tsame Pride has been moving in and out or their prime area, and we sighted many times around the waterhole not far from camp, drawn by the concentration of impalas, zebras, giraffes and other species. At this water hole, the pride has to do nothing more than sit and wait.

The Gomoti River Pride also provided some incredible sightings; they have seven cubs with them, and were often actively hunting when we encountered them. The river banks and neighbouring bushes host vast herds of zebras, buffalos, red lechwe, impalas and warthogs, leaving this pride with an abundance of choice. As successful hunters, they took on zebras, buffalos and warthogs. In many instances we found them feeding on kills made during the night. When around this pride, it is always fascinating to watch the cubs tumbling and playing with each other, or with their mothers, which always seems to be an irritation to the females trying to rest.

Leopard sightings have been excellent throughout the past two months, providing our guests with the most amazing spectacles. Mosadinyana and her daughter Mmapula, Rose, the Motswere Female, the Maun Road Female and her cub, the Rradiphala Male and the Radikolobe Male are the most frequently seen leopards in our area. Sightings of them are recorded almost every third day, sometimes even daily for some of them, and our guides have quite a predictable daily routine for some of them. Besides all our known leopard sightings, a female with two very shy cubs has been sighted a couple of times on the southern side of camp, and is suspected to be Tswale Tswale. 

The Maun Road Female has lost her female cub, but remains with the male for now. She had been leaving the cubs alone for long whiles when she went out hunting, and the cubs became comfortable to play out in the open in the absence of their mother – and we knew very well that the longer she stayed away from them, the greater the danger. We have also heard of a female with two cubs on the northern side of the airstrip, but which our guides have not sighted yet. Among all the sightings, Mosadinyana, Mmapula, Rose and Motswere were sighted several times on kills. Mmapula was seen a few times losing her hard-earned kill to hyenas and lions; instead of taking her kill up a tree she has a habit of feeding on the ground in thick bushes, a behaviour she acquired from her mother. Our guests also had the thrilling experience of watching these leopards ascending and descending trees quiet often. We had a rare sighting of the remains of an ostrich, and clear evidence that it was a leopard kill.  

Some of these leopards were also observed using their free-fall hunting technique. They lie quietly on the branch of a jackalberry, concealed by the thick canopy, watching their pantries filling up with impalas coming to feed on the fallen berries, then silently drop out of the tree in a free fall, land on an impala and kill it. Some guests were lucky enough to have the opportunity to capture these split-second moments. This behavior is also very common in spring when impalas are attracted to the falling flowers of sausage trees.

Female cheetah, Supermom, and her two cubs have been around for some time; despite this being the perfect hunting ground for her, the sheer number of hyenas and lions are a constant concern. We watched her being “persuaded” by at least two hyenas while on a kill, and managed to escape expertly with her cubs well in time to avoid any physical contact, as the hyenas were more interested in the kill she strategically left for them. This would otherwise definitely be fatal for her cubs. In some encounters, she would risk her own life to protect her hidden cubs, and she would run to distract the predator away from the cubs with a “come and get me” attitude.

The hyena den is still very active with cubs of different ages. The cubs are very curious and playful, and it’s always fascinating to watch them as they are comfortable around the vehicles, though the littlest ones, while always looking at the vehicle with interest and keen to come closer, inevitably still stayed far away. The hyena den is not far from the wild dog den, and very often we watched the hyenas following the dogs on a hunt. The hyenas regularly try their luck at taking over a kill from the dogs, but with no success since they are outnumbered by the brave dogs. However, once the hyenas’ numbers increase, the wild dogs will know their time is up and let go. Which may be soon as there has been an increasing number of hyenas following the wild dogs on hunts to take advantage of the scavenging opportunities, and stealing what is rightfully the dogs’ hard-earned kills.

Many species gather at the waterhole, as it’s the only place to drink on the eastern side of camp, apart from the Gomoti River, and the western side of camp where the seasonal inflow of water has just filled up some large lagoons and floodplains there. There are always elephants going about their business, with young ones playing with each other while testing each other’s fitness, mud bathing and rolling around.

We also enjoyed rare sightings of African wild cat, serval and civet stealthily walking through the long grass in search of food such as rodents.

From Moalosi @ Chitabe.