AFRICAN SAFARI NEWS

January yielded 90mm and the vegetation is lush and green. The month has been very humid with hot, cloudy days. The min/max temperatures for the month averaged between 19 and 34°C.

January has been a quieter month for Tubu. We closed the camp for two weeks to do some maintenance, taking advantage of the quiet and getting down to the necessary tasks that are not possible with guests in camp. It mostly involves a lot of scrubbing, cleaning the canvas of the tents, cleaning the decks and fixing whatever needs fixing.

With the camp closed for half the month the guides did not get out much, however when they did, they were rewarded with good sightings of giraffe, zebra, tsessebe, kudu, warthog, wildebeest and impala, many of these still with young. We have a small herd of buffalo that is starting to be seen more regularly on Hunda - they were very skittish at first but are slowly becoming accustomed to having game viewers.

Two of the resident lions were viewed on a bushwalk, the guests managed to have a good view of the lions before they slunk off into the bush. On another occasion a male lion caught a baboon in front of camp. The baboon troop were moving across the floodplains having fed on the trees in camp, when one of the stragglers fell prey to a male lion that had been resting in the Tsaro palm island. A mother hyaena was seen at the beginning of the month with three young pups. We have not seen them since and think they must have moved their den site.

The young leopards have provided us with some great sightings. At the beginning of the month a young giraffe that had been looking rather poorly finally died not far from the airstrip. The carcass was quickly found by the Motseletsele female leopard and her two sub-adult cubs. They spent four or five days feeding off the remains of the young giraffe. The mother giraffe returned to the site several times over the first few days, leading to interesting interaction between the feeding leopards and distressed mother. One evening a breeding herd of elephant happened to pass the sighting and they showed some interest in the giraffe carcass but quickly moved off.

We have had many elephant sightings this month, of our regular breeding herd and then several small groups of bulls. One young and frustrated bull disturbed a leopard sighting one afternoon close to Kalahari Pans. Guests were busy enjoying the sight of a young leopard reclining on top of a termite mound in the afternoon sun, when they were rudely interrupted by the young bull who proceeded to trumpet and chase the leopard from the termite mound before turning around to flap his ears at the vehicle. The guide decided to leave the bull to his own devices and move on, leaving the bull trumpeting at the vanishing leopard.

The pool between the camp and the airstrip is finally drying up, the final few Barbel are being picked off by the Marabou Storks and Fish Eagles - up to six Fish Eagles have been seen feeding on the same carcass of a giant catfish. Other raptor sightings have been of Pallid Harrier, African Harrier Hawk, African Hawk Eagle, Gabar Goshawk, Dickinson's Kestrel, Red-necked Falcon, Lizard Buzzard and Shikra. Bleating Warbler, Yellow-billed Oxpecker, Greater Honeyguide, Diederik Cuckoo, Carmine Bee-Eater, Blue-cheeked Bee-eater, White-browed Robin-Chat, Terrestrial Bulbul and Green Pigeon were also seen in and around camp.

Looking forward to seeing you out here!

Tubu Greetings,
Anton, Carrie, Moa, Salani and the Tubu Team

The heavens are yet to open up properly as we had only 72mm falling in January. The days have been very mild in comparison with last month with early morning being almost chilly with a thick cloud of mist hanging over the area like a blanket. We have seen a very dramatic drop in water and all the water channels are closing up fast only to be pushed open later in the year by the new floods. Speaking about floods we are all very excited about this year as the flood charts are looking very good, it all just depends now where the water will go? Will it flow east, central or west, we will see!

One of the most exciting sightings was the chase of old Vee (one of the local territorial male lions) by two younger males that have come onto the concession. Vee was walking towards a palm island where two unsuspecting younger male lions were lying and as soon as he smelt their scent he rampaged after them chasing them towards Jao floodplains. Shortly into the chase one of the younger males gathered some confidence, stopped and challenged Vee with the other male behind him, and so this became a game of cat and mouse with Vee being chased all the way down towards the floodplains. The unwitting younger males did not know that Vee was running towards Freddy who was mating with a female somewhere in the Jao floodplains and if they had to meet up the youngsters would be getting a big hiding. The reason for this remark was that these two young males were in such a pristine condition with not one scar and old Vee and Freddy, the professional fighters, look as if they were in a war! The two young cubs are still alive and well and sticking with the two females but we were worried that if those two big boys had to lose to the younger males the cubs would automatically be eliminated by the young males. It would be a shame if that had to happen.

Our resident female leopard has been scarce this month with only one good sighting. There is good reason for this as she now has a vast area to cover because of the water that receded so far. Two new youngsters are still along the Jacana route but very shy and hide away quickly when approached.

The baby boom is still on the go from last month, with exciting sightings for the guests. We now have 12 impala babies on our Jao Island. They have been very lucky in that the leopard has stayed off the Island since their arrival in the last four weeks! They are just the cutest little things! The banded mongoose have had their fair share of little ones as promised and they are just too adorable when running after mom constantly looking for something to eat.

The birding has been outstanding with the huge numbers of big waterfowl in the area. The waterholes around have been inundated with great numbers of Open-billed Storks, Red-winged Pratincoles as well as Crowned Plovers nesting close by. The Wattled Cranes and the Saddle-billed Storks were not far away. There has been good increase in Bee-eater numbers from the little to the European and then the Kingfishers were abundant with the Woodland being the most evident and vocal. With some isolated wild fires in the area it was amazing to see how the raptors react to the smoke and the fires, going into a feeding frenzy with the majority of the raptors being the Yellow-billed Storks joined by some Brown Snake Eagles and even a Fish Eagle or two.

The reptiles have been very active - we are seeing lots of crocodiles and water monitors. Snakes as always are few and far between but we are still seeing lots of harmless bush snakes.

Some comments we had from guests in the last month:
"Wonderful people paying attention to me and my surroundings. Lovely outdoor eating and dancing" - JH (California - USA)
"Your accommodations, courtesy, hospitality and incredible morale are only surpassed by the beautiful diverse game animals and the expertise of the guides. The staff here is world class, courteous and professional??Thank you" - JC (Boston - USA)
"Our highlight was the leopard with 2 cubs, eating from a giraffe with a full show most of the morning. Great place all round excellent staff, fantastic guide Victor" - P& M ( London - UK)

It is great having fun in the bush and even greater sharing it with people of the same mindset and interests. Hope to see all you African lovers soon at Jao.

JAO TEAM

The last month at Seba has seen some major changes in the environment and however much we expect them at this time of the year; they are always both welcome and exciting. This is a time of rain, and rain in the Delta means life. Early in November we saw the impalas drop their lambs and now at the end of January the young ones have lost their gangly legs and are beautiful miniature adults. The wildebeest calves were born in late December and they are so unlike their dark mothers, being a soft fawn, with long floppy ears, looking more like donkeys than wildebeest.

The Acacia trees blossomed over Christmas and the bush was full of the butter-yellow balls of Acacia tortilis and the creamy lambs-tails of Acacia fleckii whilst the exquisite red and yellow flowers of the Flame Lily were seen climbing over the undergrowth. Over all of this budding greenness came the millions of brown-veined whites, a butterfly that migrates across the Delta at this time of the year. Day after day we saw them moving eastwards, looking more like a snowstorm than insects on the move.

Mid-January saw the beginning of the major rains and with it came the mushrooms; creamy white, delicious fungi that push up out of the many termite mounds overnight. We collected them and cooked them for supper. Another food source after the rains are the billions of termites that emerge to mate and leave piles of delicate wings around every path-light. The camp suddenly seemed full of birds making the most of this feast - our banded mongooses, squirrels and local genet family all have potbellies.

Whilst all this life was coming into camp the collared elephants were leaving and although it is sad not to have them so close to camp for our daily studies, it is wonderful to know that they are roaming out there in the bush, free and doing what wild elephants should. Mafunyane (20 years old this year) has wandered way off to the west of the concession and when we followed him, having been provided with his location from the satellite collar, we found him in the company of Aristotle an older bull. Thando has moved back up north-west of Seba Camp, between Jao and Tubu Tree Camp, and was last seen from the aircraft in a breeding herd of 20 elephants. Seba, the youngest radio-collared elephant of 13 years, has really been on the move and almost visited Maun! He has been around 60km south-east of Seba Camp, a long way from home and close to the buffalo fence, but with a breeding herd of around 40 animals.

Nandipa continues to elude us since she lost her collar last year but we had a brief sighting of her and her little calf, Ntongine, over Christmas (a present for us all!) and both were looking fit and healthy. Since the rain started we have not had so many wild elephants around and the breeding herds have virtually disappeared but we do occasionally see some of the wild bulls and yesterday a group of eight wild males came right to Seba Camp to visit.

We have not seen the cheetah family or the wild dogs for a while but have had Lea (our lioness mother) with her four grown-up cubs around camp, plus a new visitor of a lioness with two tiny cubs. The hyaena den had three cubs in it before Christmas; one had all its spots and was around six months whilst the other two still had the gorgeous chocolate-brown coat they are born with.

So life at Seba continues to grow and change, just as it should at this time in the Delta!

15 December - 15 January
First of all, we at Duba wish all our readers and previous guests a fantastic new year. We'd like as well to thank the fast growing number of people asking for news and regular updates on the Duba wildlife population.

Over this festive season, the Plains of Duba have definitely been a "place of plenty". Buffalo cows are dropping their calves, turning the area into a giant "kindergarten." The boom has of course played into the lion's paws, but it has not all been plain sailing, with buffalo confidence at high levels after several retaliations and rescues of calves resulting in slightly wounded lions.

On Christmas Eve, near Makwelekwele, several lionesses of the Tsaro Pride were spotted harassing the buffalo herd. An attack was finally launched on a big bull. These impressive beasts are not easy targets, with high levels of testosterone and adrenalin combining to make them an enormous challenge to even large lion prides, fighting all the way until their final breath. This is exactly what happened on this occasion, with one of the lionesses being wounded in the process and leaving the male limping. Nonetheless, she will recover and the 800kg carcass represented a Christmas windfall for the pride.

The first days of January were unexpectedly successful for the Tsaro Pride. We had guests at the time who were on their first African safari and every single one of their game drives was highlighted by phenomenal interactions. On their first morning game drive, south of Lion Pan, the lions pulled down a buffalo calf. The whole pride, including the Duba Boys, participated in the hunt. Very confident with the presence of the two males, the kill was supposed to be an easy task and the pride settled over the downed calf, almost ignoring the herd. Two big bulls had different ideas though and charged back, horning one of the Duba Boys who leapt into the air before finally disappearing under a bush in panic! The young buffalo down on the ground had his spine broken and was distress calling. The herd bounded together even more, before finally accepting the fatality of the challenge and abandoning the calf him to the big cats after a long hour of agony.

On their second game drive, near Nwoka Island, a lone lioness attempted to kill a buffalo cow. Once again the herd teamed up, challenging her and allowing her erstwhile prey to regain its feet and disappear in the middle of the protective wall of horns. The rest of the pride then joined in the hunt and the chase started again, the Tsaro Pride managing to bring down another cow, which this time did not enjoy a successful rescue attempt by the rest of the herd.

And on their third game drive, another spectacular kill happened. This time only the lionesses made the kill of a pregnant buffalo cow, the Duba Boys observing from a distance. With two lionesses clamping their jaws over the cow's throat and nostrils, it didn't take her long to die and immediately the feeding frenzy began. Although lions are gregarious, social and affectionate most of the time, when it comes to food they behave like vicious enemies, growling loudly, fearlessly fighting over their meals.

And to finish on a positive note for the future...we recently located two new sets of adorable cubs which we hope will perpetuate the future of the Tsaro Pride. The previous litters have unfortunately disappeared once again, but these new arrivals are getting stronger day by day.

It's not all about lion and buffalo however. The migrant birds have thrilled all and sundry the regularly seen aardwolf's cubs have now left the protection of their den to live their own independent lives!

Francois Savigny at Duba

The festive season in the bush is generally always - festive! With the rains falling, the herbivores have plenty to eat - and with their babies dropping too, so do the predators. After a fairly dry start to the month 120mm of rain fell in three days to quench the area. This was the only rain to fall during the month but it was enough to boost the growth in the bush. This meant that game drives, boating, mokoros and walks were unhindered during the whole month, apart from one wet afternoon. Christmas was celebrated in traditional style with turkey and gammon. The New Year was celebrated in unique Little Vumbura style - each guest was given an empty egg and a piece of paper to write their wish for 2007. The paper was rolled up and sealed inside the egg, and thrown into the Okavango Delta to be carried to some magical place. The champagne flowed at 12-00 and we were all treated to a Greek New Year's wish sung by the Antoniadis family.

The month has been an exceptional one with regards to game viewing with large numbers of young animals being seen. The birding has also been incredible with all of the migrant species now present and being seen in huge numbers. The rains arrived midway through the month and the temporary pans and waterholes are all once again full and the vegetation lush and green. This makes such a dramatic change from the dry brown landscapes seen here in the dry season.

There have been some new additions to the resident lion prides with a total of nine new cubs being born over the last four months.

The Big Red Females, who are two beautiful lionesses from the west of the concession, have both given birth to cubs. The younger lioness gave birth to two male cubs in September. These two cubs are healthy and very much part of the pride now. The older lioness, which had lost her previous litter to the dominant male leopard, has four new cubs. These little lions are about three months old now and all seem to be healthy.

The "Kubu Pride", consisting of the three adult lionesses and four sub-adult male lions now has three new additions. These three little lionesses are approximately three months old and have been seen regularly with the main pride.

One of the highlights of this months viewing was of the Big Red Females out near the Hippo Pools. They had been feeding on a huge crocodile which in itself was an amazing sighting. The crocodile was very large, measuring approximately four metres and must have weighed in excess of 400 kilograms; we are still unsure if the lionesses actually killed it. Both lionesses had been seen along with the two older cubs, all feeding on the carcass over a period of three days.

We had been to the sighting the day before and had seen no sign of the lions although there was still plenty of meat left on the crocodile carcass and decided to return the next day to try our luck again. Not expecting to find the lionesses, it was a huge and very welcome surprise to find not only the two lionesses and the two older cubs but four new cubs suckling and playing around their mother. These lion cubs had never been seen before and they entertained us for over two hours with their antics.

However on the return to this area the following day we found the lionesses asleep but no sign of the cubs. It was only a commotion that alerted us to their presence. The cubs had been resting under a Wild Date Palm thicket. It was with some dismay that we saw the cause of the commotion, a 3-metre black mamba! We had our fears confirmed when only two of the smaller cubs appeared. We spent the entire afternoon with the lions with still no sign of the other two cubs and left just after sunset.

We all agreed that the cubs had been killed by the snake and without any further sightings of the lionesses or the cubs for the following week we resigned ourselves to the fact that the lion pride was now down to six members. Lion cub mortality is exceptionally high especially within their first year and although unfortunate it is something we all accept. So it was with lots of excitement that Kay arrived back in camp after an evening drive to report that he had found the entire pride including all four young cubs! So there is a happy ending to this story. The cubs are all doing well and over the month provided us with some wonderful sightings and as of now they are all healthy and becoming a big part of our safari area.

As for the Kubu Pride, they have been concentrating their activities around the Zambezi Pan area. The three new cubs were first seen moving around with the pride in the beginning of the month and have provided us with some fantastic viewing as some of the photographs will show you.

We have also had the pack of African wild dogs in the concession over the month and one of the best sightings we had of them was late one afternoon while following them through the Kgokong Loop area. They were looking for prey and being an open area it was a treat to watch these long-legged canines moving through the plains. They did have more company than the game drive vehicle - in the form of a spotted hyaena. The hyaena, realising that the dogs were hunting, loped on behind them almost assured of a meal if he could keep up with the dogs. The dogs had other ideas though and following the lead of the alpha male all rushed at the hyaena biting him on the rear and badgering him. All the hyaena could do was try and protect his rather vulnerable behind by backing up against a large termite mound and fending of the nimble dogs with vicious growls and its powerful jaws.

The male cheetah has been seen regularly and has been relishing the baby boom in the bush at the moment. He was seen feeding on impala lambs, tsessebe calves and a wildebeest calf during the month. It is always a great sighting to see this graceful cat sitting on a termite mound scanning the horizon for a meal.

As mentioned before the birding has been amazing, we have had a number of Pel's Fishing Owl sightings over the month including seeing three in 24 hours. These large ginger owls are very secretive and a great tick on any birder's list. We have also had large numbers of Wattled Cranes and Slaty Egrets moving around the drying channels foraging for food. One of the birding highlights was the presence of a Rosy-Throated Longclaw, which we managed to see on three different occasions. The diversity of birdlife in the area was shown when tallying up the number of birds seen during a three night stay by guests who had seen 160 different birds.

All in all a great month and with the renovations happening early on in the New Year Little Vumbura can only get better and better! Season Greetings from the Little Vumbura Guiding Team

Early January:
On the 6th of January 2007, the last guests left Little Vumbura for the last time - their will be no arrivals until April. Two days later, it was impossible not to shed a tear for this amazing camp that so many Wilderness Safaris employees have called home over the last 9 years. The building team moved in and due to the fact that all WS camps are built with minimal permanent structures, the camp was demolished in no time. However, all sites were impressively cleared of all foreign material and the new Little Vumbura is growing fast. Watch this space for further progress.

Best wishes for 2007,
Rohan, Molly, Dardley and Eva

New Year greetings from an alive and buzzing Rocktail Bay Lodge!

We have had the most fabulous start to 2007: Marvellous sightings of mother turtles, an abundance of adoptions, and our most special event of the month, of course, our first glimpses of adorable Loggerhead hatchlings!

Gugu spotted our first nest of hatching Loggerhead babies on the 7th of January, just south of Rocktail Bay at pole 56. This is much earlier than last year, when we only spotted our first hatchlings on the 19th of January. Since then we have seen Loggerhead hatchlings from a total of 18 nests. We also came across a Leatherback nest that had already hatched, and all that remained of the hatchlings were their tiny little tracks heading seaward. Seeing these tiny little beings just makes you wonder how ANY of them survive out there in that big rough ocean - it is truly only the magic of Mother Nature.

While some eggs were already hatching, plenty of mothers were still coming up to lay their eggs. The first drive of the year was a very wet and stormy one, but this did not deter one little Loggerhead from coming up to lay her eggs. The group of guests looked on as Mbongeni measured the first turtle of 2007. On closer inspection, Mbongeni saw that she had already been tagged with tag number ZARR555, and she measured 83cm long by 62cm wide. On arrival back at the lodge, we looked into our data and found that she had been tagged on the 30th of December 2006. Unbelievably, on the night of the 3rd of January, who should we bump into again nesting on the beach - ZARR555. Amazingly, this turtle was found to have successfully nested three times within five days - that's a lot of work for one mother! The team here at Rocktail have nicknamed her "Busy Bee", unofficially however as she has not been adopted yet.

Overall through the season, we have had an amazing interest in our 'Adopt a Turtle' project, where 68 turtles have found loving families. We still have many turtles, such as 'Busy Bee', waiting to be adopted of course and if any of you are interested in adopting a Rocktail Leatherback or Loggerhead Turtle, see the details at the bottom of the newsletter.

Our largest Leatherback of the month was spotted in the wee hours of the morning on the 26th of January. The time was 03H55 to be exact when Gugu and Chris came across her on Lala Nek beach. Gugu micro-chipped and then measured her - an amazing 1.73m long by 1.2m wide. That's one big mother!

Our smallest turtle of the month was seen on the 11th of January, also in the early hours of the morning, at 03H25 to be exact. Gugu was also the researcher that night, and they came across her while driving down Mabibi beach. Gugu tagged her, and then measured her in at 70cm long by 59cm wide. Maria, Connor, Darren and Niamh Madden totally fell in love with her, and adopted her and christened her Eabha (the Irish equivalent of Eva).

In total over the month of January 2007, we have had 51 successful Loggerhead nests, as well as 16 successful Leatherback nests. For the season, up until the end of January we have seen and recorded 230 successful Loggerhead nests and 78 successful Leatherback nests. We also had a total of 17 turtles adopted through the month of January, and we would like to thank everyone who welcomed a turtle into their family.

We are now moving into the quieter time of the season. Sightings of mother turtles should start slowing down, while sightings of hatchlings should increase.

Here's hoping you all have a fantastic month,
Andrew, Shannon, Simon, Gugu, Mbongeni and
The Rocktail Bay Lodge Team

Andrew in the Hide

I am frequently asked by guests if in my wildlife veterinary work it is satisfying to treat individual animals. The answer must be 'yes' but the fact of the matter is that in the wildlife sphere, we don't look so much at the individual but at the population. Success is measured not by recovery of an individual, but rather at the contribution of that individual to the herd, flock, pride, clan or group it belongs to. These results are not immediate but you definitely reap what you sow and just the other day this was made graphically clear to me at Ongava Game Reserve.

Andrew is an Irishman and he and his wife were spending their last night in Namibia at Ongava Lodge. Their Namibian travels had taken them to Serra Cafema, Sossusvlei and Damaraland Camp and the next day I was flying them to Windhoek International. He beamed excitedly, as only the Irish can do, about the trip so far and how he wanted to take some iced water, a bottle of white wine and himself into the hide at Ongava Lodge waterhole and pass the late afternoon away. Leon, the GM at Ongava, walked him into the hide and returned to where I and other guests were sitting on the deck overlooking the waterhole and the hide. It was a calm peaceful African afternoon and soon the Double-banded Sandgrouse would be appearing with their sunset chorus. The little hide looked tiny, inconsequential and peaceful; we could almost hear the ice tinkle in the glass as Andrew poured his sundowner.

Then everything started to change. Appearing out of the Mopane and almost brushing against the hide, a white rhino cow and calf noisily strutted to the waterhole. We all started to imagine what Andrew was doing - perhaps knocking his glass over as his view was obscured by a massive piece of rhino hide. With typical rhino antics the cow and calf put on a theatrical display before melting into the Mopane once again. Two giraffe also watched the rhino and on their departure approached the water to drink - but alas it was not to be. Three black rhino stumbled in chasing the giraffe off a few metres. Then two more black rhino appeared and both had small calves. Seven black rhino in one frame and unbelievably a half-size sub-adult calf then also joined the seven. From the deck we were able to identify the rhino and simply watch a spectacle that is probably one of the rarest scenes on Earth.

Also watching was a small herd of black-faced impala, three warthog, two Spotted Eagle Owls and around 500 Double-banded Sandgrouse, all displaced by eight black rhino! Andrew was of course also watching - from only a few metres away, a voyeur to an event very few ever see.

It then struck me. Over the past decade and a half I had caught, handled or treated almost every rhino in front of us. Some had been wounded, some caught in wire, some simply needed to be marked and some just seemed unwell. But what we were seeing was not the efforts deployed on individuals, but the true success of a population. In front of us three small rhinos jumped, played and emitted catlike calls. Other wildlife large and small waited their turn to drink and in the distance, to complete a perfect evening, two lions roared. A stable ecosystem prevailed and that is what every effort in the past was aimed at.

The flight to Windhoek International the next morning ended a trip like no other for Andrew and his wife. Their smiles were from ear to ear when I said farewell at the departure terminal and I knew instinctively that we had not seen the last of them in the wilderness areas of Namibia, even if some Irish luck had something to do with it.

Conrad Brain
Ecologist, Wilderness Safaris Namibia