Chobe Game Lodge Environmental News

Environmental News from Chobe Game Lodge

The arrival of the first rain showers northern Botswana

November was as always a month of change since it normally heralds the arrival of the first rains, and the saying “water is life” was quite graphically portrayed here in Chobe. We’ve had a very good raining month with more than a 150mm of rain already recorded. This brought about a drastic change in the bush as the dry vegetation sprung back to life again and to the great delight of all the herbivores new green shoots of grass and leaves can now be seen everywhere. Not only has there been a drastic rejuvenation in the vegetation, but we have also witnessed the arrival of many new babies in the bush. Most notable of these is the impala with every herd having a little crèche of babies. We’ve also seen many baby warthogs, baboons and even the banded mongoose pack around the Lodge have increased their number by about 7 or 8.

Warthog mother with her new babies.

The rains always mean that the sightings tend to slow down a bit and it is especially the elephants that are conspicuous in their absence. At the beginning of the month we still had large herds of zebra and sable which have all disappeared inland trying to find new grazing grounds.

Large herds of zebra were a common sight around Kabulabula before it started to rain

A very unique picture of a leopard feeding off baby elephant. Picture courtesy of Mr Peter Hodes.

The above picture was sent to us by one of our guests, Mr Peter Hodes who was a guest at the Lodge on the evening of the 22nd of October. Mr Hodes and fellow guests went out on a boat excursion with guide Onkabetse Abel and managed to capture this very unique picture of a leopard feeding off the carcass of a dead baby elephant. The little one possibly died due to the dry harsh conditions we experience here in Chobe during late October and leopards are not averse to scavenging.

On the way into Sedudu valley en route from the Sedudu Gate we now have a clan of spotted hyenas that has made the culverts under the road their central den over the last
month, as they have done in previous years. We have so far counted four pups – two sets of two of different ages. The pups are however rather skittish and we haven’t been able to get any good pictures of them so far.

Young spotted hyena outside the den

The change of season have improved birding conditions however as most of our migratory birds have by now returned to the area. Among these count the woodlands kingfisher, Klaas’s cuckoo, Diederick cuckoo and Steppe buzzards.

On the 29th of November Chobe Game Lodge will be entering at least one team in the Birding Big Day event organised by Birdlife Botswana. For this event teams with a minimum of 4 members enter into a competition where they try to count as many as possible bird species over a 24 hour period in an area with a radius of no more than 50km. The South African record is 313 species, but Chobe has a record of only 115 – a number we are sure we can easily beat! We will report back on this event as soon as possible.

That was a glimpse of all the environmental happening of Chobe over the last month – we will keep you posted on all new bush news in the coming month.

Regards
The Chobe Game Lodge Guides.

Compiled by
Wouter Theron, Environmentalist, Chobe Game Lodge