Desert & Delta Safaris: Chobe Game Lodge environmental news

During the beginning of the month we’ve had some really stormy weather with high winds and heavy showers of rain - most unusual for this time of year. We recorded 37mm of rain in total which really only helped to settle the dust a bit as it had no real effect on the vegetation. The main benefit though is that it helped fill up many of the big standing pans of rainwater out in the bush again. This means the wildlife would have a bigger range where they can graze for weeks to come, since they have water available to them in areas where they would normally not be able roam this deep into the dry season.

The Chobe’s levels receded rather fast after the exceptional flooding season we’ve had during our late summer months. Most of the floodplains that were inundated during the last 3 months dried out again, and we once again had access to the roads that were also inaccessible for months due to the high flood levels. There is still a surprising amount of grazing available on these floodplains - we expected most of the grass would have died off after being under water for such an extended period of time.

The large buffalo herds have returned to the Chobe floodplains after the floodwaters receded again

The rain we had also did not affect the movement of game as much as we expected, and the sightings we had during the last month far exceeded our expectations.
Our local pride of lions seems to have settled down after a long period of turmoil over the last year in the pride structure. Over recent months we’ve had two new males moving into the area as we have reported in earlier newsletters. Only about four of the females of the original pride roaming our area of the Chobe riverfront seem to have accepted the new males. The newly structured pride is now often seen together with the four new cubs – in fact lion sightings were basically a daily occurrence over last few weeks. The cubs are growing bigger by the day and this means we see them a lot more since they are now integrated into the pride and moving around everywhere with them.

Lioness with the remains of her breakfast – a young warthog.

A very photogenic young male, the pride of our Chobe pride!

As expected for this time of year we’ve had a very high success rate when it came to finding not only lions but other large predators too. What is remarkable though was the amount of kills our guides managed to encounter. The lions were seen killing warthog, impala and a buffalo calf at Puku flats.

A pack of 7 wild dogs roamed the area between the Serondella picnic spot and the Kasane Airport for a period of about a week. We were lucky enough to see these highly nomadic predators kill on at least three occasions. They first brought down a waterbuck near the HATAB 1 & 2 campsites and on the second occasion they managed to kill a kudu very near to the Lodge. The third sighting was at the Sedudu Pans where the dogs killed a fully grown male impala. We actually had the opportunity to time the dogs on how long it would take to finish their kill: within 7 minutes all that was left of the impala were its horns, ribcage and a piece of skin!

The pack of wild dogs after they brought down a kudu near Chobe Game Lodge.

Leopard sightings were perhaps not as common as we would have liked but at least they were not non-existent. The large amount of lion activity in the vicinity of Chobe Game Lodge may have caused them to be just a bit more secretive than normal. With undergrowth opening up as it is right now, the frequency of sightings of these large cats should increase during June.

Leopards were rather elusive over the last few weeks

As we progress deeper into July, winter will strengthen its grip on us here in southern Africa. In Chobe this fortunately means nippy mornings and pleasant daytime temperatures. The bit of chill experienced on the early morning game drives and late in the evening should be well worth enduring as winter is always the most exciting time for game viewing and we are always rewarded with awesome sightings and experiences.

We will keep you up to date with the latest in our next newsletter.

Regards,

The Chobe Game Lodge Guides

Compiled by:
Wouter Theron
Environmentalist
Chobe Game Lodge