Dawn Perkins is currently doing a 3 month Solo Safari Placement at Desert and Delta Camp in Botswana

Lion at Desert and Delta...keeping a low profile (for now!)

“After their week long absence, and their return last Wednesday, this week has seen our wild dog sightings return to form. The dogs have been sighted on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with Tuesday and Thursday’s sightings being particularly good. On both occasions the dogs came right up to the vehicles, sniffing inquisitively in the air and at the tyres. The sightings have all been of the pack of five – there has been no sign of the group of three for the last couple of weeks.

We have also had some very nice leopard sightings this week. On Wednesday, on both the morning and evening drives, the female leopard and her young cub were spotted in the Twin Hills area. The same female was seen without her cub on Sunday, walking through the grass and right in front of the vehicle.

Another leopard was seen stalking impala on Tuesday close to Disaster Pan. Our guides speculate that this might be the same female leopard who has been visiting the camp at night to hunt guinea fowl. We haven’t seen her this week, but we can tell she has been around most nights from the noises of the guinea fowl alarm-calling at night, and telltale feathers scattered around in the morning.

The lions have been a little more elusive. The pride of two males, two females and three cubs which have been seen a lot in the last few weeks have been keeping a low profile. However, we have been seeing other lions which we haven’t seen in the last few weeks. On Wednesday, we had a lovely sighting of two magnificent males, one of whom looked like he had recently been in a bit of a scrap. They were seen walking across grassland, and heading down to the Savute Channel to drink, walking directly in front of our vehicle.

On Tuesday morning we had a fleeting sighting of a lioness with a young male lion, and this morning the same pair was seen, but much closer. These particular two lions have a very interesting history. Two years ago, Savute was famous for having a pride of over 40 lions which specialised in hunting elephants. This pride broke up when new males came into the area and fought with the dominant males of the pride, driving them away. When this happens, the new males will kill all the cubs fathered by the previous dominant males, and so many females with cubs will separate from the pride to protect their cubs. This particular female had two cubs, one of which was killed, and she took the other one away to raise him herself away from the pride. Now that her cub is fully grown, the fact that she is being seen again may mean she is ready to mate again.

On Sunday afternoon a lovely group of rare roan antelope were seen out near Harvey’s Pan. The group included several comical looking young, whose big floppy ears make them look more like donkeys than antelope!

This week we have also had several sighting of herds of buffalo. Buffalo are not normally seen in the Savute area, but the presence of the water in the Savute Channel and Savute Marsh has been changing the area quite dramatically. We have not yet seen any hippos in the channel near camp, but hippos have been seen in other parts of the channel and recently we have seen their tracks nearby.”