Welcome to two one of the Kwando Safaris Monthly sightings report for October. This blog post provides updates for Tau Pan Camp and Kwando Lebala Camp and is a follow up to yesterday's Kwando Lagoon Camp, Kwando Kwara Camp and Nxai Pan Camp updates.

As always, if you have any questions about Kwando Safaris, please contact me.

Kwando Lebala Camp

A young female leopard cub has been the star of the show this month, having been seen several times on her own, and with her mother. The young cub was spotted clambering down from a tree, and trying to hunt birds, before becoming exhausted and lying down for a nap.

A variety of lion were seen this month, including one large pride with seven cubs who were feeding on a buffalo carcass. Tracks for the two shy male lions that have been seen in the Lagoon camp area, were found also not far from Lebala camp, but were too skittish to be seen.

Huge herds of elephants are moving continually to and fro across the marsh in front of camping – perhaps living proof that the grass is always greener on the side! Both at night and during the day, their rumblings can be heard resonating through the camp rooms, as the amble along, feeding as they go. Since the camp itself is built on an island, its only elephant traffic jams that delay guests getting to their rooms.

Beautiful birdlife in the marshes, with special displays from the black egrets – their hunting technique of creating an umbrella out of their wings to encourage the fish to swim into the shadow, is always a pleasure to watch.

Genets, wild cats, spring hares, porcupines, honey badgers have all been seen on the evening game drives. The rarest sighting was of a striped polecat – a small weasel or skunk-like animal that also goes by the name of a zorilla.

Tau Pan Camp

Let’s face it; it would be bigger news if lions were NOT seen at Tau Pan. Well, that certainly wasn’t the news this month. The resident pride (so resident, the camp staff wouldn’t be overly surprised to see them relaxing in the armchairs in the lounge) have been doing their morning stroll to the waterhole before moving off to rest from the heat under the shade of the small trees. Another pride of three males and three females have been venturing in from Passage Pan, and sneaking down to drink at the waterhole whilst the dominant pride is napping. It’s only a matter of time before scuffles break out – and a scuffling group of lions is something to be reckoned with.

When the lions frequent an area in such heavy numbers, it can be hard to see other cats, as cheetah and leopard normally slink around the outskirts and keep a low profile. It appears not every leopard follows the same handbook – or perhaps she was away from class that day? At the end of October, a hot Kalahari afternoon proved too much for one leopard, who decided that the crystal blue plunge pool next to the lounge was the perfect place for an early sun downer. In spite of a number of people being in the lounge at the time, the water was just too tempting, and she spent several minutes lapping up the cool water before slinking off.

Large fires in the Kalahari have helped reduce the amount of moribund vegetation that was building up – this clears the way for the green shoots of grass to grown once the first drops of rain have fallen, and provides a well needed food source for the antelope. As the long dry grass is burnt away, it also provides less cover for the shyer animals, and increases the chances of seeing some more unusual critters. Not really known for the shyness (certainly not around our camp anyway!), honey badgers are, in most places, difficult to see. So it was a very excited group of guests that managed to see a grand total of eight honey badgers in one game drive! Perhaps some kind of convention that we are unaware of?

Good birding this month as well… yellow billed kites breeding close to the camp, black shouldered kites (one of the few birds that can actually hover) and plenty of other raptors.

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