Animal Sightings
 

Does anyone know of a good website that posts animal sightings. I am planning a trip to Botswana next fall and would like to compare the animals before booking anything.

Hello,

Wilderness Safaris (www.wilderness-safaris.com) and CCAfrica (www.ccafrica.com -- look under the Wildwatch tab) both have monthly reports of sightings near their camps. The CCA reports seem to get updated a bit more regularly, but Wilderness has more camps in Botswana.

Cheers,
Julian

Both the websites Julian mentions are very cool, but you must keep in mind that they are marketing tools. For understanding about animals in the various areas, I think a more unbiased source is better. I thought the Mark Nolting book was quite objective.

Also you must note that animals move around so all of it is more luck than anything else. The only thing we found to be just "as advertised" were: 1) Linyanti area has LOTS of elephants, 2) water camps have fewer animals of any kind, and 3) game viewing at Mombo is even more amazing then everyone claims.

Judy

Hello,

It would probably be ideal to combine the two sources -- the book is more objective but less up to date, and the websites have the opposite problem. I concentrated on websites because that was what you asked for, but the Bradt guide to Botswana is also a good source for information on animal sightings in various reserves.

A good tour operator who is a Botswana specialist can tell you a lot about the reserves and what has been seen there recently, as well as yearly trends. I have worked with Nicky Glover at Eyes on Africa for my two trips to Botswana, and she knows the Botswana camps (especially the Wilderness Camps) inside and out. If you know what animals you are interested in, someone like Nicky can tell you where to go to give you the best chance of seeing it.

Cheers,
Julian

Mashatu in the Tuli block has a sightings diary updated weekly with an archive spanning some years. This format gives a much more realistic vision of what you can expect, rather than the small updates which tend to focus on the unusual and exciting, which even if they happen in your camp's area, you may not see them.

www.mashatu.tv

e-gnu.com (SA) has a good collection of safari newsletters:
http://www.e-gnu.com/forum/forum.html