skimmer

Shakespeare and me are not the best friends so my writing in English could be better.

At the end of September 2006 I went to two of my favourite spots in Botswana: Lebala and Duba Plains.
I had chosen this time of year because of the following reasons:
At the first camp I wanted to see large elephant herds congregating at the waterholes. I was also hoping to catch a glimpse of the Selinda Pack again now the pups were mobile. And because of the tracking (from the tracker’s seat and on foot), done at Lebala, I knew if the dogs were there, we would find them. I was also looking forward to some cat action. Good sightings of leopards should be difficult because most of them are a bit skittish here.
At the last camp, I was looking for lions hunting zebra (or was it buffalo). Fish traps with the accompanying birds (pelicans/marabou storks/yellow-billed storks and all kinds of egrets/sandpipers and hamerkops) is an extraordinary scene I wanted to capture.
Because nowadays when on safari, I focus mostly on my photography and for that reason I like long stays combined with a private vehicle because you need time to capture a scene. I don’t know if you remember the pictures of the cheetahs (2 male brothers) killing a warthog which I took in May this year at Lebala. Well we encountered them at 9.30 in the morning while they were resting at a termite mound and stayed with them till14.30 at that mound (because they looked hungry so we expected they were gonna hunt later on). They made the kill at 15.30 and we were the only one who saw it happening. And I fully understand that not everyone is prepared to wait as long as that. The other reason why I always book a private vehicle now is the following: I like early starts (preferably between 30-60 minutes before sunrise or even earlier if I want to be at a spot a bit far away from camp) - that’s a thing which you normally can’t do when you are sharing the vehicle with others. Also it’s easier for birding, because normally the more people in the car, the more talking so chances are rising to scare the birds.
Lebala:
As always it was a real pleasure to see Monique and Harry, managers at Lebala. They are the kind of people I like when on safari and I regard them as friends.
Before I arrived there we made a stop at Kwara where I met Mel (she manages Little Kwara), BK (who used to work for Wilderness safaris in the past) and Steve Kgwatalala, who guided me last December at Lebala. We get along quite well and I promised him one day he would be guiding me again. And that next day, will most probably be next year. I also met Simon Blackburn, who was working his last couple of weeks for Kwando, when we landed at Lagoon.
When I was there the following guides and trackers were on duty: Charles and Simon, Spencer and Moeti, Richard Randall and Hector. So either who was guiding you, you would have had fantastic guiding because these guys know the area very well and can entertain people. Charles and Simon were stuck with me for 10 days. They were guiding me in May 2006 (my most memorable safari until now).

We had a couple of overcast days and some little rain when I was there. So photographing birds was challenging sometimes. Also the sky was hazy because of the fires at the Caprivi/Selinda (last day).

At the moment, hyenas are the dominant predator around there and I suspect for that reason cheetah sightings are quite scarce at the moment (in fact I didn’t see any this time). We saw two sets of different lions (2 males and 4 females – 3 young males) The 3 young males used to be 4. So we were wondering what happened to the fourth brother. We thought he died until we saw him on the last day. He looked quite skinny and had a nasty wound on his back. We suspected that that injury was caused by a buffalo, the main prey species this time of year there for lions.
When I was there the 3 young males killed a full-grown buffalo (probably a dagga boy (a lone male buffalo) and probably an antelope. They lost the first kill (antelope) to a big clan of hyenas. We arrived at the scene when the hyenas just cleaned almost everything. With the buffalo, we had some good interaction between these young males (+/- 4 years old) and 15 hyenas and a bunch of vultures. At a certain moment, the lions were lying under a bush, +/- 10 meters away from the carcass and two hyenas managed to grab the buffalo’s tail. These males, after charging for 2 days, left it to their eternal enemies. I stayed with this kill for +/- 10 hours (2 days) and saw some amazing stuff (one lion almost killed a hyena/one of the hyenas tried to bite the lion’s tail,…) We had a funny incident, when the hat of one of the other guests fell on the ground and was grabbed by hyenas. We managed to get it back (after 30 minutes) and the owner wear it straight away (which was a bit strange to me but well …)

Besides that we saw the other males feeding on a kudu cow (near old hippo pools) and a buffalo calf (near twin pools at the border with Selinda). They were also be seen together with the females at a buffalo carcass (also at twin pools). On another occasion, these 4 lionesses tried to hunt buffalo/warthog (if you main course is escaping you, go for a starter first). When these lionesses were hunting the buffalo, the males exposed themselves at a termite mound and didn’t participate in the hunt at all.

We didn’t see any of the lions I had seen in May. The old lioness (part of a group of 4) died and the 2 cubs, who miraculously escaped when sitting in a tree above a buffalo kill, with 2 big nomadic males feeding on it, were never seen again.

During my stay, Spencer spotted a leopard (just half an hour before sunset) but we didn’t see it because we were watching the lion-hyena interaction.

Other interesting sightings were the following:

A herd of +/- 1500 buffalo (seen on several occasions);
Good numbers of elephants but not in their big numers like at the Chobe riverfront/Linyanti due to the availability of water;
A den of black-backed jackals with 3 pups;
An aardvark in daylight (but unfortunately it drowned);
Excellent birding especially along the riverfront (we couldn’t cross at Elephant gorge to see the carmine bee-eaters nesting) (the ones I liked most were the following: hottentot teal/greater painted-snipe/African paradise-flycatcher/crimson-breasted shrike (the one I like to take a good picture of))
Snakes (black mamba and boomslang) – the boomslang was in a tree between the dining room and the bar. We noticed it after the birds freaked out. The black mamba, was first seen by Simon, half a meter from his seat at Mopane road. He asked to stop the car and we couldn’t see why (was there a cat around) and then he pointed out the snake, lying on the road. We quickly reversed and luckily the snake was not in an aggressive mood that day and backed off.. On the same morning Spencer saw another black mamba, who lifted up two third of its body length pretty close to the vehicle. Luckily nothing happened and everyone felt relieved afterwards.
I didn’t see roan or sable antelope (other people did). General game was mostly concentrated around the places where water was available.
On the 9th day, we saw the Selinda pack (10 adults + 6 pups) after excellent tracking by Simon. Just before we arrived, they killed an impala and the only thing we saw was the following: dogs drinking at a waterhole and the pups begging for food. In the afternoon, we saw them again at the same place and they only left just after sunset. Everyone was excited because they hadn’t seen the pack since early June and it was their first time then to see the pups.

We mostly started at 5u45 and ended the game drive between 10 and 11. In the afternoon we started at 15u30 and ended mostly our drives at 19u30. Only on two occasions, I stayed out till 21u30 – 22u. I didn’t do a full day drive because there wasn’t any action going on (and it didn’t look like action was going to take place at that time of day this time).

I stayed in tent number 3 – a favourite elephant spot. So a couple of nights, I didn’t sleep well because of the elephants browsing around my tent. At one night, genets were also jumping on my roof for almost 2 hours and were very noisy. Other regular visitors in camp, were hippos (aka Kubu). Although close to my tent, I didn’t feel unsafe at any moment (because I experienced it before).

At the 30th of September, there was a big party because of Botswana’s 40 year independence.

After spending a month in Lebala in the last year, I can say that this a very productive area and due to the variety of habitat (floodplains/woodland) sustains a good variety of mammals.
In December 2005, we mainly focused on cheetah, youngsters (wildebeest, impala, tsessebe) and summer migrants.
In May 2006, predators (lion/leopard/cheetah and wild dogs) were the main focus.

I have a feeling that a tracker can make a difference (on several occasions we tracked down the dogs, cheetahs and lions). Also it’s far more easier on night drives to have someone else than the driver using the spotlight.



One last note to end with: Harry and Monique are becoming general managers for Kwando and I am wishing them all the luck and I am also pretty convinced that they are the right persons at the right place.

Duba Plains:

I stayed 6 nights (should be 7 but my travel agent made a mistake) here. Once again it was nice to see familiar faces, in this case: Paul, one of Duba’s managers. I was one of the lucky ones to see him still at Duba because at the moment after 4 years, Paul left Duba and wants to do something else (maybe guiding in Zambia or Gabon).

The other managers in camp were Francois and Brigitte. Francois used to stay in Duma Tau before and Brigitte recently started working for Wilderness safaris.

The guides at work were the following: James/Jame/Lebo. Jame, who used to be in the business for a long time (he worked at Mombo/King’s Pool/Duba Plains/…) was guiding me.

Like already mentioned, we concentrated on “relentless enemies” (lions and buffalo) and birds. This is not a place if you want to see lot of general game because giraffes are very seldom seen and you won’t see zebra or impala. Also wildebeest are only seen in small numbers.

Besides the lions and the buffalo, we saw a den of bat-eared foxes, a caracal (daytime), three honey badgers, three aardwolves and a civet and lots of side-striped jackal (I have never seen black-backed jackal here).

The following other antelopes were seen: plenty of red lechwe (but not in their big numbers like I saw at Chief’s island and the Jao concession)/tsessebe/bushbuck/common reedbuck.

Before coming to the essence of a stay at Duba, I would like to mention a fight between two baboons during which one of the babies got seriously injured (broken limbs). It was abandoned and we saw it trying to stand up but it didn’t succeed. At such time, you would like to intervene, but you can’t.

During my stay, the Tsaro pride made two kills (one we didn’t witness and one we witnessed from start till the end). Both kills were made not that far away from Buffalo point.

It was on the fourth day, they made the kill I witnessed. In the morning, we came across some members of the Tsaro pride (only one of the Duba boys was around) resting at a termite mound. The buffalo herd was not that far away (less than 200 meters). After a while, all the lionesses joined the pride and I knew they were in for business (or at least they should give it a serious try). After some attempts (and failures), they still didn’t give up and kept on following the herd. We had to drive around because we still couldn’t cross were the lions and buffalo crossed. It was already 12.15 and some of the lions were lying down and others disappeared in the high grasses. The Duba Boy was lying down at +/- 300 meters from the other pride members. We were driving towards the herd, when we suddenly heard a buffalo struggling . One of the lionesses was holding it down by her own. (you can see it on one of my pictures). All the other lionesses heard it and came running to it and after 5 minutes they brought it down and start feeding. Game over, you should think. A quick and easy meal. Not of that all. The buffalo herd came back and the bulls tried to push back the lions, they came as close as 20 centimeters from the lions. The lions charged and the buffalo pulled back. Then the buffalo charged and some of the lions stood their ground others moved back a bit. This kept going on for almost half an hour and then the herd decided to move on. At a certain moment, we taught the pride was gonna make a second kill but they didn’t.

Then we sat with them feeding for almost 4 hours and witnessed some interesting things. The male came fifteen minutes after the buffalo was killed and waited patiently till the females opened the carcass for him. He wasn’t aggressive at all. Maybe he wasn’t that hungry.
One of the females disappeared for half an hour and brought 3 cubs, which she recently introduced to the pride, with her. You could see drama was under the way because two of the females snarled and growled at the cubs. They weren’t accepted at all. I was thinking that their chances of survival were quite slim given the fact that some of the Tsaro pride members killed cubs before. Actually, during the last years, only one cub (a one year old male) survived. He actively participated in the feeding process and snarled at his aunts like a big male.
This was the only day, I drove out for all of the day and I was the only one to see it all. Other people left that day and didn’t go out in the morning, others had to leave the scene because their plane was leaving.

A word about the Duba boys: according to Paul and James, the Duba Boys reign is almost over. Like mentioned in the update at the Wilderness website, they don’t patrol their borders that often, nomadic males in good condition are seen from time to time in the Tsaro territory and the Skimmer males could maybe take over (which wouldn’t be good because of inbreeding).

I saw them mostly everyday but only on the last day, the boys were seen together with the other pride members. Paul told me the following story. At a certain moment, the Tsaro pride killed a buffalo calf and one of the males took over but instead of feeding, he fell asleep on top of the calf.

So I am curious what the situation will be next April when I will be there again.

Two of the females had each 3 cubs. One set of cubs was already introduced to the pride and another set was still been hiding for the pride. On the last day of my stay, I saw the mother feeding on one of the cubs while the other cubs were hiding in the dated palm next to it. Finally they came out and they looked frightened. All the other pride members were there and one of the lionesses mouth was covered in blood so she probably killed the cub. At the most recent update from Duba, Francois mentioned that the other 2 cubs are also missing at the moment. I am curious if this behaviour is gonna change after the Duba Boys are gone.

What about the Skimmer pride: well we saw them in the Tsaro territory for 3 days (they came from Paradise Island, which still couldn’t be reached – one of the guides tried to cross but got seriously stuck and had to leave the vehicle). I had hoped we could go there if necessary but we couldn’t. (lucky for us the herd was always in the Tsaro territory but the day I arrived they just came back from Paradise Island where they stayed for +/- 3 days).

Driven by hunger the Skimmers ventured quite deep into their territory of the Tsaro pride but at a certain moment (when they were as close as 200 meters from the herd they moved back probably because they smelled the Tsaro pride). We saw them making several attempts but they weren’t successful because of the good defence of the buffalo. The day I left, they were trying again (around 13.00) but I had to leave at that time to Maun. I noticed that this pride wasn’t used to see lots of vehicles and some of the males were a bit tricky to get close to.

Fish traps were spectacular with hundreds of pelicans, storks, egrets,… I spend several hours at such traps.

I was lucky to sit next to the guide because the roads were quite bumpy especially the ones that got seasonally flooded. We mostly started at around 5u45-6u till 11u and in the afternoon we started from 15u45 till 19u.

I stayed at tent number 1 (under a jackalberry tree) and believe it or not again a favourite spot for elephants (this time during day- and nighttime). At a certain moment, my tent was surrounded by ellies.

I saw Beverly Joubert’s book about Duba but it wasn’t for sale yet (should be by now).

My thoughts about Duba:

I find it one the best places to see a kill actually happen.According to Paul they see +/- 9 kills a month where it used to be +/- 23 a couple of years ago (before the young males were kicked out of the Tsaro pride). A stay of three days is maybe too short to have a reasonable chance of seeing a kill.

Most of the roads were accessible although Paradise Island still couldn’t be reached. Last year in June, we had to drive to very deep water and from a photographic viewpoint I found it more interesting although the chances of getting stuck were much higher. October is normally considered as the best time of year to go to Duba but this year we had several overcast days and like already mentioned Paradise Island still couldn’t be reached this year.

I would highly advice to book a private vehicle here because of the reasons Lynn mentioned.

So this is the last trip for this year.

What’s next:

2007 will be the last year of going extensively to Botswana. From then on (besides one safari every year) it’s time to visit other places … so if anyone got an idea for a trip of a lifetime feel free to tell me.

Best regards,

Johan

atravelynn

Your computer must be fixed.

You're better acquainted with Shakespeare than many of us! And you are obviously best buddies with Frans Lanting!

Your account puts a story behind some of those phenomenal photos.

The hyena and the hat story was pretty funny. I'm surprised there was anything left to put on a head after the hyenas finished with it. If the hat was a Tilley brand, the owner can take a picture and write in to the company with a Tilley Tale. That's why I always bring two hats--in case of hyena attack or whatever.

So sad about the baby baboon. I can identify with your urge to intervene.

Good comment on the benefit of a tracker for night drives. How logical.

How wonderful you saw the wild dogs, especially after such a long absence. Were the guides becoming concerned about the welfare of the pack with such a long absence? Or were they regularly seen elsewhere? Six pups is a good number to survive into Oct.

The aardvark drowned? Goodness, what happened?

Exciting (maybe a little too exciting) snake action.

I felt like you were describing my friends with your Duba Plains report. Glad the one surviving cub is doing well and staying feisty. He seemed to have a great personality when I was there.

The lion cub situation is not encouraging. The level of fear that the cubs exhibited in your description is not typical for a pride, I don't think. When you stated one of the females had blood on her mouth, was it Silver Eye?

If one of the Duba Boys is falling asleep on a kill, he is getting old fast. I only saw the two males together one time as well, and managed to snap only one photo of them as a pair. It has sentimental value.

That's good you'll be on the scene to update us on the latest in April. I have a feeling there will be changes to report.

Your stats on lion kills now and from the past are interesting and point to the necessity of longer stay these days to see more activity. The lion-buffalo interaction you recounted after the kill
was quite intense.

I am shocked Paradise was inaccessible in October! Was that because of the excessive rains?

Great report and I bet you are friends with Hugo Claus too.

cybor

Enjoyed your excellent report very much Johan. It sounds as though you had a bit of every kind of excitement from buffalos being taken down to sad cub encounters. You didn't say much about the dogs though.
Your waiting nature seems to have paid off with some of your sightings. I appreciate having seen your photos first to be able to reflect back for a good visual.
Glad your contributing again as you are a valuable member here. Your writing is excellant, btw.
Thanks;
Sherry

KayeN

Hi Johan,

Some wonderful sightings. I totally agree that the longer you stay in one place, the more likely you will have some great sightings, and then you often have the time, to sit and stay with any of the predators for a length of time, without feeling as though you are wasting time!

I have no idea of what fish traps are? Someone please explain, as it almost sounds like traps are set with fish to bring birds there, but that can't be right!

I am also wondering about the baby baboon, and I certainly have no liking for many baboons or monkeys, but I certainly don't like to see them suffer. If it had no chance, why wouldn't someone shoot it, and leave the body for food? I really do not get that at all, unless it was thought that it could survive!

I also love to see the snakes, and I am always amazed at how many I see, summer or winter.

It is quite sad that so few lion cubs are surviving, that is not so good for the long time future of any of those prides, and it doesn't seem to be lack of stability of the males, though that may change as well.

Johan, about other destinations, I am a long way from going anywhere else, so I am no help there at all. I am still way too obsessed with gameviewing, and I think I shall always be that way!

It will be interesting to see how things have changed when you go back in April. It will have been a year since I have been to MalaMala, but I am back in December/January 2007, then again in March 2007 and then again in December 2007 for long stays of at least 3 weeks, and I cannot wait. The gameviewing has been exceptional.

Kind regards,

Kaye

thit_cho

Johan, great trip report. What happened to the aardvark -- did you get any photos?

I saw lots of crimson breasted shrikes in Kgalagadi in July (if you do a search for Kgalagadi, you can find my trip report, with links to photos, including a shrike -- not nearly as nice as your photos, but its a close-up).

Where are you interested in going next -- I have been to a lot of interesting wildlife spots around the world. Have you been to South America -- the Pantanal and Amazon, both in Brazil, are very high on my list. You can combine that with a visit to the Galapagos, where I have been, and which is an amazing wildlife extravaganza.

Michael

santharamhari

Hi Johan,

Fantastic trip report!!! Thanks for sharing.......

Seems like part of the Selinda pack was hunting somewhere else. I think there were maybe 4 missing adults at the time you saw them.

Also, i agree with you- Harry and Monique are the perfect fit at Kwando!!! They are both fantastic, fantastic people....

Your trip report shows how unpredictable every time frame is at any camp- for example, in August when i was there....not many lions in the area, which suited me very well that i got to spend all that time with that female cheetah. Any news about her from Charles or Spencer?

Rgds
Hari

santharamhari

Also, Moeti is a fantastic tracker....he was tracking for Custard in August and he found the kudu carcass in the swamps killed by the two mystery dogs, that we lost for a brief period while following them.....Richard Randall was also guiding during my visit (he was guiding another fodorite who was there the same time of my visit)

Your trip report brought back memories and i cant wait to return...

Hari

bigcountry

great report johan, how can anyone afford all these long amazing trips you take?
very sad reading about the 3 lion cubs. i believe we were the first to see them back in late aug. before they had been introduced to the pride. they were only a couple weeks old and we saw them hidden back in some palms. i'm worried that the cub killing isn't the result of the Duba Boys genes. i think its more about the mothers not thinking they can sustain the necessary feeding for more mouths. as you said, they used to kill more often and I believe the buffalo herd is significantly smaller than it was years back.
We also saw the skimmer pride and the males were definitely not used to the vehicles. they made me a little nervous as they became curious with the vehicle.

Kaye, a fish trap is a drying up water pool/hole that because its drying has been seperated from whatever larger pool/river it was formerly part of and any fish that are stuck in the isolated part are now "trapped". these trapped fish make easy meals for birds and hence turn out to be great places to get great bird pics.

santharamhari

Johan,

About non-africa trips.......i can say INDIA, SRI LANKA.(more than just wildlife here....lots of culture)

New Zealand (since you like scenary and land-scapes also).

I'll leave it to the others to suggest other locations....

Hari

P.S: Johan, i'm going to suggest MORE Africa (no surprise there......)

DonTopaz

Dank u wel, Johan! Your wonderful report is the perfect champagne that matches with the exquisite dessert of your photos.

Your approach to viewing and your interactions with the camp staff make it easy for me as a reader to share your experience.

lisa

Johan -- Thanks for the detailed report. My husband and I went to hear the Jouberts speak at National Geo last month and they showed clips from Relentless Enemies and talked extensively about the lions there and especially the cub-killing behavior. They personally witnessed one of the adult female lions killing another lioness' cubs and also saw a lioness defending her cubs from that other female as well. Disturbing to say the least. They had no real explanation for the behavior, but speculated that the cub-killing lioness' behavior may have been tolerated by the other lions in the pride only because they needed her to help bring down the buffalo when they hunted and that the survival of the pride depended on having all of the adults helping with the hunts. Of course, the survival of the pride also depends on some of the cubs making it to adulthood...(We bought the RE book as well.)

I would be very interested in hearing any more details you would care to share especially about the aardvark.

And in terms of other places besides Bots, do you mean other places still in Africa, or on other continents? IMO for wildlife there is nothing like Africa, but then of course Africa is very big and you could probably spend a lifetime and still not see everything it has to offer. Outside of Africa we very much enjoyed the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica, particularly for its four species of monkeys, rich bird life (including toucans and endangered scarlet macaws), pristine old-growth rainforest, and gorgeous butterflies and other insects. There are some very special ecolodges there. We also enjoy Australia a lot and will be taking our second trip there next year, to Sydney and far north Queensland (Queensland is great for both rainforest -- full of fascinating creatures, especially marsupials like pademelons and exotic reptiles like forest dragons which we were fortunate to see in the wild -- and obviously the the Great Barrier Reef).

But sadly, no ellies...

skimmer

Hello everyone,

Thanks again and I'll try to answer the questions tomorrow. (after dinner with my muse)

skimmer

Some answers:

The pack of wild dogs is known as the Selinda pack and was regularly seen in the Selinda/Linyanti area.

I can only guess what happened to the aardvark. According to the guides it was killed by a crocodile or leopard (speculation of the guides).

The female that killed the cub wasn't Silver Eye but she was one of the 2 females that didn't accept the cubs when they were at the buffalo carcass.

I don't know why they couldn't cross to Paradise Island. Probably a combination of the previous excessive rains and floods.

I can't say much more about the dogs than that the pups looked quite healthy. So maybe if they don't bump into other predators, they'll make it to adults. I saw them in the morning and afternoon and spend aproximately 4 hours with them.

I have some photos of the dead aardvark. Maybe I'll post them later on. Don't know yet.

Hari, the female cheetah you are referring too, had been seen in Selinda I think (according to the conversation Charles had with one of the guides of Selinda).

About the cub killing by the females - I was just wondering if other males are taken over the Tsaro pride how this would affect the number of kills (buffalo) and the structure of the pride. Maybe if the numbers of kills are going up again, they don't need to kill their offspring ... Just speculation of my part.

I would like to thank everyone to bring up some ideas for next trips. At the moment, I am interested in so much ... (India/Costa Rica/Ecuador/Chili/Brazil (again)/Canada/Alaska)/New Zealand).

If I would do some more trips in Africa I'll say: Uganda/Rwanda - Southern and Western Tanzania - Gabon.

Best regards,

Johan

santharamhari

Thanks, Johan...i'm sure the female cheetah gave the Selinda concession guests good entertainment. She is very very relaxed and loves attention!!!

Hari

atravelynn

Your other Africa destinations are on my lists as well.

Interesting speculation on the fate of Tsaro with the Duba boys aging. In the long run I hope you are right that it will provide a safer environment for offspring. In the short run I fear any young cubs may be killed by new males.

For non-Africa trips: How about Alaska? Pribilof Islands for birds, of course Denali, Katmai for bears, lots of nice scenery on land and from water.

Or Mongolia? Landscapes, Gobi, nomadic people and herds, plus the Naadam festival with wrestling, archery, horse racing. There are also smaller Naadams before/after the big one which is always July 11, 12, 13, that would offer you better photographic opportunities. I hope to see a small one next time.

Galapagos? Even though you cannot go solo here, as you like to do, unless you charter a boat yourself, I've found there is plenty of time for good photos because you spend several hours on the islands without going very far.

Safari in Brazil??? See this link. I'm going in Aug. 2007.
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34876230

divewop

Lynn-
Not to hijack this thread but that is one cool looking trip. I've always wanted to go to Brazil specifically to the Amazon River area, but a chance to see 'maned wolves'. How awesome if you get to see them!

The Pantanal region sounds like a definite 'to do' area! I'm going to explore this itinerary a little further.

afrigalah

What a wonderful, no-nonsense report, Johan. I thoroughly enjoyed it. No worries with your English!

Lynn- "How wonderful you saw the wild dogs, especially after such a long absence. Were the guides becoming concerned about the welfare of the pack with such a long absence? Or were they regularly seen elsewhere? Six pups is a good number to survive into Oct." As Johan indicates, this is the pack you saw during your stay at Zib, and the Kwando people would have been aware that the Selinda and Duma Tau people were having regular sightings.

John

atravelynn

I am glad someone was keeping tabs on "my dogs."

santharamhari

Yes, like you know the dogs operate over a HUGE home range and can be anywhere when mobile. Best to catch them during their denning period. But, chances are they may opt to den in a different concession next year or opt for the safety of the thick mopane. (but still i feel good chance to see them on a hunt, if they are within the concession)

Hari

skimmer

Thanks again everyone and Lynn, I'll have a look at the link you provided me. I will be looking forward to your trip report and pictures from your stay in Brazil.

It will be difficult to choose but we'll see which country will be the first to visit. I'll keep you all informed.

Best regards,

Johan