Excitement in the Delta

It has been an absolutely tremendous week out here on Chiefs Island in the Okavango Delta. From leopard sightings to hyenas killing antelope, and then to top it off, a threesome of lions killed a massive buffalo just outside one of the tents here in camp. The buffalo managed to run into the water just before the lions finished it off, making for a hectic battle between the crocodiles and lions. Not only that, but an elephant wandered by and, curiously enough, filled his trunk with water and started spraying the lions! He scared them off for a while, then another elephant came and started fighting with the first, just in front of the lions who were nervously eating the buffalo not fifteen feet from the sparring giants. After they moved off, about five or six crocs moved in and began to eat nose to nose with the lions (literally – their faces were less than a foot away at times as they chewed through the carcass) which was quite a spectacle. Both the lions and crocs nervously chewed, keeping an eye on the other, and every once in a while one would make a sudden move giving the other a fright and starting a clash. It was undoubtedly the coolest thing I’ve seen in my nine months over here in Africa, and I ended up spending the entire day sitting in front of that kill and just watching the action. Ahhh what a day, who needs television when you can just prop a chair up and watch lions fighting crocodiles over a buffalo carcass? Only in Africa…

Elephant spraying the lions

 

Scaring off the lions from the kill

 

Then the elephants started fighting, right in front of the lions! Look how skeptical those three look…it was as if they were thinking ‘do I dare look away from these angry giants to take a bite of my tasty meal’

 

Next the crocs moved in

Then the lions came back, literally eating face to face with the crocs

 

One of the lions tried to pull the carcass out of the water to avoid the crocs, but no such luck.

 

Confrontation between  croc and lion – that’s one angry cat!

 

All that remains of the 2000 pound buffalo in just 24 hours. It’s amazing how efficient African predators are, and how dangerous this place really is!

 

Out on drive, we spotted a leopard and followed it around. She hardly even noticed the vehicles.

 

This leopard is a movie star – she’s been the star of practically every documentary that’s been done on leopards

 

Sizing up the tree

 

Finally she found a nice place to rest

 

Later we bumped into a pride of lions with this young cub

 

Cub drinking milk from its mother

 

lets play a little game… who's mouth is this???

 

 

Ahh..tis the mouth of this young fellow!

Tis the season for a chargin’

After last weeks close encounter with Sargent, the big male rhino, I had another close encounter – this time with a huge bull elephant. As I was walking to the research vehicle, I noticed out of the corner of my eye a huge grey mass heading my direction. I quickly glanced over, only to find a massive elephant charging right at me. Luckily elephants are masters of the ‘mock charge’ and rarely strike their targets, so I stayed pretty calm and just waved my arms up and made some noise to slow his approach. Despite knowing (assuming) he was only mock charging, it still got my blood pumping! Seeing a two ton animal racing towards you with its two sharp tusks, stopping only within about five feet, is a pretty frightening and exhilarating experience! It’s really only those last few feet of his charge that you start praying that this guy is just trying to intimidate you and will soon stop, and yes it sure does get the adrenaline going! But I suppose I’m quite used to it by now, after all its almost four or five times a week that I’m charged by the elephants around here. I’ll just keep my fingers crossed that they stick with the mock and forget about charging me for real!

Big elephant bull starting his charge

When they charge, elephants flair out their ears to make them look more intimidating. I must admit… when you’re standing only a few feet away from them, it works!

On a separate note, this morning as I was eating my bowl of cereal around 5:30am, I remembered that I had left my water bottle in my room. I started walking back, and about 20 feet from my tent I saw several female lions dash out of the bushes next to me and run directly under where I was standing (on a boardwalk, only about three feet off the ground) and off towards the field just behind my tent. A moment later a huge male lion came charging through the bushes that the females had just darted out of, and sprinted after them. He was roaring like mad and must have been chasing them out of his territory, but I must say it was definitely the closest encounter I’ve had with lions while I was not inside a vehicle. To say the least, I was glad they were pre-occupied with running away from the big male (and he too busy chasing them) otherwise they may have taken the second to look up and see me walking right over their path. All in all, it was a pretty exciting way to start the day…

lions darting out of the bushes, and running within a few feet of me!

Here’s a short clip I took just yesterday morning–lions were feeding on a buffalo that they had killed the night before when some crocodiles came in and took over. You can hear the baboons yelping just as the lions take off

Caught between a rhino and a hard place

We had a great morning of rhino tracking, with a little added excitement. Our goal was to check up on a female with her calf, and after an hour of searching through the bush we heard a loud rustling through the bushes. Usually, if anything, the rhinos will run away from the vehicle, so it is unusual to hear a rustling sound – meaning the rhino is nearby and scraping his feat on the ground to mark its territory. As we slowly made our way around the bush, we found our girl with her calf. But to our surprise, she was with Sargent, the large, cheeky male from last weeks post. Rarely do we find the female rhinos spending time with the males (they meet once a month or so, and finding them together is a rare sight). As if Sargent didn’t have enough testosterone on his own, let alone when he was with a female, he could think of only one thing to do: charge the vehicle. He made it pretty obvious that he didn't want us hanging around his woman...It’s a bit nerve-wracking being on the receiving end of a charging rhino, but its all in a days work I suppose. Anyways, it added some definite excitement to the day, and on top of that we stumbled upon three different prides of lions, got nice and stuck in a giant mud hole, snuck up on a massive herd of buffalo, and managed to track another four rhino. Quite a day!

 

A short clip of Sargent charging us this morning

 

 

Just another day tracking rhino. Behind me is Bogale and her calf

A nice place to rest

Giraffes on the move

Desperate in a land with no rocks

Stuck in the mud, using sticks to get us out

Out and about with a rhino or two

Poaching has taken a severe toll on rhino populations throughout Africa, and today only a few thousand of these majestic animals remain. It is no wonder, then, that Botswana’s government has gone to great lengths in keeping their remaining rhinos – about 100 and rising – safe and out of reach from poachers. In doing so, they have employed the leading rhino tracker in the world, a Motswana man named Poster, to track and monitor the rhinos on a daily basis. Poster is based out of Chiefs Island in the central Delta, a vast and fertile island where many of the rhinos can be found within a few days drive.

I am very fortunate in that the company I am working with at the moment owns the only safari camp on the island, and I was lucky enough to be sent here for two weeks. This camp is the company’s flagship premier lodge, boasting the greatest game viewing in the whole of the entire Delta, and ranking in at the number one luxury safari camp in all of Africa. In an average week, the guides here will often spot over 80 different (not total..different) lions, 8 different leopards, thousands of buffalo, zebra, wildebeest, impala, lechwe...etc.... its known as the 'land of plenty' and for good reason. Needless to say, it’s a spectacular place! Anyways, since I’ve arrived, I’ve spent a great deal of time chatting with the legendary rhino tracker, and today he took me out for an exciting day of…you guessed it, rhino tracking!

Max on the left, Rhino skull in the middle, Lion skull on the far right

There’s no denying that this humble and amazingly kind man deserves all the hype – he can literally spot a rhino footprint underneath a bush from the back of a vehicle moving 20 mph nearly 30 feet away. It’s unbelievable. And not only that, he’s spent so much time with these animals that he can even talk to them and get through to them. It sounds strange, but what I witnessed today was truly shocking. Once we approached our first rhino, a young male named Sergeant who was concealed in thick bushes, we stepped out of the vehicle to get a better look and check on his condition. A bit anxious, sergeant swooped his head around towards us and began to charge. Now, I’ve heard horror stories about rhinos – they may look big and innocent but they are actually incredibly dangerous animals… and at seeing this two ton armored horn charging right at me, I could literally feel adrenaline rush through my veins as my heart shot into panic mode. But Poster stood there and in his deep, calm voice he said ‘Sergeant, that enough! Calm down boy, that’s enough!’ and low and behold, that rhino stopped in its tracks. I was stunned, but whatever relationship Poster has with these animals, it’s out of this world.

Poster stopping to record the coordinates of one of the rhinos

Then the two of us I casually got back on to the vehicle and drove off, spending the rest of the day tracking another four rhinos. On the way back to camp we got caught in a massive thunderstorm and got absolutely soaked from head to toe (we sit on the back of the land rover while another guy drives), but we were loving every minute of it. The rains arrived much too late this year – usually coming in September, but this was the first big shower of the year – so we reveled in the storm like kids playing in the sprinkler, literally shouting out and laughing as lighting crackled around us and thunder deafened our ears. I admire Poster, he lives a beautiful lifestyle, with nature being his office and his playground, and I hope to learn as much as I can from him before moving on to whatever’s next.

Poster and I, soaked on the back of the truck after driving through the massive thunderstorm for nearly two hours!

Just before arriving at camp we saw a pride of lions stalking a herd of zebra so we quickly turned around and followed their pursuit. We watched as eight lions fanned through the trees, spreading out to maximize their effectiveness and chances of catching their prey. Silently, they crept ever closer to the treeline, until they made one final push and charged the waters edge where the zebra were drinking. Alarmed at the sight, the zebras frantically shot up and flew with lightning speed (almost like they were running for their lives…) away from the threat, leaving the disgruntled lions at their rear (though one female managed to catch a baby warthog in the process). Although this hunt was unsuccessful, it made the absolute perfect ending to our spectacular day, and look forward to more to come!

this lucky lady walked away from the hunt with a tasty, albeit small, morsel – a baby warthog.

This rhino's name is Mogale, and she's quite a shy girl! or maybe she's just used to running away from men...