News / Camp News

Kwetsani Camp - November 2008

09 Dec 2008

Temperature and Landscape
It is hard to believe that we have reached the final month of the year and what a year of contrasts and excitement it has been so far! November has been an unusually wet month with a total of 99mm of rain, well above the average rainfall for this time of the year. Low-pressure systems over the Cape pushed large amounts of moisture deep into the Kalahari, resulting in a couple of weeks of fairly cloudy weather that produced beautiful cool summer days. Even without the cloud cover we have generally had a strong breeze to ensure a very comfortable month. The dramatic African thunderstorms have also been very impressive!

As we reach the summer peak the bush is bristling with action, the heat coupled with wonderful rains has brought every plant and animal to life. The insects are out in full force creating new colonies, pollinating flowers and recycling dead organic matter to pump life into our sandy soils. The area in front of the lodge is littered with fireball lilies (Scadoxus multiflorus), what a superb display this has been! This flower is also known by other common names, pin cushion lily and the one that I really like is 'royal shaving brush'.

Wildlife
In the past few months there has been a completely different dynamic playing out in our lion prides. The original Kwetsani Pride, consisting of two spectacular males, two females and two sub-adults has, over the past year, undergone a huge change. A lioness died, and one by one the males have gone by the wayside; we are not sure what has happened to Freddy and V but they are no longer with us.

In the meantime the sub-adults have grown tremendously. The male who is developing an impressive mane and who is now almost three years old is certainly showing incredible dominance; his half-sister is two years old and is herself a magnificent lioness. Towards the end of last month we had the pride, now down to three, roaring at an intruding male across the channel. We had certainly been expecting this to happen, as it is high time that the young male is evicted to make way for a new pride male.

We have had nights of roaring, sometimes right on our doorstep as the lions pass through camp. In one instance we found amazing evidence of an interaction between a buffalo and a lion. We read the tracks the next morning in the "Kwetsani Times" that is neatly 'printed' in the island sands each day.

We could clearly see the urgent reaction of the buffalo by examining the footprints; it had obviously met up with the male lion; its immediate reaction was apparently to dart to the right where it had then backed itself up against a shrub. The lion pug marks were literally inches from where the buffalo had positioned itself against the shrub, no doubt the buffalo's lethal horns were seeking out the predator. What an amazing interaction this must have been. Of course a single male lion would not have considered attacking a large buffalo bull but it was clear from the morning news that there was a serious display of dominance the previous night. What fun it was to examine the print and decipher the nighttime activity the morning after!

Finally on the 30th of November we found the new male in our concession together with the lioness, they are apparently celebrating their honeymoon, something we are very excited about! We are certainly in for very interesting times ahead and are very happy to see new blood being injected into the pride; we feel sure that we will see a new litter in the months to come.

It is wonderful to think that our pride is about to grow and it is of course exciting to see a new male taking over the pride. It will also be exciting to watch this dynamic play out, as it is time for the young male to move on. We hope that the spectacular and tenacious young male that we have seen grow up in front of us finds his place within our concession; however it is nature's way to force him out to ensure a healthy gene pool.

Looking into the young male's eyes one sees a giant of a lion in the making: seeing the way he behaved towards the new male last month, when he stood across the channel not giving an inch, simply roaring back at the large male to advertise his presence and his territory was impressive. However, he will have to make way, his place is no longer with his mother, he must move on and establish a pride for himself. This he will only be able to do after a potentially lethal fight for dominance - such is the life of a male lion. And once he has gained his rightful place at the head of a new pride he will have to defend it actively, enduring many battles and many scars before losing it, perhaps within as little as 4 years. At the moment he is sticking with his sister while the new male enjoys the honeymoon with his mother, we will certainly be monitoring these developments closely.

As usual we have had wonderful sightings of Beauty and her cub, we have watched her rapidly growing cub eat the spoils of her skillful hunting, we have watched her ply her amazing skill hunting a steenbok. We realise how privileged and lucky we are to have such an accommodating leopard going about her daily life, together with her cub, totally comfortable with us and seemingly oblivious of our vehicles.

As usual we have had some wonderful activity around camp with the elephants still enjoying the island, a group of 10 buffalo coming back and forth along the floodplain and a number of single old males around the island. Baboons seem to muse at the chaos they delight in creating when they ruffle the open-air guest loo. Whilst we often curse their naughtiness, life would be so dull without these moments. Then let's not forget our permanent residents, the impala that are lambing at the moment, and the ever-present lechwe, bushbuck and warthogs that are seen regularly around camp.

And for the birders, it is a paradise out here. We wake each morning to a cacophony of song and we are serenaded as the sun goes down. While the wonderful evening birdsong gradually disappears as the birds prepare to roost for the night, it is replaced with the ever present high pitched metallic "tinking" and loud "puppy yelp" call of the fruit bats.

As we head into the festive season we wish you a wonderful month and pass on our very best wishes if you are celebrating your faith during this wonderful time of the year.

-Anne, Mike and the Kwetsani Team-

Browse our RSS feed page and sign up for the most up to date news as it breaks.

More about Kwetsani Camp