Ring neck dove call – at dawn the doves call “work harder” and then at 4pm they say “drink lager”
Lions – 2 sightings, first in a light drizzle as we set off in search of the leopard, saw 3 strolling past us and heading to the riverbed to hang out and wait for feeding opportunities which are plentiful this time of the year. Second group of lions was a beautiful sighting of a pride of 6 at a watering hole, two lions and 4 lionesses, slightly playful at times otherwise napping…
Cheetah – highlight of our trip. Young male cheetah out hunting – great spot by Mohammed, followed him for some time until he lost interest in a kill and settle down. Not long after found a mother and her two cubs about 8 months old, followed them for about 2 hours and watched her stalk and hunt a gazelle in the middle of a herd of wildebeest and dazzle of zebra. Observed an interesting behavior, the wildebeest are on high alert and follow the cheetah but every time one of the cubs turns around and does a mock chase, they scatter, hilarious to watch. Well, the cheetah was unlucky, the gazelle picked up on the hunt and as mom took off so did the gazelle. All you saw was a white streak – the gazelle was running at full pace; they can go up to 97km/h. The cheetah aborted her hunt. She did consider a second attempt but there were too many hyenas around and they would steal her kill. Another day! Did find a single young male cheetah feeding on a baby wildebeest (did not see the kill).
Journey of giraffe – saw about 8 feeding, including a baby.
Clan of Hyenas (also called a cackle) – they were everywhere, feeding on carcasses, scavenging, waiting for other predators to make a kill and wandering around, largest group we saw was 13.
Bat eared fox – found two different dens, first one we got to watch them grooming and sunning themselves after the rain, second family was too skittish and all 5 took off.
Black backed and Golden Jackals – they were dotted all over the plains, they travel in pairs and are magnificent in the light.
Kori bustard – large predator bird, majestic among the plains.
