Mombo Camp News, June 2008

Home  >  Destinations  >  Africa  >  Botswana  >  Regional News  >  Mombo Camp News, June 2008

Friday, July 18, 2008
 
Mombo Camp News, June 2008
 
Mombo Camp Team

We are deep into our African winter here at Mombo Camp in the Okavango Delta and remind guests at this time of year to come prepared with warm clothes for the early mornings and evenings. The floodwater has pretty much reached its peak this month, with the brimming floodplains making for beautiful vistas strewn with water birds and red lechwe. With no precipitation, the interior of Chief's Island has continued to dry, forcing most of the animals onto the edges of the floodplains to find water and grazing.
An incredible lion sighting this month involved one of the Moporota Pride females and her three seven month old cubs. She was temporarily split from the rest of the pride and decided to take the opportunity to teach her cubs a lesson or two in hunting. She caught and brought down a young giraffe without killing it. For the next 30 minutes she left it to the cubs to try to kill, occasionally helping out as the giraffe got the better of the cubs. It was a real privilege for all that were there to witness these dramatic events.

We have had good sightings of both male and female cheetah although their movements continue to be quite unpredictable. The wild dogs have given us some exciting moments as they are always an unexpected sighting at Mombo Camp. As they occupy big home ranges one is never sure where these animals will pop up. It is the same pack of three dogs which continue to move into this area although it is likely that they are spending more time to the south east of Mombo away from the intense lion activity. A number of guests this month were lucky enough to see the dogs hunting, which is a true display of stamina as they followed for kilometres on end until the dogs finally made a kill.
Black and white rhino sightings were good this month and the elephant sightings have been excellent this month as these beasts have moved away from the dry interior of the islands and toward the floodplains. We have been seeing large herds of these beautiful animals, many with tiny babies in tow. Buffalo have moved away from camp at the moment, but there was a spectacular sighting from our own deck! Looking through the camp telescope revealed a buffalo thrashing in the deep channel in the grasp of a Nile crocodile. The fact that the buffalo lost the battle indicates just how big and powerful a crocodile can be!



One incredible afternoon highlights what an amazing month it was at Mombo. All the vehicles left camp and found the Western Pride not far away. These lions began to move and before long got into a buffalo hunt. Unsuccessful, the guides were pondering their next move when wild dogs ran past. Everyone followed the dogs on a long hunt which resulted in them killing the impala a fair distance to the south of camp. As the dogs were finishing up the impala there was a call of cheetah from a location the south-east. The first group to arrive was observing the cheetah when a caracal arrived on the scene. By this time the sun was setting and everyone began the drive back to camp. However, the bush was not done yet and 500 meters from camp the guides picked up Legadema the leopard and her two cubs! Whilst this wasn't a typical day it reminded us all of the unpredictability of the bush and how you can never be sure what's around the next corner.