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Friday, September 19, 2008
Savuti Camp News, August 2008
Savuti Camp Team
August is a notoriously windy month in Botswana, and this month has been no exception with the dust devils swirling across the dry parts of the channel bed, stirring up golden stalks of grass, rust-coloured mopane leaves and spirals of grey Linyanti dirt. The metaphorical winds of change have certainly swept through this area, or perhaps that should be the waters of change. As for how this area will change in the future, we simply cannot say! Perhaps the water will dry up again under the unrelenting Kalahari sun and separate into distinct pools or fishtraps which will be a further huge bonanza for wading birds, or strong early rains could give the Channel the impetus it needs to push on all the way to the Marsh.
Since the rejuvenated Channel reached Savuti Camp at the beginning of the month, it has barely paused to draw breath, pushing on towards Mantshwe Pan, trickling and rushing into all the old, dry veins that used to carry water into the heart of the Savute Marsh. This development of course delighted the ever-increasing numbers of waterbirds which are discovering this new, unexpected aquatic paradise. Reed Cormorants and Pied Kingfishers are now a common sight here, and last week we saw a pair of African Jacana right in front of camp for the first time.
Every dog has his day, they say, but this month at Savuti the dogs have not just had one day, but many - and in the process have made many of our days, too. Our resident pack of nine wild dogs has certainly been making their presence felt, not least among our kudu and impala populations. Both the dogs and their prey have had to adapt to a newer, wetter reality in Savuti with the Channel flowing again.
At the deepest points, the Channel is over 2m (6ft 6") deep, and it is to these points that the elephants are drawn. While some of the more staid adults will remain on the bank, playful youngsters move out into the centre of the Channel, wrestling and sparring with each other, rolling over and submerging themselves and completely disappearing so that we can only see the tips of their trunks above the churning waters.
Death has certainly been stalking the Savute Channel this month, but the predators do not always have it their own way. On one night drive we witnessed a fascinating stand-off between lions and porcupines with the lions certain that there was a meal in there somewhere, but quite unable to get at it. Currently we have two very exciting sets of youngsters in this area: in mid-month one of our resident female leopards, the Rock Pan Female, was seen along the southern bank, moving not just one but two cubs to a new den site. Leopards do this frequently, especially if they have even the faintest suspicion that they have been followed back to the lair. The two cubs are almost certainly the offspring of the grizzled DumaTau Male, and were estimated to be around three weeks old when they were first seen.
The DumaTau pack of wild dogs has denned on the along the southern bank of the Channel and there are eight impossibly cute puppies there. Not only cute, but invaluable - wild dogs as a species are battling for survival, and northern Botswana is one of their last viable strongholds. We are being extremely cautious to avoid any potential disturbances. Wild dogs are susceptible to abandoning dens and puppies if they feel threatened, and so we have decided to keep the den "closed" for a while longer yet. We believe the dogs have already moved the den site once, and we are very anxious to avoid any human area in the vicinity of the den that might provoke the curiosity of hyaenas or big cats, which would surely kill all the puppies if they discovered them.
Temperatures are rising daily now, and the cold winter's mornings of June and July are just a memory now. And so we roll on towards summer. *African Jacana photo courtesy of Michael Poliza
