The Big 5 predators in 5' and wild dogs
It was 27th Oct in 2017, we were travelling through Southern Africa on a road-trip with TIVA travels through Namibia and Botswana. It was not our first African adventure but this journey certainly had stretched my comfort zone.
We were camping in Third Bridge campsite in Moremi NP in the Okavango delta in Botswana. I tend to sleep short (the elephants around the tent might have something to do with that) and wake with the calls of the African bush in early morning. Carefully and aware of the surrounding I enjoy a warm cup of coffee in the fresh morning air. Around 6 am we head off for a game drive in an open safari vehicle. Rodgers, our guide is determined to find interesting wildlife. It would be great to find some African wild dogs, these animals are very rare but very interesting to observe as they hunt as an organised pack. This makes these social animals highly efficient.
We are a good 1,5 hours into our game drive when we see a group of impala all looking in the same direction, we know something is going on. Predators can often we found by looking at the behaviour of other wildlife. And yes we find multiple tracks, the dogs must be close ! Rodgers agains "reads the bush" and we find the dogs when there they are just finishing off an impala meal. One of the individuals is still chewing on the skull of an unfortunate impala.
The dogs are social animals, they share meals. They are not the biggest predators but because of their numbers and how they collaborate their success rate while hunting is very high. We declared our morning game drive a success.
The next day we went off to find the dogs again, would they have more in store for us ? We did not know that Moremi would have something special for us today. Suddenly the king of the jungle walks out of the bushes right into the sandy road in front of us. He does not pay much attention to our presence. I am humbled by the presence of this male lion in the prime of his life.
Then suddenly Rodgers is alerted, we found the most elusive cat in Africa, the leopard. Suddenly the king became a 2nd priority. The leopard is running from tree to tree probably aware of the presence of the king. He climbs elegantly into the tree and takes rest in a safe place. Time for me to make some pictures, the leopard then makes eye contact and and a shiver runs down my spine.
I see our guide is relaxed, he knows there are happy customers in the back of his open safari vehicle. In these 5' this game drive was declared a complete success.
And yes we did find the dogs again but my mind was imprinted with the intense 5' with the 2 predators of the big 5 of Africa.
These events are written into my memory and on the card of the camera.
Canon 1DxMk2 EF100-400mm+1.4xIII
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