While the types of animals we were constantly seeing were not exactly “lions and tigers and bears”,  the sentiment—Oh My!—was still applicable.  Besides elephants, which I have devoted a whole blog to, we saw an incredible number and variety of other animals during all the game drives.  It is impossible to describe every single encounter, but I will try to hit the highlights.

Standing by her kill. Sorry it is kind of graphic, but it’s life for these animals.

Cats:

We did see lions and lots of them.  Usually cats are elusive, having determined where people travel they studiously avoid those areas.  However, we were lucky enough to have several unique lion encounters.  Probably the most memorable one was our visit with a lioness who had just killed a zebra shortly before we came upon her lying in the dirt next to her kill.  The lioness, who still had blood on her muzzle and paws, was sitting about 10 feet away from the zebra carcass, resting after her efforts.  She had gutted the zebra, and the large hole in its belly was still glistening with bright red blood. Shortly after a kill, to keep the meet fresh, lions remove the stomach, intestines and other abdominal organs, in addition to brushing dirt over the innards to keep them from smelling.  We could see direct evidence of this behavior right in front of us.

Sitting their quietly surveying the landscape, including the peasants who insisted on taking pictures of his royal self.

Somehow the dinner bell had rang across the plains because eyeing the situation off to the side, another 30 feet away, were a dozen vultures and a lone jackal.  They were waiting to see what the lioness would do next, and more importantly, if she turned her back, so they could have a chance at the meat still available.  It was amazing to just happen on such a site and because of the dearth of tourists we had the scene pretty much to ourselves and could quietly observe the lioness undisturbed by others. After a while she got up and walked over to the zebra, trying to grab it by the neck and move it but was not able to budge it.  Shabba informed us that she was trying to move it closer to her pride, so it was not left unattended, for example, when she needed to get water.  Having spent about 20 minutes watching her we decided to move on.  Interestingly enough about ten minutes later, as we were passing by a water hole we saw her running full tilt back to the carcass, no doubt intent on removing the vultures and jackal who undoubtedly had moved in when she stepped away.  All in all, it was a special experience.

Lion with cubs strolling through the bushes.

We came across other lions as well.  Based on information we had gotten from another guide, whose path we had crossed, we navigated to a small hill sporting a single tree under which a male lion was resting.  It was common that whenever we crossed paths with another vehicle, whether it was a guided safari or private vehicles, the drivers would swap information.  Thus, when we arrived at the spot where the male lion was resting there were several other trucks circled around the tree in a horseshoe shape.  The lion seemed undisturbed by the sudden attention, thankfully.  We sat there taking pictures of him in all of his majesty and he sat there looking bored about the whole procedure, as fitting for a king of plains.   The next day, on the evening drive, the information being swapped from driver to driver was about a female lion, hidden in the tall grass, who had caught a warthog and was happily munching on it, ignoring, again, the several vehicles intently watching.  Shabba waited until most of them left and we drove in for a closer look.  While we were waiting, we watched the 100 member or so wild buffalo herd drift across the road in front of us.  We had run into them earlier in the day as they were migrating around the game reserve and had found them again, still migrating, a defense mechanism they employ to avoid being easy prey.  The lioness kept a wary eye on the buffalo as they passed by, too, even while she was eating.  It was not clear that the buffalo even knew the lion was nearby, as placidly as they were moving.

A pride of lions we found resting in the bush. On the other side of the bush is the river with tons of prey. Shabba located these by noticing the tracks in the sand and observing where a nervous giraffe was looking.

We had two more lion sightings in Chobe Park.  One morning as we were moving towards the river, we came across two lionesses trailing two small cubs, both furry and super cute.  They had to run to keep up with the long strides of the grown-ups as they moved into the shade of a large bush to settle down for some rest.  The adults were scanning the area in search of prey but did not look too motivated to chase anything down as the temperatures had already reached siesta levels.  The following day we came across a pride of seven female lions, again laying in the bushes, taking a rest until the evening when the temperatures were more comfortable for hunting prey.  Finally, we were able, because of Shabba’s sharp eyes, to spot a young female leopard as she was stalking through a stand of trees.  She was small, sleek and moved with incredible grace as she walked by.

Young female leopard walking past us. She was beautiful!

Antelopes:

The cats were present in numbers because the prey was prolific.  Everywhere we went from day one to the final day of the safari, we saw antelopes, of all kinds.  Most of the time they were in large herds, but it was also not uncommon to see small bands of five or six moving through the bush together.  We even saw individuals out roaming around by themselves, certainly not a good position to be in if a hungry cat wandered by.  The most prolific species were the impalas, who were readily spooked by the vehicle.  Their quick speed and skittish nature made it difficult to get a good picture of them.  On the last day of the safari, we saw hundreds of them grazing along the river, complimenting the hoard of elephants that were also present.  (As a matter of fact, that day EVERYTHING was grazing along the river in huge numbers, giraffes, zebras, wild buffalo, antelopes, and the elephants; animals galore!). There were several other species of antelopes whose names I did not retain, most much larger than the small, lithe impalas.  The variety of antlers, colors and markings, and sizes was impressive, and I am not sure I could pick a favorite.  The larger animals, reaching the size of a moose, were not alarmed by our large noisy truck and it was possible to get some great pictures of them.

Large herd of impala grazing at the Chobe River.

Giraffes:

Giraffes could also basically be found everywhere, in all kinds of numbers.  Frequently we found individuals moving in their slow graceful way through the trees reaching up to grab whatever leaves and twigs they could pluck from the upper branches of the vegetation they passed.  At times we saw them curling their long necks down to reach lower branches.  They were amazingly hard to spot for such a large animal.  Their coloring and patterns, which varied widely, served them well for camouflage.  Small groups of 2-6 also roamed together, usually including young giraffes.  They did not move single file the way the elephants did, but in an unorganized cluster.  We never saw as large of a herd of giraffes together as the elephants but I suspect the number of total giraffes we saw, albeit in constant small groups, was close.  Once, as we were driving down the track, we saw two giraffes standing in the road, leaning into each other like sumo wrestlers.  Shabba stopped roughly 80 yards away for us to watch them.  They were paying us no mind, which was unusual because the giraffes typically ran from the truck with the same alarm as the impalas.

Giraffe fight! No winner due to interfering humans.

Apparently the two giraffes were having a battle for dominance because suddenly one giraffe whipped his neck around and slammed his horns into the back of the other one.  We could hear the thwack of the blow.  Not undeterred, the other giraffe responded by throwing his horned head into the rib cage of the first giraffe.   They went back and forth, in a slow motion, thrust-thwack, rest, thrust-thwack, rest, for about 15 minutes. It was a very casual fight and at the end, as Shabba fired up the truck to move us closer, a fight with no clear winner because they finally noticed we were there and ran off the road into the bush.

Does this look awkward or what? But they still made it look graceful.

As we drove along the river it was interesting to watch the long-necked giraffes bend over to get a drink.  Some were able to simply bend their neck down and reach the water but others first had to splay their front legs out wide to get their upper bodies close enough to the ground for their heads to reach when bending their necks.  The position looked hugely awkward and usually while one was drinking another would be on alert because contorting their bodies to drink in such a manner put them in a highly vulnerable position.  I really enjoyed it when we came upon the odd giraffe munching away on the side of the road whose only response to our presence was to stop picking at the vegetation and give us a long considering look through incredibly long eyelashes while continuing to chew their last nibble.  Their gazes seemed to combine curiosity with caution, as if they were trying to figure out what kind of creature was in front of them.  Eventually they would turn away; food was more important than the answer to that question.

Zebra herd grazing at the Chobe River. Everyone was at the Chobe River the final day of our safari!

Zebras:

Like giraffes and antelopes, zebras were everywhere and could be found as individuals or in small group.  Also like the impalas, they also congregated in large herds.  We found several large herds along the Chobe River and it was a sight to see so many gathered in one place.  They, too, also crossed the river and it was not uncommon to see the zebras peacefully grazing alongside the herds of cattle that occupied the Namibian side of the Chobe River. Generally, the zebras were not startled by our presence and it was fairly easy to get some great pictures of them.  Quite often we found zebra, antelope and giraffes grazing together in mixed groups.  Shabba commented that mixing provided the best protection from predators given that different animals had different enhanced senses, thus working together provided the best chance of detecting threats.

One of my favorite zebra pictures.

Hippos and Crocodiles:

Whenever we passed a lagoon or the river became deep enough to manifest itself from the vegetation, we found hippos.  They were ubiquitous and soon became my second favorite animal to watch after the elephants.  Since hippos are massive animals, it was easy to spot them in the water, resting in a row like a series of logs, or alternatively, sitting totally submerged with only their ears, eyes and nostrils sticking out of the water.  They were very still except when changing their position to get air or creating a stir to bother one of their buddies.  Their loud vocalizations, grunts and muted roars, carried widely and, especially while I was camping, I could easily hear them off in the distance.  Hippos can be very territorial so we kept our distance especially when we witnessed them emerging from the water at dusk to graze on land.  The baby hippos were quite cute,  round pudgy bodies supported on tiny legs, moving quickly, but not gracefully behind Mom, trying to keep up.  In the water, however, hippos lost all their awkwardness and moved with grace and swiftness.  When they opened their strong, large jaws to chastise each other or play, we had glimpses of the dangerous tusks and teeth.  It became a bit of a game to “spot the hippo” every time we came upon a body of water.  They tended to hang out in families so even though we did spot individuals, most of the time, if there was one, there were more around somewhere.

Mom and baby munching on grass together.

One animal that seemed to keep company with the hippos were the crocodiles.  The hippos did not recognize the crocs as a threat so paid them no mind.  But along the Chobe River, especially, we saw many very large crocodiles sunning themselves in the heat of the day.  If we passed by close enough to disturb them, they slithered into the water without a sound, quickly disappearing in the water.  It was as if they did not exist, and we did not just see a super scary prehistoric looking monster lingering on the shore looking for an easy victim.  I had a huge amount of respect for the fisherman and mokoro operators that we saw moving up and down the river; falling in would not be healthy!

The definition of “unfriendly”.

Sunning together in a lagoon.

Others:

There were certainly other species of animals we ran across.  Baboons moved around in large families and were a bit more numerous in Chobe than in Moremi and Khwai, although we spotted them in all three places. Along with the monkeys, the primates have quickly learned where the campsites are and where people typically stop and take tea (in Chobe there were designated “stretch points” for this purpose).  Consequently, they came snooping for scraps and could be a nuisance.  Wildebeest were also scattered around in small groups, usually mixed in with the zebras and antelopes in large grazing herds.  During my walking safari on the island we came upon a long dead, but not fully decayed, wildebeest, victim to some predator or another. The hide was intact, but was stretched over skeletal remains. It was actually not uncommon to come across assorted skeletons in various states of decay  as we drove around, testimony to nature’s efficient waste removal system.  Warthogs also dotted the landscape, usually moving in twos and threes.  They were cute in an ugly kind of way and it was always entertaining to see them running away with their tales sticking straight up in the air like bicycle flags.

One of the few warthogs that did not run when they heard us coming.

A family of baboons scattering when we drove by.

It really was spectacular to spend so much time watching nature at her best.

Food from a day long past. All thet was left of a wildebeest. More than what we usually saw, which was just random bones scattered all over the place.