One of the strangest sights we encountered early on our Day 4 Safari was the skeleton of an antelope that a Leopard had dragged up onto a tree branch, not far from one of the delta roads. Not being one of the top five predators of the area, plenty of other animals would no doubt have loved to have joined the leopard for dinner. Presumably the Leopard didn’t want to be disturbed so what better system to protect his food than to drag it into a tree and dine in peace. This example of ‘tree-dining’ was to become, as the morning progressed, a prediction of the future for one of the local leopards.
On the previous day we had encountered a small pride of lions that consisted of a couple of female lions and their various well-grown cubs. I am not sure if it was just luck when our driver encountered the same group reasonably early on this morning’s drive but their lack of interest in human vehicles was illustrated by them having a rest in the middle of a vehicle track and failing to show any interest in us by getting out of our way!
We pulled over to see what the lions were up to…whether they were just resting or whether they knew of prey in the area. We were watching and taking photographs for a while when suddenly one of the lions seemed to have spotted or smelt something interesting in the trees not far from the track. It was our sharp-eyed guide who saw what the issue was. He noticed the movement of a leopard in one of these trees and he realised that a leopard had stumbled on the lions without noticing them and quickly decided that his only hope of survival was to climb a nearby tree.
The leopard was clearly concerned that if he made a run for it, the lions might have chased him down. Leopards have been recorded at 40 mph when chasing down their own prey but Lions can reach speeds of 35 MPH so the Leopard must have been concerned that he might not escape a large hunting pride of Lions. One of the lions moved over near the leopard’s tree and laid down to keep an eye on their potential lunch but the rest of the lions remained relaxed knowing that their time for involvement would come.
We spent a good half an hour watching the Leopard and decided that he/she was going to try an outwait the Lions. By this time other Safari vehicles had arrived to witness this stand-off so we graciously gave up our prime position and continued on with our morning drive.
It was a busy day in Little Vumbra’s concession area in the Okavenga delta. The next group of animals we encountered was a ‘Tower’ of giraffes. I had realised earlier in the week that the Giraffes appeared to be the most curious of the local animals when our vehicle would pull up not far away from them. They would often move together to watch us carefully as if we were bound to do something unexpected.
The area of the Delta we had arrived in was a very busy place. There were lots of Giraffes wandering amongst the trees, ripping the top foliage off and occasionally moving together to discuss whether our safari vehicle posed a potential threat to them. If there weren’t enough giraffes around, we were startled when the front strollers of a herd of elephants arrived to work their way through the lower branches of the trees that the giraffes had already snacked on.
I always thought the Warthogs were the ugliest and the most untidy of the animals of the Delta until we came across a Bittern in a swamp to the side of our track. The bittern is a solitary bird that manages to look like a ‘down and out’ hobo as it creeps around the swamp, blending in with the surrounding reeds. If it thinks prey is around, it freezes in position with its bill pointing directly upwards, hoping danger will pass without it being noticed.
It was time to head back to our camp at Little Vumbura and along the way we passed the usual array of gorgeous birds prowling the waterways looking for sustenance. On this morning there were plenty of White Storks in the swampy territory. These birds have a distinctive red bill and black flight feathers. They dine on frogs, snakes, fish, Lizards and small mammals.
We were looking forward to our own last lunch at Little Vumbura before we were taken to the local airport for the flight onto Maun. From Maun we flew onto Johannesburg for our flight out the following morning back to Brisbane, Australia.
FOGTRAVEL 