Safari Tails Pt. 1 - Chobe
Trip dates: March 26, 2017 - March 29, 2017
We spent 3 1/2 days on safari at Chobe National Park in Botswana and it was absolutely amazing! We saw so much wildlife every time we went out; it was a great introduction to safaris for Eric though I think he might be a bit spoiled now.
Below are some of the super duper highlights of our days in Chobe. You can read more about our safari experience as well as our stay at Chobe Elephant Camp in the previous post here.
On our very first day in Botswana and on Eric's very first game drive ever, we spotted a pride of lions! I had been on safari before in Pilanesberg but had just missed a lion sighting, so this was my first time seeing lions in the wild as well.
It was shortly before sunset, and the lions were just waking up from their nap and preparing to go hunting. The pride consisted of 3 lionesses and 3 young males. We watched as they all yawned and stretched (they're really just big kitty cats) before slowly ambling away towards the open meadow.
The females were the first to move out, followed slowly, and somewhat reluctantly, by the juvenile males. Our jeep was stopped on the sandy path near them and one of the males decided to walk RIGHT NEXT to us to get some respite from the sun in the shadow of our vehicle. Here's a video of him walking by that I took on my phone, so you can see just how close he was!
There were only 3 of us in the vehicle, the guide and Eric and I. Eric was sitting on the far side, and our guide had a passenger door, so I was probably the most exposed. As you can see when watching the video though, the lion pays no attention to us whatsoever. The animals in the park sees the vehicle as some big metal box and don't realize that there are humans (aka prey) inside the vehicle. So as long as you don't stick a limb out or make sudden movements when in proximity, they don't even realize you're there. Our guide was also telling us that you can tell if a lion is a man-eater by if he makes eye contact with you. But really, this encounter wasn't scary at all! In fact, the hardest part was for me to restrain myself and not put a hand out and pet this little guy as he walked past :)
We watched the lions as they all slowly got up and headed out, away from the dirt path and into open land. After the pride had woken up and moved on (except for one male who was still lazing about), we drove along the path to follow them as far as we could to see what they were up to. All of a sudden, there was loud trumpeting and we see an elephant running across the road and into the bushes. Shortly after, a little warthog came darting out of the tall grass with his tail held straight up high and immediately disappeared into the bush as well. Those two unwittingly crossed paths with the lions but only got a little scare and managed to escape with their lives. It all happened so fast, we didn't get it on film but dang, that warthog can run!
Unfortunately for the lions, the elephant had alerted their presence to all the other potential dinner options in the area. So the lions just hunkered down and hoped that someone else unwittingly walks by them or that the other prey forget they're there at some point.
Poor lions, probably no food tonight
As we headed into Chobe National Park our second day, we came across these two guys in the road: African wild dogs, also called "painted dogs" because of the coloring of their fur. These guys are pretty endangered, due to farmers killing them on sight to protect their cattle, so we were extremely lucky and fortunate to see them!
The wild dogs usually run in a large pack and are very efficient hunters. Our guide told us that they are probably the best hunters in Africa, so much so that when they decide they want to eat, they will eat. As much as we think of lions as being king of the jungle and the top predator, it turns out their hunting skills are nothing, especially compared to these guys.
These two wild dogs we see were sniffing around back and forth on the road as they looked for the rest of the members of their pack. We just happened to get there at the right time to see them before they disappeared into the bush to rejoin their group!
After seeing the lions on the first day, and an attempted kill (albeit a quick and sad one), I told Eric that we should lower our expectations for all future drives as we likely wouldn't see something as awesome again. Well, turns out, there was no need to lower our expectations as we would be seeing lions again!
This time, we saw the aftermath of a kill. After driving past a humongous herd of buffalo (seriously, there were buffalo everywhere!), we turned around a corner and noticed another Jeep sitting on the road. Our guide got out his binoculars and then said to us, there are lions up there - let's go!
We pull up next to the vehicle and see a big black lump of something in the grass. We also hear some growling and a lot of rumblings (GI issues? farts?) from the bushes that dot the landscape. As we sit there, we eventually see one of the bushes rustle and a lioness walks out from it. It approaches what we have now identified as a buffalo and begins to feast. Our guide suspects that the buffalo was just taken down mere hours before we arrived.
As we kept watching, a little lion cub came out of the bushes and joined the lioness in eating. They then headed back behind the bush and pretty much disappeared from sight. We continued to sit there, wondering out loud just how many lions were out there, hidden from sight by the bushes.
Our patience paid off as there is more rustling and out pops another little cub. Over the next several minutes, we watched as cub after cub came tumbling out from two bushes on either side of the buffalo. A lioness with two adolescent cubs also walked over from a further bush to join in on the feast. There was a small scuffle between the two lionesses on which kids got to eat first, before they decided that the buffalo was large enough for them all to enjoy.
It was a little hard to keep track but we think we saw anywhere from 7-10 lion cubs as they wandered in and out. At one point, we could see a little guy shoving his head into the buffalo's intestines and we could hear the suctioned pop as he pulled his head out, and the wet splatter of blood as he shook his head. Awesome, huh? There was also a super tiny guy that had half his face covered in dried blood - I named him little lionheart :)
Slightly gory but hey, it's the circle of life. Besides, the lion cubs were sooo tiny and adorable. And can you believe this whole time, there were only 2 other vehicles here? The perks of going on safari during the off-season. What an amazing sighting!
Speaking of cute babies, what baby animal isn't cute? Hippos aren't exactly cuddly looking, but baby hippos are still adorable! As we drove along the Chobe river, we spotted this family of hippos with a tiiiny little baby that was having a great time splashing around!
He was jumping in and out of the water, dipping down and coming up with a splash, and just having a great time playing. I'm not usually a big fan of hippos, but this little one was pretty endearing. Like I said previously, all animal sightings are pretty entertaining, from lions and elephants to impalas and hippos.
This next tale is kind of sad and one that sticks out in our minds, although not really a highlight. So the Chobe River divides Botswana and Namibia, with farmlands being right along the river on the Namibian side. When the water is low, the predators sometimes cross over to Namibia to hunt, which could lead to them being shot by the farmers. On the flip side, the cattle sometimes wander into Botswana and become prey.
Anyways, as we were driving along, Eric sees a brown lump in the grass and calls out "warthog!" (because he's been really good at spotting warthogs on the trip so far). We slow down and hear some sad noises coming from the animal. Eric and I look at each other excitedly, thinking maybe it's a wounded warthog and there's a leopard nearby.
Our guide backs the vehicle up and then he tells us that something is wrong. Huh? Well, turns out, that's not a warthog but a young calf. The water isn't super low while we were there but somehow, this calf ended up on this side of the river and got separated from its family. Our guide got out to take a closer look and see what's wrong with it (pictured below).
The little calf is pitifully moaning this whole time and our guide couldn't identify what was wrong. There weren't any obvious signs of injury, so it seemed like it had just given up on life. Its moans would attract numerous predators to it soon and sadly, that's just the way things go out in the bush. Sorry little guy :/
Save the best for last - this might be the ultimate highlight of our time in Chobe, and possibly in Africa!
Remember those lions we saw that first day, the 3 females with 3 young males? Well, two days later, we happened upon them again. They were resting in the shade of a bush in the afternoon, biding their time until the sun went down so they could go hunting. It's been a couple days since they last ate, so they are definitely hungry and looking for some food!
We left them to their nap and checked out other parts of the park before coming back to this spot a bit before sundown. We watched as they yawned and stretched - boy do they have some sharp teeth!
Here's a video as the lions slowly move out. You can also hear Eric recount our encounter with this same pride a couple days earlier.
The lions all headed out and plopped down in the field. One of the young males is the last one to leave the bush and is slowly coming towards the group when, out of nowhere, a warthog realizes he's in lion territory (I really hope it's not the same one we saw days ago because, c'mon, you're just asking for it now). The two cross paths and the warthog is off to the races. He's pretty fast and the male lion immediately loses him. He's now tired and spent and dejectedly walks towards his pride, who look at him and go, you're such a fool; you weren't ever going to catch that warthog and now you've given away our position. Our guide tells us how the three males are still relatively young so they're not very skilled at hunting yet.
There's a group of impala (to the left of the video off-screen) and you can tell that they know the lions are there, as they're all standing, ears alert, looking in the direction of the lions. One of the lionesses, however, slowly walks away from the pride and swings to the other side. We see it slinking along the bushes and taller grass and it's soon clear that they have a plan. She's going to try to sneak up on the impala from the other side, and chase them towards the rest of the pride who will then hopefully bring one down for dinner! The lioness is slow and meticulous in her movements, pausing and laying down in the grass for periods at a time so as not to give away her position.
As the lioness slowly makes her way behind the impala, it seems like something (maybe the wind carried her scent?) gave her away and the impala start running. Watch the video of the chase below.
So our sneak-attach lioness misses out on her chance to make a kill. Surprisingly, however, 2-3 of the impala didn't keep running and kind of stopped a distance away. The lioness slowly walks toward them; lions don't have a lot of stamina so she's already worn out from the first chase. As she gets close, the two impala take off towards the remaining pride! Our guide is confident that we're going to see a kill right there and then...
...but the lions are sooo slow compared to the impala and didn't get the right angle on it. And so... no kill, no dinner, these lions go hungry AGAIN. They had three quality chances just now and got nothing to show for it. Silly lions, you wasted all your energy and probably won't eat again tonight.
As we groaned out our frustrations at the lions (I mean, how did they miss??), we noticed a big herd of elephants making their way down the hill towards the river. There are quite a few babies and they are all ridiculously adorable.
One in particular is so tiny that it's still nursing and fits in-between mommy's legs.
As the baby elephants playfully make their way to the river, we start worrying. The babies have no idea what dangers lurk around, it doesn't seem like the adults are aware of the lions either. We're wondering if the lions will make an attempt at the babies if they wander too far from the parents.
All of a sudden, a large male elephant is trotting down the hill. He pulls up in fronts of us and gives us a glare, then seems to decide that we're not a threat and continues down to the river.
He meets up with the herd, seems to be giving them a quick lecture, and then proceeds in the direction of the lions that are still hanging out nearby, probably catching their breath still.
As the elephant approaches, the lions would slowly move backwards and plop down again a few feet further. This elephant wasn't taking any chances though, and kept chasing the lions back and back, ensuring that the precious little babies were in no danger at all.
With the baby elephants silhouetted against the setting sun, we finally said our goodbyes and left the park. What a beautiful sunset to wrap up one of the best days ever on safari in Chobe National Park!
