The plan for the day was to head south for Bodumatau, hoping to locate the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) coalition, whom have not been seen for the past 2 weeks. The plan was quickly altered when we spotted a large herd of buffalo (Syncerus caffer). While we sat and watched the herd, lions (Panthera leo) started to roar from very nearby. It was the Xakanaxa pride and they were scanning the herd.





Unbeknown to the lions, they were between the herd and 3 buffalo which had lagged behind. The buffalo were walking straight towards the lions. The young lioness was the first to spot the buffalo and as she started to move the rest of the pride saw what she was after and the hunt began. It was not a co-ordinated hunt and the buffalo saw the lions coming and immediately bolted across the floodplain, with the lions in hot pursuit.
We struggled to keep up with the hunt and eventually lost sight of the buffalo. Following the lions, we realised that they were heading for the infamous ‘Mokoro Road’, with the chance of possibly seeing the pride bringing down a buffalo, we continued carefully. This road is extremely treacherous and without warning the ground gave way below the vehicle, leaving us stuck to the chassis. It was over 3 hours before we freed ourselves from the muddy trap.






The lions and buffalo were now truly out of reach, so we returned to camp to get a change of clothes and headed for the northern area of Xakanaxa. Following up squirrel and francolin alarm calls, we spotted a leopard (Panthera pardus). He was resting in a tree and looked like being active. Shortly afterwards he descended and headed into thick bush. We followed him as far as we could, but eventually lost him. After sitting patiently for about an hour and not having any further sight or sound, we decided to start heading back for the camp.





On route, we saw a number of game drives, but could not see what they were watching in the grass. We moved closer and to our amazement, it was the coalition of cheetah which we had started the day searching for. Their stomachs were bulging and they were resting and digesting an earlier meal. We stayed with them still after sunset.
- Jason Loughran

While sitting with the Xakanaxa pride on Mboma Island, there was a radio call from a DDS game drive. A leopard (Panthera pardus) had been sighted and was sleeping in a tree. There was a good chance that the leopard would not be mobile and so we left the lions and headed for the location of the leopard.





It was a young male, whom I did not recognise. The leopard was perfectly camouflaged in the branches of a rain-tree (Lonchocarpus capassa / Philenoptera violacea). He was sleeping but also kept a keen eye on the passing herds of impala (Aepyceros melampus), in the hope that they would walk below him. The impala must have sensed that something was up and constantly gave this tree a wide birth. Eventually the impala moved out of sight and the leopard made itself comfortable, spending the rest of the day lounging in the tree-top shade.






It was late in the afternoon when he started to awake. It was incredible to see how easily and silently he moved down the tree trunk and into the long grass. The leopard was still very much in hunting mode and came close on a couple of occasions to catching an impala. Once his cover had been blown and all the impala in the area knew he was there, he crossed a deep water channel and continued hunting into the night.
- Jason Loughran

The Xakanaxa pride have not been vocal over the past couple of days, making it harder to locate them. This morning was a different story and leaving camp we headed straight for where we had heard roaring during the night. It was not the pride that we found, but one of the pride males.





The male was walking with purpose, sniffing the ground and bushes regularly. He must have lost touch with the pride during the night and was now obviously searching for them. It was only after a kilometre or 2 (and a few water crossings), that we saw the spoor of the rest of the pride. We moved ahead of the male and at 3rd Bridge left him behind to continue our search for the pride.





The lions (Panthera leo) had walked a fair distance during the night and we found the whole pride, including the other male, lazing in the sun 4 kilometres from the bridge. It did not appear that they were waiting for the missing male. They had set themselves up near a pan, waiting for an unsuspecting antelope to approach for a drink.







But as the day slowly warmed, the lions became more and more lethargic. They stopped scanning the area for prey and once it was hot they moved into the shade, which they did not move from.
- Jason Loughran

It was a fairly quiet morning in Moremi. There were plenty of tracks in the sand, but not much was being sighted. It was mid-morning when we approached a clearing and spotted the resident pack of wild dogs (Lycaon pictus), lying in the open, sunning themselves.





The dogs were looking hungry, but paid only the slightest attention to passing prey species. It was a full 2 hours later before they started to move. The pack went into the mopane (Colophospermum mopane) forests fringing the permanent water. They were trying to flush any prey towards the water, trapping it, which should lead to an easy kill. Unfortunately for the dogs the mopane was bare and prey was only sighted after turning back into the heart of the forests. The dogs made a couple of attempts at impala (Aepyceros melampus), but were unsuccessful and returned to resting in the shade.






It was only now that we noticed that the pregnant female and another adult dog were not present. This could be because they are at the den site and it is possible that the female may have already given birth. We will be looking closely the next time the dogs are sighted and with some luck there could be some new additions to the pack in the coming weeks.
- Jason Loughran

We found the Xakanaxa pride sleeping in the shade of a motsebe (Large fever-berry, Croton megalobotrys) woodland. The injured female and her companion had rejoined the pride, but there was no sign of the two males. She was still unable to open her right eye, but it appears that the injury was just below her eye itself. Hopefully there will be no permanent damage to her eye or her sight. The lions (Panthera leo) spent the day doing what they do best, sleeping. It was not till the early afternoon that they moved on, albeit rather agitatedly. This was due to a large herd of tlou (Loxodonta africana) moving through the motsebe woodland in their direction.





They left the tlou behind and once they were far enough away they relaxed and even tried their luck at hunting a nearby herd of impala, but were unsuccessful. As they broke the tree line, they regrouped and went about grooming each other, reinforcing the pride bonds. The three young males were again sitting together, and the bond between these young tau appears to be strengthening.






With the sun lying low in the sky, some of the tau started to move away through the mokodi (wild sage, Pluchea leubnitziae). Before we knew it, there was all this commotion ahead, dust was flying and everyone was converging. Out of nowhere, they had brought down an impala ram. One minute they had all been resting, then a few slipped away, and bang! Dinner time! Noisily, all the pride began feeding. Soon a few of the tau moved away from the carcass carrying a leg here, the head there to dine alone in peace and quiet.






But the peace was soon shattered as another herd of tlou came through the bush again. This time they must have caught the scent of the pride. With trunks raised, they moved towards the feeding pride. The herd grouped together shielding the young calves from the pride as they advanced.  A few of the tlou charged in, trumpeting as they went. The tau scattered in every direction, some still carrying a mouthful of impala with them.






The tlou stood their ground with much ear flapping and throwing of dust. The tau stared back, with watchful eyes and a sensible distance between themselves and the tlou. After this short, but tense, stand off, the herd moved off in one direction, the pride in another, both disappearing into the darkness.
- Leo Hughes

As we came round a corner on the road, there were a number of vultures in the trees and on the ground. Obviously something had died here and we discovered a dead spotted hyaena (Crocuta crocuta) close to the road. On closer inspection, it appeared to have been killed by lions. There was a large bite mark on the hyaenas back and this is a typically fatal injury when tau (Panthera leo) kill a hyaena. Besides some scavenging from the vultures, there was little sign that anything else had fed on the carcass.





Hoping that the tau were still close, we looked around the immediate area and found the 2 Xakanaxa males lying only 200 metres from the hyaena carcass. In the last few days the males had obviously reunited and now they may have been responsible for the death of the hyaena. Often males will kill spotted hyaenas as they are a competitor.





We also found two of the Xakanaxa lionesses lying near the males. One female had clearly been in a fight possibly with a hyaena, as she had fresh wounds on her face, including damage to her right eye. There was no sign of the rest of the pride.





Here in Moremi, spotted hyaenas tend to give lions a wide berth, apparently for good reasons! In protected areas across Africa, where both lions and spotted hyaenas exist, there is often conflict between the 2 species. They are competing predators and such conflicts can often result in injuries and sometimes death. This is possibly what occurred here today, in the early hours of the morning.
- Leo Hughes

We found a lone tau (Panthera leo) on Setshi (candle-pod Acacia, Acacia hebeclada) Plains. The lioness appeared to be distressed and was roaring as she walked across the open plain. It was not the long distance roaring, but low contact calls. We recognised her as one of the Xakanaxa lionesses and she was calling, trying to locate the rest of her pride. Whisker patterns are individual to each lion, like a fingerprint and she has a distinctive inverted “V” on her left side. She was moving towards the new Xakanaxa airstrip, which was where the rest of the pride had been last seen.






This lioness was one of the females that had disappeared last month for about a fortnight. When the pair returned to the pride, they both appeared to have sustained injuries, possibly from fighting. We have nick-named this female “Patches”, as she has these 2 patches of short fur on her back. Both myself and Jason had never seen an injury like this before. Curious, I contacted a vet friend of mine to ask his advice, as it almost looked like someone had shaved off the patches of fur. 





When I described the injuries that she had sustained, he thought that it may have been a bite. The square patches are almost rectangular and could equate to a bite demarcated by 4 incisors and this is just new hair growth over the injury. Another possibility is a fungal infection as this removes hair and then the fur recovers as stubble. Such infections can occur in areas of the skin that are damaged. Her wounds appear to be healing well and the fur is growing back at these patches.






As she disappeared into the mophane (mopane, Colophospermum mopane) forest, we could still hear her calling to the rest of the pride.
Cheers to Dr Rob Jackson for his professional opinion on this peculiar injury.
- Leo Hughes

While out looking for the letotse (Acinonyx jubatus) coalition this morning, the matharelwa (Lycaon pictus) crossed over third bridge and we found them in the grass on the edge of one of the pans. They had been hunting impala (Aepyceros melampus) in the tree line, and had been unsuccessful, so they were regrouping when we came across them. Once they were all back together, the alpha pair led the way and the pack moved off into the mohata (Kalahari apple-leaf, Lonchocarpus nelsii) forest.

In the shade of the mohata and motsebe (large fever-berry, Croton megalobotrys), they spent the day resting. It was surprising to witness the inactivity of the dogs, especially after the previous days “life in the fast lane” pace while hunting and then devouring the impala. Today it looked as if they had taken a leaf out of the tau’s (Panthera leo) book, and just slept, hardly even moving as the day passed. The only movement was the flicking of a tail here or the flap of an ear there.
It was apparent that one of the females was heavily pregnant, but what was intriguing is that it was not the alpha female. Within a pack of wild dogs, it is usually only the alpha pair that breed, with other pack members helping the breeding pair hunt and food provision the pups. But from what we could observe, the alpha female was not pregnant!

It wasn’t until late afternoon that the dogs stirred. With the alpha pair leading the way again, they headed out of the forest and on to the edge of the pans to scan for prey. As the pack crossed the pan, they started to spread out, they had picked up the scent of nearby impala and were on the hunt.
Into the setting sun the pack disappeared, last seen casing off in all directions after pursuing the impala.
It’s a dog’s life.
- Leo Hughes

After leaving the nkwe (Panthera pardus) to hunt impala last night, we hoped we would be able to pick up his trail again. This morning, we found fresh spoor on the road heading west and followed the tracks. As we came out onto a pan, breaking cover to our left was a warthog (Phacochoerus africanus) and bearing down on it was an nkwe. We turned to follow, hoping to see if this was the young male from the previous day. But the chase went into the mokodi (wild sage, Pluchea leubnitziae) and we lost sight of both prey and predator. After a hour of looking, we called off the search and moved on. Either the nkwe had succeeded and was feeding in dense vegetation, or had missed his chance and moved on, eluding us.





Back on the hunt for the Xakanaxa pride, we moved north through the mophane (Colophospermum mopane) forests towards their last known location. Next thing we knew, impala (Aepyceros melampus) were scattering through the trees in every direction with matharelwa (Lycaon pictus) hot on their hooves. Everywhere you looked there was an impala being pursed. Trying to decide which dog to follow was impossible, so we just drove through the forest with the impala.  We had to stop as the impala turned back towards us, then flying past us, with the dogs right on their tails. By the time we turned round and caught up to the pack, it was all over.





They had brought down an impala and all the dogs were feeding with much squealing, yelping and barking.
What surprised me the most was the speed at which these carnivores feed. Within 20 minutes, the impala carcass was nothing more than horns and a backbone.






The dogs moved a short distance to drink, then began to socialise. After half an hour, the alpha pair were up and on the move again and after a few contact calls between the pack, they were gone, disappearing at speed into the mophane forest again.
Once the adrenalin had worn off from pursuing these fleet footed dogs through the forest, we decided that the lion pace of life would be a relief.





We found the tau (Panthera leo) of the Xakanaxa pride all asleep, after the exertion of an early morning hunt of a young giraffe Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis). The male had taken charge of the kill, dragging the remains into a bush where he keep a watchful eye on the rest of the pride. They seemed to keep their distance from him and spent the rest of the day sleeping in the shade. We stayed with the pride into the afternoon and returned to camp via third bridge to follow up on a report of a letotse (Acinonyx jubatus) seen near by.
- Leo Hughes

Almost every morning last week, we had heard an nkwe (Panthera pardus) calling near camp as we got ready to leave before sunrise. But every time we tried to locate it, nothing. This morning was silent, but as we left camp we picked up very fresh spoor of an nkwe, so fresh they were over the tracks of a car that had driven down the road not 10 minutes before.
Hot on the trail, driving slowly, the tracks disappeared off the road into the bush and there was a young male leopard sitting not 3 metres from the road. He moved off north, with us shadowing his steps. With a scar on his nose, probably from fighting, he’ll be easy to identify again. 






In the early morning mist he seemed to have picked up the scent of the Xakanaxa pride from 2 days ago. For a while he moved along the same paths as the pride, stopping to scent mark along the way.
Through the mist he moved, from mohata tree (Kalahari apple-leaf, Lonchocarpus nelsii) to mokodi bush (wild sage, Pluchea leubnitziae), never really breaking cover. Sometimes the only sign of his presence was the tip of his tail flicking through the bushes.






As he moved into the long grass, he occasionally climbed a termite mound to survey the scene and scan for prey. He was clearly on the hunt this morning as he skirted the tree line and waters edge. We held back and often the only sign he was there were the warning calls of birds and vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) or the alarm whistles of a reedbuck (Redunca arundinum).





This is how it went for the rest of the day. For hours at a time we had no visual on him, but we knew where he was, either moving through the bushes or laid up in the thick vegetation along the waters edge.
It was only as the sun started to set, that he left the cover of the tree line and headed out to hunt impala (Aepyceros melampus) in the last of the days light, within 60m of camp. We had gone full circle!
- Leo Hughes

The Xakanaxa pride spent the night moving closer towards our campsite. They roared constantly, not only did the roars become louder, but once the ground started to vibrate, we knew they were close.
At sunrise we found them lazing in the grass within 200 metres of the tents. They were completely inactive and looking like staying that way for the rest of the day. We headed over 3rd bridge to see if the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) coalition was around, the staff back in camp kept an eye on the lions and would radio us if they started to move.





There was no sign of the coalition and after chatting to the tour operator camped in the area, the cheetah seemed to have moved on. Earlier we had come across fresh buffalo (Syncerus caffer) activity and decided to go find the herd, as normally the buffalo are shadowed by lions. Thanks to the crackling calls of the yellow-billed oxpeckers (Buphagus africanus), the buffalo were easy to find. The herd was relaxed and spread out over a large area, not usually a sign that are lions about. The buffalo may have been relaxed, but the oxpeckers were as busy as ever.






These small birds offer an important service to the buffalo and many other animals, by controlling ectoparasites. The yellow-billed oxpeckers will pluck ticks and other invertebrates from the skin, whereas red-billed (Buphagus erythrorhynchus) use a scissor-like action, combing the hair for the ticks. The oxpeckers also act as an early warning system and they often alert their host animals to the presence of predators.
We returned to the Xakanaxa pride, whom had barely moved the whole day. Their bellies are not bulging anymore and I’m sure they will again be after the buffalo.
-Jason Loughran

With the Xakanaxa pride moving on during the night, it was time for the scavengers to take advantage of their departure. In the early morning light, those scavengers that held back yesterday had already started to feast on the remains of the nari (Syncerus caffer) carcass.





2 phokoje (Canis adustus) were feeding on different pieces of the carcass, while the numerous hooded (Necrosyrtes monachus), white-headed (Aegypius occipitalis) and white-backed vultures (Gyps africanus) watched on, waiting for their chance to feed. The phokoje kept a wary eye on these winged scavengers and chased off any that got to close. As the sun climbed higher in the sky, the phokoje left the carcass and we choose to leave too.






The tau (Panthera leo) had not moved far from the carcass and were sleeping in the shade of a motsebe (Croton megalobotrys) about a kilometre away. Even though their bellies were not quite as swollen as yesterday, they still spent the whole day sleeping and recovering from their huge feast.





A young eagle landed in an tree nearby that cause a fair bit of discussion between us, which helped pass the time while the lions slept. We could’t agree upon what species it was. I thought it was an immature Tawny eagle (Aquila rapax) and Jason thought it was an immature Wahlberg’s (Aquila walhbergi) eagle. Whichever species it was, we were both in agreement that it was a pale colour morph. Even checking all the reference books in the camp shed no further light.
Any birders out there, can you help settle this debate?
- Leo Hughes

As it was getting late, we left the Xakanaxa pride and headed back home.
Barely 1 kilometre from camp, there was movement in front of us. Something crossed the road ahead in the fading light.
Grabbing the camera, we headed in for a closer look. There moving through the long grass was an nkwe (Panthera pardus) and this was no fleeting glimpse of a tail.





It appeared to be a young male, probably the same one that we had been hearing calling most mornings in camp and we had been hoping to locate.
With tail flicking, he moved through the long grass, then jumped up onto a fallen mohata (Lonchocarpus nelsii). From this vantage point, he seemed to be checking us out.






We sat with him for a short while, but with the increasing darkness and even shooting on 1600 ISO, it was becoming harder to capture the grace and beauty of this solitary cat.
Stealthily and silently, he leaped down from the mohata and disappeared into the long grass. With a final glimpse of the tail, he was gone and with him, my leopard jinx.
After 3 days and 2 leopard sightings, my leopard jinx was finally well and truly shattered!
- Leo Hughes

We returned to the scene of yesterday’s encounter with the tau (Panthera leo) of the Xakanaxa pride at sunrise.  Knowing lions, there was a good chance that after feeding for most of yesterday, they would have not moved far from the nari (Synercus caffer) carcass. That was an understatement as they had barely moved 10 metres overnight, just replacing one Motsebe (Croton megalobotrys) for another.
While the pride slept, rolling onto their backs and showing off swollen bellies, there was a chance for others to have breakfast.






Those winged scavengers, who had spent the night perched above the tau, made the most of the cats lethargy. In flew the hooded (Necrosyrtes monachus) and the white-headed manongs (Aegypius occipitalis) to feed upon any scraps and left overs. A solitary white-backed lenong (Gyps africanus) arrived, the first of many to come.








A few phokoje (Canis adustus) skulked hoping to get their chance to feed on the nari carcass, always wary of the tau.
We also glimpsed a lone piri (Crocuta crocuta) in the distance, but there it remained, not wanting to venture too close while the tau were still around. The piri of Moremi seem to display a great fear of the tau, unlike in other protected areas and we are not sure what may have caused this.
The tau seemed not to care that these scavengers were finishing off their scraps, as they had already taken the “lions” share. The Xakanaxa pride spent the rest of the day lounging around under the shade of the motsebe, doing what tau do best.
- Leo Hughes

Having left the Tau (Panthera leo) of the Xakanaxa pride pursing the Nari (Syncerus caffer) deep into the dense mopane forests the previous evening, we decided that this mornings mission was to pick up the trail. It proved not to be too difficult to track down some 800 odd hooves. Now we hoped that it wouldn’t be too long before we caught up to the tau.
But the early bird catches the worm and even leaving camp at 06h00 is sometimes too late for the cats. For when we caught up with the tau, they had already caught their “worm”. Maybe it was the light of the waning moon, or the first light of dawn that aided them, but sometime in the early morning, their persistence had paid off and they had brought down a large bull nari. The rest of the herd was long gone.





Breakfast was well underway when we caught up to the pride and the males seemed to be taking the lions share of the carcass. Even though the previous day they had been carrying full stomachs, it seemed they still had an appetite for more and dominated the carcass for most of the day.
As the sun rose higher into the sky and the winter temperature increased, one the males decided that enough was enough and pulled the carcass under the branches of a motsebe (large fever-berry, Croton megalobotrys) to eat in the shade.






Through the day, all the tau got a chance to feast on this large carcass, including the two females who returned last week looking a bit worse for wear. They both seemed to be recovering from whatever ordeal they had suffered while away from the pride, though they still bare the scars.
Dining out lion style is never a truly civilized affair and there were many squabbles amongst the pride as they jostled for a place at the buffalo table.








We left the pride, in the twilight, still feeding on the remains of their fallen enemy, under the watchful eyes of winged scavengers.
- Leo Hughes