At last some predators - and other game animals

On our to Victoria Fall trip, we purposely visited Etosha for a few days with hopes of seeing some lions as we had not yet seen any during our stay in Namibia. But, all though driving all over the park, we never sighted any lions. So, we left resigned to the fact that we were not likely to see lions before we left for the U.S. However, in Chobe National Park on what will likely be the last game drive we take in Africa, we were blessed to finally see a pride of lions. There were five in total - 2 females and 3 males. The females were stalking a herd of impalas. The antelope were spooked and ran off before they had the misfortune of being turned into lion food.

The baboons sat in the trees keeping a wary eye on the lions' activities.

It turned out to be a good trip for seeing predators. Right at the very beginning of our game drive in Chobe we sighted a pack of African Spotted Wild Dogs. This is a critically endangered species with only 5,000 left in the wild (approximately 1,600 adults). As a result, you are very lucky if you ever get a chance to see them.. They were nine total in the pack. They hunt by literally running their prey to death. They will chase an animal for 2 kilometers or more and the prey frequently just collapse from exhaustion or a heart attack and are often eaten alive by the dogs.

We also saw a side stripped jackal and in Etosha we saw a spotted hyena.

In Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park (Zambia) we were able to go with a ranger and track on foot white rhinos. This was the first time we were able to get out and walk through the bush as most of the parks require you to stay in your vehicle. The ranger was able to point out a lot of smaller things that you would never get to see from the car. Anyway, we tracked to within 10 meters or so to a group of rhinos.

A mother and here calf in the forefront

We also saw several black rhinos (one even crossed the road right in front of us) while in Etosha. So a good trip for viewing rhinos as well.

This black rhino hung around the waterhole at night for 30 to 45 minutes

We also saw lots of hippos on both the Zambezi and Chobe Rivers. We learned that when agitated, hippos open their mouths wide as a warning. They also growl - so we have been growled out by a hippo. One even charged (or lounged) at our boat. They are very big but very poor swimmers and essentially walk on the bottom of the river in shallow water. At night, they will leave the river to forage and can travel 5 kilometers or more away from the river. We even saw hippo tracks when we were tracking the rhinos.

We also saw Red Leche, Waterbuck and lots of Cape Water Buffaloes.

Red Leche grazing under the Botswana flag

Cape Buffalo

Waterbuck

And can't forget the crocodiles.....

We "just" saw a few elephants. Chobe is the native word for elephant and Chobe National Park has the largest number of elephants of any national park in the world. So, we had expected to see lots of elephants. But, it rained while we were there and the elephants didn't need to come down to the river to drink.

We did see what is frequently called the most beautiful antelope in Africa - the Sable. Supposed to be lots of these around as well but we only saw two.

We have now seen 4 of the so called "Big Five" - Elephant, Rhino, Water Buffalo and Lion. The only one we have not seen is the Leopard. Ironically, there are probably 18,000 leopards in Namibia - many more than most of the other animals on the list. But, they are solitary, hide in the trees and are active a lot at night. So, they are very hard to spot. But, we don't have anything to complain about as we have seen an extraordinary variety of wildlife during our time in Namibia,

We even saw our first primate other than a baboon.

Velvet Monkey

Birds will be on a future blog post.