Our local agent in Botswana keeps us up to date with the latest news. This time an update from Carien about wildlife in the Okavango Delta:
‘This year was one of the lowest flood seasons that the Okavango Deltahas had in the past three or four years and so has allowed for a lot more movement of animals and more restricted areas for some of the lodge’s water activities.
As a result, andBeyond Savute Under Canvas is seeing an increasing number of elephants being attracted to the marsh and the areas around it. This said, the lions of Savute have started their famous hunting of younger elephants again probably due to the very dry season that Botswana has had, weakening the younger animals.
There have been a number of great leopard sighting all the way around the Botswana circuit over the last few months. With leopard cubs being sighted at andBeyond Savute Under Canvas and Moremi and regular sightings of multiple leopards throughout the Botswana Explorer Expeditions and Under Canvas circuit, one group was lucky enough to see 11 different leopards!
andBeyond Nxabega Okavango Tented Camp and andBeyond Xudum Okavango Delta Lodge have also been having regular sightings around the lodge of one or two relaxed leopards on kills.
There have been great sightings of wild dogs at Savute and Moremi, with three den sites and puppies being reported at Moremi. Moremi were also lucky enough to have an awesome and weird sighting of pangolin!
The fishing at Nxabega between August and December has once again been fantastic, the annual barbell run of the Okavango Delta reached the Nxabega waters in early November this year almost the same time as last year. This event attracts an unbelievable amount of birds to the channels in an effort to catch narrower fish along the Papyrus beds in their panic to get away from the feeding catfish and tigerfish! The fishing during this period, especially for catfish is out of this world!
A lot of the bream are starting to prepare for their breeding season and so we will start to catch less and less as the year comes to the end, this is also one of the reasons why the fishing season is closed from the beginning of January to March. And after almost a year of having no lions on the Nxabega concession, we have now got eight lions on the boundaries which were photographed hunting warthog; let’s hope that they are here to stay!
Last but not least is a very interesting observation at Savute. Only in the last three years or so have the water retuned to the Savute channel and the Marsh, this has enticed a number of different species of animals and especially birds to return to the area. With the return of pelicans to the marsh they have attracted the attention of a lot of the different predators such as wild dogs, leopard and lions! These predators hunting pelicans in the marsh makes for incredible sighting as well as the opportunity to capture some incredible images during a guests stay at Savute’.
Curious about life in the Okavango Delta? Check out our range of trips to Botswana,get inspired!
