A Leopard’s Tail: KTP April/May 2023

[GavinW]

Sunday 7 May 2023

Our last full day in the park, and we were up early so as to make the most of it

Two Rivers has it’s own gate into the game area which means that if you leave at gate opening time, you have a head start on all the tourists staying in Twee Rivieren, who still have to collect their permits

As a result we were first out on the road, ahead of a friend of ours Willie, who when he caught up with us, wondered where we had come from


When we got to the site of the gemsbok kill, just north of Rooiputs, we found the lions had left, and that some hyenas as well as a whole lot of black backed jackals had taken up residence at the site

[GavinW]

The interaction between them was intriguing to watch.

[GavinW]

Carrying on, just before Kij Kij Debbie spotted this honey badger and pale chanting goshawks in the riverbed
The honey badger was busy foraging and climbed up into a dead tree in search of food

Great to watch, and hilarious when it fell out of the tree

Not too sure as to why whenever we see honey badgers they move away from us instead of coming closer.

Once they had disappeared over the dune we carried on up towards Gunong

[Lisbeth]

Strange to see a hyena eating quietly (almost) with the jackals.

I wonder why the honey badger tried to climb the tree, there is nothing eatable up there

[GavinW]

Strange to see a hyena eating quietly (almost) with the jackals.

I wonder why the honey badger tried to climb the tree, there is nothing eatable up there

Maybe insects under the bark. It was stripping the bark off the tree.
That's why it overbalanced and took a tumble

[Richprins]

What lovely predator sightings, Gavin!

Ja, the ablutions are horrid there, as is the gate!

Lovely badger interaction too!

The moon is impossible to photograph without proper equipment!

[Lisbeth]

Of course

[Mel]

Two very cool sightings!

So far, I came up with nothing on the cheetahs. Difficult angle to ID them. My initial thought had been that it might be Maximus (the one facing right) and Gustav (facing left) since they were seen together the next day near Rooiputs. Gustav lost his brother two weeks earlier and that sighting of the 7th made us think that he might be looking for a new mate. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. I guess, Maximus was so accustomed to being a single male that he couldn't be bothered. But like I said, only an assumption. Will keep looking and see if I can work this out.

[GavinW]

Just after Melkvei, we saw a lot of lion spoor in the road heading north and south.
Damn we didn’t know


Anyway the lions were nowhere to be seen, so we bumbled on

Nothing

We turned at Gunong and headed back

We met up with Willie and Jacqueline and after explaining the gate opening thing, they proceeded to tell us that they had seen the lions near Melkvlei

Other people’s sightings

After Kij Kij we spotted some flat lions on the Botswana side of the park, but far away

We decided to retrace our steps and head back to Two Rivers on the Botswana 2 track to see if we could get closer to them


We did, but not by much

After some more proof pics, we returned to camp and had an enjoyable brunch

[GavinW]

For our last evening drive, we decided, after consulting the sightings board at Twee Riveren, where a leopard had been spotted at Houmoed, that that was the way to go

Well, we drove to Monro before turning around.

We did see these Lanner Falcons posing for us.

As we got to the start of the dune road leading to Twee Rivieren, we came across a small road block
The reason... A leopard on the other side of the riverbed

Now we hadn’t seen any rosettes so far this trip so we were fairly excited

We waited and waited, trying to see where they were all looking
And then I saw a leopard’s tail flick


A leopards tail


And that was it

Time to go back to camp