Paradise under stress: KTP October 2019

[Klipspringer]

Great owls!

[GavinW]

It was 4.30 pm when we left Rooiputs, and the lion was still sleeping next to the eland carcass, or what was left of it, and the springbok was no longer being fed on by the jackals

A honey badger had moved in and was making the most of the prize meat.
We nearly plutzed.

Nothing further to say, besides I am sorry for the overload of pictures coming up.

[GavinW]

It eventually stopped feeding and moved off into the dunes

[Lisbeth]

A honey badger feeding on a springbok is not every day's sighting

[Klipspringer]

Is this a common diet for a Kalahari Honey Badger? Scavenger?

[Richprins]

What a rare sighting, Gavin!

[GavinW]

We have hardly ever seen honey badgers in the Kgalagadi, and certainly none that close for so long so we were really excited at the special sighting we had just experienced as we carried on north, hoping to see the lions from this morning.


We arrived at the spot where we had seen the lions in the morning to find that the two male lions had returned to the kill on the western side of the road, but the lionesses were nowhere to be seen.
The one lion was busy feeding

We noticed that whilst this morning, both males had been collared, that the one lion had dropped his collar at the sight.

After a while, the lions changed positions on the kill, and the first lion walked up towards us

[GavinW]

The lion carried on towards us and went over the road and into the dunes on the Botswana side.

The other lion continued to feed

While we were there, some people from the Kgalagadi Lion project arrived to collect the dropped collar
We carried on watching until such time as we needed to start making our way back.

[GavinW]

We had one more surprise for the day, the honey badger had returned, so we were able to see it back on the kill for a short period before we had to return into the campsite

We did notice on our way back in that Mr Lion had disappeared off the now flattened eland kill.

That didn’t make for a relaxed evening back in camp

[GavinW]

Is this a common diet for a Kalahari Honey Badger? Scavenger?

We've seen them eating tortoises as well in the Kgalagadi, so I'm pretty sure that they will take what they can get.
Generally they hunt for rodents and snakes along with jackals and pale chanting goshawks