About life, work & fun in Hwange
No cheetahs nor wild dogs for us, but we saw quite a number of lions, including some on an elephant kill. We also saw 3 cubs on their own resting in the shade by the road, wonder where the mum was... But the highlight of the trip was definitely the leopards!!!We...
Within the park, there is only one permanent waterhole (artificial) so all the wildlife is concentrated there. We saw only bull elephants though as all the family herds were gone to the Boteti. We also managed to catch a glimpse of a male lion as the...
Hey! So here is the plan for my next trip in Southern Africa for the next 2 months. We'll start by a week driving from Vic Falls to Windhoek through Botswana (~1 200km). It'll be my first time in the Okavango delta and in Chobe and Moremi. From there,...
The Cape gaunt colony at Lambeerts Bay is one of the last remaining 6 breeding colonies in South Africa. It is located on Bird Island Cape Nature Reserve (free for WildCard members). It's a great place to spend a couple hours watching these noisy birds...
One night while looking for Escobar at Pharside, I witness a very interesting interaction between bat-eared fox and cape fox. So this is Escobar, our habituated row in this part of the KRR. And this is Ray, an habituated Cape fox who figured out that...
We spend at least 2h every night following habituated individual on their foraging expeditions. Here they are! These 2 pictures show Ernie with his radio collar (VHF only) And the next ones are the pups. They were born in Nov 2014 and are almost adult...
So finally we made it to Etosha, and after 8 days and 7 nights in the desert without shower we checked in Dolomite Camp!! the place is wonderful with beautiful chalets nested on top of a dolomite outcrop with an outstanding view on the park around and...
From the Makgadikgadi we went straight into Nxai Pan NP. Now the road to get to the actual pan was once again a nightmare, most probably the worst we had over the whole trip... It was overcast the whole day, so the pictures are not great but they should...
And of course I kept the best for the end! We did managed to see a lot of lions and hyaenas, almost everyday. Hyaenas were particularly active in the evenings along camp fences, patrolling in search of scraps left by campers (don(t throw your bones above...
At the end of summer, a few days after the first rains, plates termites emerge by the thousands in a very short burst (1-3nights). When that happens, forget walking around at night with a torch, you'll be covered by them!! But if you can brave this, then...
Ok, the Kalahari is well-know for its black maned lions, ut by now, you know me, I really wanted to see spotted hyaena sas well. And we got lucky as we bumped on them twice, resting just by the road. Both groups had young ones about 6 months old with...
The large amount of water in the delta, even during the heart of the dry season attracts many birds. This place is a real paradise for birders and even for those not so much into birds because you see many beautiful ones and they are everywhere! Egyptian...
So after we finished our trip in Namibia we crossed over to Botswana and after a night in Ghanzi at Thakadu camp site (quite nice by the way) we headed out early morning to Xade and Central Kalahari NP. We spent 3 nights there, first at Piper Pan #1,...
Just a few days based in Skukuza camp for the annual Savanna Science Network Meeting View from camp Hadeda ibises Little bee-eater Kudu & oxpecker Helmeted guineafowl Chamca baboon Water thick-knee Yellow-billed stork & Water thick-knee White-crowned...
As I mentioned in the post about the trip in general, KNP was very dry this year so the birdlife was not that exciting. But still we managed to see the feathered creatures quite a lot... Among them Fish eagles and Bateleurs were definitely the most common...
Nothing I had heard about the flower bloom could have prepared me for this. It was absolutely amazing to see! 2015 season seemed to have been an exceptional one as well. It was just magical to get to the coast and see it carpeted with flowers of all possible...
Like most of us, when I started my postdoc, my PhD work was far from finished. But I'm still working on it and we recently managed to publish a new paper. We show how changes in lion population density and composition affects hyaena diet and foraging...
The field station of Kalahari bat-eared fox Project is located in the Kuruman River Reserve (KRR), 18km East from Van Zylrus, Northern Cape. The reserve is about 30km2 and located on Kalahari sands around the Kuruman river bed. Here are a few images for...
From the entrance of the Skeleton Coast NP, we head East following the Ugab river. Just when you leave the river bad turning off towards Messum, you cross an area full of salt. A few flowers from the desert The famous Welwitschia mirabilis Our camp for...
We came out of the Kalahari via the Matswere gate and proceeded to Rapkos to fill up the car. This is a very small town and if you plan to get some groceries there, expect to be disappointed. From there, we wept a night at Khumaga Tiann's Camp located...
So here I am, back in Hwange for a month. It's really hot and quite dry. However, the elephants don't look so bad as they did last year... My mission is (rather seems!) quite simple: I need to remove the collars deployed on hyaenas to collect the last...
Bitterpan is a private camp in the dune area between Nossob and Mata Mata. You can only drive the road if you spend a night at the camp and only from Nossob to Mata Mata. The drive is quite nice taking you over red dunes and offering nice panoramas, and...
KRR is also the place where research is conducted on meerkats. I took the opportunity to go out with researcher from the project and see my first "wild" meerkats... They are all very habituated and just about their life without taking any notice of your...
Trouble ahead Now we were lucky enough to witness an interactions between lions and hyaenas at a carcass, you know, the thing I've been waiting for during my PhD??!! Mum standing guard on the road This young male left the carcass unattended, so the hyaena...
The bush of Moremi is also full of little flying wonders as bee-eaters, rollers and parrots. Little bee-eater Little bee-eater at nest Sacred ibises Wattled cranes in breeding display Spur-winged goose Swallow-tailed bee-eater Meyer's parrot African darter...
