It seems like every African visitor wants to see the African cats. While the mitigation concentrates a lot on prey (Wildebeest and Zebras) and gives the predator cats lots of choice, even without the migration there is plenty of cat activity. We saw at least one of the big cats (lion, leopard and chetah) at every one of our 7 lodges.
It was spring time in the southern hemisphere and the cats had produced their litters for the year. We managed to see cubs of each, they certainly were cute.
We followed this Cheetah mom for more than 90 minutes as she took her 4 cubs on a journey looking for food. She was handicapped by having to dodge the safari vehicles following her
by the lack of prey in the area
and the fact that the trip was more than 2 miles, not an problem for her but her cubs had issues keeping up.
Our sightings included a family that ‘charged’ our blind. Our worry was not from the cubs ( the glass of our blind could withstand their ‘attack’), but Mom who was watching in the background. But the blind was well built and after getting their drink, they moved on.
Being gone for more than a month, we naturally experienced a variety of weather, from the equatorial heat to Africa rain squalls, and the animals responded accordingly. To beat the heat, this lion took advantage of the breezes in the trees
and this lion shook off the rain that fell on him
Speaking of water, one thing most cats don’t like is water (who likes wet fur?) so it was a rare treat to see two cheetahs cross a local river. As expected they were very reluctant, but after 45 minutes finally did it in a sprint across the small river.
Being in Africa for 35 days, we had a lot of great experiences, and have broken our trip report into 4 sections:
Migration – Migration
Cats and More Cats. – Cats and More Cats
Horns and Tusks – Tusks & Horns
Potpourri of Wildlife. – Potpourri of Wildlife