Ngoma Safari Lodge Wildlife Stories June 2026
Weather Report
June saw winter fully arrive at Ngoma Safari Lodge, and with it came cold early morning and evening temperatures. Late mornings and afternoons were still hot, averaging between 30ºC and 35ºC, while water sources around the Chobe Forest Reserve started to evaporate slowly.
Around this time of year, we enjoy plentiful elephant and zebra sightings from the deck of Ngoma. Vegetation such as bushes and trees had thinned, giving us near-perfect visibility from our deck and during our safari game drives.
New Mommy
We caught up with the unfortunate misfit from Broken Tail Pride. For almost two years now, a lioness from this pride has been struggling with a broken paw, but when we saw her this time, she was nursing her adorable eight-week-old cub. On occasion, her pride would leave her and her cub behind, but this time the pride killed a giraffe near them and even shared their enormous meal with the pair for about three days!
Everyone Wants A Piece
On a very successful morning game drive in the Kashwavenga Valley, we spotted a pack of African wild dogs on the hunt. Within twenty minutes of us seeing them, they had tracked, stalked, and killed an impala in the area. Characteristic of wild dogs, the pack immediately started tearing flesh from the bone as soon as the impala died.
However, as they ate, jackals (which they feverishly chased away), tawny eagles, and even short-tailed eagles started arriving, looking to take a bite out of their hard-earned meal and feed on the leftovers.
Saving Energy
Lions are known to be opportunistic hunters that would do anything for an easy meal, but what is less known is that sometimes they don’t even try hunting at all, even if prey is nearby. This behaviour helps them conserve energy by skillfully picking their hunts for more opportune weather or bigger, better prey.
We saw this up close and personal with a pride of lions at the Kabula Bula lake. Giraffes and impala were drinking from the lake while the pride was peacefully resting in the shade and in the cover of bushes, just in case they wanted to hunt one later.
Cubs Coming Soon
One of our final sightings this month was of lions mating. The male was one of two newcomers to the area and recently took over the pride and mating rights. We watched in awe as the couple mated right in front of us, and we can’t wait to have more cubs in about three to four months.
Ngoma had incredible sightings in June. We can’t wait to tell you what July had in store for us.
Until next time,
MK
Ngoma Safari Lodge
