Deteema Springs Camp Wildlife Stories November 2024
November has seen one of the biggest changes in Hwange National Park’s landscape. Instead of a golden arid landscape, the newly arrived rainy season has seen green and lush vegetation return to Deteema Springs Camp. Temperatures reached as high as 36 degrees Celsius, but the increased afternoon showers fought off the heat and cooled the plains to the delight of all the wildlife.
As the rainy season has just started, wildlife viewing is still best in the early mornings and at night. However, average temperatures are slowly dropping, meaning more wildlife will be active in the afternoon in the coming months.
Family Feast
African wild dogs are among the most successful hunters. It is rare to see them scavenging. Their relatively small build makes them ill-suited to taking kills from other predators, so our curiosity was piqued when we saw a pack of 23 feeding on an adolescent elephant carcass.
We were on an early morning game drive. The pack was running around a specific area but never strayed too far. As we stopped our safari vehicle to watch them, the pups seemed enamoured by how the wheels moved and came right to us. After admiring them for a while, we decided to find out why they wanted to stay in that area.
We discovered there was a dead elephant nearby. From the looks of it, it could not be more than five years old, and by the looks of things, it had not been killed by the wild dogs. The happy-go-lucky dogs just stumbled upon it and started feeding on the free meal. They spent the whole day there, eating and playing. When we returned the next day, they were still there, this time looking for a fresh kill.
Anything To Survive
August to December can be difficult for predatory birds like martial eagles. Food is scarce, so they have to eat whatever they can find to fill their hungry bellies. In this instance, we saw an eagle feeding on a vulture chick.
At first, we were surprised to see the eagle in a vulture nest. The vulture had first prepared the nest in July. The first eggs had been laid in August, and the chicks would have hatched sometime in November.
As we approached the tree, we saw a lot of feathers on the ground and deduced that the eagle was feeding on the chick. From what we could tell, it had not eaten much of the chick. Vulture chicks are not martial eagles’ preferred meal, but when options are limited, they will eat what they can get.
Cheetah Populations
Cheetahs are on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and are given highly protected status in Zimbabwe. Their numbers are challenged by habitat loss, poaching and pressure exerted by other predators. Often, cheetahs have their kills stolen by lions, leopards and hyenas. These animals are larger, heavier and have bigger jaws, making any fight a losing battle for the protected cat.
Despite this, Hwange National Park has stable populations of cheetahs in specific regions of its concession. In these areas, we can see their unique social behaviours play out. Males are often in coalitions of two to six, while females are solitary and are only followed by their offspring or males looking to mate with them.
On one of our game drives, we saw a coalition of one female and three male cheetahs. Interestingly, the males didn’t try to chase each other away but rather fought over whose turn it was to mate with the female.
Keep Them At Paw’s Length
Our Deteema Springs guiding team keeps track of lion pride movements, especially the more mobile Deteema pride. Since October, we have seen a lot of male lions moving around the Deteema pride’s territory. If these foreign lions somehow encounter the Deteema pride, this could spell disaster for their young ones as they will likely become targets to kill.
We’ve also observed the pride’s females take turns luring the unfamiliar males away by faking their estrus cycles. On one occasion, we saw four foreign males being lured away by four resident females. On another occasion, we witnessed females giving each other turns to feed off an elephant carcass while others kept the males’ attention on them. It's amazing to see the coordination and dedication of lionesses as they protect their young from outsiders.
November at Deteema was especially incredible, and we can’t wait to see what December holds in store.
Until next time,
Ophious
Deteema Springs Camp
