Zimbabwe - Hwange National Park - Deteema Springs Camp

From Start To Finish

While on an afternoon game drive, our guide, Ophious and his guests spotted three cheetahs sitting underneath a bush in a small open area. They were focused, observing the movements of nearby kudu but not yet ready to start the pursuit. We waited for around 30 minutes before deciding to give them the space and freedom to plan their attack. Another 30 minutes later, we came back to check in on the trio and how glad are we that we did. When we arrived, one of the cheetahs showed interest in a kudu. It hid itself in the treeline, inching closer and closer until it was in the perfect position to start its blitzing chase.

The cheetah darted after the kudu, catching it briefly before the Kudu’s thrashing freed it. However, after the first cheetah failed, the second came. It chased the kudu to the roadside directly towards us. Then, it happened. The second cheetah caught and killed its prey right in front of us! Seeing a kill from start to finish was incredible.  

Smarter Not Harder

In the middle of July, we took a morning game drive via a route that would take us to a place where we previously saw cheetahs with their kill. Little did we know we would see something totally different. When we arrived at the location, we found two lionesses crunching on the bones of a kudu carcass. There was barely anything left for the lionesses to feed on, but they continued crunching away for the 30 minutes that we sat and observed them.

Jackals, tawny eagles and vultures all came to scope out the scent of meat but ultimately stayed away from the lionesses to avoid trouble. Suddenly, we heard the roar of a male lion 300 metres away from us, leaving it where it secluded itself. We think there may have been more males in the area responsible for stealing the kill from the cheetahs and leaving only scraps for the lionesses.

Take What You Can Get

Scavengers like vultures, jackals, and hyaenas compete for the scraps of other predators, but even birds of prey like the Tawny eagle sometimes join in the fight. On this particular occasion, a Tawny eagle got the better of a lioness and managed to steal some meat. We first spotted it when it missed its perch, landing on a twig that almost broke off and hanging upside down. However, despite this disadvantageous positioning, its keen eyes were fixed on a nearby carcass being fed on by a lioness.

A piece of meat on the ground caught its attention, but it was too close to the lioness to do anything. After some time passed, the lioness moved, and the tawny eagle swooped in to snatch a meal. Compared to vultures, tawny eagles are great flyers that can take off from the ground as quickly as they can from their perch. Those skills were useful when this particular eagle was stealing from a Queen of the jungle.

Chaos At Camp

On one of the last days of July, we took a walking safari and discovered some elephant tracks. After some searching, we found the herd in a dense bush that made it too hard for us to follow them. Later, we found some lion tracks and shifted our focus to tracking them.  Minutes later, we heard impalas make alarm calls and saw giraffes running. They had seen the lions we were tracking. Later that afternoon, we discovered a barely eaten buffalo carcass near the Deteema Springs picnic site.

The same pride of lions was stirring up trouble earlier in the day. The next day, the troublemakers came into camp in front of one of our rooms to see if they could hunt down a baby elephant. However, the herd was not having it, shielding their young ones from the lions. Soon after the chaos began, a second herd of elephants appeared and helped chase off the pride of lions. 

Until next time,
Ophious
Deteema Springs Camp