game drive at selinda

Could this be one of the best game drives ever...?

giant-eagle-owl, selinda

“On the morning of May 27th 2009 we were out before dawn as usual in the Selinda Reserve and early in the morning came upon a lioness that was stalking waterbuck. Our guide Motsamai, or "Mots" as he is known to guests and staff, informed us that this young female had been mating during the last week and was now separated from the main pride of lions within the area. We spent the morning with her, watching several fumbled attempts to hunt the waterbuck and a close call for a warthog that narrowly escaped her desperate efforts.

The afternoon drive started on a high note as we witnessed a giant eagle owl stealing a guinea fowl from a tawny eagle that had just made the kill.

We encountered the lioness again, half-heartedly stalking a herd of mixed wildlife only to retire to the shade of a nearby sausage tree for some rest.

In an instant the scene changed dramatically as a heard of impala came flying through the bush directly at us. Giraffe, kudu, zebra and impala all scattered quickly and quietly in such a manner that we instantly knew that only one creature instils such complete and utter fear into its prey: Lethalerwa, the Tswana name for the endangered African Wild Dog!

Galvanized into action, we drove in the direction that the startled herds were coming from. As we broke the cover of the brush and came into an open grassy plain we saw one wild dog crossing the Selinda Spillway and race around the corner out of sight. We sped off in pursuit, crossing the spillway at the nearest shallow point and following the path of the Wild Dog. As we rounded the corner we saw the pack, six altogether, wildly feeding on a young kudu that they had brought down just moments before near the edge of the water. We watched and listened as the scene unfolded before us.

The excited feeding frenzy of the Wild Dog is a spectacle difficult to describe but full of calling and quick and ravenous devouring of the prey.

After about twenty minutes an adult spotted hyena arrived at the kill. As soon as the wild dogs saw him, they growled fiercely and chased him to the perimeter of the clearing where he remained for the rest of the day.

By this time a troop of baboons at the edge of the forest were sounding loud alarm calls and climbing into the tops of nearby trees. The dogs went back to the kill, and now having devoured much of the kudu started playing with each other and giving displays of dominance and submission.

As we watched and photographed this activity a flash of tawny fur just visible through the bushes caught our eyes from across the water. It was the lioness from earlier in the day! She had no doubt heard the commotion of the kill and the calls of the baboons and realized that here was her next meal. As she saw the dogs with the remains of the kill there was no hesitation. She leapt into the water at full speed, bounding through the deep water and across the spillway.

The wild dogs knew what was coming and instantly scattered before she even reached the other side. Now the lioness searched for the remains of the kill and used her keen sense of smell to locate various leftover pieces of the carcass and started to feed.

Our group was in shock and delight at the amazing sight that we had just witnessed and as the sun was setting, we were all happily recounting the charge of the lioness, the hungry hyena and the spectacle of the dogs. We moved off the kill site, about 100 meters to the west where we started to photograph the wild dogs as they headed off into the glorious African sunset causing small wisps of dust to rise into the air.

At that moment Steve, a Selinda Camp guide on another vehicle, quietly radioed across “Leopard.” Off to our left and across the water was a large male leopard that frequented the area. We could not believe our good fortune! We made our way over to the leopard (a magnificent specimen) and followed him as he made his way along the water and toward the kill. As he saw the lioness, he kept to the cover of the bushes. He gazed longingly at the remains of the kudu but realized that there was no way around the lioness.

As our guides reached for their spotlights to illuminate the scene, another pair of eyes was spotted in the now dark water of the spillway. A large crocodile, perhaps between 2 and 3 meters long was making its way to the kill! We watched in disbelief as the crocodile slowly pulled itself out of the water and up to the place where the kudu had been devoured, smelling some of the blood stained grass and eating some of the remaining intestines.

Several hyenas came near the crocodile, but after a short while determining that nothing much else was left, the crocodile headed back into the water and departed the scene with a brisk splash disappearing back into the darkness of the water.

Our hearts were pounding, jaws open in disbelief; our minds were going over this unbelievable spectacle of wildlife that had presented itself in the past hour. We realized that we had witness what few had seen before, a kill sighting with all of Africa’s Super Predators being present. As we drove back into Selinda Camp we all knew that this day would never be forgotten. Our fantastic tale would quickly spread. The story of the charging lioness, the wild dog pack with the kudu, the leopard and the incessantly calling hyenas, and not to forget the lone crocodile… their stories would all be remembered and surely would come to be known as the Selinda Spectacular!”

Dana Allen
PhotoSafari (Pty) Ltd