This is the final Mapula Lodge video from my set of four that I've been blogging in my recent blog posts. This final video covers lion tracking from Mapula Lodge. For the remainder of the Mapula Lodge lion videos, click on the appropriate link below:

• Mapula Lodge Lion Greeting Video
• Lion Courtship at Mapula Lodge
• Mapula Lodge Lion Flehmen Response
• Lion Tracking at Mapula Lodge

Mapula Lodge Lion Tracking Video

I often discuss how important dedicated tracking can be for finding predators and Mapula Lodge staff match anyone in this department. Quite often the guide and the tracker both go on foot to follow a predator’s trail.

On a couple of occasions clients of The Wild Source have been asked if they would like to drive the vehicle and be part of the team for dedicated tracking. In this video I was guiding a group of six and took the wheel as head guide Dicks Tsima and tracker Simon pursued lions.

As we followed one trail another vehicle tracked a separate trail and we all met up where the lions had come to drink and re-group. We then successfully tracked down the three Mapula Boys and one female.

I hope you enjoyed this set of Mapula Lodge Lion videos. Coming up next - a series of leopard videos.

   

Welcome to the third Mapula Lodge lion videos that I have recently introduced. This video covers the Lion's Flehmen response - how male lions check the sexual status of the females. For the remainder of the Mapula Lodge lion videos, click on the appropriate link below:

• Mapula Lodge Lion Greeting Video
• Lion Courtship at Mapula Lodge
• Mapula Lodge Lion Flehmen Response
• Lion Tracking at Mapula Lodge

Mapula Lodge Flehmen Response

When the female does start to move off she urinates on a bush. Pheromones present in her urine likely indicate her reproductive status.

In this video you can see the male lion has come to scent the urine and grimaces, exposing his teeth by lifting up his lips. This is known as the Flehmen Response, or simply flehming, and is done to allow the pheromones to be detected by the vomero-nasal organ using ducts located between the nose and mouth cavity.

Lion performing Flehmen Response to check the pheromones in a female lions urine to determine her sexual status. This is to show a front view as the video is from the back and side of the lion flehming.
©Bill Given

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The Wild Source's Africa Video Channel - safari videos taken by The Wild Source founder Bill Given

   

This is the second video from the set of Mapula Lodge videos that I mentioned in my last blog post. This video covers courtships rituals of the lions near Mapula Lodge. For the remainder of the Mapula Lodge lion videos, click on the appropriate link below:

• Mapula Lodge Lion Greeting Video
• Lion Courtship at Mapula Lodge
• Mapula Lodge Lion Flehmen Response
• Lion Tracking at Mapula Lodge

Mapula Lodge Courtship Video

During my two visits to Mapula Lodge over the past 12 months, lion mating was an ongoing focus as well as this new coalition tried to convince the females that they were here to stay.

In January I saw the results as we discovered three beautiful new cubs. In these videos you can see some typical behaviors of lion courtship.

First the male lies with the female and you can notice he always wants to be in contact with her so that he can sleep but not let her sneak away. He is trying to monopolize her from the other males and thus needs to be there when she is ready to conceive. Again the care that goes in to the social bond between lions is apparent in this video.

   

I am finally catching up on some of my video, thanks to hiring my niece Kelsey over her summer break at college. We have many new video clips being uploaded and I will introduce some of them in our blog.

The first set of videos is a four part series of videos from September and October trips to Mapula Lodge in Botswana’s Okavango Delta. The Mapula Boys, a coalition of three massive male lions, have provided lots of the highlights. Click on a link below to see all of the videos from the Mapula Lodge lions.

• Mapula Lodge Lion Greeting Video
• Lion Courtship at Mapula Lodge
• Mapula Lodge Lion Flehmen Response
• Lion Tracking at Mapula Lodge

Mapula Lodge Lion Greeting Video

My favorite video of the Mapula Lodge lion video set is longer than usual video that captures the bonds of brotherhood that you can see between male lions in a coalition. You get a sense for their bond as they like to maintain physical contact with one another and I especially enjoy seeing their head rubs – the equivalent of a lion hug.

This closeness is essential to form the imposing team that is needed to hold a quality territory. Following their greeting you get eye to eye with a lion as he slakes his thirst and the Boys head out to hunt buffalo.

   

Sankuyo Bush Camp cheetah kill of impala.
© Irv Mendelssohn

Sankuyo Bush Camp has established itself quickly as a tremendous camp for year round game viewing. Between my recent visit to Sankuyo Bush Camp in late January and a number of client reports from February visits, it has moved up just behind the Kwara Concession Camps for my top green season (December through March) locations.

I have had quite a few clients go to both camps and the viewing highlights are coming out very even. Currently guests at Kwara and Little Kwara camps are experiencing brilliant cheetah viewing with a group of 6 regularly seen as well as their famed 3 brother coalition and that is keeping Kwara in my top green season spot but Sankuyo Bush Camp has had a good number of excellent cheetah sightings too and has had much better leopard sightings for our clients. Lions have been regular in both locations and wild dogs come and go in both places. My advice for the green season is to combine them both!

Sankuyo Bush Camp February Action

We had three sets of clients, all with three night stays at Sankuyo Bush Camp during February and amazingly each was present for a major predator event but each with a different predator species!

Cheetahs Active at Sankuyo Bush Camp

Sankuyo Bush Camp cheetah kill of impala.
© Irv Mendelssohn

Early in February things got off to a FAST start at Sankuyo Bush Camp when Irv and Karen from Louisiana were on hand to watch a start to finish cheetah hunt of an impala. These folks had the big cat tri-fecta with cheetah kill, about an hour with a leopard and following a male lion as day became night.

Sankuyo Bush Camp Leopard Kill

A collared leopard dines on impala near Sankuyo Bush Camp.
© Jerry Thornton

Mid-month Kim and Jerry from California were on an early morning game drive when their guide, Doctor, found fresh leopard spoor (tracks) and began tracking. They actually came to the end of a trail where the tracks stopped and doubled back to find a big male leopard panting in fatigue and he allowed them to approach to just four or five feet away as he rested. It soon became evident that he was tired from a successful hunt and must have just hauled an impala up in a tree moments before being found because he soon rejuvenated and proceeded to scale a tree to his prey which he had not yet begun to eat and they were then able to see the feeding process from the beginning.

Sankuyo Bush Camp is located very close to the Botswana Predator Conservation Trust research base making this area the center of Botswana’s predator studies. That speaks volumes to the quality and diversity of predators in the area but does mean you will occasionally find an animal wearing a research collar. Kim happens to be a very accomplished author on animal subjects, primarily domestic dogs and I was able to arrange an interview for her with one of the predator research team. Lions roaring were nightly experience and they were observed as well.

Male lion tucked under the bushes near his giraffe kill next to Sankuyo Bush Camp.
© Ken Imler

Lions at Sankuyo Bush Camp

The month ended with our client, Ken from Colorado, in Sankuyo Bush Camp when the Santawani pride of lions took down a giraffe in the night just about 100 yards outside of the camp near Tent #6. The excitement was paramount through the night and by morning the sighting was of fat lions laying up in the bushes with the large remains of a giraffe carcass sprawled out.

The Sankuyo/Santawani area has an extremely high density of giraffe, and in response to this plentiful food source the Santawani lion pride have become specialists at hunting giraffe. Lion prides often develop feeding cultures where they specialize on certain prey items, doesn’t mean they only eat that but with large difficult prey like giraffe it becomes an acquired craft to become proficient hunters of that species to the point where it is a common prey item.

A Flight Delay that Made People Pleased

A cheetah kill is a great reason to delay a flight!
© BG

In January guests of Sankuyo Bush Camp had just boarded their Delta Air bush plane for a flight to Oddballs Enclave when an impala came streaking up the runway with a cheetah in close pursuit. Within seconds these folks witnessed a kill from their seats in the plane! What ensued next was a one hour flight delay as passengers de-planed, jumped in the game drive vehicle and watched the cheetah feast. Unfortunately I was not a passenger for this flight delay so the above photo is a recreation using a Serengeti cheetah and young wildebeest in the roles of the Botswana cast members.