SELOUS IMPALA CAMP GAME DIARY

As we were expecting at the beginning of the season, this really has been a very interesting one. The wildlife in Selous has been very busy in the last months, offering amazing sightings, events and also surprises. Nature always make changes, that’s the beauty of it!
.
Selous African Wild Dogs
After the pack of 10 Wild Dogs couldn’t successfully raise the puppies, unexpectedly they have split up, forming two different packs of 5 members each.
The alpha male and female are still together with three of the young ones; while the subordinate female, who was also pregnant at the beginning of the season, decided to leave with the subordinate male and the other three young ones.
As often happens with Wild Dogs, it is the females who leave the pack, while the males remain in their natal pack to become helpers, while they wait for the loss of the alpha male to give them a chance to breed.
What pushed the subordinate female to leave the pack of course is not known, but we can assume that the reasons could be connected to the loss of the puppies. Maybe because she has been pushed by the alpha to abandon them and also by her instinctive wish to have chances also to conceive? Hopefully this may be clearer in the future.
These days we often get the chance to see one pack or the other, resting or hunting here in the surroundings. Some of the guests out on a walking safari recently, spent more then 40 minutes a few meters from them sited on the ground, observing these very interesting creatures socialising and feeding each other, totally ignoring the presence of humans.
There have been no more sightings of the pack of four that was regularly in the area around Impala camp last season. Since the original pack of ten took over this part of the reserve, they have disappeared. By the way this could be normal if you consider the fact that dogs occupy enormous home ranges that could also overlap with other packs and be in competition for food.
We hope one day to come back to you with the news that the pack has been spotted again here, maybe in an increased number.

Selous Lions
The Lions of Siwandu made it through the year successfully this time, raising the two cubs who are now about one year old. It seams that the old difficult time are over and all in the pride are healthy and successfully hunters.
The big young male is still with the pride….which is unusual and no signs of mane developing yet, probably never will. He and the adult male seems to be in a good relationship still, no signs of fights yet between them, which could lead to the young male leaving the pride.
The adult male has had a hard time. Last season and at the beginning of this season he has been seen moving up and down between the two prides, the Siwandu and Nzelekela. The Nzelekela’s females were seen together with him and small cubs, assuming that he was the father, but since the presence of two big, young and strong male lions brothers in Nzelekela’s area, the Siwandu male had to leave.The two brothers drove him off, for sure he couldn’t stand against two lions together who became the dominants of the Nzelekela’s pride and he returned back to Siwandu and settled.
So the brothers took over the territory and the pride. As it is in lion behaviour, they have killed the cubs so the mothers could quickly be back into breeding condition and they could spread their own genes.
They were seen mating with the two females and in fact, after a very short time, both females have been seen pregnant and today they move around with 5 pretty and lovable new cubs.
We have more news about the Selous lion prides: a new one of 22 members of different ages has been recently seen hunting north of Manze in the Mwangu area. A guest’s family was having breakfast in the bush when they saw this big pride pulling down a buffalo just in front of them and have their meal. Amazing!

Selous Snakes

photo by Jenny and Jeremy Thompson

For who love snakes as we do, here are some shots of two amazing sightings we had this month. One is of a juvenile Black Necked Spitting Cobra who caught a toad and the other is of an extraordinary African Python, about three meters long, who was seen in the middle of the day, rolled up on a fully grown female impala, suffocating it and then swallowing it. This was superb!
Pythons lie low along their victims’ trails, ambushing their prey. They kill the victim by asphyxia and, having split jaws, they can swallow large animals that take days to be digested.

photo by Jenny and Jeremy Thompson

The photo of the python is taken by Jenny and Jeremy Thompson, who also took the pic of two civet cats, while on a walking safari from Impala camp.

The change of colours from the dry season to the wet is wonderful. The Selous is not only interesting for its wildlife, but also for the incredible beauty of the contrasting colours and landscapes, gold and yellow in the dry season and bright green during the wet.
Last year the rains came at the right time, bringing fresh air and new life in the Reserve, excellent not only for the newly born impalas who had fresh new grass to feed on, but also for the big herds of buffalos, zebras and wildebeest.
We are hoping for a good rainy season, in March, April and May. We will close the camp in the end of March, and open again on 1st June, ready for the new cycle to begin.
Selous is always full of life and for sure more interesting scenes are about to be seen…..

Barbara and the Impala Camp team