XA!nini African Wildlife Safaris
Happy New Year everyone, may this be the year of travel!

They are the biggest, strongest and most beautiful lionesses I have ever seen. With well developed shoulders, thick necks and expansive chests they are athletes supreme. Propelled by their thick sprinter's thighs and lithe lower legs, they move through the water with the ease on an Olympic swimmer. These are the legendary "Swamp Cats" of Duba Plains.

Duba Plains is one of the most remote camps in the Okavango Delta's panhandle. It's a small, intimate camp with only 6 Meru-style tents nestled under a shady grove of ebony, fig and mangosteen trees and is also one of the first areas to receive the annual floodwaters which come down from the Angolan highlands around April / May. It's in this 30,000 hectare wilderness that renowned filmmakers, Beverley and Derek Joubert, captured the unique and truly riveting story about a pride of lions and herd of buffalo living together on an isolated island.

I'm on the island scanning its horizon for anything black or bronze. I've been told that finding the lions is the easy part. So long as they're hungry, they will hunt and it's buffalo that are mostly on the menu. By mid day, temperatures have soared to a sweltering 43 degrees. Casually lying astride an anthill carefully surveying the scene is a lioness. "Shouldn't she be fast asleep", I quip. "In theory she should", says Solly our guide, "But here the lions are different. They hunt by day and have adapted to using the water in their tactical approach."

The Tsaro pride are the dominant lions operating Duba Island. Each pride sticks to its own territory occasionally overlapping when waiting for the buffalo to circle back into their hunting domain. Both groups are ruled by a magnificent male lion who spends his time perusing his ladies.

After four days of watching the game, the buffalo have moved in a big circle, using the swampy area as their buffer. The lions are clearly in disarray and for now the buffalo have the upper hand………Join me at Duba during 2011 for one of Botswana's most adrenalin pumping wildlife encounters on the planet!

Until next month,


Lisa Marsden
DUBA PLAIN FACT FILE:
• Silver Eye, who is blind in one eye, became renowned for her fearless hunting skills. Today she has a bit more subdued due to her age.
• In 2005, the Jouberts witnessed an incident whereby they watched Silver Eye killing the cubs of another pride female.
• Since then, it is estimated by the Duba guides, that around 80 cubs have been killed with non surviving to adulthood.
• More recently, cub killing seems to have become a trend amongst the other females.
• Look out for Jouberts new movie "The Last Lions" due out this February.



The swamp cats of Duba - article on iafrica.com

CLICK HERE - Victoria Falls Valentine SPECIAL!!!

GORILLA NEWS:
• Monday 24 January – deadly attack on a Ranger Patrol in Congo's Virunga National Park leaves 8 dead and 3 critically injured. For more information go onto www.gorilla.cd/blog
• The 12 strong Bitukura gorilla group located in the Ruhija section of Bwindi have split into two groups. Updates available on my Blog page.

* All pictures copyright Lisa Marsden

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