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Botswana, September 2013 - Savuti, Chobe National Park

Our stay at Savuti will always be remembered by us for the wonderful leopard sighting that we had.

Early one morning we saw several vehicles parked up along the main Savuti - Khwai road and decided to investigate. Our first sight was of this dead impala.

A little further on we saw the leopard lying along a large, fallen tree trunk. We sat and watched it for ages, until all the other vehicles had long gone, before driving on.

A couple of hours later, on our way back to camp, we drove back to the place where we'd seen the leopard, expecting to see some vultures, jackal or even hyenas. As we approached there were no vehicles there, no leopard and no other birds or animals. Just as we were about to carry on the leopard appeared out of the bush, walked slowly over to the impala and then proceeded to try and drag it into the shade. What a wonderful sight, we stayed and watched for the best part of an hour.

It was a large impala and the leopard tried different holds to drag it along. Every so often it stopped for a rest, panting heavily.

Eventually, once in some shade, the leopard had a snack and then wandered over to the fallen tree and lay down in the shade.

We later learned that 2 leopard had killed the impala earlier that morning. In the late afternoon we drove out to the kill and did see both leopards lying in the shade near the tree. surprisingly there were still no vultures to be seen. The following day we had to drive on to Kasane so didn't have time to return to the kill.

Apart from the leopard we did see quite a few other animals in our 2 day stay at Savuti. The campsite isn't fenced so animals can, and do, wander around freely.

One of a group of dwarf mongooses at our campsite.

This female kudu browsed on the bushes at our site.

Roan antelope across the Savuti Channel.

The Savuti Channel still had plenty of water in it.

We saw a large buffalo herd.

There were a lot of elephant bones in the Park.

 

1. Khama Rhino Sanctuary and Kubu Island.

2. Khwai Community Wildlife Area.

3. Savuti, Chobe National Park.

4. Senyati Safari Camp.

 

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A lilac-breasted roller on the lookout for insects.