Lion on the Hunt , Night Game Drive, Birding South Luangwa

Night Game Drive into South Luangwa National Park

Friday after lunch I was taking a nap in the tent when Robert woke me up and suggested we go on a game drive. We had met Johann, a South African, and his new wife Nancy, who was from Virginia at the bar the previous night and decided to go on the same night game drive they were taking. Robert jokingly told them that they were obviously having good luck and surely would spot us a leopard. Johann replied he had dreamed that Robert showed them a leopard. Sure enough, we saw a leopard on the drive!


Johann and Nancy

From the reports we had been hearing from people, the night drive sounded like the best option to see animals. You gather in the dining room at 3:30 for tea or coffee and cookies and cakes. The drivers of the various vehicles meet you and let you know which vehicle you are riding on. We then set off. We were in the vehicle with Johan and Nancy. Johann said he had a dream the night before if we were on the drive with him, we would see the largest leopard ever!

Park Entry Fee in US Dollars or Kwatcha
You stop at the entrance and pay your fee of $25.00 for the entry that is good for 24 hours so technically you could do a game drive one evening and the next morning do an early morning game drive. The fee varies for people from outside the continent of Africa and those that live in Africa. From there we crossed into the park. This park is in what would be considered woodland according to the description in my book, "The Wildlife of Southern Africa: A field guide to the animals and plants of the region." Woodland is defined as region of open woodland with trees that are spaced sufficiently apart so that there is an understorey of grass and no closed canopy. The area of arid savanna is dominated by acacia species and is generally more open. As we drove through the park, you would be in a forested area and then in an open area with few trees. The Luangwa River runs through the park and the escarpment to the north marks the northernmost boundary. According to our guide, the park encompasses 950,000 acres. (I believe that is correct)


Puka, Zebra, Bush Buck, Giraffe, Hyena, Impala, Kudu
The first two hours we drove through herds of puka which we had not seen before.They are similar in appearance to the impala which we also saw in great herds along with the bushbuck.

The puka is a beautiful rich tan in coloration. We saw some female kudu which of course are not the same magnificent species as the male. We also saw zebra of a variety that are a subspecies of the Burchell's zebra that are not found except in Zambia and parts of Tanzania. There stripes are different and you can tell the sex of the zebra by the width of the stripes on the backs of their legs; the female's stripes are wider than the males.


Hammerkopf, Gray Lourie, Bateleur, White crowned Plover
We saw some birds on the first part of the trip that we had not yet seen on our trip this time. There was a group of hammerkopf (hammerheads) around a lagoon. They were displaying their distinctive hammerhead as we watched. In the trees you could hear the gray lourie telling us to "go away." This is their distinctive call and they are also known as the go-away bird. There were some flocks of the quelea and we saw a few whitebrowed sparrow weavers. Several times we saw bands of the blue-helmeted guinea fowl. We saw two immature raptors, one the bateleur and the other the martial eagle.







One of the most interesting birds we saw was the White-crowned Plover, which has longer yellow wattles than the Wattled Plover. Very strange yellow things hanging beside his beak!






Sundowner Break with Hyenas
We stopped for a "sundowner break" just as we saw a young spotted hyena. We didn't see the larger hyena lying in the grass until the guide pointed it out to us. The animals really do a could job of camoflouging themselves! We did get to watch the two hyenas get up and lope off to begin their evening hunt. According to the guide, they are mainly scanvengers and so they are hunting for some other animals leftovers from a kill. The Spotter and The Guide served drinks and peanut snacks and pointed to a clump of bushes for those who needed to releive themselves. Hmmmmm. The hyenas were nearby, and no telling what else.

There was a family of Thornikroft giraffe coming up as we drove up. These are a species that is only found in the South Luangwa National Park. They have brown patches on their face that distinguish them from other giraffe.









Darkness Falls, Lions Get Up to Hunt
Then the sun went down and the night part of the drive began! Each vehicle is equipped with a spotlight which enables the guide to look for the animals. We and several other safari vehicles immediately ran into a pride of about 15 lions! They were just beginning their evening hunt.






As we had been told, the vehicles get right up with the animals and all are shining their lights on them. I guess the animals are immune to this because they just ambled past us. For about 20 minutes, it was almost like rush hour traffic. The line of safari vehicles following along behind the pride. We soon figured out eating dust and exhaust was not the way to go and so our guide pulled out of the the line and we took off on our own.





Leopard!
In about 10 minutes it became apparent why the guide and spotter are such a big part of the drive. The spotter was moving his spotlight back and forth across the grass and spotted a leopard crouched down apparently hunting. We would have never seen it. The leopard took off and we were able to follow at a distance as it was hunting an impala. Fortunately, the leopard moved out of sight and so we didn't see a kill take place.


Leopard!

Genet and Civet
As we continued driving we saw in various places 5 different genet and 5 different civet cats. Throughout the evening we saw five of each and at times they would stand still long enough for us to look at them closely and also take pictures. We saw two more individual lions, both males. One did a nice pose for us, turning so we could see his mane and then he wandered off into the bush.






Lazy Lion
We also saw a final male lion near the entrance to the park. Two girls we had talked to called him the lazy lion. When we drove up to him (very close) he turned and looked at us and then layed down. Then he began his calling, grunting, roaring for a prone position. It was quite interesting to watch!


White tailed Mongoose and Giant Eagle Owl
As we were heading back to the entrance we saw a white tailed mongoose and then a giant eagle owl. It was too dark for us to see owl's pink eyelids but we did get to watch him for a minute or so.

As we drove back to the camp and crossed the Luangwa River bridge, we saw a buffalo near the road water and right outside the reception area we saw a swamp mongoose. Wow!

Game Drive Ethics
We discussed with Johann and Nancy the ethical question of getting so close to the lions and other animals with so many spotlights and vehicles right on top of them. At times the safari vehicle was within a few feet of the lions.

So all in all, the night drive was quite an adventure and is well worth repeating! We went to bed early and people told us that as a consequence we missed the giraffe walking along the path near our tent.


Croc!