More Adventure with Safari Mike: Luangwa Lions Lounging, Male Giraffe Necking

Lounging Lions of Luangwa

Because the park entrance fee is good for 24 hours, we were able to do both a late afternoon and early morning game drive with Mike. He had been working for Born Wild Foundation in Malawi. According to Mike, this organization was founded by the actors from the classic movie.

When we set out on the early morning drive, Mike informed us if we saw lions, be prepared to sit and watch them for a couple of hours. We said that would not be a problem for us. He had been on several safaris at Flatdogs and had yet to see any lions. And, afterall, since he had been working for Born Free wildlife conservation in Malawi for several years, we simply had to help him study his lions! We had noooo problem with that idea at all!

We drove through parts of the park we had not been to but were not finding any lions. We would get hopeful when we would either see very little in the way of wildlife and what looked like an animal alerting as if there might be a lion around.

Finally we came on a safari vehicle and stopped and asked them if they were seeing anything. They said there were lions right back where they had been. As we approached the area where they had been, we saw a giraffe sitting on the ground. We wondered if the lions were still there because the giraffe did not seem concerned. We drove into the clearing and there they were! It was 10 lions in two groups sitting on the ground.








Suddenly, they got up and looked like they were getting ready to start hunting. Some began to move out and others went plunk, back down on the ground! They moved into several groups and began to do what according to Mike they do 80% of every day------resting! Mike hopes one day to become a safari guide and has a book with facts and figures about the various animals.

Mike drove from the open area where some were resting, "off road!" ,to a place where another vehicle had gone. They turned around and left, we saw nothing, turned around barely missing trees and such, when Laura cried "look", two lions were coming up behind us. They, too, went plunk, and began to rest. We watched them for some minutes up close and personal, and it was thrilling, I tell you.

Then off stage, we heard a thundering of hooves. What was that?
Later we learned from the folks in the Flatdogs game drive vehicle that the lions all of sudden got up and chased the giraffes! No luck, though.

Just after we heard the hooves another self drive vehicle drove up, this one carrying people in muslim dress, one man driving, three women passengers. Laura commented that the back window had been broken out, and she wondered if by elephants. As if the man read her lips, he began telling us that they had been in a lodge near Flatdogs and had left oranges in the back. Oops, seems that "Wonkie Tusk" had been busy....

We then spent the next two and a half hours ,moving between and watching the resting lion small groups. Many times they were very "cat-like" in their behavior--rolling over and stretching, preening and cleaning and yawning and stretching. It was all very entertaining!





Male Giraffe "Necking"
We also came up to three male Giraffe doing the strangest thing. According to Mike, the males were "necking." They were butting each other with slow but great force, apparently in preparation for the mating season. Mike told us that male Giraffe are distinguised in part from females by the hair being worn off their horns.

Ground hornbills along the Luangwa River

One morning we were awakened to a new sound we had not heard. We were sure that it was a non-human sound. Robert went to try and see if he could find what it was making the noise. He came running back to report that it was ground hornbills walking along the riverbank. We as silently as we could walked down to the area by the permanent tents and watched them as they came past. They were making a "booming" type noise and the red throat pouch would puff out as they boomed. Robert said they looked like a group of monks moving down the river because they were so stately looking! We watched them until they moved out of sight on down the river. We heard them a second morning and they were across the river and we were not able to see them as well and they did not boom quite as long.

It was three adults and one immature ground hornbill. The reason we knew it was not a female is that she has blue on her throat patch. We incorrectly assumed because they were called ground hornbills they could not fly or at least not very well. We were surprised to see them flying while we were on our night drive. They are very stately in flight and have beautiful white wing patches visible.

Adventures with Elephant at Flatdogs Camp

Adventure with Elephant at Flatdogs

One of the unique features of Flatdogs camp is the fact that the wild animals are allowed to come into the park and wander around. There are night watchmen who can accompany you to the toilet at night, and other staff during the day, that help keep the human visitors from coming too close when the wild animal happens to be a hippo, elephant or giraffe!

Wonkie Tusk and Gilbert
There are several elephants that we have been told are known by name in the camp and we have witnessed "Wonkie tusk" and some of her two daughters and younger sister. She is so named because one of her tusks points to the front and the other to the back. She also has a sister that comes through the area with her children also.



Our first morning here we were not able to get into the food storage area because one of the children was grazing right there. We went back a little while later and were able to get our stuff. One morning we watched as Wonkie tusk and children cruised through the area. One of the young juveniles knocked over one of the nice wooden chairs and then kicked it for good measure. He also managed to knock over a sign.




Another morning, as we were preparing to go fix our meal in the kitchen, we saw the herd moving through so skirted around buildings so they wouldn't see us. A Dutch couple that we had been visiting with came over with their cooler. They were getting ready to leave and were packing up when the family came through. The watchmen suggested they put their cooler in the kitchen area because "Wonkie tusk" can recognize a cooler and has been known the stomp one that was outside to get to what was in it and we were told the she has also pushed open a car window to get to one she saw inside the vehicle!



I went back to our tent one morning to get some cooking items I had forgotten and was unable to get into the tent because one of the young ones was right there at our tent! He finally moved away far enough that I was able to get what I needed. Another morning we were going to catch a ride into town with the shopping run and were at our tent getting things out when the family was moving through and were afraid we were going to be stuck in our tent. The proper etiquette is to stay back away from them and try to keep something large like a tree, tent, vehicle to move behind if they get too close. If you are in your tent you are to stay there.




The only story we have been told about them bothering a tent was by Jess, one of the managers, about two young guys that reported that a elephant had cut into their tent with her tusk and took the biscuits that had in their tent out. Of course, they were not supposed to have food in their tent and this explains why.

We also have seen Gilbert, a huge old bull elephant with beautiful tusks and no tail. Evidently some of them lose their tail to parasites or a predator trying to attack them. Gilbert was our excuse one morning to go eat in the restaurant because he was feeding right outside the kitchen. While we were having breakfast, moved onto the lawn overlooking the river by the restaurant. There was a young guy down sitting in a chair enjoying the early morning when Gilbert came up behind him. It was quite a startling experience for him to say the least.

Another encounter we had with the elephants was one afternoon while I was sitting outside our tent painting and Robert was reading a book. A girl came up to the sink by our tent area and turned to me and said, "Excuse me, did you know there was an elephant behind you?" I turned around and there was one about 40 feet from us feeding. I retired to the platform to finish working on my painting and Robert followed the group as they wandered through the camp.

We have also been told by one of the local workers here at the camp that the villagers have used what has been known as a chili fence to keep the elephants out of their fields. What they do is take old cooking oil that they have cooked chilis in and dipped rags in this and strung them around their field. They report that it does keep the elephants out of their field.

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!