The Magic of Mana-October 2013

[wilddog]

Thanks all. @Atravelynn . My son has made the sound into an MP3 so could use it as a ringtone! and the dog belling sound (from 2012) can be the text arrival alert.

Edited December 17, 2018 by wilddog

[graceland]

Wonderful report @@wilddog - love the bee eaters/all birds - I really started appreciating their beauty while on safari --- and of course the sounds on the video. Makes me want to be there now! Reading these reports keeps me in Africa daily as I go about the day.

 

So enjoyable - thanks!

[twaffle]

Enjoying it immensely.

[wilddog]

Day 2 at Chikwenya

 

Overnight the wind had woken me quite a few times and in the morning the skies were very heavy with, a definite sense of rain on the way. Despite that we went out for a morning drive but took some waterproof clothing with us.

 

We drove inland a little and then along the edge of the river heading east. We had some nice sightings along the way but we had hoped to find the lion pride who often hang out in this area and is where we found them in 2012, but this time they were not home. There was a large tree that had blown down over night and the elephants were making the most of it. The eland seemed in skittish mood and ran away as we passed by.

 

 

 

 

Most of the animals seemed to have gone for cover and finally the rain came. We sat under a tree for a while looking across at Zambia with a hint of sunlight on the far side, wondering if the rain would stop.

 

But eventually we had to give up and return to camp where the rain continued to pour down for at least an hour.

 

Rather surprisingly it was suggested that we went on a boat ride again when the rain stopped. I have to say this did not seem a good idea but Doug was confident that that was the end of the rain and not wanting to be a 'party pooper', I agreed. In fact it was lovely out there; plenty of birdlife to see and Caroline caught a fish of which she was justly proud. We then went over to Chikwenya Island where we disembarked.

 

It is a large island with beautiful woodland at its edges and lakes in the interior. We had a walk through the island and saw plenty of birdlife and a hippo who was returning to it's private lake. When we returned to the landing point, we found a picnic lunch had been laid out under the trees. We enjoyed our lunch and then had a bit of siesta time before starting back.

 

The lushness of the vegetation here was in stark contrast to the dryness of the mainland.

 

On the return journey to camp we saw many elephants and buffalo on the islands, more bird life and a hippo that came off one of the islands in purposeful manner. Quiet an impressive sight. I was pleased to have been using a zoon lens!

 

 

 

The last evening drive was fairly uneventful, with the exception of this very fine Eland bull.

 

 

It seems we were not to find the dog pack Doug had seen the night before we arrived. Perhaps we would have better luck with dogs on the next section our trip, so we returned to camp to get ready to move off to the Mana flood plain first thing in the morning.

 

 

 

[Game Warden]

My gosh that last guy has been pumping iron!

[africapurohit]

My gosh that last guy has been pumping iron!

Looks more like Botox

[Safaridude]

That eland is definitely on steroids.

 

Phew… 45 degrees and humid? I am sweating just thinking about it. What part of October was this? @@wilddog

 

I am planning on being there toward the end of September in 2014...

[madaboutcheetah]

WOW - do they pose like that in Mana?

 

The only other place I've seen them this relaxed is the Mara - I suppose those are used to tourists so much?

[Atravelynn]

I felt like I was in the canoe with the ele towering over me in that photo up above! Great birds to go along with everything else.

[Pennyanne]

Loving this trip report. Beautiful photos and that huge bull eland! I have to go to Chikwenya. Mana Pools is certainly a special place. Looking forward to your next installment.

[madaboutcheetah]

 

 - The ones I've seen in Bots or Serengeti fly faster than a bush plane .......... Big herds in Kwando - but, they don't allow you to have a close look. Atleast, they get out of the mopane now a days ......... this was unheard of say, 8-10 years ago.

[TonyQ]

@@wilddog

Really enjoyable - I am glad you followed advice and went out after the rain

I love the picnic tablecloth!

[wilddog]

Thanks everyone. Yes an impressive Eland.

 

@@madaboutcheetah the eland are certainly more relaxed than I have experienced in other places. The lone bulls seem to stand their ground quiet a bit so you do get some good photo opps. With his massive size I guess he did not need to be frightened of much.

 

@@Safaridude we were there at the end of October 22nd onwards. Temps were that high for the first couple of days only and after the rain the temperature was noticeably lower in the valley but still hot.

 

September will be wonderful.

[madaboutcheetah]

- Herd of 500 - WOW .....

 

I think we saw a herd of about 60 0r so in Kwando two years ago, but they do the high flying .......

Edited December 16, 2018 by madaboutcheetah

[Soukous]

Impressive looking eland - good luck with your dog hunt at the next camp.

[Treepol]

Lovely bird photos from Chikwenya Island, thanks for sharing. The eland sure has been pumping iron!

[Safaridude]

OK, everyone, you've got my antelope-geek juices flowing...

 

From The Behavior Guide to African Mammals (Richard D. Estes):

 

Theodore Roosevelt found the eland the easiest of all big game to ride down on horseback... Elands only gallop when badly frightened and if pursued quickly tire. A bull chased by a Land Rover to get within darting distance slowed to a trot within 1 km (author's observation). This is the eland's fastest gait under usual conditions; it can trot at a rate of 35 kph for several kilometers, or much further at a slower rate.

 

Estes believes the eland's long flight distance is due to the fact that it does not gallop well (it needs a head start).

 

It has been my experience though that when eland become habituated to vehicles, they really become habituated (in fact, they are easy to domesticate). It has been my experience that they are exceptionally tame in Nairobi National, Masai Mara, and Ngorongoro (and I guess Mana Pools) and somewhat tame in Lewa, Tsavo West, and parts of Serengeti. But pretty much elsewhere, they run (trot) like hell at first sight.

[africawild]

Another great Mana report and what an impressive elan male !!

 

All our eland sights where of very shy animals everywhere ( including the Mara Reserve ) except for Etosha where they were very relax approaching to the waterholes with vehicles close by .

 

Paco

 

 

[inyathi]

I would like to say that 500 eland is really pretty impressive but I can top that, back in Feb/March 1998 in the Serengeti I saw several huge herds at least one of which we estimated at over 1,000 animals.1998 was an El Niño year and 10 times the normal amount of rain fell on East Africa causing major flooding and a lot of suffering for people around the region. A happier result of this record rainfall was that the whole of the NCA and Serengeti was beautifully lush and green and in places carpeted with wildflowers, on the drive down from the Crater to the plains there were some areas where the ground was completely pink with flowers. The eland seemed to respond to this abundance by congregating together in these huge temporary ‘super herds’. These herds when we saw them were a long way off and unfortunately the one scanned slide photo I’ve got is not worth really posting otherwise I’d post it in another thread. Having all these eland come together to form such huge herds was a freak occurrence, you don’t normally find herds of that size in the Serengeti or anywhere else.

 

Probably the largest of the more normal sized herds I’ve seen was on the Nyika Plateau in Nyika NP in Malawi at the time we counted about 80 animals, though the most I’ve counted in my photos is about 67 but I suspect that just means I didn’t get the entire herd in one shot. The next biggest I’ve seen was in Ruaha but I didn’t get a proper count that the time but I would guess from my photos that there must have been certainly over 50. I have also seen a decent sized herd in Katavi but I’m not sure how many there were as they didn’t hang around.

 

I would think that the eland in Mana must be just about the most approachable anywhere, in most other places they do tend to run when you try and get closer, it's just one of the many things that makes Mana a magical place.

Edited December 15, 2018 by inyathi

[Jochen]

My gosh that last guy has been pumping iron!

 

No sh** !

[Safaridude]

@@wilddog

 

I've got a guy who can match your guy...

 

http://safaritalk.net/topic/11835-eland-sightings/?p=115056

[wilddog]

 

 

The following morning (25th October) we got up for a brief drive along the river bank making one final attempt to find the lion pride or the elusive dogs. It was a heavily over cast day.We had a few nice sightings; a rather fine female eland, a young bataleur fluffed up in the tree, perhaps feeling the chill. We also found this very sad hippo hiding up in one of the pools below the bank. He had clearly taken a beating and the oxpeckers were making the most of the fresh food from his wounds.

 

 

 

 

The other interesting event was watching a heron trying to catch a squirrel who was running up a fallen tree. The heron was unsuccessful on this occasion. It's a poor image but interesting nevertheless. The squirrel can be seen top right. Squirrels were to loom large on this safari much more than I have ever seen before. We saw many each day running across the road in front of us. I nearly entitled this report The Squirrel safari but thought it might not inspire people to read it.

 

 

The lion pride and dogs continued to elude us so we set off for camp to pick up our bags and make our way to the flood plains travelling through dense mopane woodland.

 

On arrival at camp late morning we had brunch and having dropped our bags off set of for look around. We were fortunate to come across this very fine herd of Nyala with a male who was clearly interested in one of the females and a very obliging kudu who posed beautifully for us. Sadly my lack of expertise meant that the very tip of one horn is clipped in a rather nice portrait.

 

 

 

http://youtu.be/gifmg3NzisE

This was to prove to be an action packed afternoon so the next instalments will follow soon.

[michael-ibk]

Beautiful, beautiful antelope photos. Especially love the second Nyala shot which shows the sexual dimorphism so well.

[wilddog]

We then drove along to the end of Green pool so called because it is normally covered in water hyacinth at this time of the year, but there seemed to less of it this year.

 

Initially we could see large numbers of Maribou storks and some hooded vultures hanging about on the banks of the pool. It was interesting to watch these strange birds standing with open mouths due to the high temperature and lifting their wings out for added ventilation.

 

 

 

We were parked back on the road as I wanted to make the most of the photo opportunities, so it was a while before we edged closer when we could see a dead hippo down the bank below the road. At the end of the pool and high up on the opposite bank we could also see the Mucheni lion pride.

 

So this was what all the excitement was about.

 

 

Soon after our arrival the activities began as the lions came down to chase off the scavengers and to have a snack, not that they needed it; they were all bloated from their earlier meal.

 

We spent a couple of hours there and we were in prime position behind a fallen tree which proved to be the lions' main 'stop for a rest' point en route to the carcass and as it was quite early in the afternoon there was only one other vehicle the first part of our time there. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves just watching and getting some images and video.

 

The first young male we saw has quite a lot of skin markings and @@Maki , you should recognise him, he is definitely in your TR. I also think he may have slight squint but that did not prevent him from paying his respects to the Royal ensign on his way past.

 

One of the adult males seemed to be holding his head slightly to one side; perhaps he had toothache after the huge meal he had had that morning.

 

 

 

Do YOU think the lion below has a Squint?

 

Later we moved nearer to the carcass to gain a different perspective and to allow other people, who were now arriving, to get a good view from behind the fallen tree.

 

 

 

http://youtu.be/qREtMAFiW3k

 

Our first day on the flood plains had started off with a bang but it was not to be the end of it.

[Whyone?]

Nice lion sighting Lynda!

 

Interesting that you call this pool Green Pool - I had always thought it was called Chisambiko Pool? As you note, it was unusual to see so much water and so little water hyacinth. I've never seen it like this, and missed the ele's feeding half-submerged, this year.