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Zakouma 2015: Returning to Wildest Africa in Style


inyathi

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michael-ibk

Wow, awesome night-drive, love the Civet and Serval shot especially. Hm, Long-Snouted Mongoose?

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@michael-ibk No not long-snouted, which is a rainforest species I think, I will reveal the identity shortly but keep guessing if you wish

 

@pault

 

Ratels or Honey Badgers

 

We didn’t in fact, have a night drive every single night and on a couple of nights, we headed relatively quickly back to camp after our sundowner, so only had a very short night drive, but then on a couple of nights like the one I described, we went out after dinner. At least according to my list, we saw honey badgers (Melivora capensis) on 5 nights and often more than 1 both at Rigueik and in the Maniam area down in the south, though not by the Salamat.

 

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Ratel at Rigueik

 

One evening while we were down in the south, we decided, we just had time drive over to Am Souffa (which had been the location of our camp last year, when we’d visited Maniam) for a quick sundowner, we got there just in time to see the sun go down. After the sun had disappeared, from view, but while it was still light, we saw three honey badgers emerge from behind some long grass and come running down the track towards us, seeing our car they turned, ran out on to the shorter grass of the pan and carried on running alongside us. After they had disappeared from view, we spotted two more a long way off across the pan, much too far away to be the same ones.

 

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At Am Souffa

 

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It soon got dark, so we set off back to camp, spotting various creatures of the night along the way, arriving back at Am Kalam, we spotted another honey badger just before we reached Camp Nomade, making our total for the night six, which is just extraordinary, we were all completely astounded to have see so many on just one drive. I have been quite lucky with honey badgers and seen them very well in Botswana, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe but I never come close, to seeing as many as we saw on this safari, having seen several last year, I have to say that in my view Zakouma, could well be the best place in Africa to see honey badgers.

Edited by inyathi
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@@inyathi. Haha Is there anything we can't request? Best place for honey badgers in Africa? You have my attention, although the Central Kalahari Gane Reserve has quite a reputation too: my total: zero

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I am absolutely amazed by these productive night safaris! I have never imagined we could see so many animals in night safaris. Seeing many ratels in the same ay in something really exceptional. Observing one with lions, serval, civet, gives us how great is Zakouma.

I just can't believe it !!!!

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Outstanding, what a place!

Have cheetahs recently been sighted in the park? I know they did collar 1 early on when AP took management of the park.

And have wild dogs been reported or seen?

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Wow!

I have just got around to reading this TR and, as expected, it has initiated a bout of severe envy.

sorry I didn't "like" every single post @@inyathi, but I was conscious of filling up your notifications single handedly.

 

Thank you for sharing these experiences that I will probably never get to see first hand.

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Not bad for one night drive

 

A bit of an understatement!

 

Is your mongoose a trick question (a white-tailed mongoose with a black tail)? :P

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With six in one night down south and at least one on four different nights in the north around or on the way to Rigueik at different locations, I would guess my minimum total for the trip has to be ten different ratels and if I’ve forgotten a couple, then it could be as many as twelve. We were very lucky to see those ratels at Am Souffa while it was still light, all of the rest were seen after dark, it may be the case that there are in fact places in East Africa, that could be just as good for seeing honey badgers, but you aren’t allowed to night drive. Likewise you can’t night drive in the Central Kalahari, which reduces your chances of seeing them there, although they are active during the day as well as at night and I have seen them during the day in Tanzania, Botswana and at sunset in Zimbabwe.

 

@Marks I'm not sure if you saw through my trick question or that was just a guess but you're absolutely spot on it is melanistic white-tailed mongoose. :)

 

Serval

 

As with honey badgers, Zakouma is an excellent place to see servals (Leptailurus serval), the open grassy flood plains around Rigueik and Maniam provide an absolutely perfect habitat and we saw plenty of them. After our flight night driving from Zakouma HQ back to Rigueik, we saw four different ones and saw servals again on another four nights, down in the south often more than one. Exactly how many we saw, I’m not sure, but it could quite easily be 10-12, certainly many more than I’ve ever seen on any other trip, but again there may be other places, that could be just as good for spotting servals, if you were allowed out at night.

 

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Edited by inyathi
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Wild Cat

 

Last time we had excellent views of some very confiding wild cats (Felis silvestris cafra) while night driving from Tinga, this time we saw them on three separate nights, but weren’t lucky enough to get as close as last year.

 

 

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Edited by inyathi
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After our flight we spent a bit of time around the Zakouma area in the hope of seeing a pale fox or two as the general area around the HQ is the best place to look for them because the soil is much sandier and it’s therefore easier for them to dig their burrows. We only looked for them on this one night but unfortunately we weren’t lucky as seeing them had been one of the many highlights of last year’s safari.

 

On 6/17/2014 at 1:28 PM, inyathi said:

and then the icing on the cake a delightful pale fox to finish off.

 

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Pale Fox Vulpes pallida oertzeni

 

This little known small nocturnal fox is distributed right across the Sahel along the south of the driest parts of the Sahara Desert from the Atlantic Coast of Senegambia all the way to the Red Sea Coast in Eritrea.

 

Distribution map

 

During the day they rest in extensive burrows to escape the fierce daytime heat venturing out at night to forage for fruits, insects and small mammals. These foxes are generally thought to live in small family groups but when foraging they normally go of on their own.

 

 

 

Golden Jackal

 

We did however get quite excited when we saw three little golden jackal pups Canis aureus briefly thinking they might be foxes even though they weren’t they were very cute all the same.

 

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Two golden jackal pups the third one is still hiding in the den

Edited by inyathi
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Side-striped Jackal

 

The side-striped (Canis adustus) was the most common jackal species we saw this time, we didn’t see that many, but we did see them both at night and during the daytime.

 

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At Am Kalam

 

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Edited by inyathi
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The serval eerie is lovely! These night drives are amazingly productive!!!

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African Civet

 

Zakouma is also perhaps one of the best places to see civets (Civettictis civetta), we saw them on six different nights and also remarkably, we found one in the daytime, just before half past five on our first afternoon, beside the Bahr Dikere and were able to get very close, though sadly he didn’t look in the best of health and probably wouldn’t have survived too much longer.

 

 

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Edited by inyathi
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Blotched or Large-spotted Genet

 

Genets are not hard to see anywhere where they allow night drives and are usually one of the most common animals seen when out at night we saw plenty of them in Zakouma all of the ones we saw were blotched Genetta maculata

 

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Edited by inyathi
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White-tailed Mongoose

 

Another very common species, we saw on almost all of our night drives, was the white-tailed mongoose (Ichneumia albicauda albicauda), last year we had excellent views of one, which we followed while it marked its territory, here’s a photo of that one, which shows the characteristic pale white-tipped tail .

 

On 6/17/2014 at 1:28 PM, inyathi said:
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While we did see some that had the same familiar white or at least pale tail, almost all of the ones we saw this time had dark tails, something I don’t remember at all from last year, but it would seem that this dark melanistic form predominates in Zakouma. These mongooses are very common throughout the park and we certainly saw them on six different nights at Rigueik, along the Salamat and down in the south.

 

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Edited by inyathi
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Marsh Mongoose

 

On our last evening around dusk driving back through the red-billed quelea colony at Rigueik close to Camp Nomade we saw a very dark mongoose quite different in shape to the white-tailed ones we had been seeing. A marsh mongoose Atilax paludinosus a species not seen that often but common throughout most of Sub-Saharan Africa, this one appeared to be almost entirely black as is apparently typical of marsh mongooses in West Africa, so perhaps this is also the case in Central Africa.

 

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Edited by inyathi
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Egyptian or Ichneumon Mongoose

 

Driving through the quelea colony during the day, we saw a family of three of these mongooses (Herpestes ichneumon), but they disappeared very quickly. before I could take any photographs. Common on grassy floodplains, moist savannahs, lakeshores and broad river valleys ichneumons, are found throughout most of Sub-Saharan Africa and up the Nile Valley to Egypt, they also occur in southern Spain, where they may have been introduced by the Moors.

 

Banded Mongoose

 

During the day we frequently saw banded mongooses (Mungos mungo), often running away at high speed particularly along the Salamat. Our best view was in the late afternoon down beside the Salamat, while we were waiting to see if the large troop of patas monkeys, we had just seen would come to drink, the monkeys stayed away, but a family of banded mongooses did emerge from the riverbank.

 

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Edited by inyathi
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@@inyathi I missed that one, thanks for the information! From experience I can tell that cheetahs can be extremely hard to find, so there might well be more than they think. Have they ever managed to follow the collared Cheetah.

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If wild dogs are seen outsider the park, it means there is still game over there. Otherwise they would be killed when attacking livestock. Quick move should be done to protect them and work with the communities in this corner of Chad.

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I have recently watched a fascinating documentary from BBC on the grasslands eco-systems. It stresses on the role ants play to protect the acacias from giraffe depredation and their importance for the patas diet, as it constitutes its main meal. I am amazed by the beauty of nature!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U-q2Xj8oHI

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@@jeremie I was a bit surprised to see a Kangaroo on that video when I first saw your post, I saw that documentary when it was first on the BBC but I’d forgotten that it featured patas monkeys or that they eat ants.

 

 

 

Spotted Hyaena

 

There are two species of hyaenas in Zakouma the spotted Crocuta crocuta and the striped Hyaena hyaena we have not been lucky enough to see the latter species on either of our Zakouma safaris. Spotted hyaenas don’t seem to be that common in the park for some reason or at least they are not very visible. We certainly heard them occasionally while camped at Rigueik though at times it was very difficult to hear anything over the sound of frogs, we knew that they were around but we only actually saw one running off through the bush along the Salamat after we left our fly camp for the drive south. So I didn’t take any photos this time, last year we only saw a couple on one night drive.

 

North African Crested Porcupine

 

The North African crested porcupine Hystrix cristata occurs predominantly north of the Equator including parts of Southern Europe it is increasingly common in Italy, in East Africa it overlaps with its southern relative the Cape or South African porcupine Hystrix africaeaustralis. Porcupines are another of those animals that you don’t often see on safari simply because they are strictly nocturnal and at least in my experience you don’t see them very often on night drives. From memory I’ve only ever had a good but very fleeting view of Cape porcupines in Botswana and once in Zambia, so my view of a pair of North African cresteds on my final night in Zakouma (described earlier) is the best view I’ve ever had. What’s even more satisfying about this sighting is that in the Mammals of Africa it says under distribution, that crested porcupines are probably present in southern Chad and Central African Republic. The range map on the IUCN Redlist website says much the same thing showing them as probably extant in Chad, this all seems a little odd as they are on the park list, so clearly not an unknown species in Zakouma.

 

Range map

 

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Whatever the case in CAR North African crested porcupines definitely occur in southern Chad

 

Yellow-winged Bat

 

After taking me on a short walk to see an elephant mother and her calf in the Salamat, Squack spotted this yellow-winged bat (Lavia frons) hung up in a tree interestingly this species which is common across West, Central and East Africa south to Tanzania and Northern Zambia, was not on the park checklist. Squack was quite pleased to have added a new mammal species to the park’s list, not something you get to do very often and a sign of how much there is still to learn about Zakouma.

 

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African Savanna Hare

 

This species (Lepus microtis) has quite recently been split from the scrub hare (Lepus saxatilis) it is very common throughout the savannas of Sub-Saharan Africa, but seemingly not that common in Zakouma or not that easily seen, we only saw one last year and one this year.

 

Striped Ground Squirrel

 

Striped ground squirrels (Euxerus Erythropus) we saw a couple of times last year and certainly at least once this year, they’re either not that common in Zakouma or they just keep themselves well hidden

 

I hope that covers all of the mammals seen on this safari but for a quick recap here’s a complete list

 

Olive Baboon

Tantalus Monkey

Patas Monkey

Senegal Galago

Yellow-winged Bat

African Savanna Hare

Striped Ground Squirrel

North African Crested Porcupine

Side-striped Jackal

Golden Jackal (now called Golden Wolf)

Ratel/honey Badger

Ichneumon Mongoose

White-tailed Mongoose

Marsh Mongoose

Banded Mongoose

Spotted Hyaena

African Civet

Large-spotted/Blotched Genet

Wildcat

Serval

Leopard

Lion

African Bush Elephant

Common Warthog

Kordofan Giraffe

Central African Savanna Buffalo

Greater Kudu

Bushbuck/Harnessed Antelope

Common/Grey Duiker

Oribi

Defassa Waterbuck

Buffon’s/Western Kob

Bohor Reedbuck

Red-fronted Gazelle

Roan Antelope

Lelwel Hartebeest

Tiang

 

Which comes to a total of 37 different species identified which is a pretty impressive total for a single national park.

 

Of course we didn’t just see mammals on this trip, observant readers will have noted more than just a few birds, in some of the photos I’ve posted, so it’s now time to take a closer look at Zakouma’s extraordinary birdlife.

Edited by inyathi
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Zakouma gives fantastic exposure to the smaller carnivores...fantastic photos. The bat was also a really nice little sighting too.
Shame about no hyaenas of any type though. :(

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37 mammals in one park is mighty impressive. Looks like another place to add to my list of where I'd like to go...

 

Night drives in Zakouma

 

...in Kenya and Tanzania you can’t night drive in any parks only on private conservancies/concessions. In Tanzania the number of places you can night drive is very limited, in somewhere like Katavi I think it is very disappointing that they don’t allow night drives but on the other hand at somewhere like Ndutu in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area which is now very crowded in high season I’m extremely glad they don’t allow them.

 

One comment about this statement, we're going to Tanzania in 2016 and have booked night game drives in Tarangire and Lake Manyara. I think it's a fairly recent development, but Tarangire Safari Lodge is now offering night game drives. I think Lake Manyara has had night drives a little longer, but again not sure the exact timeframe.

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@@Marks I'm not sure if you saw through my trick question or that was just a guess but you're absolutely spot on it is melanistic white-tailed mongoose. :)

Mostly just a lucky guess, but I thought it might be something tricky since you were being suspicious about its identity!

 

I'm blown away by the small carnivores you came across in such abundance. The serval and side-striped jackal shots are especially great, with the long, bold shadows thrown by the spotlight.

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@@Big_Dog I think you misread my post we did see one spotted hyaena very briefly but I wasn’t able to take any photos, I didn’t include a photo from last year just because I assume everyone is familiar with what spotted hyaenas look like. Thinking about it I have been on safari in other places where spotted hyaenas are presumably not uncommon and not really seen very many of them, in Zakouma’s case may in fact just be that they’re not very active during the daytime. Given how hot Zakouma gets in April this would make sense and maybe we were just unlucky not to see some on night drives. There were definitely hyaenas around at Rigueik but as I said hearing them calling at night over the noise of the frogs was very difficult which made it hard to get an idea of how many there might be. Knowing what hyaenas are like perhaps one will sneak in somewhere :)

 

@Zubbie15That’s interesting I didn’t know that TANAPA had started allowing night drives in Manyara on a trial basis and I presume they are now doing the same in Tarangire, I know if you are staying somewhere outside the park t you can do night drives outside the park but the lodge of course is inside Tarangire so I don’t imagine they’re offering night drives outside. When the time comes I hope you will report back on some successful night drives in Tarangire.

 

@@Marks I suppose the reason I asked the question about the mongoose is because as I said in my entry for white-tailed mongooses I really don’t recall seeing any of this dark form last year and yet most of the ones we saw this year were dark. So in fact until we saw them this time I wasn’t really aware that melanistic white-tailed mongooses are common in some places, The Kingdon Field Guide does say that they are very common in Uganda but he doesn’t mention other places and he doesn’t illustrate the dark form in the book though he does have a drawing of one in the Mammals of Africa. The Pocket Guide which I took with me doesn’t mention the dark form at all, I thought I knew my African mammals pretty well but had Squack not informed me that they were white-tailed mongooses and that this dark form was particularly prevalent in Zakouma I might have been left scratching my head.

 

I took a lot of videos this time so sorting through, editing and then making sure they’re all uploaded has taken quite a while but hopefully some birds will start to appear a little bit later.

 

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