Zakouma + Ennedi with Chalo Africa - Chad Feb/March 2020

[RC88COR]

19 hours ago, johnweir said:

Wow, what a simply fantastic trip report, exactly what was required at this difficult time. Your images are outstanding, but I was personally particularly drawn to those of some of the rarest mammals on the planet. Having visited Zakouma in 2018 your report brought back some very happy memories. The Cheetah sighting as several members have pointed out was indeed a very rare sighting, the subspecies found in Chad is very poorly documented and I should imagine is critically endangered. We were fairly sure we observed a Striped Hyena (a species I had never seen) during a night drive in Zakouma but it was from a considerable distance and with binoculars so I did not include it in my species list for the trip. However on an extended trip to India 2020 (just prior to Covid restrictions), I did secure several good Striped Hyena sightings. (Certainly some would argue of a different ssp. to the one you observed however). 

In your Zakouma section you make reference to the Striped Gazelle, which I am not familiar with, could you give some details please?

The Faunal Reserve images I found fascinating, your report has certainly focussed my thoughts that I need to return to Chad soon and include the desert extension you have so wonderfully described and promoted.

Thank you again for posting, superb.                                              

 

Thank you @johnweirso glad you enjoyed the TR.  I have it in my notes that we saw striped gazelles, but I am not sure how to distinguish them from the others. This might be a good question for our guide@Zarek Cockarif he recalls seeing the striped gazelles.

 

About a couple days into the Ennedi portion of the trip, I realized this was something entirely different than I had every experienced. The Sahara and the Ennedi Plateau are so mindblowing that you just have to give it room to live in your psyche; everyone became quieter, more contemplative with subtle shifts in awareness. 

 

If you are interested, Chalo Africa is doing another trip to Zakouma Ennedi and Ouade Rime in March 2022 with Zarek Cockar.

[inyathi]

Just after my last post, I received the Zakouma newsletter for Feb, besides monitoring ostrich nests, in preparation for moving more red-necked ostriches to Ennedi and the OROA, I was interested to read that they are upgrading the road between Zakouma and Siniaka Minia in preparation for animal translocations in 2022. It didn’t say which species they will be moving, the only species that I know are completely gone from Siniaka Minia are Black Rhino and Eastern Giant Eland, all other species are still present, except perhaps elephants, formerly some elephants moving out of Zakouma in the wet season, went to Siniaka and then returned in the dry season, I presume there would also have been some resident elephants there in the past. As Zakouma’s elephant population grows and they start to disperse out of the park again, when they realise that it is actually safe outside, then they should perhaps return to Siniaka on their own, via the protected corridor linking the two parks. Having discovered and read AP’s five-year Zakouma business plan 2018-22, my guess is that they are just intending to move buffaloes and giraffes, there are now over 10,000 buffaloes in Zakouma, and I would guess not so many in Siniaka, so it makes sense to move some. The population of Kordofan Giraffes in Zakouma is around 1000, this is roughly 60% of the entire population, I’ve no idea how many there are in Siniaka, but moving some, will help numbers to grow there, and be good from a genetic standpoint, I would guess in time Siniaka could easily support a similar number. I don’t know how many giraffes Zakouma can support and whether there is scope for numbers to keep growing in the park, but building a good population in Siniaka could more than double Chad’s giraffe population, this would be very important for the Kordofan giraffe, as they are not fairing so well elsewhere, in CAR, DRC and RoSS, nor I suspect in northern Cameroon.  

 

@RC88COR

One query regarding your trip, how cold did it get during the nights at Ennedi, my memory of Zakouma is that it almost never cooled down, until just before dawn, but obviously the desert is rather different and I assume it cools down a lot?

 

Getting a little bit cold in Chad would be a novel experience, but certainly a price worth paying to see those stunning landscapes. I look forward to a time in the near future, when those incredible rock formations, will provide a perfect backdrop to herds of oryx and addax, I guess numbers will need to build up a bit more in OROA, before AP can think about reintroducing them to Ennedi.

 

I'm not sure I can wait that long, it seems there's a distinct possibility, I could return to Chad sooner rather than later.

Edited January 24, 2022 by inyathi

[RC88COR]

28 minutes ago, inyathi said:

Just after my last post, I received the Zakouma newsletter for Feb, besides monitoring ostrich nests, in preparation for moving more red-necked ostriches to Ennedi and the OROA, I was interested to read that they are upgrading the road between Zakouma and Siniaka Minia in preparation for animal translocations in 2022. It didn’t say which species they will be moving, the only species that I know are completely gone from Siniaka Minia are black rhino and eastern giant eland, all other species are still present, except perhaps elephants, formerly some elephants moving out of Zakouma in the wet season, went to Siniaka and then returned in the dry season, I presume there would also have been some resident elephants there in the past. As Zakouma’s elephant population grows and they start to disperse out of the park again, when they realise that it is actually safe outside, then they should perhaps return to Siniaka on their own, via the protected corridor linking the two parks. Having discovered and read AP’s five-year Zakouma business plan 2018-22, my guess is that they are just intending to move buffaloes and giraffes, there are now over 10,000 buffaloes in Zakouma, and I would guess not so many in Siniaka, so it makes sense to move some. The population of Kordofan giraffes in Zakouma is around 1000, this is roughly 60% of the entire population, I’ve no idea how many there are in Siniaka, but moving some, will help numbers to grow there, and be good from a genetic standpoint, I would guess in time Siniaka could easily support a similar number. I don’t know how many giraffes Zakouma can support and whether there is scope for numbers to keep growing in the park, but building a good population in Siniaka could more than double Chad’s giraffe population, this would be very important for the Kordofan giraffe, as they are not fairing so well elsewhere, in CAR, DRC and RoSS, nor I suspect in northern Cameroon.  

 

@RC88COR

One query regarding your trip, how cold did it get during the nights at Ennedi, my memory of Zakouma is that it almost never cooled down, until just before dawn, but obviously the desert is rather different and I assume it cools down a lot?

 

Getting a little bit cold in Chad would be a novel experience, but certainly a price worth paying to see those stunning landscapes. I look forward to a time in the near future, when those incredible rock formations, will provide a perfect backdrop to herds of oryx and addax, I guess numbers will need to build up a bit more in OROA, before AP can think about reintroducing them to Ennedi.

 

I'm not sure I can wait that long, it seems there's a distinct possibility, I could return to Chad sooner rather than later.

 

Thank you @inyathifor this very informative post and update on African Park/Zakouma's plans for Siniaka. 

Ennedi temperature
We were there at the end of February and it was on average 28-33 C during the day and it dropped to about 10-12 C at night. I was expecting it to be colder at night and brought a sleeping bag. I used the sleeping bag the 1st night, and quickly realized it was not necessary, the comforters provided were good enough, but I am Canadian ... The night temperatures were cool, but not cold.

Do you know that Chalo Africa has trips to Ouadi Rime, Ennedi and Zakouma scheduled for Feb/March 2022? 

 

Edited March 11, 2021 by RC88COR

[inyathi]

On 3/11/2021 at 7:06 PM, RC88COR said:

Do you know that Chalo Africa has trips to Ouadi Rime, Ennedi and Zakouma scheduled for Feb/March 2022? 

 

@RC88COR

 

Yes thanks, I do indeed , I should confess that's what prompted my question, thanks for the answer, @gatoratlargevery kindly invited me to join him on his Chad adventure, I seem to have said yes, I'm confident that if all goes to plan, I will be joining them in Feb, my own reports, photos and writings about Zakouma helped encourage a few folks here, to take the plunge and visit Chad and now I have to thank you for the fact, that your report, has played a part in convincing me to go back. Back in 2016 I wrote a bit about the oryx reintroduction in this thread First scimitar horned oryx released in OROUA, Central Chad, I said that I hoped it would soon be possible to visit the oryx and that a combination of Ennedi, OROA and Zakouma, would make for a fantastic Chad safari, at the time I wrote that, I wasn't aware of anyone offering Chad trips that include the OROA, except that BirdQuest had a 2017 trip going there, but I don't know what came of it, as there is no trip report on their website, I guess they never went. I was like you, very lucky to squeeze in a wildlife adventure last year, just ahead of all the travel restrictions, Venturing into Vanishing Vietnam, but the pandemic has I suspect completely curtailed any travels this year and meant that I had nothing planned yet for next year, I didn't know when my next foreign adventure might be, so when the offer came up, I thought why not Chad again. It made a lot of sense to me, to grab the chance to join this upcoming Feb trip, rather than have to plan my own Chad trip, sometime in the future. The opportunity to see the oryx, addax and gazelles in their natural habitat was just too good to miss, perhaps a small silver-lining to the pandemic, if it wasn't for covid, I doubt I'd be going back to Chad in 2022. I like to always travel as light as I can get away with, so I'd prefer not too take a sleeping bag, if it's not really necessary, I have a pretty lightweight one, but it would take up quite a bit of space in my bag, hence my question.

 

Siniaka-Minia will very soon become a national park, AP will want to open it up to tourism, but that might not be for a little while yet, as it has no infrastructure, I would be very intrigued to go there once it becomes possible, but Chad safaris are not exactly cheap, it would very much depend on the cost, I do love Chad, but there is plenty more of Africa and the world to be seen, other wildlife adventures to be had, that are a lot less hard on the wallet. So, I don't know if I will ever make it to Siniaka-Minia, but who knows, up until 2014, I would never have imagined visiting Chad even once, never mind twice or three times, so maybe I shouldn't rule out a fourth Chad safari, some day, who knows . As long as nothing happens, to undo all of the great conservation work that is taking place in Chad, it should just get better and better as a wildlife destination, as the numbers of oryx, addax and gazelles increases in OROA and they are reintroduced to Ennedi and Siniaka-Minia is transformed into a proper national park. The original Siniaka-Minia Game Reserve was created to protect a population of western black rhinos, this subspecies is tragically extinct, but I'm sure if AP can succeed in getting black rhinos from South Africa established in Zakouma, they will then want to repopulate Siniaka with rhinos also.   

Edited January 24, 2022 by inyathi

[Zarek Cockar]

On 3/10/2021 at 11:07 PM, johnweir said:

Wow, what a simply fantastic trip report, exactly what was required at this difficult time. Your images are outstanding, but I was personally particularly drawn to those of some of the rarest mammals on the planet. Having visited Zakouma in 2018 your report brought back some very happy memories. The Cheetah sighting as several members have pointed out was indeed a very rare sighting, the subspecies found in Chad is very poorly documented and I should imagine is critically endangered. We were fairly sure we observed a Striped Hyena (a species I had never seen) during a night drive in Zakouma but it was from a considerable distance and with binoculars so I did not include it in my species list for the trip. However on an extended trip to India 2020 (just prior to Covid restrictions), I did secure several good Striped Hyena sightings. (Certainly some would argue of a different ssp. to the one you observed however). 

In your Zakouma section you make reference to the Striped Gazelle, which I am not familiar with, could you give some details please?

The Faunal Reserve images I found fascinating, your report has certainly focussed my thoughts that I need to return to Chad soon and include the desert extension you have so wonderfully described and promoted.

Thank you again for posting, superb.                                              

@johnweir
I'm not sure exactly which subspecies of cheetah occurs in Zakouma. It may either be A. jubatus soemmeringi (Central African Cheetah) or A. j. hecki (West African Cheetah).  My personal feeling is that it's A. j. soemmeringi.  IUCN has only assessed A. j. hecki and A. j. venaticus (both of which are CR) but I suspect you're right about the Central African ssp being endangered or critically endangered.  Most of the countries it should occur in have experienced prolonged civil strife and resulting poverty and famines for several decades.  That rarely bodes well for wildlife, especially something as specialized as cheetah.

 

The Striped Hyena in Chad, I believe is H. h. barbara, while the Indian ssp. is H. h. hyaena. In East Africa we have H. h. dubbah, which I'm most familiar with.  Though, honestly, at night time, through binoculars (or even late evening/early morning), I probably wouldn't be able to point out any visual characteristics that would differentiate them.

 

The Gazelle we were seeing in Zakouma was Red-Fronted Gazelle (Eudorcas rufifrons).  Please don't ask me about subspecies.  It's a problematic enough taxon at species level!

[Botswanadreams]

4 hours ago, inyathi said:

Chad safaris are not exactly cheap

 

If time isn't the problem to do the Chad trip including Ennedi the land transfer is much cheaper than the fly inn. 

[Zarek Cockar]

@RC88CORwhat are the light-coloured spherical objects on the ground in the background of many of your Addax and S.H. Oryx shot?  Some kind of fruit growing on a scrambling vine?

[Botswanadreams]

@Zarek Cockar I think it could be Citrullus colocynthis or simlar.

[RC88COR]

13 hours ago, inyathi said:

 

@RC88COR

 

Yes thanks, I do indeed , I should confess that's what prompted my question, thanks for the answer, @gatoratlargevery kindly invited me to join him on his Chad adventure, I'm seem to have said yes, I'm confident that if all goes to plan, I will be joining them in Feb, my own reports, photos and writings about Zakouma helped encourage a few folks here, to take the plunge and visit Chad and now I have to thank you for the fact, that your report, has played a part in convincing me to go back. Back in 2016 I wrote a bit about the oryx reintroduction in this thread First scimitar horned oryx released in OROUA, Central Chad, I said that I hoped it would soon be possible to visit the oryx and that a combination of Ennedi, OROA and Zakouma, would make for a fantastic Chad safari, at the time I wrote that, I wasn't aware of anyone offering Chad trips that include the OROA, except that BirdQuest had a 2017 trip going there, but I don't know what came of it, as there is no trip report on their website, I guess they never went. I was like you, very lucky to squeeze in a wildlife adventure last year, just ahead of all the travel restrictions, Venturing into Vanishing Vietnam, but the pandemic has I suspect completely curtailed any travels this year and meant that I had nothing planned yet for next year, I didn't know when my next foreign adventure might be, so when the offer came up, I thought why not Chad again. It made a lot of sense to me, to grab the chance to join this upcoming Feb trip, rather than have to plan my own Chad trip, sometime in the future. The opportunity to see the oryx, addax and gazelles in their natural habitat was just too good to miss, perhaps a small silver-lining to the pandemic, if it wasn't for covid, I doubt I'd be going back to Chad in 2022. I like to always travel as light as I can get away with, so I'd prefer not too take a sleeping bag, if it's not really necessary, I have a pretty lightweight one, but it would take up quite a bit of space in my bag, hence my question.

 

Siniaka-Minia will very soon become a national park, AP will want to open it up to tourism, but that might not be for a little while yet, as it has no infrastructure, I would be very intrigued to go there once it becomes possible, but Chad safaris are not exactly cheap, it would very much depend on the cost, I do love Chad, but there is plenty more of Africa and the world to be seen, other wildlife adventures to be had, that are a lot less hard on the wallet. So, I don't know if I will ever make it to Siniaka-Minia, but who knows, up until 2014, I would never have imagined visiting Chad even once, never mind twice or three times, so maybe I shouldn't rule out a fourth Chad safari, some day, who knows . As long as nothing happens, to undo all of the great conservation work that is taking place in Chad, it should just get better and better as a wildlife destination, as the numbers of oryx, addax and gazelles increases in OROA and they are reintroduced to Ennedi and Siniaka-Minia is transformed into a proper national park. The original Siniaka-Minia Game Reserve was created to protect a population of western black rhinos, this subspecies is tragically extinct, but I'm sure if AP can succeed in getting black rhinos from South Africa established in Zakouma, they will then want to repopulate Siniaka with rhinos also.   

 

@inyathi I am glad this TR helped convince you to return to Chad and visit Ennedi and OROA as well as a return to Zakouma.

 

I agree, Chad will just keep getting better and better as a wildlife destination. Yes, it is not cheap, but I made it a priority and saved for a couple years, and did not travel during those years in order to go. And in retrospect, I am very happy I made the decision to travel to Chad, totally unaware, as we all were, of what was going to happen in 2020 and continues into 2021. As they say, go when you have the opportunity, as you never know what is going to happen. 

 

I regret bringing my sleeping bag, as it was not necessary. I would recommend instead to bring warm pyjamas and/or thermal long johns with tops.

 

I look forward to reading your Zakouma and Vietnam TR, as well as the 2016 Oryx thread.

[RC88COR]

On 3/12/2021 at 5:48 AM, Zarek Cockar said:

@RC88CORwhat are the light-coloured spherical objects on the ground in the background of many of your Addax and S.H. Oryx shot?  Some kind of fruit growing on a scrambling vine?

 

@Zarek CockarI understand it to be a type of melon or citrus fruit that grows throughout the region.

Edited March 14, 2021 by RC88COR

[RC88COR]

8 hours ago, Zarek Cockar said:

@johnweir
I'm not sure exactly which subspecies of cheetah occurs in Zakouma. It may either be A. jubatus soemmeringi (Central African Cheetah) or A. j. hecki (West African Cheetah).  My personal feeling is that it's A. j. soemmeringi.  IUCN has only assessed A. j. hecki and A. j. venaticus (both of which are CR) but I suspect you're right about the Central African ssp being endangered or critically endangered.  Most of the countries it should occur in have experienced prolonged civil strife and resulting poverty and famines for several decades.  That rarely bodes well for wildlife, especially something as specialized as cheetah.

 

The Striped Hyena in Chad, I believe is H. h. barbara, while the Indian ssp. is H. h. hyaena. In East Africa we have H. h. dubbah, which I'm most familiar with.  Though, honestly, at night time, through binoculars (or even late evening/early morning), I probably wouldn't be able to point out any visual characteristics that would differentiate them.

 

The Gazelle we were seeing in Zakouma was Red-Fronted Gazelle (Eudorcas rufifrons).  Please don't ask me about subspecies.  It's a problematic enough taxon at species level!

 

thanks @Zarek Cockar I have a contact with a woman studying the Zakouma cheetah. I will ask her to clarify the subspecies. 

[Zarek Cockar]

Thanks @RC88CORand @Botswanadreams Reading about the cucurbit now.

[RC88COR]

On 3/12/2021 at 10:20 AM, RC88COR said:

 

thanks @Zarek Cockar I have a contact with a woman studying the Zakouma cheetah. I will ask her to clarify the subspecies. 

 

@Zarek Cockar 

I just heard from Chiara who is studying the cheetahs in Zakouma. She confirmed the cheetah subspecies is A. J. hecki (West African Cheetah).

She was also able to identify the cheetah we saw from photos I sent her - cheetah GUE01 - his ID was first made in 2019 and was the first cheetah ID they created. He is a solitary adult male commonly seen around Tinga Camp.

 

She added the following info:

 

"Currently in our database are 7 full IDS and 12 partial IDS (3 only left side and 9 only right side), of cheetah that range into the park. Sightings of cheetah have also been reported in our sister park Siniaka Minia Faunal Reserve, but no IDS were made for them. The population is healthy and breeding well, I've personally seen very cute juveniles last year! We are hoping to do further cheetah work next year, including collaring, more accurate population estimates and taking samples for genetic analysis." 

[RC88COR]

On 3/10/2021 at 3:07 PM, johnweir said:

Wow, what a simply fantastic trip report, exactly what was required at this difficult time. Your images are outstanding, but I was personally particularly drawn to those of some of the rarest mammals on the planet. Having visited Zakouma in 2018 your report brought back some very happy memories. The Cheetah sighting as several members have pointed out was indeed a very rare sighting, the subspecies found in Chad is very poorly documented and I should imagine is critically endangered. We were fairly sure we observed a Striped Hyena (a species I had never seen) during a night drive in Zakouma but it was from a considerable distance and with binoculars so I did not include it in my species list for the trip. However on an extended trip to India 2020 (just prior to Covid restrictions), I did secure several good Striped Hyena sightings. (Certainly some would argue of a different ssp. to the one you observed however). 

In your Zakouma section you make reference to the Striped Gazelle, which I am not familiar with, could you give some details please?

The Faunal Reserve images I found fascinating, your report has certainly focussed my thoughts that I need to return to Chad soon and include the desert extension you have so wonderfully described and promoted.

Thank you again for posting, superb.                                              

 

@johnweir

I just heard from Chiara who is studying the cheetahs in Zakouma. She confirmed the cheetah subspecies is A. J. hecki (West African Cheetah).

She was also able to identify the cheetah we saw from photos I sent her - cheetah GUE01 - his ID was first made in 2019 and was the first cheetah ID they created. He is a solitary adult male commonly seen around Tinga Camp.

 

She added the following info:

 

"Currently in our database are 7 full IDS and 12 partial IDS (3 only left side and 9 only right side), of cheetah that range into the park. Sightings of cheetah have also been reported in our sister park Siniaka Minia Faunal Reserve, but no IDS were made for them. The population is healthy and breeding well, I've personally seen very cute juveniles last year! We are hoping to do further cheetah work next year, including collaring, more accurate population estimates and taking samples for genetic analysis." 

[Zarek Cockar]

@RC88CORThanks very much!  Received your email as well with the paper on genetics.  Very interesting. 

Really appreciate all the effort you put into responding to each person's comments here individually!

[gatoratlarge]

@RC88CORHow many days/nights in total for this adventure?

[Kitsafari]

@RC88COR Thank you for taking the time and effort to put together this enormous TR - a wonderful reminder of our trip to Zakouma.

 

Ennedi looks enticing but the stunning dama gazelles, the addax and the beautiful oryx in OROA will be the strongest pull for me to revisit Chad again. I'm not sure if I'll be able to resist the temptation to visit again sooner than later while waiting for my husband, to whom I promise to go with on my next trip to Chad, to free up his time. Unfortunately, there is only such a short window to visit Zakouma and it clashes with his busiest work schedules. And the cost with air charter to cover all three areas is a huge resource to commit. which means not many people will be able to afford it, unless they do a overland trip, which will require more time. 

 

In your photos, all the addax appeared to be collared while only some of the oryx were. do you know the reason behind it? also how are the animals breeding in the area? i saw a handful of young ones in your photos - were there more?

Edited March 21, 2021 by Kitsafari

[Sangeeta]

@RC88CORcan’t thank you enough for doing such a superlative job with this TR. It was a herculean task and you were very brave to tackle it singlehandedly! Your photos are lovely and if you don’t mind, I’m going to whack a bunch of them (with your name) for our website as well 😄
 

Thank you so much for your kind words & for your support as well, but when I think about it -  more than anything that I did or could have done,@Matias Coxsaid it perfectly when he said that your heart was open to adventure and you received each day & each experience as a special gift. That is such a rare trait and makes you very special.

 

This trip wasn’t always easy - we ended up driving so much more than we had imagined. We ate sand grit in our bread on some days. We almost ran out of TP 😳. We almost didn’t make it to OROA. But everyone on the trip dealt with all these & other issues with humor and grace - it is adventurous companions like these that you need on trips like these 🤗

 

@BotswanadreamsI wish I had known about OROA in 2019, but I did not. Even on this particular trip, it was not included in the original itinerary. It was @Kitsafariwho drew my attention to this and we added it on in a very ad hoc way, not knowing until the last day whether we could make it there or not. We were lucky we did. Next year’s trip is the first time that we’re formally planning for it.

 

Maybe now I’ll be inspired to go back to that other Ennedi TR I started and finish posting some pictures there - and tell a few stories about how a very canny Sudanese shopkeeper extorted $100 from me for 10 boxes of napkins because we almost ran out of TP 😄 - and how we went shopping for Touareg turbans - and how we went among the rock formations of Abaiké at sunset and literally sat next to stone age tools that had been left behind by some blacksmith 1000s of years ago...all there, just waiting to be touched, and no display cases & museum walls.

 

Thanks again. You’ve done such a wonderful job bringing the trip to life again.

[RC88COR]

On 3/20/2021 at 9:48 PM, Kitsafari said:

@RC88COR Thank you for taking the time and effort to put together this enormous TR - a wonderful reminder of our trip to Zakouma.

In your photos, all the addax appeared to be collared while only some of the oryx were. do you know the reason behind it? also how are the animals breeding in the area? i saw a handful of young ones in your photos - were there more?

 

Thank you @Kitsafariglad you enjoyed the trip report. The scimitar oryx were reintroduced a few years ago and their numbers have grown, whereas the addax are relatively new with fewer numbers hence they are all collared for tracking/conservation research purposes. I am not sure of the exact numbers. I remember seeing young oryx, but can't recall any really young addax. 

Edited May 7, 2021 by RC88COR