Yago is travelling: Leaving the Central Kalahari Game Reserve

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In my previous post I stated that we went North where most of the fauna is, due to the wells and the water that gets trapped there after the raining season. The Northern part of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve is not as dry as the South and in the past millions of animals used to travel South to North in the dry season.

Unfortunately back in the 80s Botswana decided it would be a good idea to use their vast lands for producing cattle and they fenced most of the North preventing wild animals from reaching the most needed water supply on the dry season... as a consequence of this, millions of animals died of thirst and in one decade it decimated the wild population. Nowadays you can see a few hundred zebras and wildebeests but the herds are not what they used to be.

Surprisingly, wildebeests and zebras share the herd since one has an excellent ear and the other an excellent eyesight which allows them to complement one each other at spotting predators.

Talking about predators, on our last day in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve we spotted a male lion spore on the track we were following. A male lion had passed through this track only a few hours ago!

Check it out!

It's quite unsettling knowing there is a big beast like this nearby... it makes you think twice about wander around on your own, doesn't it?

We went to the North gate of the reserve just to let them know we were still alive

And by the gate we saw a pick-up truck with what looked like a big box covered by a blanket. When I approached the vehicle I realised it wasn't a box, it was a cage and there was something alive in it! so I got closer and for my surprise I found a sedated lioness in it. I told the others and soon everyone was looking at the sleeping beauty...

We were told she had escaped from the reserve and gotten into a farm, so they sent some rangers to bring her back. The problem now was that they didn't know to which pride she belonged to and leaving her on the territory of the wrong pride would have catastrophic consequences for her, also it transpired that lioness contrary to their male counterparts cannot survive for long on their own, they need to live in a pride in order to survive. Due to the place where she was found the rangers guessed she came from the pride that hunts in the area we were in.

It was good to hear the lioness would probably find her pride but not so cool to find out you spent the night in the hunting grounds of a lions pride!!

As the rangers were about to release the lioness we decided to follow them and see the release...
Everything started well... the lioness was a bit groggy but good enough to stand up and walk ...

Unfortunately for her, they released her where a couple of male oryx where grazing and as soon as they saw her they went for her... she run for her life! it was quite a chase... mind you, if they get you with those horns you won't be able to tell the tale!, eventually she managed to get into an area with higher grass and the oryx lost her...

After that all the other animals we saw that day didn't look as exciting any more... but we managed to see quite a few...
Jackal

The photo is taken from way back because these animals are wild animals and at the minimum noise they run off and disappear. In the parks and other animal reserves they are used to cars so they just ignore you, but not here in the wild. That's were a good Reflex camera with telescopic vision comes in handy and your mini portable camera just doesn't cut it.

Wildebeest taking advantage of the only shade around

There also were smaller animals around...

Even vultures like this one

And a giraffe... again... in the distance... This is the difference between my camera (mini portable camera)

And a reflex camera with telescopic sight

Almost the same thing, isn't it? :-)

We also visited the lakes which now were pretty much dried

We had our last night at the Central Kalahari Game reserve, knowing full well we were spending the night at a lions pride hunting grounds... in our flimsy tents... way out of anyone's comfort zone I would have guessed.