Sankuyo Bush Camp cheetah kill of impala.
© Irv Mendelssohn

Sankuyo Bush Camp has established itself quickly as a tremendous camp for year round game viewing. Between my recent visit to Sankuyo Bush Camp in late January and a number of client reports from February visits, it has moved up just behind the Kwara Concession Camps for my top green season (December through March) locations.

I have had quite a few clients go to both camps and the viewing highlights are coming out very even. Currently guests at Kwara and Little Kwara camps are experiencing brilliant cheetah viewing with a group of 6 regularly seen as well as their famed 3 brother coalition and that is keeping Kwara in my top green season spot but Sankuyo Bush Camp has had a good number of excellent cheetah sightings too and has had much better leopard sightings for our clients. Lions have been regular in both locations and wild dogs come and go in both places. My advice for the green season is to combine them both!

Sankuyo Bush Camp February Action

We had three sets of clients, all with three night stays at Sankuyo Bush Camp during February and amazingly each was present for a major predator event but each with a different predator species!

Cheetahs Active at Sankuyo Bush Camp

Sankuyo Bush Camp cheetah kill of impala.
© Irv Mendelssohn

Early in February things got off to a FAST start at Sankuyo Bush Camp when Irv and Karen from Louisiana were on hand to watch a start to finish cheetah hunt of an impala. These folks had the big cat tri-fecta with cheetah kill, about an hour with a leopard and following a male lion as day became night.

Sankuyo Bush Camp Leopard Kill

A collared leopard dines on impala near Sankuyo Bush Camp.
© Jerry Thornton

Mid-month Kim and Jerry from California were on an early morning game drive when their guide, Doctor, found fresh leopard spoor (tracks) and began tracking. They actually came to the end of a trail where the tracks stopped and doubled back to find a big male leopard panting in fatigue and he allowed them to approach to just four or five feet away as he rested. It soon became evident that he was tired from a successful hunt and must have just hauled an impala up in a tree moments before being found because he soon rejuvenated and proceeded to scale a tree to his prey which he had not yet begun to eat and they were then able to see the feeding process from the beginning.

Sankuyo Bush Camp is located very close to the Botswana Predator Conservation Trust research base making this area the center of Botswana’s predator studies. That speaks volumes to the quality and diversity of predators in the area but does mean you will occasionally find an animal wearing a research collar. Kim happens to be a very accomplished author on animal subjects, primarily domestic dogs and I was able to arrange an interview for her with one of the predator research team. Lions roaring were nightly experience and they were observed as well.

Male lion tucked under the bushes near his giraffe kill next to Sankuyo Bush Camp.
© Ken Imler

Lions at Sankuyo Bush Camp

The month ended with our client, Ken from Colorado, in Sankuyo Bush Camp when the Santawani pride of lions took down a giraffe in the night just about 100 yards outside of the camp near Tent #6. The excitement was paramount through the night and by morning the sighting was of fat lions laying up in the bushes with the large remains of a giraffe carcass sprawled out.

The Sankuyo/Santawani area has an extremely high density of giraffe, and in response to this plentiful food source the Santawani lion pride have become specialists at hunting giraffe. Lion prides often develop feeding cultures where they specialize on certain prey items, doesn’t mean they only eat that but with large difficult prey like giraffe it becomes an acquired craft to become proficient hunters of that species to the point where it is a common prey item.

A Flight Delay that Made People Pleased

A cheetah kill is a great reason to delay a flight!
© BG

In January guests of Sankuyo Bush Camp had just boarded their Delta Air bush plane for a flight to Oddballs Enclave when an impala came streaking up the runway with a cheetah in close pursuit. Within seconds these folks witnessed a kill from their seats in the plane! What ensued next was a one hour flight delay as passengers de-planed, jumped in the game drive vehicle and watched the cheetah feast. Unfortunately I was not a passenger for this flight delay so the above photo is a recreation using a Serengeti cheetah and young wildebeest in the roles of the Botswana cast members.

   

Impala display fitness with leaps known as stotting.
Photo © Bill Given

I was stunned and in complete awe as a number of impala came bounding out from behind shrubs taking tremendous leaps heading right for our vehicle. I knew instantly when all hell breaks loose like this it can only mean African wild dogs are on the hunt.

African wild dogs look for vulnerable individuals when flushing a group of prey.
Photo © Bill Given

As anticipated, wild dogs soon came barreling into view in hot pursuit of the impala. A quiet morning in the famed Savuti had exploded into nature at its finest as both predator and prey displayed how each is shaped by the other. Typically we focus on the predator during a hunt, and African wild dogs are the most endangered mammal in Southern Africa so any viewing is a huge privilege. Meanwhile the impala is usually the most commonly sighted mammal on safari throughout the region, a beautiful animal that is striking the first time it is seen but then often becomes taken for granted because it is common. Yet it was the amazing athleticism of the fleeing impala that completely captivated me, renewing my appreciation for this species. Impala reportedly can leap up to 10 feet in the air and travel over 30 feet in a single jump and huge hang time was on display all around.

Often stotting impala land in incredible high velocity hand stands.
Photo © Bill Given

Interestingly though all these bounds and leaps actually slow the distance covered compared to a continuous gait so why do it? This event triggered an instant recall back to my masters studies at Johns Hopkins, and a research paper I did for an Animal Behavior course on stotting behavior. Stotting is when an animal leaps pulling all four feet off the ground at the same time, often keeping the legs stiff. There have been many theories as to why prey species stot but most research suggests that it is a display of fitness, showing the predators the strength and stamina of an animal, indicating it will be a difficult capture and that a different individual should be targeted.

Stamina and teamwork make painted wolves (wild dogs) the most statistically successful hunters of any predator.
Photo © Bill Given

African wild dogs are coursing predators, meaning that they do not stalk and take by surprise but rather begin pursuit into a group of prey animals and then on the fly decide which individuals to focus on. This gives the predators an opportunity to identify vulnerable animals as targets be they sick, injured, old, young or simply less fit than the others in their group.

Research found that wild dogs did select individuals that stotted at lower rates and that when they did pursue individuals stotting at high rates the hunting success was lower (FitzGibbon & Fanshawe).

It was my last game drive of the safari and I was not reading journals or testing theories, I was there in the midst of stotting impala and the magnificent painted predators and it was perfect!