This morning, I sent out the July/August edition of my monthly safari newsletter, The Roar!

This installment of the newsletter has a large variety of interesting topics to cover.

The Wild Source Guide - Deo Magoye led a National Geographic film crew in the filming of Real Serengeti - which is now appearing on the Nat Geo Wild Channel. You can actually catch it on TV today.

Also within this month's newsletter, I provide details on my recent trip to the Arctic Ocean where I was fortunate enough to have numerous Polar Bear sightings - including many mothers with cubs. I also was lucky enough to witness Blue Whale and Walrus. It was an amazing trip.

Of course, the newsletter is still centered on African Safaris, and this month I bring you details on what a Green Season safari is all about. You may know that it isn't as expensive as high season - but you may not have known that it may not be as wet as you think. Green season offers many unique viewing opportunities that you should know about before planning your safari.

If you aren't signed up yet, you should really sign up now. Subscribe to get the August Newsletter which contains details on the above items along with the following stories:

Film makers were Guided by The Wild Source's Deo Magoye

A partner in The Wild Source Tanzania operation and an extraordinary guide, Deo Magoye served as the head guide for a National Geographic film crew documenting the annual movements of the great migration of approximately two million wildebeest, zebra and gazelles through the Serengeti ecosystem. The film just premiered on NatGeo Wild on August 19th, it next airs on August 26th and will hopefully be featured more in the months to come so set your DVR.

I was very excited to see the film for the first time after Deo had shared many stories of the filming with me. He was particularly proud of the night sequences they captured of lions hunting. Serengeti park rules dictate that you must be in camp by dark so with the special permission for filming, he is one of the few that has guided deep into the Serengeti night and I think all will agree the results are exceptional.

There are a number of excellent hunting sequences in the film as well as dramatic river crossings. Overall it is a very good film to learn about the phenomenal event that is the great migration and how it is the driving force of the Serengeti ecosystem. As the film ends be sure to notice on the very first list of credits along with the Serengeti lion researcher and renowned animal behavior expert Richard Estes is Deo Magoye.

   

A polar bear jumps from ice flow to ice flow as it searches for seals to hunt.
©Bill Given

I am writing this from virtually as far north on the planet as one can go with the exception of using a nuclear ice breaker. I am on Lindblad’s National Geographic Explorer and we have smashed our way through the start of the polar pack ice to a location just 515 nautical miles to the North Pole. It had been my hope to send daily blog reports but as the fast ice and pack ice has retreated to the north virtually my entire week here has been near or above the 80th parallel putting us into the high Arctic and too far north to have a satellite connection.

I came here to see the legendary ice bears. It has long been a dream to witness polar bears in their Arctic environment and that led me to Norway and upward to the Svalbard Archipelago, some of the northernmost land on earth.

An enormous male polar bear swims inquisitively off the bow of our ship.
©Bill Given

The reduced pack ice could have caused problems as the polar bears need it for successful hunting. Over the last 2 weeks, the ice has been greatly reduced, yet to my good fortune the conditions instead created a fantastic concentration of bears within the remaining area of ice.

Polar Bear Sightings

Over six days of ship based exploration we have had 17 polar bear sightings and 14 of those have been of outstanding quality! In all I have photographed 24 different polar bears including huge males, younger males, solo females, and females with cubs – both a cub of the year and many 19 month old cubs.

In addition to the full variety of sexes and age groups we have also been fortunate to witness much natural behavior including hunting/foraging with leaping from ice to ice, feeding on a kill, swimming right near us, sliding around ice and cubs playing were all witnessed.

Blue Whale and Walrus Sightings

We are now headed back and unlikely to see anymore bears but perhaps will have some luck with whales (already have seen blue, fin, and beluga). I am ecstatic that I was able to see so many spectacular polar bears and really get to witness their behavior on the ice and it is clearly one of the best wildlife experiences I have ever had. I also saw my first blue whale, walrus and reindeer. I will have much more to share once I return and catch up on my African safari work and lion research.

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The Wild Source's Africa Video Channel - safari videos taken by The Wild Source founder Bill Given

   

This past week, I sent out my JuneNewsleter for the WildSource.com, The Roar!. As usual, this month's newsletter was packed with the latest news from Africa, upcoming safaris, and a special treat - my recent "American Safari" to Alaska.

Subscribe to get the June Newsletter which contains details on the following stories:

Recently we featured a Kwando Safaris Wild Dog Update at the Kwando Camps in Botswana and listed a few other wild dog hotspots that we were tracking. Well great news as another of our known African Wild Dog locations has puppies! This time in the Selous Game Reserve of Tanzania.

Pregnant dominant female of the Selous Impala area wild dog pack.
Photo courtesy of Adventure Camps of Tanzania

Tanzania African Wild Dog Pups On the Way

The African wild dog pack of 10 dogs that denned near Lake Manze Tented Camp last year is now denning near the neighboring Selous Impala Camp. Puppies were detected inside the den on June 19th and typically within four to five weeks they should emerge so I expect a count of the new puppies should occur in the second half of July.

Two Litters of African Wild Dog Puppies!

It appears there will be a bonus with this pack as a subordinate female is also pregnant. Generally, if a subordinate female gives birth it will be three or four weeks later than the dominant female and usually the dominant female will then crèche the new puppies into the den with her own and raise them herself. This is a great evolutionary strategy as if food is plentiful then all the puppies have a chance at success but if times are hard the dominant females puppies have a huge developmental advantage with a 3 to 4 week head start so there’s a better chance of always raising at least a few strong puppies rather than losing them all. Packs with 10 or more adults have been shown to have much higher success rates in raising young then smaller packs so things are setting up well for this pack as well as for visitors who are sure to be thrilled over the next couple months in this area of the Selous.