Amara Luxury Tented Camps Ltd.

Phillip Guvheya - Resident Naturalist, Amara Selous
October 2011

Sightings Report October’11

October was a very exciting month as far as the game sightings is concerned. Generally from the beginning of the month which was mostly characterized by good amount of rainfall, a good number of animals were roaming within our game drive areas right up to the end of the month. This is extremely good if compare to the sightings in the same period last year.

The most important and exciting thing in the month on October, is the reappearing of the two little cubs belonging to the third female lion of the Amara pride, which everyone was almost believing that they had perished.  The two cubs became the centre of attraction, witnessed by the amount of excellent photographs taken of them as from the 13th till the end of the month. The two little animals have added the number to the Amara  Pride, which is now counting up to ten lions; three big females, three bigger cubs, (one female and two males)  two little cubs (one male and one female) plus the two big males.  Their presence have help a lot with our sighting since the whole pride was just hanging around the areas close to the Amara Camp, as they were trying to protect them from other lions and they were too little to move long distances.

Since we received early rains this year the environment  is looking very good and hence most of the animals, like giraffe, water buck, kudu, hippo, including the impala, which most of them are now having their babies, are all easy to find within our game drive areas and around the camp. All the animals seemed to be in very excellent condition as water and food is available everywhere compared to the same period last year. We had a couple of elephant or so which visited the camp during the day or night times, but not as frequent as last year, and the reason for that I think there is a lot of food out there, they don’t need to come and eat the tree which we water in the garden, thank God our little baobab in the garden probably will survive.

Herds of buffalo have been sighted quite a few times towards the end of the month. We haven’t seen the wild dogs as yet, but the guides from next door Camp have confirmed they are now around the area. They have quite a few puppies which have increased the pack up to 23 dogs. Fishing wasn’t so great this month but birds’ sightings was very good since we had three keen birders in camp  for about four to five days.

The full day safaris have been also great, marked by the last one on the 28th , where, about  thirty elephant, a pride of fifteen lions, big herd of buffalo, lots of giraffe, wildebeest, kudu, hippo impala and several kinds birds were sighted.

With this kind of environment, we hope to continue seeing some great stuff for the next three to four months.

Phillip – Naturalist and Walking Guide
September 2011

September has yet again been a great month for our guests and sightings.

In beginning of the month we saw the Amara Pride by the river three females, and three cubs of which we thought that the third female had just given birth. We didn’t see her small cubs but it was clear that she was being suckled. We kept an eye on her but we couldn’t see the cubs and sadly with some nomadic males around and various other predators she is no longer pregnant and no signs of suckling so sadly it doesn’t not look like the pride will be increasing in size this year. Also there was a one young male lion which we saw feeding on a baby hippo for two days by the riverside, but he was rather shy and hasn’t been seen too often this month.

During the first week of September the whole pride ; which includes three females, three cubs and the two big male was roaming around our area plus another pride of 12 lions, five females and seven cubs was also sighted at the Lion Stream. We named this pride the Three Island Pride. We believed this pride roam the area which stretches from the Lion Stream past the Fishing Point all the way to the Ruaha Kilombelo confluence. It was really amazing to see these lions together, of which one of our guests was so lucky to see a total of twenty individual lions in Amara area plus 13 around the lakes. This was a good record. We continued to see or hear lions calling now and then until month end.

Elephants sightings was also very good with a few bulls coming into camp some of the nights, and a couple of big bulls were on the island in front the main area during the day.

There were three sighting of leopards, one with the guests and the other two, when we were out on scouting drives. There was also evidence of black Rhinoceros at the small Serengeti, three fresh spoors, a calf, and two adults were seen on the 9th of September. A big herd of buffalo was sighted on the 20th and was relaxed, we got a few photos. There were also some nice sightings of kudu, bushbuck, tree hyrax and lots of general game such as giraffe, waterbuck, impala, hippo baboons, and monkeys. Night times , lots of tracks from spotted hyena, civet genet as well as the big cats.

Birding was good with some species like African skimmers, rock pratincole , and pelicans, sacred ibis were seen flying past the camp. We expect to see more migratory birds coming soon.

We will continue to explore our area, opening new roads so as to increase our chances of seeing more game and new species in this area.

Isaiah – Head Guide
July 2011

We have 2 new guides, Carlson and Emmanual who have joined us recently. They are very familiar with the Selous and we are delighted to welcome them on board.

The month started well with a special sighting of a leopard one afternoon exactly at the point where our Amara pride had their cubs out for the first time early back in March – this time though the lions were not home – just the leopard.

The rest was full of surprises from abundant general game like giraffe, wildebeest, impala, zebra, baboons, monkeys, mongoose, warthogs, waterbuck, hippos, squirrels, crocodiles and varieties of birds to only tracks of wild dogs and lions and the latter calling at night.

Our first two groups of the month were excited by the music of the night (lions’ call muffled with the hippos grunts).  We also did a few day full day trips and we saw that one of the big prides north west had had two successful kills on a roadside. This is a resident pride of 13 lions with two newly born cubs of about two weeks old.

Besides that, elephants have moved further north towards Matambwe where it’s more green and still wet mud holes with water. We had some good sightings both on foot and from the car with one group having their bush breakfast interrupted by George who was as curious as ever.  Mid July, we had some great sightings of buffalo and it’s a big and great looking herd.  Wild dogs have been a little scarce with just 3 sightings this month. We believe then are denning again.
 
The Amara lion pride after beein a little elusive for a few days reappeared.  And we are delighted to report that the missing cubs are ‘lost and found’.  We’ve come to discover that the 3rd lioness is heavily pregnant and we look forward to announcing her arrivals in the coming weeks. 

With the terrible power shortages that Tanzania is experiencing, the dam up north has not been opened and this in turn has caused the Ruaha river to run relatively low but the fishing has been extremely good with guests enjoying catches of sporty tiger fish, Cat fish, Tilapia, Labeos and so on. 

We’ve had excellent walks throughout to mention the amazing one when we were given a wakeup call by a hippo few minutes after we left the camp, afterwards we came to see 4 elephants and 2 lionesses, we finished up with a backpacked breakfast.

Also we had a family with kids for 4 nights which gave us the opportunity to put into practice our newly learned ”family safari guiding” from Okavango with the combination of our knowledge and experience and the feedback has been great.  We are looking forward to a busy August.

Isaiah – Tanzania guide
June 2011

With June begins the guest season at Amara and the good news is that we had yet another sighting of the lone leopard today. About a week ago, we went out on our daily wildlife monitoring drive and saw that two lionesses had killed a giraffe about two kilometers away from the lodge. We watched them closely over two days as they calculatedly spent their time intermittently feeding on the carcass and then resting near it to guard it from unwelcome company. On the third day, when we went back to check whether the lionesses were still feeding on their prize giraffe, we only saw a pack of noisy vultures fighting for what the lionesses had left behind (needless to say there was barely anything left). As we watched the vultures and took pictures, the leopard appeared in a moment from nowhere as if to check what the vultures were so enthusiastically feeding on. It stayed within a distance of about 15 meters, circling the vulture-infested giraffe bones for exactly six minutes and then disappeared just like he had arrived. We have since seen a lot of spoors and heard his calls at night which only makes us anticipate our next meeting with him!

At the early stage of the guest season, we have had a couple of flash rain showers but nothing disruptive. We have seen a lot of giraffe, zebra, many scurrying impala, as well as fresh lion spoors with which guests are always so fascinated. Guests have seen the two lioness on the river banks which seems to be their favorite chilling spot these days and happens to be an ideal viewing spot for us! With the rains and lush greenery in the Selous, guests have been seeing lots of different birds and experiencing very pleasant early morning walks and late afternoon boating safaris with absolutely magical sunset and cloud displays.

Phillip – Zimbabwe guide
May 2011

After a restful sojourn during the rainy season, its back to the bush for us guides to prepare for the start of the new Selous season. Isaiah and I have had some time off to recharge our batteries and we are really excited to be back on the tracks in the Selous, working together and exchanging notes on our surveys of wildlife happenings during the time we were gone. I am happy to report that our team of guides is expanding this season and we have two guides in training that have joined us so in the coming weeks we will be showing them our area and helping them get them familiar with the wildlife and their wild habitats. The good news is that both of the new guides have worked in the Selous previously and they love the thrills and challenges of guiding in the wild Selous just as much as Isaiah and myself. We extend a hearty welcome for Calson and Emmanuel to the Amara family.

On the wildlife front, we have had some exciting developments. We have been seeing our lioness and her cubs regularly and are delighted to report that all are looking well and growing ever so quickly! Our other female unfortunately doesn’t look like she has had cubs but she is looking pregnant again so hopefully she will bear good news soon. There are three male lions who are fairly new to our area though they have calmed down a lot more now and are looking more relaxed in their newly established territory. They spend many a day exploring it and we are hearing their calls on most nights. Recent evidence from remaining bones shows these lions have had success with a giraffe which is a special hunting ability of lions in the Selous.

Whilst we were out doing game surveys and trainings in the area with Calson and Emmanuel, we spotted some tracks of our leopard which were very fresh. One of our guests last year had the most thrilling encounter with this leopard which made a morning call appearance a few meters away from the guest’s viewing deck whilst he had his morning coffee! So naturally we were very excited to see the tracks of our old reclusive friend and then before we knew it, twenty minutes later we came across him out in the open and wow was he looking calm! He was very relaxed with us and we got to spend some time with him which was a great experience we hope to be able to share with our new guests. We will continue to closely follow his tracks and hope to see some great sightings this coming season.

The hippos continue to happily monopolize the river in front of us, filling the nights and days with grunts which is always a great pleasure for their guests. Sometimes we wonder how much louder these hippos would grunt had they known they have an attentive audience that enjoys their constant hippo squabble! Our resident elephant George appeared last night at sunset for his meander through camp and looked as delighted as we were to see him again. So of course he warmly welcomed us back for the season with a gigantic dust bath! 

Some other great news is that Peter and Anita have arranged for a professional children’s guide to come and spend some time with us in June especially to train us on how to make bush life fun and wildlife safaris engaging for children of all ages. We are really looking forward to the new training to be able to then teach children some game scouting and having them become our little aides in wildlife searches. 

Well it’s time to go for now, the lions call and we haven’t seen our herd of buffalo so work beckons. We will be back with later updates at the beginning of the guest season.

Isaiah – Tanzanian guide
April 2011

We have come to the close of yet another exciting wildlife season at Amara Selous and will be reopening in June 2011 after the long rains. This year the rains arrived a little late but by the end of March we recorded just over 213mm of rain in camp. And the Selous Game Reserve, previously arid and thirsty for the rains, is now awash with lush vegetation and vibrant green grasses seeding everywhere I look. By June, the reserve should be teeming with wildlife and we anticipate an exciting start to the new season!

We have seen a jackal on two occasions this past month which has been a first out here since we began guiding in our concession from early 2010. Our last group of guests were lucky enough to watch and observe the lone jackal go about his business in a calm, relaxed manner. The second sighting was during my routine wildlife tracking exercise at the end of season and even though I did not have guests with me at the time, I took the opportunity to soak in this rare sighting of a jackal in the Selous...as I sat there, I thought to myself, what is this jackal doing here all by himself and wondered if he was lost? But then as I watched his movements and his temperament more closely, I got the feeling that he was more like a Casanova venturing by himself thorough parts of the bush relatively unknown to him. We hope he sticks around so that we can continue observing his behavior patterns once we reopen in June.

One of our favorite lionesses with the two cubs continues being over-cautious as a result of her protective instincts for her little ones but we expect the family to become less shy and come out of the bush to play for longer periods by June as by then the cubs will be older and stronger. The new season should also come bearing good news and lucky sightings of our second lioness with her newly born cubs. This lioness was heavily pregnant the last time we spotted her in mid-March and we haven’t seen her since, so all the signs suggest that she must have gone into her den to give birth! Also, we have come across a new pack of fifteen wild dogs along the Sumbazi river in addition to our other pack of eleven dogs that have been known to often rest and hunt impala near our staff camp. So with the rains and all these new wildlife developments which we continue to closely track for the benefit of our esteemed guests, the wildlife season from June is looking promising as ever.

Philip - Zimbabwe guide
March 2011

When the guests arrived to camp in the afternoon, we discussed and planned a late afternoon game drive and then an early morning guided walking safari for the following day. But as it often happens, the wilderness had something else in store for all of us!

That same day, the afternoon game drive went well. We saw all the general game, including several tall but shy giraffe. We luckily spotted the three lionesses, one young & shy one, the second heavily pregnant and we also got a brief view of the third one with her two little cubs…this was the first time that mating season that even I had seen her with her newly born ones! I explained to the guests that these ‘girls’ had been avoiding the calls of the male lion in the area for a while now, out of fear for the lives of their little ones.

Early next morning, we set off on a short drive having planned to take a nature walk after. En route, I suddenly spotted a pack of wild dogs far off on the distance, and hastily turned the car off the beaten road to follow this rare sighting…there were eleven of them, stretched out and lazing on the fresh green grass. A couple of the dogs were taking a mud bath and the guests were amazed at the lack of embarrassment or shyness of these creatures. It was as if we didn’t even exist in front of them! The wild dogs’ behavior kept my guests fascinated, meanwhile I communicated with Isaiah over radio, and he had spotted the same lionesses with his guests which we had seen. The lionesses, I was told, were pretty relaxed and looked like they would stay put on the dried riverbed where we had seen them the previous day. So we made a plan to keep tracking the wild dogs whilst Isaiah and his guests made their way to come see them. But the pack suddenly darted forward, instinctively setting off on their morning orchestrated hunt of impala. We hurried to follow the nimble pack and on the way I heard the sharp cry of an impala, and I immediately knew that the pack had succeeded. Within five minutes, by the time we arrived to where the dogs had retreated to eat their meal, there were only shreds of fresh kill and spurts of red blood left for us to see – at that point, I enlightened my keen & now alert audience about the patterns of wild dog hunting & their hurried feeding habits…being a smaller member of the predator species, they simply could not afford the luxury of eating their prey at leisure.

The Selous Game Reserve is a place where one gets to spot the endangered wild dog, a species rarely spotted elsewhere in Tanzania and only certain other parts of Africa. I count myself lucky to be guiding in such a vast and diverse game reserve, where one flinching moment can completely turn your “plans & intentions” around…because the unexpected and unpredictable are the very essence of the ultimate wilderness experience. 

Isaiah – Tanzanian guide
January 2011

Late afternoon boating safari: Saw a variety of birds and wildlife including a martial eagle, a bateleur, saddle bill stork, herons, king fishers, & the Bee-Eaters, as well as impala, warthog, giraffe off the riverbank, and ending with the sight of a lioness drinking from the river and crocodiles lurking in the muddy waters whilst guests had their sundowners on the river’s edge.

Early morning game drive: Went up the ridge we call ‘Serengeti ndogo’ (small Serengeti). On the way we watched birds, some eating their early breakfast and others perches on branches, and singing.  Before we got there we spotted a herd of kudu, two males with big trophies and three females and one young one.  As we sat there with the engine switched off, watching, all of a sudden we were all startled with a close range hyena call just a few meters from us. There were two of them trying their luck going after the kudus.

Mid-morning walking safari: We took off slowly with a guided nature walk learning stuff that's normally not experienced during drives for instance tracking footprints, identifying animal dung, tree identification with their myths and medicinal properties.  After the walk, we had picnic breakfast then decided to do another game drive on our way back.  That's when unexpected adventures began, under a shrub we spotted lions (a male and a female) and staying with them for a while, we later saw them mating.  On the way back to camp, we enjoyed zebras and gnus.  Two kilometers from camp we were greeted by a pack of eleven wild dogs enjoying their mud bath — what a walk & game drive that was!

Philip - Zimbabwe guide
November 2010

Came back from an afternoon drive, having enjoyed mating dogs and hungry elephants. Dropped off guests and headed to guide camp. On the way, dusk breaking, I suddenly heard the lions calling so went in search for them. Found three lions by the roadside near staff camp so radioed camp to get the guests out of their plunge pools and immediately into the game drive vehicle with Isaiah.  The guests ended up watching the lions lazing by the road for over an hour. What an amazing experience!