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CHIAWA CAMP
NEWSLETTER
Leopards Galore
– June 2006
Hi
everyone,
It has been too long
since my last
newsletter but better
late than never!
Chiawa Camp and Old
Mondoro are
both busy and it looks
like another
great year for game
viewing.
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Red Busker by Karen
Stockdale |
The last week has
been phenomenal with 4 different
leopards on the morning drive of
June 3rd
(a new female, a cub and her
“husband” all together in the
morning light – albeit a bit
skittish) and then another male
leopard under one of the baobab
trees at Twin Baobabs. Then the
other night two different leopards –
a big male slightly downstream from
camp (the same one Joe saw last week
dragging a young waterbuck down the
trail) and a female in the Chiawa
riverbed with a dying impala in her
jaws just a few hundred yards from
camp – almost certainly the same one
which was chasing vervet monkeys in
the trees above our tents the night
before! The next day another three
leopard sightings … this year we
have identified at least 6
individual leopards within Chiawa
Camp’s game viewing loops.
A really interesting
sighting involved an altercation
between 2 adult lionesses and a
sub-adult lion with a honey badger.
At one time a lioness had the honey
badger’s head completely inside her
mouth and we thought that would be
the end of the poor badger but then
the lioness let out a howl (we
presume the honey badger bit her
tongue or lip) and dropped the
badger which then proceeded to
attack and bite the other lioness on
the shoulder and the sub-adult in
the face – in a matter of a minute
all three lions were sent running
for cover after which the honey
badger then continued on its
business.
Speaking of business, Jeki airstrip
is now again open but, more
importantly, Chiawa has opened
another Superior Tent and which is
simply unbelievable – for anyone
wanting the absolute best in tented
safari accommodation look no further
than Chiawa Camp’s Superior Safari
Tents.
Both these tents are
significantly larger than our
already generously proportioned and
appointed luxury safari tents, have
indoor and outdoor showers, thatched
roofs and “island” roll top baths.
 We
have also rebuilt our plunge pool
and added a filter, water/rock
feature and a timber sundeck to
complete what has become a beautiful
and inviting feature at Chiawa. New
to the Chiawa fleet is an additional
Toyota LandCruiser meaning there are
now 6 game viewing vehicles at
Chiawa – more than enough to
accommodate varied guest
requirements! Old Mondoro has also
gotten a new Toyota LandCruiser
which will certainly add to
everyone’s convenience and comfort
there.
Back to game viewing,
our resident male lion has fathered
at least four new cubs which we get
to see periodically – as you can see
from this photo kindly sent to us by
Di Neethling, he is
quite tolerant of his progeny!
Unfortunately it will only be a
 matter
of time before he is challenged by
some vagrant competitor who will
come from the hills, perhaps from
another part of the Park or one of
the Game Management Areas.
Indeed this year
there is a coalition of 3 new male
lions down at Old Mondoro which swam
across the Zambezi from Zimbabwe
(refugee lions perhaps?) and guests
there were treated to tracking them
down and finding them on a walk. We
know these cats are from Zimbabwe as
one of them is sporting a radio
collar (L) as part of an ongoing
lion research project in Mana Pools.
Photo: Di Neethling
We will be approaching the Zambia
Wildlife Authority to remove the
collar if the lion remains in the
area much longer, which we think he
will as we caught him mating with
one of our lionesses a couple of
weeks ago (J). The same guests also
got to see mating leopards! At Chiawa Camp we have also had a few
great wild dog sightings including 3
 dogs
eating 2 impalas one sunny morning.
It made an interesting contrast to
the previous evening’s game drive
where we patiently watched 6
lionesses make 4 unsuccessful
attempts at hunting impalas and this
highlights the very clear difference
in hunting skill between these two
super-predators.
For those of you who
don’t know, Scott attended his first
Indaba Travel Show after having
spent two weeks in Joburg with
Lynsey whilst she recovered from an
emergency appendix operation. Yes,
less than 3 months after Scott’s
arrival Lynsey found herself back in
hospital but we are pleased to say
Lynsey is now back to her usual
100%. Scott is growing very fast and
we hope to take him to the bush in
July – once our
baby-friendly/predator-proof
dwelling is completed.
In the
meanwhile I have been commuting
between Lusaka and Chiawa as much as
I can though I have to say that
during my times in Lusaka, Craig and
Barbara have been doing an
absolutely first rate job of taking
phenomenal care of each and every
guest at Chiawa with an ever
increasing number of guests already
booking their return visits, space
permitting! Blessed are we though
this no doubt is a reflection of the
dynamic and holistic approach we
take at Chiawa Camp which was built
for you, our guests!
Take care – until
next time,
Grant and the Chiawa
Camp team.
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