Elephants

Last week I sampled from a couple of collared animals that have been spending time on our side of the Gomoti. The southern section, past MTC, was still very wet, but we were able to get to a couple of points and find a herd of around 300 buff, although they were in fairly dense riparian, so we could not get a very good count from them.

The next day we headed past the Moremi cutline, towards Hippo Pools and the Gomoti northwards. We found three lionsses and two young cubs, very close to Hippo Pools. Interestingly, they had made their way down to HQ by the next day, which is at least two kilometres. We tried to reach some points towards Black Pools, but were stopped by primary floodplain. We went back around Hippo Pools to the other side, where we were able to access several points, as it was not quite as wet as I thought it would be. We also found a lovely little swimming spot, which was lovely and refreshing in the midday heat.

We made our way to the Gomoti, where we discovered hundreds of elephants. We had to wait for about an hour for a group to move away from a mud hole. One of them had a tiny calf, whilst two males were testing each other's strength. They moved off eventually, and we were able to make our way around to sample several more points. We found a beautiful big baobab that I had not noticed on previous trips, but decided to camp closer to the water. This turned out to be fortunate, as we later saw lots of elephants under the baobab whilst we were treated to fifty elephants crossing the little channel right in front of us as the sun set.

We made our way back down the next day, again dodging elephants, although there were fewer around then than during the heat of the previous day.

Janette has reached the end of her time, and is leaving today. I have managed to find another assistant, Roz, who will be arriving on the 2nd October from the UK.