Wildlife
It has been an extremely exciting month as we begin to meet and learn about the inhabitants of our new area. Over the period we were opening the new camp, the surrounding area was still very dry and we appeared to be in a rain shadow, as Deception Valley was receiving regular rain. Because of the dryness, we concentrated our drives on the valley area and, true to form, the rain brought forth the famed CKGR cheetah. Since December 1st almost every guest has seen at least one cheetah during their time at Kalahari Plains Camp. One guest from the US arrived with a plea for just a glimpse of a cheetah and went away with 18 sightings!

Game viewing in the valley was successful with regular lion and cheetah sightings and the occasional leopard. On one memorable drive with one of our first groups of guests, Anthony turned up lion, leopard and cheetah. And then, remarkably, on Christmas day the guests saw lion, cheetah and wild dog - all in the Letiahau area of Deception Valley. Like the cheetah, the dogs make a miraculous appearance as soon as the rains really set in. One of the dogs has been collared by researcher Glyn Maude, and it will be interesting to get follow-up information of the packs in the CKGR - where they come from and where they go.

In terms of general game, we feel this area has potential for some incredible viewing. We finally had two really good showers and since then the pan in front of camp has been inundated with springbok and gemsbok. The pan carries a large jackal population and their eerie, shrill evening calls are the highlight of sundowner time. We also have good sightings of bat-eared fox and honey badger on most drives in the area. Other interesting sightings in the valley include Cape fox.

We had our first lion sighting in the area on Boxing Day. The pride was seen by Tshepo and his guests on Matotsi Run, opposite camp. The pride consisted of eight individuals, of which two were sub-adult males and the others adult females. We had hoped that they would become a regular feature but we have not seen them since.

There have been encouraging signs of good potential for cheetah in the area. We have seen a group of two males, a group of four, and another group of five. Over time we hope to get a really good idea of the coalition structures in the area.

Camp Staff
Managers: Olivia and Ras
Guides: Tshepo, Anthony and Russell

Thanks to Clive Dreyer for the images.