BOTSWANA & NAMIBIA SELF DRIVE

After a failed hunt, a pack of lions was resting under a bush in Moremi game reserve. As with every sighting, soon numerous cars were surrounding this sighting and a failure to behave properly, quite frequently disturbs the animals.

The courtship displays of the males are impressive and elaborate, successfully advertising their presence to potential mates. The males hold their heads backwards, with cheeks bulging, the crest is held erect, the bill open and they inflate their gular pouches, forming a white throat "balloon". During this display the oesophagus inflates to as much as four times its normal size and resembles a balloon. They also puff out their frontal neck feathers which are splayed upwards showing their white underside. The white may visible up to 1 km (0.62 mi) away during display. Their wings are drooped and their tails are raised upwards and forwards onto their backs like a turkey, the retrices being held vertically and their undertail coverts fluffed out. They enhance their performance with an exaggerated bouncing gait. When displaying they stride about with their necks puffed out, their tail fanned and their wings planed and pointed downward. They also emit a low-pitched booming noise when the neck is at maximum inflation and snap their bills open and shut. Several males dispersed over a wide area gather to display but usually one is dominant and the others do not display in his presence and move away. The displaying males are visited by the females who presumably select the male with the most impressive display.

Lions do not mate at any specific time of year, and the females are polyestrous. As with other cats' penises, the male lion's penis has spines that point backward. During withdrawal of the penis, the spines rake the walls of the female's vagina, which may cause ovulation. A lioness may mate with more than one male when she is in heat; during a mating bout, which could last several days, the couple copulates twenty to forty times a day, often forgoing eating.

Female dik-diks are somewhat larger than males. The males have horns, which are small (about 3 in or 7.5 cm), slanted backwards and longitudinally grooved. The hair on the crown forms an upright tuft that sometimes partially conceals the short, ribbed horns of the male. The upper body is gray-brown, while the lower parts of the body, including the legs, belly, crest, and flanks, are tan. A bare black spot below the inside corner of each eye contains a preorbital gland that produces a dark, sticky secretion. Dik-diks insert grass stems and twigs into the gland to scent-mark their territories. To prevent overheating, dik-diks have elongated snouts with bellows-like muscles through which blood is pumped. Airflow and subsequent evaporation cools this blood before it is recirculated to the body. However, this panting is only implemented in extreme conditions—dik-diks can tolerate air temperatures of up to 40 °C (104 °F).

Klein Namutoni: An artesian spring about 2km south of the camp. Good game viewing especially early morning and late afternoon. Popular with Elephant, Giraffe, Kudu, Gemsbok, Kudu, Black Faced Impala, Zebra. Don’t miss taking a tour around Dikdik drive where you have a good chance of spotting the tiny and often elusive Damara Dik-dik.

The mountain zebra has a dewlap, which is more conspicuous in Equus zebra zebra than in Equus zebra hartmannae. Like all extant zebras, mountain zebras are boldly striped in black or dark brown and no two individuals look exactly alike. The whole body is striped except for the belly. In the Cape mountain zebra the ground colour is effectively white, but the ground colour in Hartmann's zebra is slightly buff

With their acute eyesight and hearing, ostriches can sense predators such as lions from far away. When being pursued by a predator, they have been known to reach speeds in excess of 70 km/h (43 mph), and can maintain a steady speed of 50 km/h, which makes the ostrich the world's fastest two-legged animal. When lying down and hiding from predators, the birds lay their heads and necks flat on the ground, making them appear like a mound of earth from a distance, aided by the heat haze in their hot, dry habitat

For most of the 20th century the continental black rhino was the most numerous of all rhino species. Around 1900 there were probably several hundred thousand living in Africa. During the latter half of the 20th century their numbers were severely reduced from an estimated 70,000 in the late 1960s to only 10,000 to 15,000 in 1981. In the early 1990s the number dipped below 2,500, and in 2004 it was reported that only 2,410 black rhinos remained.........

The Moremi Game Reserve, although not one of the largest parks, presents insights and views even for the most experienced of travelers. It is home to nearly 500 species of bird (from water birds to forest dwellers), and a vast array of other species of wildlife, including buffalo, giraffe, lion, leopard, cheetah, hyaena, jackal, impala, and red lechwe. African wild dog, Lycaon pictus, is resident and has been the subject of a project run in the area since 1989; thus this species is often seen wearing collars emplaced by researchers.

Great news for all travellers planning to visit the Etosha National Park in Namibia. The Galton Gate Route between the Galton Gate and M'Bari in Western Etosha is now open for all tourist. The road was reclassified from a "Restricted Use" Tourism Zone to an "Open Access" Tourism Zone on 28 Feb 2014. Prior to the reclassification of the route the Western parts of the Etosha National Park were only accessible to a limited number of licensed tour operators and to overnight guests of the fairly new Dolomite Camp.