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Unusual Sightings

1/1/2008

Swimming female cheetah, Selinda Camp, northern Botswana, seen by Ute Latzke, Roberto Viviani & Kim Nixon, Wilderness Safaris

"Cats hate water," so the age old adage goes. Well, not in northern Botswana when the flood waters rise. February witnessed unusually high rainfall in Botswana this year, causing an inundation of floodplains and swelling of channels and rivers. When this happens lion, leopard, cheetah and even smaller carnivores are forced to ford open water in their attempts to cover their territories and to find enough food to survive.

This can be fatal, a case of entering unfamiliar environments with potential encounters with predators such as crocodiles, perfectly adapted to this niche. Very rarely are low density species like cheetah seen indulging in this behavior. According to the Wilderness Safaris trio:

"We were really lucky at the beginning of February while visiting the Selinda Concession to come across a young cheetah just about to enter the Selinda Spillway near Selinda Camp. As we approached and spotted her we noticed her distaste and hesitation at entering the water. She was clearly nervous and scanned the water's surface, pacing up and down on the bank before finally taking the plunge so to speak. A few looks to her left and right and she was off... hissing at imaginary crocodiles all the way across the water."


1/1/2008
Romancing the Zambezi
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1/1/2008
Recipe of the Quarter: Baboetie
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