Cats!!!

Our morning game drive was rather quiet - largely because we now consider impala, giraffes, and even zebra normal sights. Our first sighting was the Steenbok antelope, the smallest of the antelope, even the grass is usually taller. Our rare find was the Kori Bustard, an endangered species. This bird is 3 or 4 feet high and the largest bird capable of flight. We passed a lot of white-browed sparrow weavers. They build their hanging nests on the west side of the trees to avoid the easterly winds and warm the nest before sundown.
Cheetah

We saved the excitement of the day for the evening drive. We had seen little when the other land rover radioed that they had 3 Cheetahs in sight, another endangered species, and one the guides hadn't seen for a month. We rushed over toward them , but on the way, our guide sighted a leopard in the bush. A leopard is a rare find (the 4th of the big 5). Richard and Katherine had been on 50 days of Safari and had never seen one. They are most often seen in the bushes or trees. It is one of the few cats that can climb trees to get it prey. After it slunk off, we just had to go to the other side of the bushes to find the cheetahs. They often sit on termite mounds to spot their prey and sure enough that was where we found a female an her 2 cubs. We followed these 3 as they hunted for about 45 minutes, often getting within a hundred feet of them - they largely ignored us. Because they are competitors it is rare to find cheetahs and leopards so close to each other. The cheetah is much lighter with longer legs which give it a speed advantage over its prey for short distances. It needs to take down its prey by the neck because of its small size. And they hope to take the animal down quietly so that leopards or lions won't steal their meal. What a day this was! We had a lot of luck.

Leopard in the grass

After dinner, Chamu informed us that OAT had determined that it was too dangerous for us to go to Zimbabwe. The election is next week and there has been a lot of violence in the countryside. They're making arrangements for us to go to Zambia instead.