20 March 2018
Grace having just completed a Namibia Botswana Southern Circle accommodaeted had some amazing sightings. The tour spends 3 nights at a lodge just outside of Etosha National Park in Namibia, this means that we get to spend 2 full days in this incredible place. Etosha is like no other park, it has vast open flat spaces shimmering with white and green. It is a 120 km long and 55km wide and covers 22 270 km². Etosha is home to the world’s biggest black rhino population, which occur mainly in the west but in 1995 some white rhino were reintroduced into the park after they became locally extinct during the early 1990’s. Other rare species of mammals that you find are the black-faced impala, Damara dik-dik, red hartebeest and eland. It is magic and there is always something to marvel at.
On this particular day we were driving towards Okondeka on the edge of the salt pans. We were passing by dry scrub, the occasional tree providing welcome shade for resting springbok.
As we rounded a corner we came across an unusual scene. There was a tawny eagle sitting on the road watching as a black backed jackal very gingerly investigated a puff adder.
Both tawny eagles and black backed jackals are known scavengers as well as accomplished hunters so we can surmise 2 things, either the tawny eagle had caught the snake and accidently dropped it on the road and the nearby jackal saw it drop and trotted over to investigate, stealing it away from the eagle, or possibly the snake was crossing the road and both the eagle and the jackal saw it, the jackal being the first to get to the potential prey.
Either way we watched, fascinated as the jackal very nervously investigated the snake. The jackal, after a lot of hesitation, pulled the snake into the grass as the eagle watched on. However after the jackal had the snake in the grass he lost interest and trotted off, maybe fear got the better of him. We left this amazing sighting with the tawny eagle circling overhead looking for the puff adder.
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