Tswalu Mammal Mania
Earlier this year, Anderson Expeditions guide Fraser Gear headed to Tswalu in the Kalahari with longtime AE travelers Clare, Adam and Julia, with an ambitious goal of forty mammal species in a single week. Here’s how it went!
“The Kalahari is a great place to see some really cool mammals. On our recent Tswalu expedition with Clare, Adam and Julia we decided to set the bar high and aim for forty mammal species in a week. Some of Tswalu’s special and rare mammals such as Pangolin, aardvark, aardwolf and brown hyena were high on our wish list.
Our first afternoon drive produced an expected flurry of first sightings, including a wonderful array of antelope species and a brief view of three skittish black rhino that charged off into the thickets when they smelt us. One drive in and we sat at an impressive 16 species.
We got up early to track cheetah the next morning, a mother with her three large cubs. Before we left the lodge, we discovered that a few Black-tailed Tree Rats were feeding in the acacias next to the lodge. Lovely creatures that use habitual routes through the acacias in search of new leaves, buds and shoots.
Driving out west Jules suddenly shouted STOP! Brown Hyena! A fantastic spot indeed. Our first thought was to get it in the binoculars quickly before it ran off, but he seemed calm and then actually started moving towards us! He seemed rather friendly and eventually came and lay down in the road right in front of the vehicle.
Later that morning we found the cheetah family. They looked magnificent as they hunted the Kalahari dunes in search of prey. After a close miss on a steenbok and a half-hearted chase of a black-backed jackal they nailed a steenbok right in front of us. Clearly, we had luck on our side (more than the poor steenbokkie).
On a stunningly beautiful but bitterly cold afternoon we headed out in search of lion in a remote and mountainous part of the reserve. Picking up fresh tracks of two white rhino along the way, we followed and found them in no time. Heading deeper into the mountains we found the pride we had been searching for.
The nights also started to produce some great sightings with two fabulous aardvark sightings, a brief look at a pair of striped polecat, bat-eared fox, scrub hare, springhare, porcupine and African wild cat.
Our number one target, the Pangolin was next….
We had a location of a Pangolin burrow from the research team that was our best chance of finding a pangolin. We arrived in the area at sunset and quickly checked the burrow for signs of activity. The tracks indicated that it had entered about two days prior and not yet emerged. We left Enrico sitting quietly at the burrow and headed back to the vehicle for a sundowner. As the light faded Enrico called us in on the radio. What followed had nearly everyone on the brink of tears, or in tears. An hour walking with this most amazing creature as it dug and fed and wombled around our legs on a huge red dune under a crisp starry sky. Wow.
Another of Tswalu’s signature experiences is spending time with a habituated Meerkat mob. Our group, or mob, was aptly known as the rockstars.
No mammal list is going to get impressively long without bats and rats. We had been seeing some gerbils on the road at night but were struggling to get them to species level so we reached out to the resident expert, Uri the small mammal guy. Uri kindly agreed to meet us in the field the next morning after putting out his small mammal traps for the night. What a hit this turned out to be. Uri was surprised and quite pleased that some guests were taking an interest in rodents! We had an incredible time opening five traps and studying four species in the hand. Hairy-footed gerbil were in two of the traps and pouched mouse, Namaqua rock rat and four-striped mouse in the others. No rodents were harmed and they were all released successfully.
Our list was now up in the forties, we had smashed our target, and any further species was now looking quite unlikely. What luck could we possibly still have? It turns out that Julia had certainly not eased off the effort once we passed forty and it was another STOP from Jules that bought the vehicle to a sudden halt. We could not believe our eyes, right next to the road, its head sticking out of its burrow, an Aardwolf. We had all been trying to beat Jules’s hyena spot, but now she had done it again.
Our final tally was a whopping 46 species of mammals. What an incredible diversity in a single arid country location.”
In her own words, here’s what travelling with Anderson Expeditions means to Julia (our star spotter on this Tswalu trip):
“Whether you are a first time wildlife adventurer, keen to see an exceptional place or species, or want go off grid somewhere where few people go, there is no one size fits all recommendation – they will make it happen for you and in a way that makes sense for you.
For me it’s about a whole experience – being off grid and remote, having access to moments beyond a brochure. Whether that’s meeting researchers in the field, learning to track in the wild, sleeping under a fly net and watching the stars, or a bit of remote with a few little luxuries at the end of the day. Whatever you want to feel and wherever that may be, ask. Anderson will make it happen.”
From walking with a pangolin under the stars to opening small-mammal traps with a resident researcher, Tswalu offers moments you won’t find anywhere else!
