skip to main |
skip to sidebar
By Frank Japhet, Guide - Chada Katavi
Last week we walked with clients from Chada Camp to Kavuu. On the way we saw two African Civet latrines, which are situated in shallow holes. The distance from one latrine to another is about 20 to 30 metres. The first latrine seemed to have been made by a female because alongside of this latrine there were small sized dung, which seem to have been dropped by kittens. The second latrine was dropped by an adult male because of the size. The African Civet deposits droppings at latrine sites known as “civetries”. These animals are omnivorous and solitary, except for female with offspring.
Both ‘civetries’ were mixed with the remains of millipedes, Northern dawberry seeds, insects and grasses. When you see tracks or faeces of animals, the animal they are from can be identified and determined by using the size, shape, colour of dung and the materials included in the dung.
Picture by Jackson Shirima
By Emmanuel Moshi, Guide - Chada Katavi
A light coloured monkey with a black face, the vervet monkey is a very common sight in the African savannah woodland. It adapts easily to many environments, being able to tolerate different types of habitats, including humid areas and even semi-desert.
The only difficulty seems to be in areas where there is no water for drinking and no trees for sleeping in at night. Since our camp Chada Katavi is surrounded by different kinds of trees including Tamarind, Bird plum, Rain tree, Borassus palm and many more, all these trees make the monkeys feel like they are in paradise.
Vervets change their daily activities according to the season. They travel a lot during the wet season because there is no need to defend territories, since the food is plentiful. Meanwhile, in the dry season, when the food is not easily available, most of their time is used for feeding, drinking and grooming.
Vervet monkeys in other areas are sometimes considered vermin, simply because they are good opportunistic feeders. They raid crops from farms, with farmers in some areas being allowed to shoot or poison them to reduce their numbers, but still their numbers in the Tanzanian parks are very high. My own view is that vervets are not pests, but are extraordinary animals that encourage people to be careful all the time, and avoid carelessly leaving food around. I regard them as comedians, that we can watch for free.
Chada Katavi provides a safe environment for the monkeys by allowing them to sleep in the trees where they cannot easily be preyed upon by predators. However, the negative side of it is that they force us to be careful with our food, particularly when we bring morning tea to the guest’s tents, as if the box lid is not closed properly you will find the cookies being enjoyed by the monkeys at the top of a tree.
I have also witnessed them patrolling around the mess tent to see if there is any food left. Sometimes they enter in to our lovely camp library, where people have afternoon tea before going on game drive. You will find the monkeys patrolling along the bookshelves: you might think they are looking for a nice book but, no, they are looking for left-overs.
I think that vervet monkeys deserve recognition for being good inspectors, very keen with their responsibility of finding food, and ensuring that we are all responsible and careful with controlling our waste!
by Jackson Shirima, Guide - Chada Katavi
With 4471 square km the Katavi National Park boasts to harbor the highest density of mammals per km. They are mostly herbivores, thus providing predators with lots of juicy meals. The preferred prey species for the Katavi lions is Buffalo, but from time to time they vary their diet, as it happened when we were watching a school of hippos, with one very restless bull. He kept on yawning (dominant display of hippos) and decided to have a last mouth full of grass on the river bank. Busy as he was, he didn’t notice the 13 lions (Chada pride) who were lying in the shadow of a umbrella thorn acacia on that same river bank.
When the hippo bull was only a few paces away from the river, the lions closed in on him. But he managed to escape into the water with only a few scratches. We waited for another 30 minutes, but nothing happened, so we went off to have our picnic breakfast. On our way back to camp we passed those 13 lions again, but this time they were feeding on hippo just at that spot where we left them.
We didn’t see the actual kill, we knew that this was the very same hippo who had escaped death a few moments ago. This is the second time I have known that the Chada pride pulled down a hippo. An adult hippo bull can weigh up to 3000 kg, and it is a risky business attacking one for lions. They will not do so unless they are forced by circumstances.
By Jackson Shirima, Emmanuel Moshi, Frank Japhet and Maripet Koipa
Located in the western part of Tanzania, approximately 50km east of lake Tanganyika, in the Rukwa area, is Katavi National Park. At 4471sqkm, Katavi is the third largest National Park in Tanzania. Altitudes range from 820m to 1560m above sea level. The highest points are on the adjacent hills of the escarpments surrounding the park. Average rainfall is 932mm per year. The rainy season stretches from November to April. It was first recognised as an outstanding wildlife habitat by the Germans, and in 1927 set aside as a big game hunting reserve by the British. The indigenous people, the Pimbwe, were moved out of the area to “protect them from sleeping sickness”.
“Katavi” is a word derived from “katabi”, which is the name of a spirit who dwells in a Tamarind tree near the Katavi plains. Katabi is believed to have been a legendary hunter, who hunted and herded Hippopotamus on the Chada plains. There is another spirit, female, named “Wamweru” who dwells on the Wamweru hills near Katavi plains.
Tourist numbers in Katavi are still very low, thus making a safari a very “wild” experience and you can have a few surprises on a walk, or on drive. The nature is distinctly different in the wet and in the dry season, but equally beautifull. Fauna is a colourful mosaic ranging from closed to open woodlans, shrublands, grasslands, swamps, seasonal floodplains and riverine vegetation. A huge variety of flowers, trees and grass species can be found. The amount of butterflies, birds and other animals is known to surprise every visitor.
The Katuma river is the lifeline of Katavi, feeding lake Katavi, Katisunga floodplains and lake Chada. Katisunga floodplain with its 425sqkm boasts to harbour a vast number on mammals and Chada plain (lake Chada in the wet season) is a “Mecca” for animals, where you will see hippos in the river or grazing in the plain, crocodiles sunbathing on the sand banks and large herds of elephants and buffalos.
Katavi is a dramatic place and a living thing, where man becomes a detail. This is true wilderness, providing the few inteprid souls who make it here with a unforgettable thrilling taste of Africa.
By Frank Japhet, Guide - Chada Katavi
