Green Katavi

By Philip Pendaeli - Guide, Chada Katavi 

Katavi National Park has been getting drier and drier, just what we wanted to make sure the action in the shrinking hippo pools was good.  This lack of water was causing serious fighting between big male hippos, sometimes resulting in fights to the death.  This is not easy for some people to see, but it is life and death in the bush and it is happening even if people don’t want to watch it. 

Many of our game drives and walks led us to the pools of mud, where even the crocodiles were all forced to move into caves because the hippos were taking all the space.  Then when we were all starting to feel bad for the animals because they were really struggling from lack of clean water, the rains came.

Elephants were trumpeting just from being happy, at least according to some of our guests, and I was tempted to believe them.  They didn’t have to dig with their forefeet and tusks any more to find clean water in the riverbanks.

Hippos and crocodiles returned to the river that is starting to fill with water and will be flowing again soon.  Even some species of terrapins (like turtles) appeared like magic from where they were cased in dried mud for almost six months.  Now we see them walking on the tracks and we try very hard not to drive over them.

Even though dry season is our most popular and busy time at Chada Katavi, somehow I think it is a blessing to look at how green and beautiful the park has become.  And not many people complain about a cloud covering up the hot sun in Katavi occasionally.

Crested porcupines share their caves with snakes

By Frank Japhet - Scout, Chada Katavi

Last month when we were looking for a place to flycamp in Kapimbye area, nearby Kamlangala river (temporary river), we saw a crested porcupine inside the cave which is located beside of the Kamlangala river.  They looked like a family, their number was ranging between 6 and 8.  When we were still over 10 meters away, we saw a snake was looking out from that cave and it went out to sun itself on top of the rocks, but went back quickly into the cave.  Due to the colour and size and length, it seemed that it was a Black Mamba.

This is an interesting symbiotic relationship between Crested Porcupines and snakes although their habits differ in that porcupines are active during the night while Black Mambas are active during the daytime and only when disturbed are active at night.  The people of this area whom have their homes located near by Katavi National Park, prefer to hunt and kill porcupines by using their dogs and spears even, to dig them from their burrows.  Due to this fact, the porcupine knowing that people are looking for them in order to kill them, sometimes live and share their burrows/caves with snakes as their defensive mechanism.

Tree climbing lions of Katavi

By Gabriel Mushi, Guide - Chada Katavi

Katavi has a large number of lions, with different prides in each part of the park.  Though lions are terrestrial, spending a large amount of their time on the ground, they as well climb trees.

Lake Manyara National Park has been so famous for its tree climbing lions, but Katavi lions as well climb.  Lions climb trees mainly to try to get away from the flies, to catch a good breeze and to scan the area around them, mainly to look for prey.

Though they climb trees, they do not look that good or relaxed when trying to balance themselves on branches.  They are not as efficient climbers as leopards are.

Elephants in Chada

By Gabriel Mushi, Guide - Chada Katavi

Elephants are very intelligent animals.  They feed on a variety of plant matter, from flowers, leaves and fruits to pods and even bark.  They use their tusks to debark trees, then peel off strips and chew them.

Recently, while on an evening game drive with my guests, we came across a male elephant, about thirty years old, feeding under an acacia tree.  He was picking up seed pods from the ground, but when he had finished them all, he started shaking the tree.  Lifting his trunk and aligning it up the trunk of the tree, with his tusks on either side, he started pushing hard to shake the acacia pods down.

After that, he continued picking up the pods and eating them, grasping them one by one with the tip of his trunk and lifting them into his mouth.  After making sure there were none remaining underneath the tree, he moved on and kept on pushing on other acacia trees to get more pods that were out of his reach.

Buffalo at Chada Katavi

By Frank Japhet, Scout - Chada Katavi

The cape buffalo are highly gregarious animals, living in large herds up to 4000 in Katavi National Park.

Buffalo drink daily because they are not able to conserve water like some animals, so it is difficult for a large herd to find enough to drink in the dry season.  That is why they split up sometimes.

Due to this dry season, the herds are also breaking up because of scarcity of food.  They must travel a lot to make sure they don’t deplete the grass in one area.

They are grazers on the taller grasses, but sometimes they can browse on other plants, but this is rare.

The smaller units that break from the herds are led by a matriarch cow who leads her clan members who are usually closely related.  In large herds as well, there are older cows who want to be in the front of the herd.  These cows are called Pathfinders.

Other buffalo can be sedentary, not moving great distances because they are not in large herds.  The most sedentary buffalo are older bulls who are solitary or in small bachelor groups. 

The distance travelled by buffalo in a day ranges from 5 to 18 kms as they commute between pastures and water.  In Katavi, even in dry season, there are some areas where the herds are still large.  Rungwa river, Lukima river, and other areas where there is natural spring water are examples.

 

Katavi lion kills

By Philip Pendaeli - Guide, Chada Katavi

Katavi is the park which has only one rainy season from Nov-April which makes the plains flood and rivers run for a while and make the animals happy.

From Sept-Nov (just before rain) things go differently. Due to drought there are no running rivers or any water in the plains. Animals congregate by the water holes supplying easy daily meals to predators as we found close to the Katisunga water hole (also known as Chem Chem) when we went out in the morning for a game drive.  We found a pride of lion, 6 of them, and they killed two old buffalo bulls, one right next to the other.  The buffaloes were facing in different directions as if they were sitting there before.

Everyone in the car was excited to see that very rare sighting in the bush.  Myself, I have seen a lot of lion kills, but this one was very special. 

The moment has arrived to see the Chada plain

Emmanuel Mosha - Guide, Chada Katavi 

As Katavi is the place which had many gods to worship in years long ago, Chada was the name of one of the gods who was worshipped by the people, who were the Pimbwe people. Though they once lived around these plains, they currently live outside the park boundary.

Chada lived in the middle of Chada flood plain and the hippos were like his cattle. He had beautiful wives who looked “white like melting ice.” During his wedding, people were not allowed to beat drums because by doing so the pregnant women were likely to get problems when giving birth.

Living chiefs were not allowed to visit Chada or they would be pelted with stones from the sky, but now it is easy to come to Chada without being pelted with stones. Now the plains have lots of animals, and have become a jewel among all the parks in Tanzania.

So this is the moment for everyone to come and see Chada, as a rainbow in the sky full of both flora and fauna. It may be the only place you can see about 1000 to 3000 buffalo at a time and at very close distance. Not only buffalo, but elephants in herds from 20 up to 200 crossing the plain.

Chada is a place where you can drive or walk along the edge of the plain, where it can be easy to get close to the Chada pride of 16 lions which are always patiently waiting for the buffalo to come closer to them.

So Chada plain and camp are now great assets to Tanzania and are the world’s hottest hotspot for game viewers and walkers, since it is still undisturbed and more private than any other park in the world.

 Photo by Mark Vibbert, Chada Katavi

Tree climbing lions

By Frank Japhet - Guide, Chada Katavi

We were on a game drive with our clients, the Ritserts, on 17^th August 2010, driving beside the Katuma River in the  Miti ya Simba area, which is the beginning of the Chada Plain from Ikuu bridge.

We saw a female lion resting in the branches of a flat top acacia (Tortillis acacia). Sometimes lions in Katavi climb up the trees in order to shade themselves or to locate prey from a distance. They also may do it to escape enemies or to get away from hot ground during the dry season and enjoy the wind that is blowing at the moment. They also climb to avoid disturbance from flies, and even to getaway from biting insects such as tsetse flies.

This is the evidence that the Katavi National Park is one of the areas where you can see the lions climbing the trees. 

Amazing Fly-Camping at Chada Katavi

By Emmanuel Moshi - Guide, Chada Katavi 

Chada Camp operates a simple mobile fly camp. The experienced guides, scouts and staff make your dreams come true while you are in the bush, taking you to different remote and beautiful areas in the park. You can decide to spend more days in the fly camp, as it provides all services which may be required for the efficient movement of the camp from one location to the next. It is a stunning way of camping: a transparent tent which allows you to see a blue sky with all the stars, the bright moon the whole night, as well as the beautiful orange colour of the sunrise in the .

On the way getting there, there you have the choice of taking a short or longer walk with an armed scout into camp. Or you might choose to go for a walk from the fly camp the next morning. And each place is unique - like the location called Paradise – it’s amazing camping with hippos in the same place while hearing them grunting and at the background getting a fresh air from the palm trees when blown by the wind. 

Where ever you go, thereafter you’ll not know how the day is going to an end so the fly camping in Katavi may leave you with a different feeling for each place.

“It’s unbelievable - come and feel it in your heart”