This is the second in a series of posts featuring photographs
taken during our trip to Botswana and Uganda in August 2021. 

We also caught a glimpse of a leopard in Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda. Our guide, Hassan, was driving us back to the lodge after dark, taking the winding path in hopes of spotting some nocturnal creatures, when suddenly he stopped the van and turned it around so its headlights shone out into the grass. There in the distance we saw movement and, watching long and hard, eventually recognized a leopard stalking through the tall grass. We kept our eyes fixed until it moved out of the range of our light, then continued our trip back to the lodge. Craig and I marveled at Hassan’s ability to find this animal in the darkness, to somehow sense its presence when it was almost impossible to see, and from then on we teased him about being a “leopard whisperer.”

Lions in the fig tree

The lions living in the Ishasha Sector of Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park are famous for their habit of climbing up into giant fig trees, to nap in their shade and to scan the surrounding grasslands for prey. They are one of only two groups of lions that have taken to climbing trees, and many tourists come to Ishasha to witness this unusual behavior. (The other tree-climbing lions are in Lake Manyara National Park in Tanzania.)

Hassan knew the area well, having trained in Queen Elizabeth. With help from another guide who had already found the lions that day, Hassan was able to drive us straight to the spot. There we found two handsome males snoozing in an enormous fig tree.

One of the lions appeared to have swallowed an entire antelope earlier in the day. His swollen belly made it difficult for him to get comfortable, but he finally settled into the flop-legged position you see here.

I took this final shot in the Uganda Wildlife Conservation Education Center (UWEC) in Entebbe, where we saw a young lioness resting in the shade. All the animals at UWEC have been rescued from illness or injury or other mischance. Health permitting, some are released back into the wild, while others become permanent residents at UWEC. This lioness, named “Sophie” after the donor who provided the formula needed to keep her alive when she was rescued as a young cub, is now three years old.

Wild dogs

African wild dogs — sometimes called Cape hunting dog or painted dogs — were once to be found across the African continent. Sadly, they are now in decline, due mainly to habitat loss. And as their habitats have shrunk, they have sometimes resorted to preying upon livestock, which incurs the enmity of farmers. Conservation efforts emphasizing education and the creation of wildlife corridors to connect the dogs’ fragmented ranges have helped, but their numbers continue to dwindle. Today, the largest populations of wild dogs are found in Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, and Botswana — where we saw them.

We had two encounters with the wild dogs in Moremi Game Reserve, the first time we found only two dogs and the second time five. The ranger wondered at these small numbers, because wild dogs usually travel in larger packs.

The clever jackal

Jackals face the same challenges as wild dogs: habitat loss and threat from farmers, who often kill them as pests. Unlike wild dogs, jackals usually form monogamous pairs who mark and defend a territory. They hunt in the day as well as at night and are reputed to be wily and clever. They will, for example, follow a pride of lions for days waiting for them to make a kill. After the lions have eaten their fill, the jackals move in. Due to their small size, jackals on their own hunt mostly small mammals, reptiles, birds, insects, and eggs; they are also known to eat berries and other fruit.

We first saw this jackal from a great distance, as she moved through the grasses hunting for her dinner. We sat quietly in the Land Cruiser, and gradually she drew nearer and nearer, moving in a great arc, until she was perhaps only thirty feet away. I was struck by her lithe grace, as she went about her own business.

She finally turned and looked straight at me, and I was able to get this shot.

I found this wonderful legend, recounted by a San ranger named Chrigi, on the Gateway Africa site.

How Jackal got its black back
The jackal was very much in love with the sun and would follow it all day long.
Then one day, the jackal noticed the sun is not moving in the sky, so he begins to search for her.
After looking for her nearly all day, he found her stuck in the thorny branches of an acacia tree. Worried that the thorns would hurt her, he called up to the sun, ‘Love my heart, let me help you from the tree, and take you to your home!’
The sun answered, ‘My dearest friend, that is not a good idea. You are not strong and tall enough to carry me. You must call the strong elephant. And also I am very hot! I will burn you.’
But jackal was very much in love with the sun, and did not want to listen.
So, he jump up into the tree, and grab the sun by her leg to pull her free. As jackal grabbed her, she burned his paws black.
Yelping with pain, he pulled her free, and quickly put her on his back.
Running as fast as he could, he took her to the edge of the world, where she lives. All the time the sun was burning his back.
At the edge of the world, she got off jackal’s back, and went to sleep, as she was tired from the long stressful day.
And poor jackal?
Today, you will see the bottom of a jackal’s feet and his back are black from where the sun has burned him.
But, as the sun goes to sleep at night, and also early morning before she, the sun, rises, you will hear the jackal call, ‘Where’s my love, where’s is my love, I miss you, miss you!’

One last thing: you might have expected to see hyenas included here, but their appearance turns out to be misleading. Since, according to the folks at the San Diego Zoo, “Hyenas are not members of the dog or cat families” but are “so unique that they have a family all their own, Hyaenidae,” I will include their portraits in another post.

• Uganda Wildlife Conservation Education Center: Sophie the Lioness
• National Geographic: African Wild Dog
• Gateway Africa: Fables and stories by Chrigi-in-Africa, Ranger of the San Clan: How Jackal got its black back. (I edited the text slightly for clarity.) This site includes lots of other traditional stories from various parts of Africa.
• Wildlife South Africa: Black-backed Jackal Fact File
• San Diego Zoo: Striped Hyena

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• The fisher kings
• Postcards from South Africa
• Meanwhile, in Botswana…