Carina and Stefanie recently did a Zimbabwe Botswana ZBa16 and had an amazing trip, they had the following experience to share with us. The Zimbabwe Botswana Game Tracker is one of my favorite tours because not only does it cover many highlights, it also has this amazing variety of wildlife parks, historical sites and natural wonders such as Matobos National Park, the Victoria Falls, Kruger National Park and Chobe to name just a few.

This particular tour we ended up nicknaming the “Baby Tour” as we were lucky enough to have quite a few spectacular sightings of baby animals of all kinds. So let me make this blog about the different baby sightings we had and share some information.
On Day 1 we entered Kruger National Park on our way to Letaba camp and the sun was already setting when to my delight we came across an active spotted hyena den. Spotted hyenas cubs are incredibly curious and will approach vehicles to investigate or nibble on tyres. In our case there were quite a few vehicles there so the youngsters kept on running into the safety of their den and then peek out. In Kruger Park, many of the hyena dens are found next to the road, some of them even extending under the road with entrances on both sides. Spotted hyenas live in clans so when the cubs are old enough to be introduced to the rest of the clan, they are brought to the communal den and will share it with the other cubs which may be of different ages. The best time to find them active is in the mornings when it is warming up and in the evenings around sunset.

The next day we were blessed with lots of elephant herd sightings, many of them having small calves with them. However elephant cows are extremely protective of their young ones and if the herd crosses the road, they will always take the calves in the middle of the group. This makes it hard to take pictures of them. It is always fantastic to watch the little ellies trying to figure out how their trunks work. With the many nerve endings and muscles that are running through the trunk, it takes a calf about three years to fully learn how to use its trunk. Swinging the trunk around or trying to use for picking up things just makes for very adorable moments.
Also we came across a cheetah mother with four almost fully-grown cubs. An incredible sighting and our cameras were clicking away! The mortality rate for cheetah cubs is very high and many times these young felines fall prey to predators such as lions, hyenas and leopards. It is one of the reasons, why cheetah females have up to six cubs, hopefully successfully raising the better part of them but that is rarely the case. So to see four cubs at the age of about eight months was amazing. We all hope that they will make it into adulthood and help the declining cheetah population.

In Matobos we went out to track rhinos but that day proved to be quite a challenge regarding these pachyderms. We visited the bushman’s paintings and Rhode’s grave without having seen a rhino, which ideally we would have seen by then. However, John our guide wasn’t giving up and brought us to the most special sighting of them all. We heard about a newborn white rhino calf and the excitement was high. We slowly made our way on foot to the rhino cow that hid her baby at a cave like outcrop against a big granite boulder. And there she was a four-day-old female white rhino. All ears and legs and too adorable for words. But mama was hiding her well and it was difficult to get good pictures of her. White rhinos have a gestation period of 16 months and will suckle the calf for up to three years, until a new calf is born. However in this case, the female had her other calf, which was around two years old, there as well but was trying to push him away. That is very unusual, as the older calf was still too young to be without his mother. It seems like this female got pregnant very soon after she delivered her earlier calf.

By now the tour was the “baby tour” and we were curious as to what comes next. In Hwange National Park we were lucky to find a pride of lions with an elephant kill. With the pride were three cubs of maybe two months old, lazily lying in the shade of the bushes. These little fur balls still suckle at that age but readily feed on meat when there is a kill. Their bellies were quite full and moving around seemed to be a hassle. It was amazing just how close we could get with our vehicle without disturbing them. They gave us little yawns, showing us their cub teeth and again, cameras were clicking away non-stop.
While some of the animals are seasonal breeders, others are not and thus allowing for baby sightings all around the year if one is lucky enough to spot them. And baby animals just always put a smile on people’s faces …