Akagera NP - Cats on the road

Running giraffes

We have spent quite a lot of time in Akagera in 2019 - about 8 times in the first 3 months of the year.  And it has paid off with some nice sightings of lion, a couple of glimpses of leopard, and one really good long weekend where we caught the Big 5.  

Eastern plantain eater

So it doesn’t take much for us to pack up the car and head to the park for a weekend, especially since it’s only 3 hours from Kigali.  We decided to take the Friday off and make a long weekend of it, although we had a late start thanks to some last minute work that needed to be done, but we were at the park entrance by about lunchtime.

Zebra with the cleaning service - a yellow-billed oxpecker

This meant that if we wanted to get to what we consider the main game driving area - Mohana - we wouldn’t be able to spend much time there because soon we’d have to head to the campsite as it was over an hour away.  (One of our frustrations… it takes soooooo long to get to good lion territory first thing in the morning from camp.)

Lizard Buzzard

Still, we had a quick look around at Mohana, but nothing too much to see on the plains except the usual antelope and a couple of grey-crowned cranes.  We especially enjoy seeing these beautiful birds in the wild after a remarkable conservation effort by veterinarian Dr Olivier Nsengimana to save them from the illegal live trade and repatriate captive cranes back into Akagera.  

Grey-crowned cranes

We did hit a stroke of luck just as we left Mohana through - the big herd of elephants were in the area browsing.    We haven’t had the best luck with the elephants, confined to either the big herd hiding amongst the papyrus swamps, or antsy bulls on the road refusing to let us pass, so seeing the herd calmly walking and eating, although a bit far away, so was a nice change of scene.

Elephant herd on the plains

It’s rare to have the campsite to ourselves, but the “weekend warriors” would only be there the following night, so it was a lovely peaceful night with the stars giving us a magnificent show thanks to the clear skies.

Waterbuck

We were up early as usual on Saturday morning, and since we didn’t need to pack up the tent, we were ready to go in 20 minutes.  There are 2 routes that can be used to get from the hilltop campsite to the closest pan - either traveling north along the ridge, or heading south down the hill and then along the main road.  We vary our choice of road depending on our theory of the day ;) The last few times we had done the ridge, but decided to go south this time around.

Woodland kingfisher with a snack

Heading down the hill, we came across a spotted hyena on the road, which was really nice - we see them now and then, but it’s always a treat to catch them.  Then we saw another one, which got us excited - we hear reports of big clans in Akagera, but have never seen them so to catch two together on the road was really nice.

An injury to this spotted hyena makes him look especially scary

And then we saw another… and another… wait, this is odd…  In total, we found 5 spotted hyenas along the road and they seemed more preoccupied with something to the left of the road than with us.  Shortly afterwards, we hit the junction to the main road and found another 2 hyenas there. They were definitely interested in something other than us - so to us it meant one of the big cats was in the area.  

Spotted hyenas watching something that wasn't us...

So we were driving painfully slowly as the bush in the area (and in Akagera in general) is pretty thick.  Suddenly, Dru stopped the car and said “lion” and I said “where?” and he said “there!” and I said “where??!”  I don't’ know how he managed to spot that lioness, who was almost completely hidden in the bush except an eye and an ear, and all while driving.  It took me a few moments and some detailed directions before I managed to pick her up.

Our first lion in Gashanju

This was especially good news for us, since we’d been told about a pride in Gashanju, but never been able to catch them - mainly because it is heavily bushed and full of tsetse files in the area, so to have any chance of seeing them, they needed to be on the road, and this is exactly where this lioness headed. After being seen, she sauntered onto the road and started walking away from us. That’s when we saw that she was lactating heavily, so she must have given birth to cubs not too long ago.

A quick drink from a puddle on the road

As she walked, we slowly followed her at a respectable distance, wondering where she was headed.  

This is always one of our great enjoyments - watching the big cats walk on the road like they own it.  She stopped and looked back at us and suddenly Dru said “oh crap, there are two more behind us” He’d looked in the rear view mirror just as a matter of habit, and seen 2 lions walking behind the car.

Quick! There are lions behind us!

It was a young male and female, but how they are related to the lioness we can only guess.  Stunned that we had two more lions to watch we stopped the car and spent a bit of time photographing the cats, one in front of us and two behind.

Keeping an eye on us

The two youngsters stopped in the middle of the road and sat down, staring at us.  They seemed a bit shy, a little more skittish than we’re used to from other parks, but they gave us a few poses before disappearing into the bush on the side of the road.

Closeup as she walked past us

Then the lioness, who had been sitting on the other side of our car, decided to walk back towards where the other two lions had been, before sitting down in the middle of the road.  Meanwhile, the hyenas, who’d clued us in to the lions in the first place, were hovering in the background keeping an eye on the lions.

Keeping an eye on the hyenas

The hyenas eventually disappeared, only to be replaced by a couple of giraffes who looked on curiously at the lioness.  We’re amused by other animals’ reaction to lions; considering that they were only introduced to Akagera two years ago, have they even seen a lion, and do they know how to react to them?  

Lioness being watched by giraffes

The two youngsters came back onto the road and headed to the lioness.  Surprising to us, there was no head greeting or even general acknowledgement of each other, they sort of just sat near to each other but ignoring each other - it was like there had been a family fight ;)  

Back on the road

The lions weren’t doing too much, but we were just happy to hang with them.  The adult lioness was extremely relaxed, but the two youngsters seemed a bit wary of the car, so we didn’t get too close.  We suspect that they had a kill nearby as the male kept heading into the bush and then coming out a little while later with blood on his mouth.  That would explain the hyenas as well…

Suddenly it was all too much... nap time

While having coffee with the lions, we were entertained by a couple of red-necked spurfowls having a fight.  What amused us the most is that we’d seen this before - a couple of spurfowls fighting while we had been watching lions in Mikumi, Tanzania about 3 years ago.  Unfortunately for the spurfowls who were so intent on fighting each other, that they didn’t notice one of the young lions watching them with interest until she’d stalked and attacked them, killing one of the them.  

Intense fight between 2 spurfowls

We wondered if the same fate would befall these two fighting birds, but luckily for them none of the lions were interested and they lived to fight another day.

Using the shade to chill

We spent over two hours with these three lions, moving off and back onto the road every now and then, until finally another car arrived.  Shortly after the second car arrived, the lions decided to all move into the bush and as it was starting to get hot, so we figured that they probably were heading into shade.  

The aptly named Long-crested eagle

But instead of heading north to the area that we’d been targeting from the morning, we decided to see if we could find any other lions, since our theory was that there were more lions in the pride (we’ve seen video of about 7 lions together in the same area) so we headed south for a couple of kilometers but didn’t pick up any sign of lions.

Back on the road with the Akagera mountains in the background

But coming around the corner that we’d seen the lions disappear just 15 minutes ago… and they were back on the road - all three lions sleeping in the shade cast by a single tree.  So we were able to spend some more time with them all on our own before a tour operator arrived.

Buffalo and cattle egret chilling

The lions moved off shortly after into the grass where they were mostly hidden from view.  We decided that after 2 hours with them on our own in good light that they probably wouldn’t be getting back on the road since it was already quite hot, so we left them and headed to where we’d planned early that morning.

Monitor lizard

We stopped at the picnic spot in Mhindi for a bit, checking in with the other cars that were stopped there to see if they had any news about cats - nothing.  It was mid-morning when we got to the area that we consider the cat hotspot, Mohana plains and the adjacent Imvubu loop. We decided to do the loop first and although there wasn’t too much hanging around, we did spot a Southern Red Bishop, a first time sighting for us.  

Southern Red Bishop

Then onto Mohana, one of our favourite areas in the park, because it’s a nice open area, we’ve had good cat sightings and most importantly it doesn’t have tsetse flies, so we open the windows and hear nature without having to worry about the painful bite of these nasty little buggers.

Impala

We’d just turned into the plain when we saw a tour operator vehicle parked about 200m ahead of us with all of the guests standing up facing us - we know what that means - something interesting - and immediately we saw a cat under a bush.  At first we suspected lion, but as we got closer we could make out the spots - leopard!

Keeping an eye on the prey

We’ve seen a few leopards in Akagera, but mostly at a distance, so photo opportunities haven’t been great, but to see a leopard pretty close, awake and in the middle of the day was a great bit of luck. We were the second on the scene, but word of a leopard spreads quickly and soon there were quite a few cars there.  

Hunt mode

The leopard herself seemed pretty calm and not too bothered by the cars, and soon we realised why - she was in hunt mode.  Seeing a leopard hunt is pretty special - the low down hunting pose they use when stalking is extremely exciting to watch, and soon she had left the cover of the tree and started stalking in the high grass, without the antelopes nearby seeing her.  We figured out that she was heading to a grassy mound where she could lay up and watch her potential victims, so we re-positioned the car to be able to watch her and the plains game.

Still stalking undetected

Patience is key when watching leopards, they are the most patient of the cats, and soon cars started to disperse, probably partly to do with some tourists’ short attention span, partly to do with the fact that it was lunchtime and many of the tour operators had to get back to the lodges, and also to do with the massive thunderclouds that were rolling in quickly - we were about to get caught in the mother of all storms!

Meanwhile the birds get on with their business - Lesser masked weaver

By the time it started raining, there were only 3 cars left watching.  By this time, the leopard was hardly visible, hidden in the undergrowth.  We just had to assume our eyesight was better than that of the impala and zebra about 100 meters away from her and that we’d catch her moving.

No idea who may be watching

And then the rain really started coming down - to the point where we could hardly see through the windscreen - but that’s when she started to stalk, when the rain was at its peak, she snuck out from one mound and stalked her way to an even smaller one - if we hadn’t actually seen her reach there, we would never have said that there was a leopard there - they are masters of disguise…

Still watching...

Now she was only about 20 meters away from the nearest zebra, with some impala just a bit further away, but most interestingly a very young zebra had separated from the herd and was probably about 30 meters from the mound.  We waited with bated breath - would she go for it.... And we waited… and waited… and waited…

Spot the leopard... just her tail is visible in the middle of the mound

By now the rain had eased off and we could get our cameras into position, but still nothing… another 30 minutes went by, the zebra foal got closer, but then returned back to the family herd.  Then an impala walked RIGHT past her mound and nothing… we were starting to think that she had managed to move without us seeing her, because that surely should have been the best opportunity… but a flick of a spotted tail confirmed that she was still hidden in the mound.

Attack!

Finally after another 20 minutes of waiting, another impala walked by and she went for it… unfortunately it was pretty anticlimactic ;) She exploded out of the mound and ran about 3 meters before aborting the chase, while the impala - clearly caught off guard went running - along with every other animal on the plain.

The impala she targeted... I think he's still running!

Having been discovered, there was no need to hide anymore, so the leopard started walking off.  She was no longer a threat to the antelope as her element of surprise was gone, so they started to mob her - it’s fascinating to watch - all these animals lining up moving towards her while keeping a safe distance while barking alarm calls - and her completely ignoring them; I guess any leopard is well used to that!

No more need to hide.. 

She walked parallel to the road, so we were able to follow her before she finally turned into the plain and disappeared from our view and we could no longer find her, but what a great sighting and this at one o’clock in the afternoon!  This is why we drive around even in the middle of the day - the majority of the time nothing happens, but every now and then you get a special bit of action.

Time to find a quiet spot and start again

The cars dispersed as soon as the action was over, and we headed to do a loop of the plain, to see if we could find some good photo opportunities, since there were plenty of herds around.  We caught sight of a tortoise crossing the road, which is quite unusual - it was our first tortoise spotted in Akagera, in fact the whole of Rwanda. Happy to catch one, we had just started driving again, when there seated on the side of the road under a tree, so close to us we almost looked past…

Coding problems...

Leopard! What?! Another one? This one was really chilled out and hardly looked at us. A bit of a scramble trying to get the camera before it ran off, only to find that Dru’s camera wasn’t working! More panic! The leopard was on his side and I couldn’t shoot through the glass, so he grabbed my camera while I tried to work out why his camera wasn’t working.  

Found again...

Crisis averted, it was only because one of the cards was full, so a quick change and we were back to 2 cameras.  I still couldn’t shoot, so we took the chance to reposition the car, and in all that time the leopard didn’t move - a really nice change from these normally shy cats.  

Focused on the impala nearby

The leopard didn’t seem to be inclined to go anywhere, it seemed intent on watching a herd of impala quite far away.  Considering the time of day and our sighting not that long ago, we suspected that this was the same cat we’d seen and checking our earlier photos confirmed it, the same leopard.  

Still watching

What amazed us that this was the main road in the area but we were the only ones there and it remained that way for about 10 minutes where we had her to ourselves, when - of all things - a bus arrived ;) These are tours done for groups, normally for the young Rwandans to show them the wildlife that Rwanda has to offer - and considering that they will be the decision makers of the future, a very good thing to give them an appreciation of wildlife early on.  

Itchy

The leopard reacted to the bus getting closer and was soon up, but instead of slinking away into the cover of the plains, she walked behind our car and sat down on my side, growling at some nearby antelopes, and giving me some close up shots of her.

Growling

Done with that, she decided to walk down the road behind us, so we quickly turned the car around and followed her making sure we were in front of the bus - they could see past us, but we wouldn’t have been able to see past them.  

Spotted roadblock

After coolly walking for about a hundred meters, she turned off and jumped up a tree - this leopard was giving us the full show!  Mostly I was just amused by the question from someone on the bus “what is a leopard?” ;) I’m not sure they’re aware of just how lucky they were to catch such a good sighting of a leopard.

Just like the lioness - following a big cat down the road

A couple minutes in the tree, but I think she was started to get fed up with the noise coming from the bus, and then another bus arrived and a few other tour operator vehicles.  That was her cue to get down and move to the shade of a tree a bit further away from the road.

Keeping an eye on us from above

Once away from the road, she stopped paying attention to the tourists and instead focused on the game on the plain - clearly she was hungry and looking to hunt.  Eventually she ducked down out of sight and the cars left. We drove up the road to see if we could spot her, before we turned our car around again to the direction we’d originally planned to go and scanned the area but no luck - we were stopped by a tour vehicle who’d arrived towards the end of the sighting and they told us that there was a leopard nearby - yes, our leopard ;)

Elephants drinking

Over the moon with our sighting, but convinced we wouldn’t see her again and even if we did the photo opportunities wouldn’t be as good, we decided to head to the picnic site and do some birding under the only tree next to the road that offers shade in the area.  We were lucky enough to catch a couple of elephants in the distance drinking from the lake, although they were a bit far away.

Our first snake in Rwanda - puffadder

The campsite is about an hour’s drive away, so we could’ve spent more time in the Mohana area, but we decided to leave a bit early in case the lions we’d seen in the morning were around. Unfortunately neither them nor the hyenas were to be seen, but we did have another first - a puffadder on the road.  This was our first snake in Rwanda and was worthy of a photo, especially as they’re slow moving enough that you can get a shot.

Slowly making its way across the road

Having no reason to stop, we were back in the campsite early, unfortunately to the weekend warriors that were camping for the night, with the music playing and general lack of awareness that everyone else camping may have wanted to get away from the sounds of the city, and that if we wanted to be playing music, that music would not be our first choice.  

Campsite on the hill - if only there weren't other campers ;)

Rwanda is not unique in this respect, we’ve come across the blatant lack of awareness and respect across many national parks on the continent, but the fact that Akagera is only 3 hours away from Kigali and the campsites are electrified, anyone with a tent comes to camp, including those that think it’s a good idea to play their music… loud… past one o’clock in the morning… (okay, rant over…)

The rolling hills of Akagera

The next morning, it was up early in the morning to pack up and head out, and hopefully catch the lions again.  This time the hyenas were back on the road but we couldn’t catch any sign of the lions. We headed straight to Mohana without much to stop us except for a colony of dwarf mongoose - it’s a pity that they’re just too quick to get a good photo.

Hyenas on the road, but no luck with lions

We decided to not spend too much time in Mohana, but to rather head north to the big Kilala plain, which is normally rich with wildlife in the morning.  We’d also heard what we call the Mohana 3 were in Kilala. It seems that the Mohana plain is dominated by 3 male lions, but they move to Kilala too (about 10km away) and we’ve seen them mating with the female there.  

Lily covered dam in Akagera

No cats to be seen at Kilala, but big herds of topi (tsessebe) and buffalo on the open veld.  We were driving through the pan when suddenly we saw that the topis were running towards us. We’ve seen the wildebeest migration in Serengeti, so know that once one wildebeest starts running, they all do, but we’d never seen so many topis running together.

Why are they running towards us?

And then we saw giraffe running - about 20!  They were also running towards us, but from the other side of the plain, and then they ran past us, while the topis crossed in front of us and joined the giraffes.  This took about 5 minutes of running and then everyone calmed down. We can only theorise why they were running - we suspect either someone got out of the car and spooked them, or they were just on a morning run - guess we’ll never know, but it was quite a sight.

Running giraffes is a strange thing to see

We left soon after that to head to the North gate for our drive home, but were lucky enough to encounter another tortoise - guess there’s an abundance of tortoises at the moment ;)  Some zebras blocked the road, but we were soon at the gate for a quick brunch and then back to Kigali, reminiscing on our great cat weekend!

Another tortoise for our weekend count

PS - we have named the leopard Eileen - she has very heavy spots on the side of each eye, which almost form a line. (Eye line = Eileen)

Akagera NP

Bonus edition…

A week later we were back at Akagera (trying to be there as often as possible before the big rains arrive) and though we didn’t see much so its not worth writing a blog post about, we did have some nice elephant interaction.  

Big bull pushing the youngsters away from the waterhole

As mentioned, our luck with elephants hasn’t been great at Akagera, so seeing 4 big bulls nearby to us and watching them enjoy a waterhole and then one of them having a dust bath was pretty great to witness.  

Big bull elephant

Originally it was just one old bull minding his own business but then he was joined by 2 younger bulls.  They were pretty chilled out together, drinking at the little seasonal waterhole. Then the old bull stiffened - you could see something was up.  A moment later he left the 2 younger bulls and walked off.

Bull in musth approaches

It was soon obvious why - another big bull was approaching and he seemed to be in musth - we can only assume that the older bull wasn’t up for a fight.  This new male headed to the waterhole where he was greeted by the 2 smaller ones, with everyone putting their trunk in the other’s mouth - a sort of elephant handshake ;)

The elephant handshake

The big bull then plopped himself down in the water clearly dominating the waterhole.  After getting his fill of water, he then moved to a dust hole where he again rolled a bit in the mud and dust before giving us a few head shakes and poses.  

Ah... a good dustbath...

All in all, a really nice and calm elephant sighting and experience!

A headshake to remind who's boss