Tena Tena has welcomed many wonderful guests since re-opening for the new season, however, there have also been a few gate crashers who have refused to leave.
At the beginning of the season, the camp started getting rather frequent visits from an adult civet. At first, this was exciting as civets are quite elusive and shy, but the novelty quickly wore off as he continued to cause chaos wherever he went, chewing on whatever he could find and leaving a path of destruction behind him.
As it was still the early days of the new season and camp was quiet, the Tena Tena team assumed he would move on once the season was in full swing. They were wrong though, as he seems to have taken quite a liking to the camp (we can’t blame him there) and has become part of the furniture so to speak. If only he would just stop eating it!
The resident civet was then joined by an extremely inquisitive hyena, who took a liking to the kitchen at Tena and goes as far as literally popping his head in on most nights to check how the team is doing. You can imagine the horror of the kitchen staff when he first stuck his head in, but since then it’s become part of the nightly routine, as well as them making sure that all the food is always safely tucked away!
Tena Tena has seen an increase of hyena activity as there is a den situated not too far from camp. Guests staying at the camp have been treated to sightings of an array of hyenas of all shapes and sizes, from cute fluffy pups to sulky adolescents.
While still on the subject of hyenas, Bertram, the camp manager, also had a pretty close encounter with a hyena pup who literally tried to get into the car! If it hadn’t been for Bertie’s foot being stuck out, the hyena pup would have ended up leading the safari…though I doubt any of his guests would have objected!
Not wanting the hyenas to have all the limelight, the wild dogs have been putting on a show of their own! With World Dog Day just around the corner, they seem to have received the memo and have been doing their best to be seen and heard, much to the delight of our guides and guests alike. The wild dog population in South Luangwa is on the rise which is very encouraging considering they are on the IUCNs list of endangered species.
And if civets, hyenas, and wild dogs were not enough, there is also has a large male leopard who is rather fond of walking through the camp on most evenings. Unlike the others, he does not like to always ‘make an entrance’ but is frequently spotted none the less!
Contact Tena Tena
Web. www.robinpopesafaris.net
Email. info@robinpopesafaris.net
Tel. +265 (0) 999 970 002/3
