Its a Game...and a Drive! (Etosha National Park)

After Spitzkoppe, we headed toward (what used to be) an incredibly incredibly large game reserve in Namibia. Starting off at around 100,000 square kilometers, is now down to about 27,000 square km.

The game drives were really cool, as we were in Etosha for 2 nights. There were 3 campsites, each spread out at even intervals in the park. We first started out seeing loads of birds (birds are boring) and a monitor lizard (quite possibly more boring), but soon after we ran into a pregnant Lion who had moved away from its Pride to give birth. It was slightly injured, from possibly anything, but seemed to be doing fine. It had blood dripping down its right front leg, but looked alright.

Anyway, so interesting fact about Lions. The gestation period is 90 days, and once the female learns its pregnant, it leaves the pride to give birth and raise the cub for a few days after. Prior to returning, the dominant male (aka big daddy, P.I.M.P, gigilo, whatever, the one that gets EVERY female in the tribe pregnant) meets the young cub and the female to determine if the cub is actually his (a paternity test, really) and if he somehow decides its not, he mauls the female to death and then kills the cub. Cute story. More like a real life Maury or Jerry Springer episode. Go men!

Anyway, we saw a ton of zebra, giraffes, and even a few elephants, which were all astounding, and the elephants were some of the most amazing animals of the trip.

Each night the place we stayed had a waterhole that was lit up for viewing, but we only saw Springbok (and the bloody springbok are everywhere, have to now be the most boring animal we've seen just cause there are thousands of them).

Etosha probably wouldn't exist now if it wasn't for humans. Nature tried to take its course and the main lake dries up, but now most of the watering holes are maintained by the park in order to ensure there is water (so, they have underground pipes to a lot of watering holes).

One up for America, by the way, as apparently there was oil discovered somewhere in the park, and the park is now, according to our trip leader, owned by the United States. Either way, Springbok is delicious, so not all animals will go to waste.