South Luangwa

The South Luangwa river valley is famous for its high concentrations and stable population of leopards leading to its moniker as the “Valley of the Leopard”. It is one of the best and most reliable areas in Africa to see and photograph these generally elusive cats.

The two areas are both excellent for leopards. Possibly the South Luangwa National Park is more famous as a leopard destination leading many to consider it ‘better’. However, they are two very different ecosystems and the leopard viewing in both is strikingly different and are often worth combining if leopards are what you are after as the behaviours vary significantly between the two parks.

South Luangwa, in particular, is famous for its ‘underground’ highway network - an interconnecting network of deep, dried pathways created by hippos walking during the annual flood season when the Luangwa River bursts its banks saturating the flood plains. When walking across the saturated and often underwater plains the hippos essentially ‘dig’ these pathways into the ground which, as the river recedes, harden into a below-ground network of paths that crisscross the plains. This allows the leopards here to hunt in interesting and unique ways where they can hunt, in the open, by spotting prey on the plains and dropping down into this network of paths, out of sight until they pop up right at their target.

A Thornycroft giraffe is a type of giraffe found only in South Luangwa, not even anywhere else in Zambia. A more modern analysis suggests that rather than being a distinct species, they are a subspecies of the Maasai giraffe.

Leopards are in South Luangwa all year round. However, during the wet season there is plenty of water and a lot of the camps are closed. As the dry season takes hold and water levels in the lagoons (left over from the river flooding) recedes the wildlife is forced to congregate around ever shirking water sources until at the peak of the dry season the only water left is in the Luangwa River (and often not very much there either). So the better leopard viewing is generally when there is less water about, but as the dry season continues, the heat builds so there is a trade-off between great wildlife viewing and comfort. If you can handle early October, then this is probably the best month for leopards, and carnivores more generally as prey is weaker and the animals are forced closer and closer together.

There are two main theories for the generally maneless lions of South Luangway (and yes many of them really do have almost no manes). One theory is that the heat has lead to the lions here evolving smaller manes in order to cope and allow for greater body heat loss during the summer months.

To me a more plausible explanation (given there is heat elsewhere in Africa and the Kalahari lions are famed for their big black manes as an example), is that the larger mane gene has been artificially removed or reduced in the population due to hunting (which is still ongoing today). Hunters generally, and certainly historically, have prized males with the biggest manes for their trophies. This has lead directly to a reduction in the maned gene as lions who were naturally producing smaller manes often with less testosterone were becoming increasingly likely to mate whereas if you had big mane you were being shot, often in your prime or before you had a chance to mate and sire many litters.