My Biography

I was born in Botswana and was lucky enough to be exposed to the wild and nature by my father – I had had opportunities as a young boy growing up to get to some tourism areas like the Chobe National Park and other reserves around Gaborone. At high school I had opportunities to visit areas like Hwange National Park and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe as I was part of the school Conservation Club. As a teenager though, when I thought about what I wanted to do in life I never thought I would end up working in the wilderness! After school, I went on to study Multimedia Design in South Africa and worked as a designer for three and a half years, something I still enjoy doing. That resulted in me becoming interested in photography as I wanted to keep doing a bit of design even out in the bush, so that now I am in the process of designing my own photography website; in the meantime I have my images on blogspot.

Watching television programs like National Geographic and Animal Planet helped me realize that my love for wildlife was still strong and that I wanted to spend more time in the bush. I introduced myself to Wilderness Safaris after trying a couple of other safari companies in Maun. Subsequently, I have been really lucky since then to work as a camp manager at Mombo Camp in the Okavango Delta, belonging to Wilderness Safaris and this camp, which is one of the best wildlife destinations in the world. Before Mombo, I also managed Little Vumbura, Kings Pool, DumaTau and Xigera camps all belonging to Wilderness Safaris. I have been in the tourism industry since January 2007.

Living and working in these beautiful areas of Botswana has changed my way of life and the way I think – indeed it has been a dream come true for me. But with all this, I had to figure out how I could continue multimedia design out in the bush. Photography was the first idea that came to mind as well as designing a website for my images. Now photography is one of my best hobbies, while travelling is another.

Enjoy my photos and blogs!

Kago A S Tlhalerwa

My Images

More of my images

Playful lion cubs of the Moporota Pride (Mombo Camp, Okavango Delta) 07th Sep 2009

A few days ago I decided to join guide Simon Byron on a morning drive at Mombo. True to form, it was a productive morning and we moved from one sighting to the next as we made our way around the concession. There was very little time when we were not confronted by some or other large mammal or spectacular scene and we saw plenty of buffalo, zebra, wildebeest, lechwe, giraffe and tsessebe as well as lion.

Perhaps my favourite sighting was of the Moporota Pride with a zebra and wildebeest carcass at the Letlaka Hippo Pool floodplains.

By the time we arrived at the sighting, the lions (having killed the two animals in the early hours of the morning) had already mostly eaten their fill. The zebra carcass was largely finished and most of the adult members of the pride lay around with full, swollen bellies. The wildebeest had barely been touched though and this gave the cubs an excellent opportunity to trial all sorts of new skills.

As they climbed and jumped all over the carcass, some of the cubs instinctively practised a suffocating bite to the muzzle and throat, while others ambushed each other using the carcass as cover. Growing tired of the inanimate object some of the cubs later turned their attentions to one of the adult males while a side-striped jackal looked on. Even the jackal was not spared the curiosity of the cubs and it suffered the indignity of being charged by the youngsters on several occasions.

Multi-predator Feeding Frenzy at Mombo (Okavango Delta, Botswana) 13th Jan 2010

We had an unbelievable day recently when the Moporota sub-adult lions decided to attack a buffalo in front of Little Mombo Camp Room 1 and Mombo Camp Room 9.

As the lions took down one of the buffalo, the entire breeding herd turned back and charged at the lions. One of the lions was tossed into the air by the buffalo and in all the chaos the buffalo that had been attacked initially managed to escape. Other lion pride members used this pandemonium however to their benefit and brought down another buffalo - this time inflicting fatal wounds on its hind legs that it could not walk properly any more. The remainder of the buffalo herd kept charging the lions. The lions now took time to revise their tactics though and just kept a safe distance, waiting for the herd to leave the scene. Once they had left, the lions came in for the final kill, claiming their bovine victim.

These lions kept feeding until late in the evening. The noisy arrival of spotted hyaenas at the kill however eventually attracted a different pride of lion with big males (Moporota and the Jao Boys). The sub-adults, realising that they did not stand a chance, upped and fled. The hyaenas also concluded they were no match for the adult males and ran, and we thought it was all over for the night. We were wrong; suddenly a huge three-metre Nile crocodile arrived and started feeding on the carcass! The lions were not happy with the arrival of this prehistoric predator and charged at it. The crocodile fought back and the lions eventually gave up keeping all the meat to themselves, so that we had the incredible sight of lions and crocodile feeding together.

The hyaenas finally got access to the last remains in the early hours of the next morning - breaking bones and feeding on the sinewy bits. By the time the sun was up, all that was left was a few scattered bones and squabbling vultures clearing up the last bits from this feeding frenzy.