On March 2, 2017 Wanderlust Travel Magazine came out with an article noting the top 5 spots on earth for viewing big cats.

Duba Plains Camp (for lion) and Selinda Camp (for leopard) in Botswana, Africa were included. The spots were chosen by Dereck and Beverly Joubert – Emmy award-winning filmmakers and conservationists – who own these safari locations…. so there is a bit of bias… however having been to each of these places I agree with their comments. For lion and leopard these spots are tops. As a frame of reference I have been going on safari for over 20 years and my best was 4 different leopard in 1 day. That was at Mala Mala in South Africa a few years back.

According to Dereck “Duba Plains in the Okavango, Botswana is, in our opinion, the lion capital of the world. I don’t think there’s been a day in the last 10 years where we haven’t gone out and found lions immediately. Lions usually hunt at night, but here they hunt during the day, so we’re able to film it easily.”

Beverly says about Selinda “Sometimes at Selinda we can see seven or eight leopard in a day. What we really like is a time of the year around September when a tree that’s called Kigelia Africana, or the common name sausage tree, comes into bloom with these beautiful burgundy flowers. It attracts everything to come and feed on them, from baboons to monkeys, but also, when the flowers drop, it brings in impala and kudu and other antelope. Leopards have learned, through the period of September and October, to actually lie and wait up in the trees. It is so unique to be able to see a leopard just waiting there. As the impala come in, they leap out of that tree, which is part of a hunt that you would never normally see anywhere else but in this area.”

Ian Proctor
Ultimate Africa Safaris managing director