As we progressed from safari camp to safari camp, the animals got scarcer and harder to find. For that reason, our guides employed more investigative methods for finding the wildlife. One method was looking for animal tracks along the roads to follow or just to determine what animals might be in the area. They also pointed out other signs that gave them clues about animals in certain locations.

This first track is a hyena track. Again, the hyena is the second largest carnivore in Africa, so this is a very large paw print. There’s nothing here for scale, but this print is probably five or six inches across. I wouldn’t want to run into the hyena that made this track on a dark night…

This is a pair of lion tracks. These were also rather large tracks. I like this photo of Vicky’s as she got two prints in the photo.

This leopard track is much harder to see but it’s right in the middle of the photo. You might notice that on the hyena track, you could see the nails on the hyena’s print. But there are no such nail marks on the leopard print. That’s one of the ways you can tell the difference between these two animal’s prints.

Don’t get too discouraged by trying to determine these animal prints as it wasn’t easy. But here’s a “softball” for you: the elephant print.

Our guides would point out other signs for us to see and realize that we might see a certain animal. In the last photo, you can see the Lufupa River in the background and trails coming from the river. Our guide called these deep and wide trails, “Hippo Highways”. The hippos come out of the water at night to feed, sometimes feeding quite a ways from the river. They always go back to the river on the same trail that they came out of the river.