There is something special about the early mornings at Semowi Nature Camp. Before breakfast begins and before the camp is fully awake, animal tracks in Botswana’s soft sand can reveal what happened during the night.
Around the tents, beneath the trees and along the sandy paths, tracks appear overnight. Some are easy to recognize. Others make us stop, look more closely and wonder: who came through camp while we were sleeping?

Reading Animal Tracks in Botswana’s Sand

One morning, tracks appeared in the soft sand near one of our safari tents. They were broad, with the distinctive marks of an animal that had moved slowly through camp during the night. The visitor was a porcupine.
Porcupines are mainly nocturnal, so guests are much more likely to find evidence of them in the morning than to actually see one walking through camp. While everyone is sleeping, they can quietly wander through the bush in search of food.
By sunrise, the animal may be long gone, but its tracks remain. That is one of the pleasures of living close to the wilderness. Sometimes you don’t see the animal itself. Instead, you discover where it walked several hours earlier.

Porcupines can leave distinctive tracks in the soft sand around Semowi during their nighttime wanderings.

Dwarf Mongooses Around the Camp

Other tracks tell a very different story. Much smaller footprints sometimes crisscross the sand around Semowi. These belong to dwarf mongooses, small, quick and highly social animals that live in groups.
Unlike the slow nighttime wanderings of a porcupine, mongoose tracks can look busy. Several animals may have passed through the same area, leaving little trails crossing one another. We also see dwarf mongooses around Semowi during the day. They move quickly through the vegetation and around fallen branches, searching for insects and other small prey. One may suddenly stop and look around while the others continue foraging nearby. Their size makes them easy to overlook, but once you start watching for them, they become fascinating little neighbors.

Dwarf mongooses live in social groups and can sometimes be seen moving through the sandy surroundings at Semowi.

Wildlife Doesn’t Stop When We Go to Sleep

When people imagine wildlife in Botswana, they often think first of elephants, lions, giraffes or a game drive through Moremi. But wildlife isn’t limited to what happens on safari.
At Semowi, we are surrounded by the smaller signs of the Delta too. A footprint in the sand, a sound from the river, a branch disturbed during the night or an unfamiliar trail beside a tent can tell its own story. Some animals are active while we are having breakfast. Others appear around sunset. And many begin moving only after the camp becomes quiet. By the time we wake up, their night is already coming to an end.

Who Walked Past Your Tent Last Night?

One of the nicest things to do in the morning at Semowi is simply to look down. Before footsteps, wind and the activities of the day erase the tracks, the sand can offer a glimpse of what happened overnight. Perhaps a porcupine wandered quietly past. Perhaps a group of dwarf mongooses explored the area. Or perhaps the tracks belong to something else entirely.

You don’t always have to see wildlife to know that it was there.

The sand becomes a diary, written overnight by the animals that share this place with us. By morning, you just have to know where to look. 🐾

Written by Aubrey Moremi, Guest Services at Semowi Nature Camp