As a new year starts in the heart of Africa, the rainy season has come to the Okavango Delta in Botswana, and with it begins a season of plenty and the luxury of permanent and abundant water sources. In South Africa’s Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve, a group of rare samango monkeys take advantage of the abundant fruit born by a large Natal fig tree. In Thailand, a group of rhesus macaques have discovered a mango tree, and are busy feeding and stuffing their throat pouches with the fruit.
It is April, and large groups of blacktip and tiger sharks are gathering off the South African Coast. They are waiting for the onset of one of nature’s most spectacular mass migrations: the annual sardine run. Like the cold ocean current that gives rise to the extraordinary numbers of African pilchards and their predators during the Sardine Run, the frigid Benguela current that runs northwards along the arid coastline of Namibia also supports a remarkable diversity of life.
The middle of the year sees the Okavango Delta’s channels flooded and waterholes filled to the brim, even though the rains already stopped around April. At this time of year, the buffalo herds of the Okavango Delta are in prime condition, following the months of plenty after the rainy season. For the Xakanaxa lion pride, they are the preferred prey item, and they are often found hard on the heels of the buffalo. Just as the individual lions in a single pride join forces to ensure the survival of the pride’s members, leafcutter ants also work together for the greater good of their colony.
With the onset of September, the waters of the Okavango begin to recede and the dry season begins to envelop the region in earnest. For many animals, finding food becomes a daily struggle, and many herbivores have to go longer distances in search of good grazing. The Boteti River at the edge of the Makgadikgadi National Park has also been affected by climate change, and while it flowed year-round before the mid-1990s, it has been dry ever since, only discharging seasonal rains into the Makgadikgadi Pans.
November finds the northern hemisphere in the grip of the approaching cold winter-months. In the far North, snow is beginning to blanket the earth and temperatures are dropping uncomfortably below zero. At this time of year, about 1200 polar bears congregate at the shore of the Hudson Bay in Canada, waiting for the sea ice to form that will allow them to go out in pursuit of their main food-source: seals. But recent climate changes are increasingly delaying the sea ice formation, preventing the bears from hunting.