Blog: Sightings

Lions Make Eland Kill

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A couple of days ago we received a wonderful surprise when Andreas Liebenberg, a neighbour to the south of us, sent us an email describing how he had followed a pride of lions in the southern part of our traversing area, and stumbled upon something truly special. Andreas and his team followed the pride, which is composed of three lionesses and two cubs, and coincidently covered by our resident coalition of males, the Timbavati Boys. The pride had successfully made a kill and had already polished off the carcass by the time the team had arrived-not unusual. The real surprise was what they had killed, a large eland bull! Eland are the largest of the African antelope and can weigh up to a hefty 900 kilograms. These enormous antelope are incredibly rare throughout the Greater Kruger National Park and the last confirmed sighting of eland in the Timbavati may be as far back as 1995!

The team unfortunately did not manage to see the rest of the eland herd, but did take a photo of the pair of horns from the carcass. Doctor (guide Bateleur Safaris) holds up the horns and is dwarfed by their enormous size. We can only hope to catch a ‘live’ glimpse of these exceptional antelope in the near future!

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