Greetings, and a happy Monday to all of you! Welcome back to a recap of what was another great week of game viewing here at Tanda Tula Safari Camp. The month of August continued to be a very warm one, but before the daytime temperatures could make us think that spring was here, the crisp mornings served as a daily reminder that we are still a few weeks away from saying good bye to the cold for this year. A few more flowering tree wisterias joined the early-bloomers, and several Long-tailed Cassias have exploded into full-flower mode! The Red Bush-willows, whilst not as extravagant with their flowers, also joined the fray of flowering species. I also saw the first Yellow-billed Kite of the season – usually the first of the migratory birds to arrive in this part of the Greater Kruger Park.
As you can tell from the thumbnail and feature images, it was a week full of lion cubs, with the River Pride providing loads of stunning sightings for us around Machaton Dam. After a couple of frustrating sightings last week, we eventually got our first real sightings of the three newest members, and with them denning just to the east of camp in the Machaton Riverbed near Machaton Dam, we got to see them most days this week. The five youngsters are too cute for words, and with the two slightly older cubs bring their total litter to five balls of fur. After digesting a large meal, it was wonderful to watch the pride frolicking around the dam early one morning and seeing all eleven members of the pride getting involved in the playful antics.
The Vuyela males began the week without much activity, and only one male briefly spent time with the River Pride. Tracks indicated that they were moving into Mayambula territory more and more, and a couple of males spent three days mating with a lioness from the Klaserie’s so-called River Pride. This is the third time we have seen this particular female mating with the Vuyela males, but it doesn’t appear as though the males have done anything more to take control of this pride. As a pride known for killing elephants, I am putting my money on the fact that they may have been the lions that attacked and severely injured a rhino cow during the previous week. Despite the vets best efforts, the poor rhino succumbed to the wounds, and this happened to be no more than 500m from where the males where on honeymoon. After the lioness moved off, four males spent three days finishing off the rhino carcass before leaving the scraps to the vultures.
The Sark Breakaway Pride sadly seem to have lost another cub, and they only have four of their newest litter remaining. The pride showed up a couple of times around Nkhari, and we spent an afternoon watching them on the prowl; one lioness then got up and ran across a clearing and we followed trying to determine what had caught her attention.
We sat for several minutes before we heard the unmistakable sound of mating leopards! Driving around to the other side of the river bed, we eventually got their audio again and found the pair, but the sighting was very short-lived, as the Sark Breakaway lions soon arrived on the scene and sent the mating pair running off. Not wanting to put them at a disadvantage at night, we left them in peace. Although we saw the male was the impressive Xiwumbane male, I sadly never got a good enough look at the female.
My initial thought was that it was Nyeleti as she was walking far and wide, scent-marking and calling as she went – usually an indication that she is ready to mate, but when she was found the next day not far from where the mating pair had been glimpsed, we realised it wasn’t her. We saw Nyeleti quite often this week; a couple of times out and about on drive, and then she spent two days feasting on a duiker kill not 200m from the camp dam. N’weti female was also wonderfully active this week, and we caught up with her on three occasions, and on each time she spoilt us by spending time up in a tree. On the last occasion, she was finishing off the remains of an impala that she had caught, but sadly most of it had been scavenged by the hyenas. Dzindza was only seen once this week.
On the subject of hyenas, the central den site is becoming a great den to spend time at, and there are now six cubs in three separate littles utilising the den. The smallest cannot be more than 6-weeks old and are themselves incredibly cute. They do however bear the brunt of the overly-jubilant play of the older cubs.
Our pack of wild dogs in the east did not show themselves once this week, with the reason being that the pups are now mobile enough to begin moving with the pack, and they have moved further north to an area of lower lion densities. There was a pack of 8 that spent a couple of days in the west, and even showed up briefly on Nkhari. I made the long trip west, but it was well worth it as we followed the pack on the hunt and caught up with them moments after they had caught a steenbuck – within a minute there was almost nothing left!
The elephants continued to be incredibly active around Tanda Tula; every day herds can be seen visiting the waterhole multiple times a day. A year ago there was still moisture in the grass they were eating, but this year it is too dry for them, and it is quite something to see the impact they are having on the vegetation in the central parts of the Timbavati.
We were once again left with only a few groups of buffalo bulls this week, and the large herd that graced us with their presence last week did not return from their journey north. The general game was a little quiet this week (no doubt due to the lions activity of late), but one afternoon spent in the south-east towards Kruger revealed that where most of our zebras had moved to, and a walk around Nkhari saw a close to 20 giraffes scattered around the open clearing in the middle of the property.
And that folks, is that! Be sure to check back next week to see what else has been happening at Tanda Tula
Until next time!
Cheers
Chad
