Typical, I called this winter out for not being “cold”, and it decided to remind me that it was far from over, and that there was still time for me to dig out the beanie and gloves! Although the daytime temperatures remained perfect, there were a few mornings this week where the mercury was sitting in single digits centigrade as we headed out for our morning drives, but with hot water bottles and blankets at the ready, we were able to stave off the cold until the sun warmed us up later in the morning.
This week belonged to the lions, and the Sark Breakaways in particular. They spent the entire week on Nkhari within our central regions and gave us great daily sightings of the cubs. This was bittersweet, as it appears as though they lost a cub during the week? At the end of last week, five cubs stayed hidden at a den and one went following the pride for a couple of days, but when we caught up with them again on a giraffe kill, only five of the six cubs were present. Despite returning to the old den sight later in the week, there was no miraculous return of the missing cub, and with the mothers not seeming particularly concerned about his/her whereabouts, it appears as though it is sadly no longer with us. As mentioned, the pride got a much needed meal when they were found with a large adult female giraffe near Nkhari Homestead one morning. I arrived expecting to see a small group of adult lions with the cubs, and a load of meat left on the carcass, but instead we found very little meat, and a load of lions.
In the afternoon, with the pride once more gathered around the carcass, we got to count nineteen members. This was interesting, as I mentioned last week that the pride were now up to eighteen members, and they had lost a cub since I made this statement! I didn’t trust Eric’s counting, so I counted myself, and sure enough, there were nineteen lions; five cubs, four subadults and ten adults. This was the odd part, as the pride only had eight adults in their makeup! Somehow, one young male and another female had arrived at the giraffe kill and were allowed to feed and rest with the pride without any issues, even with the five young cubs around! I am waiting on confirmation, but it was the same single young male we saw last week that I assumed was a Mayambula Pride member. Perhaps without the pride males around,and loads of food for all, the rest of the pride didn’t think it was worth getting involved in a fight with these strange lions. Three Vuyela males did pitch up the next day and sent the pride moving off to the west. They made a return the next day, and we had a couple of wonderful days with the pride and their playful cubs to close off the week.
The River Pride made a couple of appearances this week, and it appears as though the two lionesses with the new cubs have once more moved their den into our concession, but at the moment, the cubs have yet to be brought out of hiding for us to enjoy. The Vuyela males were a little scarce this week, but they were found on most days of the week. We began the week tracking down a male with the remains of a waterbuck kill in the thickets of the Nhlaralumi; he eventually left it to the hyenas and moved off. The Giraffe Pride were reported in the west a couple of times this week, but with such good lion viewing close to Tanda Tula, we didn’t need ot make the trip west.
We were lucky that we also got to enjoy good leopards in the central parts this week, and despite there being several different leopard kills reported in the west, we had enough going on close to camp that we didn’t need to venture that far to see some spots. I think there were four or five different kills reported over a couple of days in the west; Nkaya Dam female and her cub, Ntsongwaan male with a warthog that was eventually taken by another male, two different unknown females with impala kills, and then tragically, another new face in the area that had a kill, but upon following up the next day, the guides found a skittish male leopard in the area, and her dead cub at the base of the tree that housed the kill.
To the east, the week started with Nyeleti still with her impala kill near Nkhari, and she was found later in the week with another impala kill safely hoisted up a tree that kept her in the area for a few days. Tristan found N’weti with an impala kill one morning, and the next morning Pezulu was up in the tree feeding on the kill, but there was no sign of N’weti? I am not sure if this means that he has reached independence and simply came and stole the kill from mom, or if she was just not in the mood for sharing and moved off after collecting him? The old kinky-tailed female leopard that made herself at home in the area a few months ago returned, and she was seen walking through camp one evening, whilst a young male was also seen in close proximity to the camp. Our guests also saw a leopard strolling along the banks of the Nhlaralumi opposite their safari suite whilst they were relaxing in the pool before lunch!
It wasn’t only the leopards that were visiting camp this week – after a frustrating week of searching for wild dogs without success, the best viewing came right in front of (and inside!) camp! Twenty members of the pack were found heading towards Machaton Dam late one afternoon, and they continued towards camp where they found the large herd of impalas and set off chasing them! Monique heard a noise outside our house and looked out the door to see a wild dog ripping into an impala in our garden! It was soon joined by a hyena that stole the kill from the wild dog…needless to say that the African wild cat was not so excited by this, and Nova spent he afternoon hiding under the bed! A second impala was killed on our access road, and if I am not mistaken, there was another one taken in front of the spa! A lucky impala evaded the wild dogs but ended up going for a swim in the pool – fortunately Tristan and Eben were around to help safely get it out of the pool. Scotch also had a view of the wild dogs earlier in the week when a few members of the pack went running past where Pezulu had his mom’s impala kill.
Whilst there were no cheetahs this week, it was a week of aardvark sightings! Hearing that the guides around Plains Camp had seen four sightings during the week, we were soon joining the party! One evening two separate aardvarks were radioed in, and the next night Scotch and Jack managed to find one of their own. The cold nights no doubt had an effect on drawing these very nocturnal creatures out a little earlier. This was good news, as the week started with the report of the Nkhari male leopard feasting on an aardvark kill just north of our boundary – so, despite losing one, it appears as though there are still a good number of these guys and gals running around at night.
The buffalo herd that had been around for two weeks spent the first part of the week around the central waterholes before moving north – they luckily made a return towards impala dam as the week drew to a close. This waterhole continued to draw in the game, and late mornings usually resulted in good game viewing around the dam. The zebras and giraffes continue to show themselves, and after a week of low numbers, it appears as though the elephants are making a return – whilst preparing this blog, I have heard the constant vocalisations of elephants coming from the camp’s waterhole!
There were good ostrich sightings this week, with several males and a couple of females hanging around. Towards the end of the week, the trio that we see on the open areas of the east were down to only two ostriches – I am hoping that the absence of the second female could mean that she is sitting on a nest somewhere!
I am going to be heading on some leave for the next couple of weeks, but will be back towards the end of the month to share with you all of the amazing things that I will no doubt have missed…aardvarks, cheetahs and surely the first sighting of the new River Pride cubs? These things always happen when I am away!
Until next time!
Cheers
Chad
