Normally, I begin by commenting that another week has passed, but in a blink of an eye we are now a week into the month of May! Where has this year gone??? Realising this makes it far less surprising that the bush is starting to look drier by the day; this stems from the fact that aside from us edging closer to winter, it has also been another rather warm one here. The odd very chilly morning, but in general it was a warm week that still saw our guests taking to the pool most afternoons, and why not! With a constant stream of animals visiting the Tanda Tula Safari Camp waterhole, there was always something to watch. Machaton Dam has dried completely now, bringing the game deeper into our concession, but it is not the only waterhole facing the same fate. I headed out west one afternoon and was most surprised by how low the water was in all of the dams. It will be an interesting winter, but with the bush still looking in good shape, the animals are unlikely to be short on food, only will have to travel a little further to get to water.
This reliance on limited water points brought a surprising end to a buffalo in the latter part of the week. We had another good week with lions; the Vuyela males again proved a constant presence, with all five males being in the area around Tanda Tula one evening. Four of the “brothers” moved together whilst the fifth spent a couple of days in the company of an as-yet-unidentified lioness, mating with her quite regularly. I don’t want to speculate on her origins, but another pride of uncertain origins had pitched up to the north-west of camp one evening; nine lions in total, definitely not the Sark Breakaways (as we were sitting with them further west in our concession). The pride made a hasty retreat to the west, but one unknown lioness was with the Vuyela male for three days before she disappeared. The last time an unknown lioness was seen mating with them was when an original Sark Pride lioness was seen mating to the east of camp. Could this be a return from one of these females, or could it be a portion of the so-called “River Pride” in the Klaserie? We await further confirmation, but our colleagues talk of a pride of up to 14 members having been seen on our western boundary a few times in the last couple of months. This could add an interesting mix to our lion dynamics in the area. And with the 15 members of the Mayambula Pride also making another visit to our central region this week, it appears as though the dry conditions are going to have an impact on where these lions move.
The Queens of movement this week were no doubt the actual River Pride; three of lionesses started off the week in the south, and then went AWOL. Tracks on our northern boundary one day was followed by them being located some distance to the north of us. The next day however, their tracks came all the way south (through the area where the unknown pride had been the day before). I was hoping this would lead the trackers to finding this new pride, but it resulted in three River lionesses with their cubs in tow. The cubs were bearing the brunt of this movement – from where we saw the tracks the morning before, they had covered close to 20km – and were looking in very poor condition. Bite marks, hip bones protruding through their skinny bodies, things were not looking good for them. To make matters worse, they were accompanied by two Vuyela males. The reason that this was a bad thing was demonstrated that evening when the ladies caught a young zebra foal, but immediately lost their prize to the two males. Fortunately, the cubs were allowed to feed for longer than the lionesses, giving them a much-needed meal. The next morning brought more good news for the pride when they were found with a sub-adult giraffe kill, and this time all members got food. We saw the eight of them resting off their enormous bellies in the Nhlaralumi Riverbed the next morning, not looking like they had room to eat anymore. But nature being nature, is always full of surprises, and in the afternoon when the guides followed up, they found the lions tucking in to a freshly killed buffalo! The poor buffalo was walking towards a nearby pan to cool off on a hot day, and unwittingly walked straight into the lions that weren’t going to let the opportunity pass them by.
Buffalos and elephants at waterholes became a standard start to the afternoon drives, with most water points playing host to some of these large herbivores – and the camp dam was no exception! The elephants once again remained very active in the area and were seen drinking at the dam every day. Even out on drive we were spoilt with sightings of breeding herds every drive. The buffalo bulls made up most of the buffalo sightings, but the large herd of several hundred members did move through the western sections this week. It is quite a sight to see the dust cloud being kicked up by this big herd – a sight I haven’t seen for many years!
The zebras seem to have spread themselves out over the past week, and whilst they are still seen in good numbers, they were not as evident as the weeks past. The impalas began their rutting behaviour to a far greater degree this week, and this will play nicely into the hands of the leopards. Both Nyeleti and N’weti were seen with impala kills this week, and we got to catch up with N’weti’s growing boy again when they spent a couple of days on their kill in the east. The large Xiwumbana male leopard popped up onto the road when I was heading back to camp one evening, and later passed the camp waterhole whilst we were having dinner. Ruhati female ended the week with a kill of her own to the north of camp, to help round off a good week of big cat viewing.
That, is all we had time to fit into our week! Enjoy the photos, and we will catch up again soon.
Until next time!
Cheers
Chad
