Hello everyone, and thanks for checking back in to the Tanda Tula blog! I have been back at work for a little over a week, and it has been a wonderfully enjoyable time – despite it being the middle of winter following the winter solstice, daytime temperatures remained in the mid 20s (Celsius!), leading to a host of activities at the few remaining waterholes. Passing the few dams in the late morning or early afternoon was a guarantee of some good viewing as herds of zebras, elephants, rhinos, buffalos, impalas, giraffes and wildebeest made their way to quench their thirst. Our camp waterhole saw it briefly host a single male hippo, but for another week saw daily visits from our elephant friends. It was a week that made me realise why I always enjoy winters in the Timbavati!
It wasn’t just at the waterholes that there was action though! Our drives delivered some great sightings throughout the week. Our lions were strangely quiet this week, at least the large prides, and specifically the River Pride. We saw almost no sign of them for the entire week, but late in the week it was discovered that they had been on a buffalo kill some distance north of our concession. The Vuyela males remained quiet for most the week, at least from a roaring-point-of-view. Their lack of roars however belies the other activies they got up to over the past two weeks. There were reports of three Vuyela males way in the south of the reserve last weekend, but when they pitched up on our western traversing area, it was seen that it was not the Vuyelas, but the Birmingham Breakaway males. Why were they so far south west of the Mayambula Pride? That answer came the next day when we found a single Mayambula female mating with a Vuyela male in the heart of their territory. It appears, at least on the surface, that the Vuyelas have taken over the Mayambua Pride! This spells disaster for the new cubs, but could have some very positive long-term consequences, with the likely scenario being that the Mayambula pride start pushing deeper into our concession. Time will tell how this plays out, but for now, it seems as though the Vuyela reign is growing.
The leopard highlight though was a trip to the west to see Nkaya Dam female and her cub with a duiker kill – it was my first sighting of the young leopard, and both mom and cub are showing some good promise to provide some good game viewing over the coming months. She is still a bit nervous, but with only one vehicle viewing her at a time, she is most relaxed, and gave us a great show!
The Sark Breakaways were absent until the end of the week when they reappeared with a wildebeest kill, and spent the closing days of the week in the area. The Giraffe Pride was all but absent this week.
The lack of lions mean that the leopards were fairly good; we had a couple of sighting of a young male that was first seen stealing a kill from Rihati close to camp; a week later we got him during the day, but he was somewhat shy. The Xiwumbana male began the week with a kill, meaning he has recovered well from his foot injury. Sadly the Mayambula pride stole his kill before disappearing to the east, clearing running from the Vuyelas. Nyeleti spent the day close to Tanda Tula during the week, and was seen walking through camp one exciting evening – it began with the wild dogs killing an impala by the waterhole, only to have a River lioness arrive and steal it, and then she ended up losing the kill to the hyenas! Nyeleti clearly decided it was best to move on out of the area!
The wild dogs continued to visit us daily, but I only caught up with them a couple of times – with the full moon, it appears as though they became quite nocturnal in their hunting, meaning that despite finding their tracks early in the morning, they were already back at the den by the time we got to the eastern boundary!
The elephants were out in force, and showed themselves in good numbers throughout the week – it is always a joy spending time with these gentle giants.
It was also a good week for buffalos with a herd of 200-odd, as well as 500-plus members moving through the area. The smaller herd spent the entire week in our central areas, giving us good daily sightings of these mega herbivores.
We had a week full of good general game too, with plenty of zebras, wildebeest and giraffe being seen, as well as daily sightings of ostriches, all in all rounding off a great week of game viewing – I cannot wait for next week!
Until next time!
Cheers
Chad
