It is Monday, so that means its time for another weekly update from the heart of the Timbavati, and with us now moving into August, we move a month closer to the return of summer. Although the temperatures cooled a little from last week, it was another mild week and it seems at this stage winter will pass us by without us having to dig out the beanies and scarves. As the title suggest, it was a week of elephants, but whilst looking at my photos, it could well have been viewed as a week of diversity as we enjoyed another great array of wildlife that calls the Greater Kruger home.
The elephants were as abundant this week as they have been all year, with loads of herds being seen across the reserve, but much of their activity was focused on the areas around Tanda Tula, with daily visits from the numerous herds as they came to quench their thirsts and cool off at the camp waterhole. With Machaton Dam being pumped in order to provide some water for the animals in the eastern sections, it too began attracting daily herds of elephants. The highlight for me though was the annual homecoming of Apollo to the region. Returning even larger than he was when he left last year, this gentle giant graced us with his presence several times over the course of the week.
The lions were not far behind in terms of their cooperation, and we were again blessed with daily sightings of our resident prides. The River Pride spent a good part of the week within the area, and the pale lioness even brought her two cubs onto the Tanda Tula property for a couple of days before moving them slightly north again. Considering their tiny size, she was moving them over quite some distance, and I wondered if this was perhaps down to her inexperience as a mother?
Regardless of their movements, the two are looking in great shape and probably enjoying exploring more than the banks of the Macahton riverbed! We are still waiting on our first glimpse of the other litter of cubs, but it cannot be long before they all join up. The Sark Breakaways were moving to and fro across our boundary with the Klaserie, but we enjoyed several sightings of the majority of the pride. We bumped into them one afternoon as 11 members made their way towards Impala Dam. I rushed around to tell a colleague that the lions were coming, and that he should abandon his sundowner before they arrived. A minute later they strolled up to the water to drink, but the drinks table that remained sitting on the dam wall became too tempting for the young lions not to go and investigate, and soon the pride gathered around the table trying to figure our whether to go for a Chenin Blanc or a Chardonnay! Eventually one young male simply grabbed a cooler box and ran off into the bush with it before realising that it was not as tasty as it smelt! The next day they found something more substantial and seven members of the pride managed to catch a zebra in the late afternoon that kept them feeding in the area for 24 hours.
Three members of the Mayambula Pride were also seen in the east, but they didn’t get up to much – there was evidence of them having caught a young buffalo at the end of the week, but their tracks headed straight back south, and off of the concession. The Giraffe Pride were reported in the west on a few occasions, but with good lions close to Tanda Tula, we didn’t need to travel far to see them.
I didn’t have the best luck with leopards this week, but that was not necessarily their fault! They were around, but I was usually in the wrong place, or on some other mission. Nyeleti was seen on four occasions this week, with Scotch even finding her near Machaton Dam in the east, the furthest east we have seen her for many, many months. A couple of days later she was found near Tanda Tula in the morning, and in the afternoon she was seen resting up a tree about 400m from camp. A day later she was found drinking at a waterhole to the south of camp; lets hope she continues to be so cooperative over the remainder of the winter. Dzindza was also found a couple of times during the week, and I managed to spend some time with her one afternoon as she was on the prowl; she really has come a long way in terms of her confidence around us, and is now starting to give us great sightings.
For a change, the leopards were not the only spots seen this week, and we got to enjoy a stunning male cheetah that spent a morning around Cheetah Plains – after all my years in the bush, this is probably only third or fourth time I have seen a cheetah there. It was a relaxed male that pops into our area from time to time, but tends to spend most of his time in the far western sections of Klaserie. He was walking around scent-marking after he rose from his perch atop a termite mound – hopefully this means he is planning on visiting us a little more regularly!
We rounded off the Super Seven this week with a couple of sightings of a pack of nine wild dogs. I had tried to see them in the west one afternoon after they were located resting off our access road, but they appeared to have moved…it was thus only mildly frustrating to hear that later in the afternoon they were found not 100m from where I had been checking! The next day they moved a little further east, and eventually crossed onto Nkhari where we got to enjoy a morning with them as they harassed a large breeding herd of buffalo. Our pack in the east appear to have eventually moved the pups from the den, as their visits to our area have become far less frequent, indicating to me that the pups are now on the move, and they have taken them deeper into the Timabvati. Now we need to wait for them to bring the pups to visit us, but with the lions being so active, they may opt to steer clear of the area whilst the pups are still so small.
As if the Super Seven wasn’t enough, we rounded off the week with a sighting of a pangolin in the central part of the concession – we even got to see the critter moving for a bit, but once he found some grassy cover to hide in, he almost disappeared from view!
Together with sightings of Africa wild cat (not Nova!), the large herd of buffalo, jackals, baboons, zebras, giraffe, wildebeest and more, it turned out to be a rather productive week! Lets see if the next week can keep up this good form!
Until next time!
Cheers
Chad
