A December to remember at Tanda Tula!
Hello everyone, and I trust that you all had a great New Year, and a Blessed festive season – welcome to the first blog of 2025! Despite it being a new year, we are kicking off by having a quick roundup of the happenings that helped us bring 2024 to an end.
The good rains that fell in November were soon undone by an unusually hot spell in South Africa, and the Greater Kruger was not spared from this two-week heatwave. The grass withered, the pans and waterholes dried up, and for the second half of the month, it looked like we were driving around in an autumnal landscape. This was a tough time for the animals, especially the newborn impala lambs (that eventually arrived in the first weeks of December), the wildebeest calves and the many new elephant babies that joined our world. The heat was eventually broken in the middle of the month, when we received a welcome, but somewhat pitiful 4mm of rain. The closing period of the month saw only an additional 5mm of rainfall – so far below the monthly average of 102mm!
Although these conditions were tough for the animals, it made for some fantastic game viewing for the guests that visited us over the festive period – and our waterhole was a particular hive of activity; whilst setting up a Christmas dinner, the staff enjoyed elephant, rhino and a pride of lions at the camp waterhole! This level of activity was also seen at the last remaining bodies of water, making for some easy guiding. I only drove guests in the second half of the month, but most of them got to enjoy not just great sightings of the Big 5, but also of the Super 7 – it was a fantastic way to end 2024!
Lion Pride Dominance Shift
The lions once again continued to dominate our sightings in the central Timbavati, but this month saw a rather interesting shift in dynamics. The last couple of months saw the River Pride becoming a little less evident, and this was not helped but the injury to the oldest River Pride lioness. Amazingly, she managed to rally and went from being immobile to now walking around with the pride, albeit with some discomfort. The pride appears to have moved east, with only the occasional visit to our concession. Their absence led to the Sark Breakaway pride pushing deeper and deeper into the Timbavati and centring their activities around Tanda Tula Safari Camp – great for us, not so great for the wildebeest and zebra populations! The pride also had a buffalo kill this month. The Mayambula Pride remained absent, and the Giraffe Pride seemed to be settling a little, with the Birmingham Breakaway males settling as pride males – I made one journey to the west to see one of these males feasting on an unusual meal; a stillborn baby elephant.
Spotted Beauties
December was a good month for spots – both the slender and speedy and the rosetted ones! We had four different cheetahs passing through the area this month; a mother and her almost-adult daughter, a single young female and then the Xiwumu male. He provided the best sightings, and Formen was watching him on the prowl one morning when he charged off and caught a baby impala on Tortillis Plains. A few days later he repeated this show for some of the guides when he caught a baby wildebeest on a large clearing on Nkhari. Hopefully, this is a sign of things to come this summer.
With the bush drying up, and being quite hot, the conditions were good for leopard viewing – less cover allowed us to spot several individuals, and in the late mornings, we were often able to find them seeking shelter up a shady marula tree somewhere. After a few weeks of obscurity, Nyeleti pitched up on our way back from Bush Breakfast, and we later found her with a warthog kill near camp. Dzindza remained our most seen cat, with N’weti also being more visible this month. Rihati – although still a bit shy – seems to slowly becoming more accepting of the vehicles, and looks like she might give us some better quality viewing in the coming year. In the west, Nkaya Dam female seems to have taken over from Sunset female, and is now frequently seen in Sunset’s old territory; her daughter is also becoming quite comfortable with the vehicles, and is showing the makings of a future star!
Baby Giants
We had a great month of elephant viewing – with the dryness, and lack of water, our camp waterhole became a hotspot for elephants. We also welcomed more new babies to the world; one encounter was most memorable when a brand new calf (the placenta was still hanging out of the mother) wandered right up to my vehicle trying to nurse from it!
Painted Wolves
Although they were not the most cooperative during the spring, the arrival of summer has brought more regular wild dog viewing, and the northern pack spent two prolonged periods within our concession, giving our guests some memorable viewing; the pack would be found hunting in the mornings, and with the number of impala lambs around, it didn’t take long for the pack to have success – a great demonstration of why they are Africa’s most efficient predator.
Everything Else
In general, the month was full of good game viewing, be it the herds of zebras and giraffes that were scattered across the savannah, the herd of buffalo that grazed through the area before leaving the cantankerous bulls behind, or the curious families of black-backed jackals and their growing pups. We saw the arrival of European rollers, and the continued calls of the woodland kingfishers reminded us that, despite it getting drier, we were still in the middle of summer.
January promises to be a wetter month, so we look forward to welcoming the return of the verdant shades to the stunning landscapes of the Timbavati.
We will be back with weekly updates on our social media pages, and some more great stories from the bush.
Until next time, cheers!
Chad
