An unfiltered look at the wild, just before the summer rains begin to stir.
Our last official month of winter for 2025 felt anything but wintery! It was a warm one, and our short, mild winter came to a very quick end as the mercury rose to the mid-30s Celsius. All but the largest natural pans dried rapidly with the lengthening days, and the permanent waterholes started becoming more productive, including the waterhole at Tanda Tula Safari Camp that welcomed daily visits from elephants, impalas, warthogs, zebras and buffalos.
The large knobthorn trees “Senegalia nigrescens” continued to flower, and they were joined by the first eager long-tailed cassias “Cassia abbreviata beareana” blossoming their bright yellow, nectar-rich flowers. Our first summer migrants arrived in the form of red-breasted swallows, yellow-billed kites and Wahlberg’s eagles, and as Spring pushes on, more and more will arrive. Before you know it, summer will be here in all its beauty.
August is a month that never fails to disappoint when it comes to game viewing, and this year was no exception. Sit back and enjoy a little recap of what the guests visiting this piece if the Greater Kruger Park got to enjoy over the past few weeks.
A Lost Soul
For many of the guides in the Timbavati, the highlight of the month came not from our four-legged brethren, but rather a two-legged (or occasionally one) fellow that made a surprising, and somewhat prolonged visit. I was office bound when a message popped up on the reserve’s birding Whatsapp group, asking how common flamingos were in the area. Having seen exactly zero in 18 years, I was somewhat envious that a guide had seen one that morning. It soon became clear that it was Tristan that had found it, and it was sitting only a couple of miles away at Machaton Dam! I grabbed a few staff and rushed out to see it before it flew off to wherever it was on its way to. I was thus pleasantly surprised to hear that it was still around the next day. And the next. And the next. This greater flamingo was as chilled as anything, allowing me some wonderful opportunities to view and photograph it, and just as I was beginning to think it might become a permanent fixture in the Timbavati, it went from being a flamingo, to a flamin-gone, and he disappeared. Still, it was a sighting I will not forget in a hurry!
Elephant Killers
Scotch might argue with my earlier statement that the flamingo was the most memorable sighting of the month. The only reason for this was that Scotch saw the unbelievable sighting of a portion of the Sark Breakaway Pride taking down a lost, young elephant! While we had seen this pride attempting to stalk a herd of elephants before, with protective elephant cows around, the pride stood no chance. However, on a warm afternoon, a lost elephant calf was running around between elephant herds looking for his natal group. It was not his day, as in his search he ran straight into nine members of the Sark Breakaways, and they were not going let this opportunity pass them by and soon dispatched of the elephant. It was an unexpected meal that kept them going for a couple of days.
They weren’t the only ones eating elephants this month. A sickly elephant cow passed away in the dead of night, and a couple of days later the sound of hyenas feeding drew the River Pride into the area where they came across a free bonus meal. I was worried that they were in the heart of Sark Breakaway territory, and that when the large pride eventually found them, it would be trouble. As it turned out, it was the small Mawondane Pride that were drawn to the stench and displaced the River Pride. A day later three young Sark Breakaway males arrived at the carcass, but whether they were not interested in week old meat or got chased off themselves is unknown, but the Mawondane Pride eventually returned as they weren’t going to pass on a free meal.
A Family Reunion?
The Mawondane males are looking good, and their sister is still moving with them further to the north – this was the first time they had been so far south in a few months, but with the Sark Breakaways pushing south, a vacuum was left that was soon filled. Interestingly, a new pride of two lionesses was seen with the Nkombo males earlier in the month, and whilst not confirmed, there is some evidence to suggest that these females could be the missing the members of the Mawondane Pride that first appeared in 2023. The single Mawondane female will have tough life once her brothers move off on their own, and it would be a godsend if she could reunite with her lost relatives and have the stability of a pride to help her hunt and raise cubs. This is likely a pipedream, but it’s always nice to think positively about how life will fare for our big cats!
Unsettled, but Efficient
The month was an unsettled one for the lions that have been a constant presence of so many months in the area. Following the infanticide of two of their cubs last month, the pride remained very unsettled in the area, and walked over great distances, mostly in various fragments of their 16-member pride. Late in the month, they kept disappearing south over our boundary, and there is a concern that this movement will bring them into contact with the Birmingham Breakaway males and the Giraffe Pride.
When they weren’t moving all over the show, they showed that they remain a hunting force second to none. They once again dispatched of a large buffalo bull in the middle of the day, and with 16 mouths to feed, succeeded in finish the meal in its entirety in less than 24 hours. That is some eating!
Living Up to Their Name
Although it is not why they got their name, the Giraffe Pride took a liking to the tallest of all animals this month, being found with two large giraffe kills that provided for fat-bellies and good viewing for several days at a time. It also gave us a chance to appreciate the potential this pride has – with nine lionesses and five pride males, they have the makings of a super-pride as soon as all the mating from the past few months leads to results!
A Slow Return
We have been waiting for months for the Mayambula Pride to return to their old haunts, as they usually do when they have new cubs. This month we began seeing signs of the pride more frequently and were treated to several sightings of the pride in the east, including some time spent with their older cubs. Steven was lucky enough to see a lioness moving some small cubs to a new den one morning, and this could explain why their tracks are criss-crossing the roads in this wilderness area. They also sit in the position where they could become a super-pride real soon – they too have as many as nine females and five pride males, and that has a great deal of reproductive potential!
Pushing On
The last of our prides had a quieter month, spending a fair portion of it beyond our borders, but they did return a handful of times. During an extended period in the area towards the end of the month, they came across the dead elephant that did their bellies well. They had a couple of smaller meals during the month that continued to aid in the growth and development of the young sub-adults. They continue to improve in their hunting, and this is having a noticeable impact on general health, and the pride is faring much better than they were a few months back.
New Kid on the Block…But it’s Not All Good News
Early in August I responded to a sighting of a relaxed male leopard in the west and arrived expecting it to be Mondzweni who shows up from time to time. It did not take long to see that this was not Mondzweni; rather it was a large but much younger male named Xivati. Until that moment, I had only seen the occasional post about him on Instagram. Despite not knowing his origins, he clearly came from an area where he encountered vehicles as a cub as he is as relaxed as any leopard we have in the area. He settled on a mound in the setting sun, and he immediately endeared himself to me – there is always something special about seeing a new leopard, especially one as relaxed as this.
The next morning, Xivati was found in the same place – this seemed strange. He had arrived in the area where Nkaya Dam female and her daughter, Rhulani, had a duiker kill the morning before, but surely that couldn’t feed three leopards? The shocking reality was soon revealed to the guides in the sighting when a hyena approached; Xivati got up, grabbed a carcass hidden in the thicket and shot up a nearby tree. The carcass was not one anyone expected. It was Rhulani. He had come in – and for reasons we can only guess at – and killed the almost independent daughter of Nkaya Dam female. While I didn’t spend too much in her presence over the past 19 months, it was still extremely saddening to hear of her demise. Nature is nature, and this showed itself when only a few days later Nkaya Dam female was found mating with Xivati. After several days, she was still throwing herself at the leopard that had killed her daughter, but he was exhausted and ignored her advances. If his ploy worked, she could be having a new litter of cubs in the coming months, and hopefully he will be around long enough to ensure no similar infanticide happens under his watch.
Later in the month, we ended with a sighting of Xivati with an impala kill much further east than he had been seen before – it will be interesting to see how much further east into the central regions he pushes over the coming months, but it is wonderful to have a relaxed male leopard in the area again!
Leopards Come Out of Hiding
Whether it was due to the thinning out of the bush, or the fact that the Sark Breakaway Pride were less active in the central regions I am not sure, but a likely combination of these factors led to far more leopard sightings this month than we have been having of late.
Nyeleti spent three days with an impala kill in the north – sadly she did not have a cub with her, which leads us to suspect that she has lost her latest cub. This could explain her general absence over the past while.
Rihati female is settling in the area to the south of Tanda Tula very nicely, and we are seeing more and more of her. What is particularly encouraging is that she seems to be getting more relaxed with the vehicles. I spent a recent morning following her as she searched for a male, and she allowed us to follow her in a far more comfortable manner than I have seen before. We also found her mating with a very skittish male one evening – sadly he moved off into the thickets and she followed behind.
N’weti made a couple of appearances too as the month drew to a close. She has been an enigma of late, with only the odd sighting. She should be having cubs soon – it has been over a year since her last cub reached independence, and it is unusual for a female to go so long without falling pregnant again.
Puppies!
Although our wild dog viewing was a little on the quiet side for most of the month, when they did arrive, they spoilt us. Most sightings for the month were of a pack of five members that were seen in the central regions in the second half of the month.
The highlight though was when a pack from the Klaserie moved into our traversing area with their 11 pups! The pack appeared for in the Timbavati with the pups earlier in the month, but tragedy struck on their first night when the Giraffe Pride found the pride and killed one of the pups. Fortunately, that was the lone casualty, and the remaining pups are growing by the week. They are moving more with the pack now, so we hope to catch up with them and their antics more frequently over the coming months.
Hyena Happenings
It is always good to spend time with these underrated and often misunderstood predators – luckily, we got to do just that this month; from hyenas cooling down in the local waterholes, to hyenas finishing up after the lions were done with their kills. We had activity at a couple of the den sites (including some new cubs that I am still waiting to see!), and when out leopards had kills hoisted safely into trees, the hyenas were always close by, waiting for the scraps – often with entertaining antics when the scraps eventually fell to the floor! Time spent with hyenas is always time well spent!
Parades and Obstinacies
Although you might be more familiar with them simply as “herds”, the species-specific collective nouns for elephants and buffalos are known as parades and obstinacies respectively! We were inundated with parades of elephants through the month, with a great deal of activity centring on the green banks of the Nhlaralumi Riverbed, as well as the waterholes across the reserve.
We had regular visits to the Tanda Tula waterhole by an obstinacy of buffalo bulls – the lions only hassled them once this month in and around camp, so without that pressure to move to safety, they spent most of the month close to us. Larger herds were not too common this month, but we did have the massive herd of 700-plus members moving through the western sectors a couple of times. In the east, only a smaller herd made an appearance this month.
Feathered Friends
No safari is complete without stopping to appreciate the omnipresent avifauna that abounds in the Timbavati. Although the flamingo stole the show, we enjoyed an array of great bird sightings this month, from our daytime-active pearl-spotted owlets (a treat during winter!) to the resident ostriches. The females haven’t been seen as regularly, which leads us to believe that they are sitting on a nest somewhere in the area.
We found a martial eagle that had a fresh duiker kill; endangered southern ground hornbills; saddle-billed storks and a. Host of waterbirds at the large dam, and regular sightings of the world’s heaviest flying bird – the kori bustard. They all added to the safari experience this month.
The Best of the Rest
Just as the feathered friends add so much, a safari would not be complete without the other supporting cast. In fact, some would argue that the world’s tallest animal is indeed one of the leading actors out here! With knobthorns flowering, there were many giraffe sightings to be had in the Timbavati this month, with some groups easily numbering 20-30 animals.
The golden lighting of winter brought even greater beauty to the likes of the kudu and waterbuck bulls in the region – two of the largest antelopes found in the Greater Kruger.
The golden glow also added a touch of softness to not-everyone’s-favourite animal – a decent sized African rock python that we found swimming in a waterhole one afternoon. It was the first large python I had seen in some time and made up for missing a sighting of one earlier in the day that had moved on before we could see it!
And that folks, is a wrap for August. We can now look forward to seeing what the first official month of spring has to bring, so be sure to check back again next month for all the happenings here at Tanda Tula!
All the best
Chad
