Rangers Report July 2015

by | Aug 17, 2015 | Rangers Reports | 1 comment

What a very exiting month we had in the bush! From day one we had a lot of awesome sightings and it just got better as the month went on. We had a wonderful sighting of a female cheetah, moving past the lodge in search of a meal. We don’t get a lot of cheetahs around the lodge area, because it is too dense and bushy and cheetahs need open areas to hunt. When we do see a cheetah in this area, they are normally young animals, or females, moving through the area looking for a territory. We were also very fortunate with the wild dog sightings and some more great nightlife. The bush has totally changed its colors. The grass is very short in some areas and some of the smaller waterholes are bone dry. A few of the mornings and evenings were really chilly, but the normal day temperature was warm and pleasant. The average maximum temperature was 24 °C with no rain for the month.

Buffalo by Jonathan Vogel

Buffalo by Jonathan Vogel

Leopards

Once again there was so much laughter and excitement with our beautiful cats. Salayexe and her cub are doing really well. Salayexe moved the little one to a new den. For the cub this is a great outing and she is exploring her new home and surroundings. The previous den was right next to a very busy road and I think that helped a lot with the habituation process, as the cub was exposed to a lot of vehicles. When Salayexe returns home after a long day of hunting, the little one gives her a warm welcome by jumping on her back or grabbing her by the ear or tail. Salayexe really has her hands, or paws, full with this little busy body. Shadow and her cub are also looking great and the young male is growing nice and big. Shadow is still hunting for the young male and both of them are eating enough. Shadow needs to hunt a lot more than the other leopards in our area, because of her teenage son with his big appetite. Fingers crossed that she will raise this young male to independence. Now a young female we have seen a lot this month, was Nsele. It looks like Nsele has finally pushed her daughters out, as we don’t see them together anymore. One of Nsele’s daughters was seen with a duiker kill in a tree within Nsele’s territory. As we tried to get closer she climbed out of the tree and moved to a safe distance. Animals will quickly let you know when they feel uncomfortable with your presence, so we left her in peace. It will be great if one of the young females sets up territory next to mum. Seeing that Kwatile’s daughter is now independent, we had to decide on a suitable name for this young and adventurous female. After scratching our heads for a while, the name Tsakani came to mind. Tsakani is a Shangaan name, meaning “always happy”. We have seen her a few times moving around in Salayexe’s territory. At this stage Salayexe has bigger things to worry about, but if she finds her, she will definitely chase her out. Tyson also came through the area again, but with a lot of new battle scars to his collection. It looks like he had a run in with one of the other territorial male leopards. Still, it was great to see this old legend again and I hope that he will return in the months to follow. Back to the territorial shifts… Anderson is turning his attention to Lamula again. Lamula and Anderson had a territorial standoff at the beginning of this month. Lamula was resting on a big termite mount when Anderson stalked him from behind. The wind turned in the nick of time and Lamula turned his head, just in time to find Anderson a mere 20 meters behind him. Lamula showed great courage as he stood up and came down the mount and walked straight up to Anderson. As Lamula got closer to Anderson, Anderson knew he had to do the same and he met Lamula halfway. The growling was so loud you could barely hear the diesel engine of the game viewer idling. It was not long before Anderson turned up the heat. Lamula knows that he is not as big and he moved away to fight another day. It will be very interesting to see what will happen in the next few months, as just the next day Lamula was back and scent marking all over the area. Tingana was also seen a few times, marking his territory. Although he lost a part of his territory, he is still going strong and it looks like he has his sights set on Mvula’s territory.

Lions

Salayexe, the female leopard, with a cane rat kill

Salayexe, the female leopard, with a cane rat kill

There was so much excitement regarding the lions of this area. The five Birmingham males came back for a quick visit. They are looking great, in good shape and their manes are well developed, but not yet full. They had a good feed as they had a buffalo bull and also stole two young buffalo kills, but this was all short-lived. Just when the young males though life was at its best, the Majingi male lions moved into the area and caught up with them. The Birmingham males made a quick run for it and the Majingi males chased them all the way back to where they came from. The Majingi males are still in good shape and by the looks of things they are not ready to step down as kings of the area. One of the Majingi males was seen mating with a female from the Breakaway pride. The Breakaway pride is doing great and they are just magnificent. My guests and I had the wonderful opportunity one chilly morning to witness the Breakaway lion pride hunting and killing a male giraffe. Now the best part of this entire hunt was that only 5 pride members killed the giraffe. The other 8 were at the back. A day into the feeding frenzy the two young Styx pride males came in to join them. At first there was loads of growling to establish a hierarchy between them. After all that they fed together around the kill. The Styx pride is also looking great and the small cubs are big and healthy. The two older females were again seen mating with the two Matimba males. We were also very lucky to see the Styx pride in full force as they eventually joined up. There is only one obstacle in their road and that is the Matimba males. The Matimba males don’t like the sub-adult females in the group and they just want to kill them. The young Ximungwe lions were also seen this month and they showed us their unique way of hunting. They followed a herd of impalas the one afternoon and then they chased them into the fence, those who got stuck in the fence were dinner. These youngsters don’t have an adult to teach them how to hunt. They have to teach themselves and by the looks of things they are slowly, but surely getting there. The Tsalala pride also came in and had an interesting afternoon at one of the waterholes. As the pride had a relaxing and peaceful day, they were challenged by 8 wild dogs.

Buffaloes

Breakaway female lion by Jonathan Vogel

Breakaway female lion by Jonathan Vogel

We had wonderful buffalo sightings again this month. We saw 2 to 3 different big buffalo herds and then also a few smaller splinter groups that broke away from the main herds. The buffaloes took a beating by the lions this month as the Birmingham males, Breakaway pride, Styx pride and the Majingi males had some buffalo steaks for dinner. We had a few bachelors and bachelor herds also moving around in our area. These old boys are staying close to certain big water holes and don’t stray too far, as there is enough food for them around the waterholes. The big herds, on the other side, are constantly moving around in search of more food and water to sustain the whole herd.

Elephants

Leopard cub by Jonathan Vogel

Leopard cub by Jonathan Vogel

With all the smaller waterholes now dry, the elephants spend a lot of their time on the open area in front of the lodge in order to get the fresh water that is pumped into the waterhole. One elephant can drink between 100-200L’s of water in one day and consume 100-300Kg’s of food per day. An elephant herd will stay in one particular area until food and water sources are exhausted, and then move on again. The herds we saw all had small babies in the group and they will not move very far in one day, as the babies can’t keep up with the adults. One of the groups we saw was about seventy members strong and the matriarch was a big female with big tusks, so she was easily recognizable. It is not always possible to recognize each and every elephant in a group, as there are too many. They are always on the move and not territorial, so you can just imagine how fantastic it was to be able to follow the big herd’s movements as they gracefully moved through the area.

Special sighting

The Breakaway lion pride with their buffalo kill takes first prize this month. Seeing a lion hunt from stalking to feeding is such a rare sighting. This was such a special sighting to witness with our guests. What made it even better was to see how these lions communicate with each other, without making a sound. Each member in the pride has a certain roll to play when it comes to hunting and all of them know that one wrong move might lead to you either getting hurt, or having to go hungry.

Did you know?

A giraffe has only 7 neck vertebrae, the same as humans.

I hope you enjoyed this month’s report. See you out on game drive soon!

Morné Fouché

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