Rangers Report June 2012
There is really just one word to describe the weather of this month and that is cold. We had a number of cold fronts that passed through the area this month, but at least the hot water bottles and blankets on the vehicles helped against the coldest winter mornings. With an average maximum temperature of 24°C we had some lovely day temperatures, but the mornings and evenings were a bit chilly. There is nothing more beautiful than sitting in a remote area in the African bushveld, watching the wild animals and seeing the orange glow of the winter’s sun, rising or setting on the horizon. Game viewing was once again out of this world and we had awesome sightings as well as some sad moments. But it won’t be raw nature without the good and the bad happening in front of your eyes. We did not have any rain this month. The grass is all brown and the trees are slowly going pale and losing all their leaves.
Saddle Billed Stork - Photo by Louis Liversage
Leopards
Tingana is now moving really far and wide whilst expanding his territory. He’s going more north and will slowly but surely push out the older Jordaan male, who seems to be coming to the end of his reign as the dominant male in that area. Mvula, who reigns in the eastern part of our traversing area, is also doing well for himself, pushing further and further north, as well as east. Lamula has established a very small territory in between the two big males, Tingana and Mvula. At this stage he is doing well. There is also a chance that he might have fathered Kwatile’s cubs, as she mated with both him and Mvula. If there is more than one male overlapping her area, females sometimes mate with both, making it difficult to determine who the father is. Kurula was also seen mating with Tingana once again, so all fingers are crossed that she conceived this time. In 110 days she might be a brand new mother. Kurula’s previous cubs are already independent and we haven’t seen them for quite some time as they have probably established new territories out of our traversing area. Ntima is looking fabulous for her age and still fending off competition from her two daughters, as well as Kurula. She still has her old territory, even though it’s not as big as it used to be. As she still has a few years left to produce more cubs, we are looking forward to that day. The strangest thing happened with Shadow this month. She was seen mating with Tingana for a few days, but as far as we know she was supposed to give birth. What happened to the cubs, whether she had given birth and lost them soon after, or aborted before that, we will unfortunately never know. Then there is Salayexe, who never seizes to entertain us! She was close to giving birth and we found her frequenting the African Health Spa. Some of you will still remember that she ended up giving birth to her previous litter underneath our spa deck. When we saw that she was considering this option again, we decided to close the deck off so that she would not be able to enter the area. What did she do? First she tried to claw her way through the fencing that we used to close the deck area. When this did not work, she decided to go for another option – she decided to give birth underneath one of the neighbouring lodges’ spa decks. Being the lady that she is, it seems that a Spa would always be her first option!
Lions
The two young Nkuhuma brothers are back and it’s really nice to see them again. Last time we saw these two brothers, they were not looking too great. The one with the busted leg is a fair amount smaller than his brother, but looking good. When they go hunting it’s up to his brother to put food on the table. The other male is growing up very fast, getting bigger and turning into a beautiful male lion just like his father. It was a very sad month for the two Nkuhuma females on the other hand. Their two cubs are just over a year old and they’ve tried very hard to keep them out of harm’s way. Unfortunately the Matimba males caught them off guard and killed one of the youngsters, feeding on him afterwards. Cannibalism amongst lions is very common. Male lions will often kill cubs that do not belong to them so that the female can come into oestrus. In this way the male will be able to mate with her, spreading his gene pool. At last the four young Tsalala females are out of danger from being killed by the Majingi males. The four youngsters are estimated to be about three and a half years old and we have seen the Black maned Majingi mating with one of the females on the 6th of June. It’s not going to be too long before the males will mate with all four ladies and if all goes well, we might see small cubs in a little while. The Styx pride is still doing well and we see them on a regular basis. Tragedy struck when the Styx pride came across a small pack of wild dogs and then killed one of them and ate it. We were really sad when we heard about the incident and the rest that followed, but what one should learn to understand is that there is a constant battle going on in the African bush. A battle that has been fought since the dawn of time: the battle for survival.
Buffaloes
Styx Cub - Photo by Morné Fouché
Buffalo sightings were quite a treat this month. We had a big breeding herd moving in and out of our area and we also saw a lot of bulls spending time around the waterholes. We heard a buffalo distress calling one night and we thought that it might be a kill. The next morning while out on drive, we could not find anything though. The Bovines which include buffalo, bison and cattle has got a very unique social structure. I think everyone most probably have seen the video on YouTube called Battle in Kruger. If not, you have to Google it. Bovini has evolved a group defence system, which serves to protect both young and adults. A mobbing attack can be triggered by a distinctive distress call. When a herd is under attack by predators and one gets taken down, it will bellow to give the distress call and the herd will return to try and help it. Their sense of smell is best developed for locating food or detecting enemies. Their eye sight and hearing is not as good, but also not bad at all. Vocal sounds and signals are very important in the communication of the buffaloes. Adult buffaloes also have social grooming or licking. This promotes the social bonds between the herd members. This grooming is normally directed to the head or neck of another member of the herd. It also promotes the maternal bond between cow and calf. There appears to be a minimal interchange between herds. Intruders, attempting to join a herd, are subjected to continuing harassment and kept on the periphery of the herd. As for the resident bachelor herds, they remain around their favourite waterholes. Since the bachelor herds are relatively small, their food supply remains constant, allowing them to stay in the same area.
Elephants
We were fortunate enough to see two big male elephants fighting and throwing their weight around. They got very vocal, causing the females to get excited, but simultaneously stressed out with the two heavyweights and their fight for dominance. Breeding herds that was a few kilometres away from the action also started vocalizing and the big females started excreting liquid from their temporal glands. This just shows you over what distance these animals can communicate with each other. Their best senses are hearing and smell, which is really excellent. An elephant’s eyesight is moderate; said to be best in dim light. They also communicate via a glandular secretion from their temporal glands, flopping of ears and vocalization. Come to think of it, elephants are very well equipped to express themselves! Elephants are also very keen on physical contact. Family members will often touch each other with their trunks while standing and resting, or when drinking water. They will also lean or rub their bodies against each other. Mothers will sometimes guide a calf by gripping its tail and older calves, following their mothers, will sometimes hold on to mum’s tail. A touch with the trunk or rub with a foot reassures, but a slap with the trunk will also discipline the calves. We had a lot of small breeding herds in our area during this month where we also had ample opportunity to witness this behaviour between small calved and the rest of the herd. As winter is continuing and food sources are depleting, the breeding herds are also getting smaller, breaking up into smaller groups in order to cover a larger area in search of food and water.
Trapcam photo of the month - Hippo at Leeukuil
Special Sighting
My highlight of the month must most definitely be seeing the first young Tsalala lioness mating with the Majingi male lion. For about two years now we’ve kept our fingers crossed that they would not have the same fate as their other siblings – to be killed by unrelated male lions. It just shows that BB is an incredible mother to have raised and guided them to independence, whilst keeping them out of harm’s way. As they are old enough now, the threat will be something of the past and hopefully one of these days we will have new cubs to look forward to.
Did you know?
A giraffe is the only ruminant that has a gestation period that’s longer than a year. It is also the biggest ruminant that exists.
Hope you enjoyed this month’s report. See you out on game drive soon!
Morné Fouché
Rangers Report April 2012
The month of April signals autumn and the beginning of the winter season. The mornings are now noticeably cooler, the days are still mild to warm, but there is a definite chill in the evenings. We started using blankets for the morning and afternoon drives, but it is not quite cold enough for the hot water bottles yet. We also changed the game drive times from departing at 05:30am to 06:00am in the mornings and 16:00 to 15:30 in the afternoons. As it gets lighter later in the mornings and darker earlier in the evenings, we want to make sure that we have ample daytime light to view all the magnificent animals! The average maximum temperature was 28 °C and we received a total of 13mm of rain. Last month, I mentioned that it was the start of the rutting season and now this month rutting is in full swing, with impala males definitely not holding back in the fight for dominance and the right to mate. This time of the year the males from different antelope species will reunite with the female groups for mating season. Unlike the impalas, they do not have to go through the rutting process. We were really spoilt with good wild dog and cheetah sightings and the nightlife was unbelievable with awesome genet, civet and porcupine sightings. We also saw some smaller feline species like the African wild cat and caracal. To top this all, we ended the month by discovering a new hyena den on EP. Although there is only one cub, the den is a source of entertainment for young and old during game drives!
Lions on a log. Photo by Willie Woest
Leopards
With the leopards there is a definite change in the air. Shadow is now trying to expand her territory, but her mother Kurula has got plans of her own. She is preventing Shadow from expanding more northeast into her domain and by doing so Shadow is forced to expand more south. If Shadow goes more south she will reach Salayexe’s territory, which might not be such a good idea. Thandi, Shadow’s sister, is also doing very well and her young male cub is getting more accustomed to the game vehicles. It is about time now as he is already bigger than his mother! Kurula’s two cubs, Xivindzi and Xivambalana, are spending more time apart from each other, but she is still there to provide a fresh kill every now and again and to make sure that they stay out of harm’s way. Salayexe is still doing well and was seen on regular basis this month. She has also taken over Nyaleti’s old territory, as she has moved out of our area. Ntima was full of cuts last time we saw her, which proofs that she was in a fight, but she is still marking her territory, which is a good thing. Tingana has got his hands full at this stage with two young male leopards that are also looking for a place to call home. One of the young males is Matifuma, the son of Nyaleti and Tyson, and brother of Mati and Moya. It looks like the big man Tyson has left us for good as Tingana’s territory is stretching south of our southern boundary, where Tyson was once in charge. Mvula is starting to become the main man between the other males as he’s slowly pushing Lamula more south. Mvula is now in the prime of his life and really looking good, but it’s just a matter of time before a new stronger and younger rival comes in to challenge him.
Lions
On the lion side we had wonderful sightings this month. The four Majingi males were seen when they killed a buffalo, finished it off almost in record time, just to move on again in search of females and to make sure that they had no challengers. The Styx pride is doing really good and the five cubs are growing fast. The Styx females had a rough time in raising cubs to adulthood as they have only raised two cubs in the last 5-6years, because of the change in pride take-overs. It really looks promising that all five might pull through this time. The Styx pride was seen on a regular basis this month while relaxing in the shade and also stalking prey. The two Nkuhuma lionesses and their two cubs have provided us with wonderful sightings. These two females have mastered the art of killing buffaloes, as they managed to kill two this month. For only two females to do that takes skill, determination and no room for error. The two females broke away from their original pride for the safety of the cubs, as the Matimba males are the current dominant males of their pride. They would definitely kill the cubs that don’t belong to them. If the cubs can survive for another two years the females might rejoin the pride, or alternatively start their own pride. For now, they are out of harm’s way, but still have to be cautious because if they go more south they will move into the territory of the Majingi males. They will also kill the cubs. The two young Nkuhuma males were very illusive this month and didn’t stay for very long before moving on again.
Buffaloes
Genet. Photo by Morné Fouché
The big herds have returned to our area! We have seen nice big herds this last month, mainly because food sources are starting to deplete. The smaller herds will join up to form bigger herds and sometimes in drier times, bigger herds will join and form mega herds. When mega herds form, it helps against predation as they have safety in numbers with the group being stronger. The lions will know better than taking on big breeding herds and they will rather go for the older bulls that left the herd or old females who can’t keep up with the herd. A few females are coming into oestrus now and the big dominant bulls will follow them around and fight with other bulls. For each dominant male there will be 10-15 females, but it is very difficult to mate with all 10 or 15 females. You will find that this leaves a gap for some of the younger males to get a chance and mate with some of the females.
Elephants
We had very good elephant sightings once again and the waterhole in front of the lodge is getting popular with the elephant herds because there is always fresh water for them. Also now with all the nice green wild date palms in the riverbed, they come and visit us at least 3 times a week. With the heavy rains we had some of the flood plains turned into marsh areas, which are a haven for any elephant herd, with lovely grass and ample water. We saw a big female with very interesting tusks this month. The tusks are growing towards and past each other in front of the mouth, below the trunk. With that flexible trunk she is not struggling to feed herself or to drink water at all, even though it looks as if the skew tusks are preventing her from getting food into her mouth. Next time you go to the bush and you see a herd of elephants, take the time and look at their tusks. At least one elephant out of the whole group will have skew tusks. When the elephant is still young it can sometimes happen that they damage the root canal and then one or both tusks can grow out skew. It happened a few years ago in East Africa where a young male elephant managed to split both his root canals and then instead of one tusk per socket, 12 splintered tusks started to grow out of the two sockets. An elephant uses the tusks to break off branches or strip the bark off of trees. It is also used for fighting, but it is not imperative to its survival to have tusks.
Highlight of the month
The highlight this month is definitely Mvula the male leopard, who killed an impala right in front of our vehicles. We followed him for quite some time before he saw the impalas and started stalking them. It felt like eternity, but he moved very quietly while inching forward, bit by bit. He disappeared for a few minutes and then, with lightning speed, he came out from behind a bush and before the impala’s could react it was too late. A leopard can reach a top speed of 90km/h on short distances. To see the hunt from start to finish is always special because it can take anything from five minutes to a few hours and you can never tell what the outcome might be till the end.
Did you know?
Unlike his fish-eating cousins, the Pied Kingfisher and Giant Kingfisher, who prefer mainly fish, a Woodland Kingfisher’s diet consists mainly of small insects. .
Hope you enjoyed this month’s report. See you out on game drive soon!
Morné Fouché
Rangers Report March 2012
This month was once again full of action and surprises. You can definitely see that the bush is slowly transforming to its winter coat, but certain areas close to riverbeds are still nice and green. This time of the year is very exciting because it’s the start of the impala rutting season, where the males will compete for a few weeks to see who’s the strongest. It’s getting darker earlier in the evenings and getting lighter later in the mornings, with a definite chill in the air, so it’s safe to say that we are slowly going into winter. Game viewing was once again out of this world! We had wild dogs in our area for most of the month and to put the cherry on top, we also saw a female cheetah and a caracal. We had good rains before the winter, with a total of 93mm. The days were nice and warm, with an average maximum temperature of 31°C.
Elephants
Styx lioness yawning. Photo by Willie Woest
We had wonderful elephant sightings this month of some fantastic breeding herds with small babies. They are always a treat to watch as they explore the surroundings and swing their little trunks around – not sure how to operate them properly yet! We also had a few big males in musth, following the breeding herds. Females approaching oestrus are usually wary of these big males. They would carry their heads higher than normal, with eyes opened wider than usual, watchful instead of downcast. They would quickly move out of the way when an adult male approaches. If followed by an adult male, the female would leave the herd and walk rapidly away with her head very high, and her tail raised, an oestrus walk. Sometimes she would go around in a circle to rejoin the herd. When the male tries to overtake the female the oestrus walk turns into a chase where the female may go a kilometer or more from the herd over a period of a few hours. The female will stop fleeing when the bull gets within touching distance, whereupon he will attempt to mount her. The chase and particular, the copulation, may provoke ear-flapping, head-shaking and also vocalizing. The distraught behavior of elephant cows during the 2-6 day oestrus creates a disturbance and often excites the other elephants.
Buffaloes
At last we saw a small breeding herd of buffaloes that came through into our area and stayed here for a short while. Some of the cows have small calves with them, as well as last season’s calves, who will still accompany the cows for another few years. It will take the newborn calves a few weeks before they can keep up with the herds for several hours at a time. If the females give birth in the rest period of the herd, she will be left behind and will be forced to go into hiding with the new baby. The only problem with this is that they won’t have the protection of the herd, so they would be very vulnerable to a pride of lions. At the moment we see less bachelor herds than usual. Mating takes place late in the rainy season and this is where the majority of the dominant males have gone: back to the breeding herds, to claim the right to mate and get closer to the females.
Lions
The lions once again kept us busy this month! The black-mane male of the Majingi coalition is often seen joining up with the Styx pride these days. The Styx pride and the black mane Majingi had definitely made for some good sightings. It’s also very nice to see that the big boy spends some time with his cubs and his females. The other three Majingi’s are still very elusive, most probably defending and expanding their territory. BB’s older daughters did come and visit for a short while before they disappeared again and the four young Tsalalas were seen on a regular basis. We even saw them having a stand-off with six hyenas close to our lodge! BB also came to visit a few times on her own, maybe just to check up on the four younger ladies. At a stage the Sabi Sand Game Reserve was basically run by four coalitions; the six Matimba’s in the north, the four Majingi’s in the central part, the four young Southern Pride males in the south and then the three older Mapogo’s in the west. The four Majingi’s are moving more south and ended up pushing the Southern Pride males more westwards, into the territory of the old three old worriers. This is where they came across one of the Mapogo’s, old Mr. T, and in the process killed him to proof a point. Soon we might be down to just three, but who knows what this year will bring?
Salayexe the leopard sleeping in a Marula tree. Photo by Willie Woest
Leopard
Salayexe was again seen mating with Tingana, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed that she did conceive this time around. If it is the case, it’s just another 110 days and we might have brand new cubs in the area. Salayexe is still a young leopard and only seven years old, so she still has another few years to raise more litters. Tingana is definitely turning into a beautiful male leopard. Only a few months ago he was a very shy male and look at him now. Shadow is getting better with the vehicles day by day, but still has her moments that she just disappears and is nowhere to be found. Ntima is now the old lady in the area, but is still looking very good. Her two daughters Kwatile and Ostrich Koppies are also in and out of her territory. Tyson came in just for a short while, marking his territory along Londolozi boundary and left again shortly after. We are unsure of what happened, or why he left this northern part of his territory, but he could be in search of more females, or better territory. Kurula is leaving her two youngsters alone for very long periods of time, it’s almost time for them to leave and explore the bush on their own. By leaving them for so long, it forces them to start hunting for their own food.
Special Sighting
What a treat to see the female cheetah attempting to hunt right in front of us. Although the hunt was unsuccessful, it was still a privilege to witness her immense speed!
Did you know?
The Nyala is the only antelope where the male and female differ in color. There is also a very big difference in size. Because of this, the male is called a bull and the female a ewe.
Hope you enjoyed this month’s report. See you out on game drive soon!
Morné Fouché
Rangers Report February 2012
This month was once again a month filled with surprises and action at Elephant Plains! We saw four brothers reunite, four leopards sharing a meal and we also had two different wild dog packs in our traversing area. We saw them on a regular basis during the month, making game drives even more special than usual. Some of our guests were even lucky enough to also see them hunt. The days were very hot and humid, with an average maximum temperature of 33 °C. After the floods of last month, we were fortunate to only receive 33mm of rain, which gave the roads a chance to dry out. Some areas like the seeplines and floodplains are still a bit wet, though. Therefore we need to make sure that the area is dry enough before off roading into the bush!
Buffaloes
Two zebras. Photo by Morné Fouché
The big breeding herds are not back in our traversing area yet, but this is understandable because of all the water everywhere. The small puddles and pans hold sufficient water so that the herds do not have to travel as far as they usually would, to get to a water source. Big breeding herds do not normally stay in the same area all the time and because we are open to the Kruger National Park and surrounding reserves, they move around a large area and take some time to get back to us. We do, however, see the older males on a regular basis. These lazy bulls tend to spend a lot of time inside and next to the waterholes around the lodge, getting some relief from the hot summer days whilst enjoying a mud bath.
Elephants
Last month we saw elephants shaking trees around almost every corner, but now as the Marula fruiting season comes to an end, the herds are moving in a wider circle, to try and get the last fruits off the trees. While out on drive, we often come across a Marula tree lying on its side, or with some broken branches on the ground. The elephants have by now eaten most of the fruit on the lower branches and therefore have to either break the higher branches off, or push over the whole tree to get to the rest. We’ve had wonderful elephant sightings this month; lovely breeding herds and a lot of really big bulls. They are usually following the breeding herds around. When a big bull follows or enters a breeding herd, it will only be because one or more of the females in the group are in oestrus.
Lion
What a treat it was to once again see the four Majingi males together again! In the bush, one of the most beautiful sightings is to see four male lions, walking side by side down the road towards you. We had beautiful sightings of them during the month. The four young Tsalala lionesses are getting stronger and more confident every day. They have killed a zebra on their own, without the help of their BB. She has joined back up with her two older daughters down in the south. Two of the Nkuhuma females and their two cubs have also been seen this month and it was good to see that the two young ones are getting bigger and doing amazingly well. The two Nkuhuma males are also looking good. They killed a fully grown giraffe on our driveway, right next to the road. In the beginning, when they just arrived in our traversing area and we first started viewing them, they were not very comfortable with the vehicles. Now they are a lot more relaxed with us viewing them and they are providing us with some memorable sightings!
Leopard
A pack of wild dogs close to EP airstrip. Photo by Louis Liversage
Up to now we were not 100% sure about the fate of Salayexe’s cubs. I can sadly confirm now that she did in fact loose them. She was seen attempting to mate with Tingana during January, but as leopards sometimes do this to take a male’s attention away from a den site, we were unsure if they had actually died. This month, however, we saw her mating with him on a number of occasions. Hopefully this will lead to a litter that she would successfully raise into adulthood. Tingana is building more confidence every day and is now also expanding his territory bit by bit. Lamula is spotted more often during game drive, especially in the vicinity of females. He was seen mating with two different females this month, one if which was Kwatile. Lamula and Mvula also had a standoff, but there was no fighting between the two young males. Both of them are eager to expand their territories, but neither of them wants to give up a piece for the other.
Special Sighting
Kurula and her youngsters have provided us with a lot of excitement during February. She and her two cubs were feeding on an impala when Nduna, her older son from her previous litter, joined in on the meal. This just shows what a good mother she is! Although Nduna is old and experienced enough to make his own kills, mom still allows him to join her for dinner every once in a while. Needless to say, having four leopards in one sighting is priceless!
Did you know?
Although hippopotamus have enormous canines, they are vegetarian and do eat any meat. The huge canines are only used for fighting.
Hope you enjoyed this month’s report. See you out on game drive soon!
Morné Fouché
Rangers Report January 2012
I think I speak for everyone when I say that January 2012 will always be remembered. It was a very exciting, but also challenging month for us. As Wayne mentioned in his report, we had some serious flooding during January. I have been working in the bush for nine years now and I have never before seen so much water in an area that is usually quite dry. It was unbelievable to witness such a wonder of nature, but it was frightening at the same time. To see the usually dry Manyeleti riverbed in front of the lodge, overflowing its banks and spread onto the open area was really impressive. With the river being in full flood and the roads soaking wet and muddy, game drives were challenging. Even though our roads are very reliable, we could not go on drive for the first day or two until the water receded. You can just imagine how saturated the ground was after at least 520mm of rain in such a short amount of time. I have not seen the bush so wet in my life! Luckily, everything is back to normal now and we are looking forward to a jam packed February, full of exciting game drives! Just to humor you, our average maximum temperature for the month of January was 29 °C and we had a total of 570 millimeters of rain (most of it in 48 hours).
Elephant
Water masses in front of the camp
The elephant sightings were a bit quiet this month, due to the amount of water that is currently in the bush. There is no need to go to a waterhole when they get thirsty or just want to cool down, as there is a pool of water or a small stream around every corner at the moment. At this stage we see a lot of mature bulls in the area and some of them is also now in musth. During periods of musth mature bulls wander alone, in search of mating opportunities. The bulls rank order is determined by seniority and their reproductive condition. Although bulls normally wander more widely than cows, they sometimes stay in a certain area for months at a time. During periods of sexual inactivity they might be alone or in small groups. Elephants can live in virtually any habitat which provides adequate amounts of food and water and at the moment there is no shortage of any of these. The elephants also provide us with a laugh every now and again. Being January, it is time for the Marula trees to start losing their fruits, which is definitely a delicacy for elephants. It is a very special sighting to see the elephants almost stalking the tree from a distance, and then going in for the kill. Some in the herd will vacuum up the fruits already down on the floor and others will shake the branches, causing the fruits to pour down like rain. It is strange to think that an action so normal for an elephant can be so amusing to watch for us human beings.
Buffalo
This month there were still no breeding herds in sight, but we did have plenty of old bulls / dagga boys in our area. With plentiful food sources we are happy to see a lot of males by themselves, because there is no need for them to travel in herds to better their feeding grounds. They will once again join their original bachelor herds as soon as food availability becomes scarcer. Breeding herds have home ranges which can be anything between 60-1000 square kilometers or more, but it is not defended like territories. Buffaloes are not migratory, but move in response to seasonal changes in food availability. Routes between grazing, water and cover will be frequently used. Buffaloes will graze up to 8-10 hour a day and they need a lot of grass and water to keep them busy for this long!
Lions
This month BB rejoined the four young Tsalala females, or maybe I should rather say that she actually brought them back together again. In last month’s report I mentioned that the four younger lionesses got split up and nobody knew what happened to them. I am glad to see them back together and that BB joined them. The two young Nkuhuma brothers are really looking good and feeding well. They are getting bolder by the day by giving territorial calls almost every night, maybe because of the absence of the four Majingi males. We have not seen the four big boys for most of the month and when we do get to see them, they are on our eastern traversing area, very seldom moving this far west. In regards to the Styx and other Tsalala females, we have not seen them this month. It might be because they were south of the Sand River when it started flooding. They are possibly still waiting for the surrounding areas to dry out a bit. It usually gets tricky to try and hunt, while you’re stuck in the mud.
Southern Ground Hornbill perched in a dead Knobthorn tree
Leopards
Salayexe turned out to be a dark horse this month. She was seen attempting to mate with a male leopard at the end of January and this made us think that she had lost her cubs once again. But then we saw her a few days later, with what appeared to be suckle marks, so the verdict is still out on that one. There is an opinion that female leopards would sometimes feign wanting to mate in order to lure a male leopard away from the cubs if he gets too close to them. If she did lose the cubs, it could either have been the flooding, or because another predator killed them. As soon as we know for sure, we will let you know. The new dominant male leopard, who also fathered Salayexe’s previous cubs, got a name befitting his character: Tingana. Tingana means “the shy one”. We hope that he will become more accustomed to the vehicles over time. Tyson came into the area again in the beginning of the month, but soon moved down south, back to the core of his territory. Kurula is keeping a low profile at the moment, but when we see her there is no doubt that all is doing well as she and her youngsters are all in a great condition. Shadow is still as elusive as always. She is moving more north into her mothers’ territory. Ntima is still moving around and she was seen mating with the new male in the eastern traversing area. He is called Lamula – which means orange. He got this name because of the orange colour of his eyes. As we have not seen either Safari or Mafufunyana for a number of months now, they are both presumed dead.
Special sighting
For me, the most special sighting this month was definitely to see BB and the four young Tsalala females back together again. Two of the four are BB’s own cubs and the other two are actually her granddaughters. She did, however, raise all four of them very successfully, as her own. After they got separated last December, we were concerned about their survival as they were not old enough yet to start mating and therefore could have easily been killed by male lions frequenting the area. Seeing the Fantastic Five together again was great!
Did you know?
Lionesses in a pride with cubs of more or less the same age will suckle and nurse each other’s cubs.
Hope you enjoyed this month’s report. See you out on game drive soon!
Morné Fouché
Elephant Plains Game Lodge is situated in the northern part of the world famous Sabi Sand Game Reserve, which forms part of the Greater Kruger National Park. The lodge is owner run and can accommodate a maximum of 24 guests. This ensures personal service and attention to detail.
