Archive for July, 2010
June sightings
07
Jul
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Leopard was seen on 29 days
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Lion was seen on 25 days
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Elephant was seen on 20 days
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Buffalo was seen on 21 days
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Rhino was seen on 24 days
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Cheetah was seen on 7 days
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Wild dog was seen on 4 days
It’s been a tough winter so far
07
Jul
We’ve had yet another interesting few weeks out here in the Northern Sabi Sand.
Sightings are usually more prolific duringthe winter months, and this year has proved no different. We’ve seen some incredible things so far, and we’ve only just passed the season’s halfway mark.
We’ve laughed, we’ve been entertained, and we’ve had our hearts broken.
Winter is generally tough out here, but this year has seen more death than any other. It’s certainly been a dark time for all.
White-cloth (one of our older female leopards) was killed by Emsagwen (a new male leopard) a few days ago. We think she died while trying to protect her sub-adult male cub.
Leopards are known to practice infanticide, so it’s more than likely that Emsagwen was trying to get at the young male when White-cloth intervened. Unfortunately she was no match for this bigger, stronger male, and he quickly killed her by biting the back of the head and puncturing her skull. We haven’t seen the young cub since, so we’re not sure if he’s still alive or if he too has fallen prey to this new and dominant male.
For now the rest of our leopards all seem to be doing well, although given the rate that Emsagwen is adding notches to his belt (he also killed Ntima’s cubs a few weeks back) we’re all feeling a little uneasy at the moment.
Mafufenyane has been fairly scarce of late. He’s more than likely keeping a low profile in order to stay out of the new male’s way. On the odd occasion that he has been seen he’s looked fat and nervous, which, given the circumstances isn’t all bad. At least he’s eating!
Safari, on the other hand, has been showing up fairly regularly. We often bump into her on the driveway at night, when we’re almost back at the lodge.
Shadow (her granddaughter) is still putting a lot of pressure on her, but for now she seems to be holding her own.
We were lucky enough to find Salayexe and her two cubs up a tree with a large male impala. The sighting went from great to positively outstanding when Tyson (the father of the cubs) arrived to join his family for breakfast.
Four leopards in one morning. Wow!
We’ve had a number of large herds of elephant and buffalo on the property. A lot of them are using the waterhole in front of the lodge now that most of the smaller pans in the area have dried up. An old male elephant has also taken to hanging out in the area recently. His body size is average, but he has the hugest pair of tusks on him. Some of the biggest we’ve seen to date.
Rhino have been plentiful, with quite a few unknown individuals frequenting the area.
After last month’s lion war, the region’s dynamics have changed a lot.
We’ve named the four new young male lions the Macinghilanes, which means ‘the ones that walk in a line’. They haven’t ceased in their efforts to hunt down Mr T (no doubt they are still seeking revenge for the death of their brother), but so far they still haven’t had any luck.
They did succeed in catching and splitting up the Tsalala pride however, killing two of their cubs in the process. These four males have been around quite a bit lately, and we were lucky enough to find them feeding on a buffalo kill for a few days this past week.
The Styx pride has also been spotted on and off, and for the most part they seem to be doing okay. Their main aim no doubt being to avoid the Macinghilanes as much as possible.
We’ve seen the female cheetah quite a bit, with her young cub in tow. She appears to be using our airstrip as a base from which to hunt. The cub had a bad wound on her back left leg, which pierced right through her inner thigh. She seems to be healing quickly though, and we even saw her give a couple of warthogs the run around without too much trouble.
For now all we can do is watch and wait to see what happens next. With Emsagwen and the Macinghilanes foursome all staking a bold claim on the area, things are sure to remain interesting.
Hopefully there won’t be as much death in the next few weeks…but you never know.
We hope to see you soon.
Warm regards from the team at Arathusa Safari Lodge.
An uninvited guest
01
Jul
Winter has hit us hard. The morning drives have been cold, but at the same time very productive. The FIFA World cup in full swing and we’ve enjoyed many a late night spent watching football. We’ve also been treated to some awesome sightings, especially in and around the lodge.
One morning in particular comes to mind….
Our phone lines were down for a couple of days, which meant having to wake the guests for the early morning drives the old fashioned way – by walking from room to room and knocking on their doors.
While I was waiting to start the wake-up calls, I stood on the deck at the swimming pool watching the Macinghilanes (the four new male lions) as they chased an injured buffalo cow around the waterhole.
I eventually headed back to the rooms to start waking everyone up, only to discover that I wasn’t alone. As I reached the first room I came face to face with one of the young male lions.
Given that it was only 05h30 in the morning, neither one of us was expecting to see the other. Needless to say we were both quite taken aback. It took a fair amount of negotiating, but I eventually persuaded the our uninvited guest to leave.
Now wide awake – thanks to the adrenalin coursing through my previously sleep-addled body – I set about my original task of waking everyone up.
After a quick cup of coffee we set off on our game drive. We decided to follow up on the lions I’d been watching earlier, and with the help of our expert trackers it didn’t take us long to find them. In the time it had taken to wake the guests and usher them onto the vehicle, the lions had succeeded in taking down the young buffalo they’d been chasing earlier. This had all taken place not too far from the waterhole, which meant we were treated to a great sighting of the four new males feeding right on our very doorstep.
Aside from this, we’ve also had a number of other great sightings during the last two weeks.
Mafufenyane (the big male leopard) bagged himself an extremely large female warthog, and we were fortunate enough to witness this as it happened. The fun started when the warthog began squealing so loudly during Mafufenyane’s attack that it alerted some nearby hyenas to the possibility of a free meal.
When they arrived on the scene we immediately assumed that we’d see a proper standoff between the two parties, but little did we guess that the ensuing ruckus would also attract the attention of Emsagwen (the new male leopard that is making a name for himself in the area) and Safari (our resident female leopard).
Three leopards and four hyenas all within a forty meter radius of each other!
In no time at all the hyenas had ‘lifted’ Mafufenyane’s kill.
While Safari contented herself with eating the scraps the hyenas had dropped as they beat their hasty retreat, Emsagwen went looking for a fight with the older Mafufenyane. The anticipated altercation never amounted to anything more than a lot of hissing, growling and scent marking. And in the end they both walked off unscathed, but suitably disgruntled.
Leopard sightings have been good over the last two weeks. We even caught sight of Whitecloth’s young male cub, who is thankfully still alive after Emsagwen killed his mother a while back. He seems in good health and when we left him he was stalking a herd of impala.
We were lucky enough to find Salayexe and her two cubs up a tree with a large male impala kill. We’re happy to report that all three look to be in excellent health. She is leaving her cubs more often and for longer periods now, which means it’s almost time for them to say goodbye to Mom.
Karula was also seen recently. We watched in amazement as she expertly took down a little duiker, which she then dragged it up a tree and polished it off over a period of two days.
Rhino sightings have been good. We’re finding them at the waterholes more and more often now that all the smaller pans have dried up.
There have been a couple of herds of elephant and buffalo roaming around. They’ve been frequenting the waterholes on the property, which always makes for good viewing.
As we approach the windy month of August, we hope that the winds of change won’t blow too hard. With all our lions at war, we’ve had about all the change we can take right now.
We hope to see you soon.
Warm regards from the team at Arathusa Safari Lodge.
