Oceanlvr97 visited Arathusa Safari Lodge from the 6th to the 9th of September, and recorded the footage for this stunning clip while on game drive with Andre (ranger) and Chris (tracker).
Archive for September, 2010
Love is all around me, and so the feeling grows…
21
Sep
It’s been a magnificent few weeks here in the bush. It’s spring alright, and summer can’t be too far behind. And if the couple of extremely hot days we’ve experienced recently are anything to go by, it’s going to be a scorcher.
The waterhole in front of the lodge is drying up more and more every day, but it’s still being frequented by the usual suspects. We’ve even had a few of the bigger herbivores grace us with their presence, as the smaller pans are now a thing of the past until the rain arrives.
Love is definitely in the air, with lots of mating going on. Especially among the big cats. We’ve been really privileged to witness this on a number of occasions.
(After all, there’s no such thing as privacy in nature.)
On one morning drive we saw Mvula (one of the big male leopards from the eastern sector) mating with Thandi (a young female leopard). The ‘action’ all took place within a couple of meters of the vehicle. The growling and neck biting that is commonplace during copulation was quite something to behold.
Mating lions have also been plentiful in the area, and they proved equally entertaining to watch. One of the four Macinghilanes males in the area has been seen mating with one of the Styx females on a regular basis. And his brothers have been mating on and off with the other Styx lionesses, as well as with a couple of the Tsalala females. Hopefully this means we’ll be seeing more lion cubs in the not too distant future.
The leopards in the area have also been putting on a real show for us. We’ve witnessed about three kills within five drives.
Thandi, Mafufenyane and Ntima were all kind enough make their kills close to the roads, before dragging their various catches up the trees.
This resulted in some breathtaking viewing for us.
Elephants have been visiting the water hole in their droves. They have their timing down to a fine art, as they always seem arrive for their midday drink and swim just as the new guests walk out onto the deck. Needless to say this impresses them no end.
Big herds of buffalo have also been seen around the watering holes on the odd occasion, but a more common sight are the smaller groups of males that are drawn to the waterhole due to the lack of bigger ones in the area.
Rhino sightings have been plentiful in the area, with big and small groups being seen. Some of the females were even spotted with very young calves.
The rainy season is set to arrive within the next couple of weeks, and it can’t come soon enough! The bush is looking really dry, but the sightings have been out of this world.
Hope to see you all very soon to share our experiences with you!
Greetings from the bush
Andre & Chris , Ryan & DeBeer , Phil & Rifos , John & Roy 
The waterhole proves to be a popular hangout
06
Sep
The last two weeks of winter are hardly over and already the weather is starting to get nice and hot. It almost feels as if spring has bypassed us and we’ve been thrown headlong into summer! Not that we’re complaining mind you, we’re all too pleased now that the last of the cold weather is behind us.
It will still be a while before we see any rain though, and the bush is getting dryer and dryer by the day. The animals are spending a lot more time around the waterholes a lot more as a result. This makes for great viewing, as it is not uncommon to find a huge herd of buffalo or elephants hanging out at the waterhole that sits directly in front of our lodge.
Over the past couple of weeks the game viewing has been awesome. We’ve enjoyed some great predator interactions, and leopard sightings have also been particularly phenomenal. The other day was a perfect example. We were watching a herd of zebra when Debeer (one of our trackers) heard impala alarm calling in the distance, so we went to investigate.
We quickly discovered what all the commotion was about. Ntima (one of our female leopards) had killed a grey duiker and hoisted it up a tree. Soon after positioning ourselves, we noticed another leopard under the tree. It was Mafufenyane (one of our males), and he was sitting with a nice warthog that he’d just killed. We’d just repositioned ourselves in order to get a better view of him, when Safari (another female leopard) was spotted watching the other two!
Three adult leopards, two with kills, and all within 15 metres of one another. Wow, it was madness out there!
Especially when you consider that leopards are by nature solitary animals, so seeing something like that was extremely rare and special. When we returned later that afternoon we found Safari high up in a tree with Emsagwen (another big male leopard) just below her.
In the end he stole Ntima’s duiker kill and all the other leopards moved off.
Both Ntima and Karula (another of our female leopards) have been mating over the last few weeks, so hopefully we will have little ones from one or both of them soon. They need to be careful however, because we watched on two separate nights as they were chased up trees by the Styx pride of lionesses. Fortunately both of them were smart enough to stay well out of reach.
Lions viewing has been equally good. The Majingilanes (the new coalition of four young males) are walking more confidently in our area now. We have seen them quite often with the Styx lionesses, although we have yet to see them mating. In fact it has been quite comical at times, as some of the boys are not yet sure what to make of these ladies who are throwing themselves at their feet. The Tsalala pride has been around for a few days as well, and it’s good to see that six of their youngsters are still alive (including one of the young males we originally thought was dead).
The large herbivores have been around in abundance, with large herds of elephants and buffalo moving through the area. Rhino have also been quite prominent lately, with groups of up to six being seen (including a few cows with calves).
One very special sighting we had the other day was of a giraffe cow giving birth. We found her just as the little guy’s legs started showing. It was incredible to watch the cow endure wave after wave of contractions, and then arching her back and neck as she gave birth. After the initial struggle to get the head out, gravity took over and the calf had a massive five foot drop to the ground. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to stay with her until the calf was up and mobile, but we have seen the baby since and are happy to report that it’s doing very well.
Even though the dry season is set to be with us for another few weeks yet, we are all looking forward to the sightings the bush will hopefully share with us.
We hope to see you soon!
Warm regards
Ryan & Debeer, Andre & Chris, Phil & Rifos, John & Roy
August sightings
01
Sep
