Tintswalo Ranger's Blog: Sightings Update: 8

This week the leopard were out to play! The lion have graced us with several sightings and we had one single Cheetah sighting on top of all this. The bush is turning back to the familiar colours of the dry season. Reds, yellows and the golden sheen of dry African grass, signal the start of a time of struggle for some and plenty for others. Territories will shift during this season and the strong will dominate the plains and woodlands of the Manyeleti Game Reserve.

Lion

Matimba Males

The dark males have once again delivered on the bulk of the sightings this week. They seem intent on pushing the boundaries of their already massive territory and have continued venturing further and further north. A few months ago they spent most of their time south of Main dam, but the females they required were north and west of their area. After chasing the Sizanani males, they secured the Mbiri females as well as the Koppies pride. This brought a change in their behaviour and they have settled into a role of strong, dominant pride males.

This week we had sightings of them at some of their favourite haunts around Metsikitsoro plains and Ndulamiti road area. As I mentioned before, a lot of their time was spent in the Catwalk west area and again on Vulture pan road, but much further north than usual.

The blonde males were seen only once this week. They were seen close to the S10/S9 area and moved south again shortly after that. These males look after the Nkuhuma females, who spent the week south of our border. We’re sure that this was what they were looking for, the females!

Koppies Females

These females were first seen with the Matimba males on Metsikitsoro plains. After that the males went off and gained more territory, leaving the females to do what they do best, hunt! After struggling to find them for a few days, Mpho picked up on the girls with a fresh Zebra kill, just off Sable west road. The youngest koppies girl hasn’t been seen in a while again. The last time we saw here she wasn’t looking too good. She was really skinny and her condition was bad. It seems like the inevitable may have happened. She stood up for herself with the Matimba male on a Waterbuck kill and looked as if she was going to pull through and become a strong, confident lioness. Unfortunately it seems this didn’t happen. This is all still speculation, and she might still turn up, but her pride mates were on a kill and she wasn’t there. It doesn’t look good!

Leopard

Beacon male

The big male of the central Manyeleti graced us with two sightings this week. The first was at Main dam, where he was seen with the unidentified female we found a few weeks ago. Unfortunately she was quite skittish and moved into thick bush below the dam wall, and he followed her in. They were mating and could also be heard mating in the riverine bush about ten minutes after we had seen them.

Many thanks to Ulrich Foster for sharing the above two photos of the sighting with us.

The second sighting was at Khoka moya dam, five days later. This is also the farthest north we have seen him and adds to what we know his territory to be. He was in the riverine bush, lying on the sand when Mpho found him. Mpho managed to get a few photos for identification purposes.

Bambamala male

The big news on the leopard front this week was a visitor from the Kruger National Park, in the south of the reserve. We have decided to call him Bambamala male, as at the first sighting we had of him he was hunting Impala.

He was seen, once again by Mpho, south east of S10 dam. This now brings the number of big dominant sized males seen in the Manyeleti to three. After speaking to some of the other guides based in the south, it seems he may move around the S8 area as well. However, we wouldn’t speculate on this and only record confirmed sightings to establish where territories have been established.

So his discovery is very exciting for our Leopard Identification Project, and adds a little more information to it. Many thanks to Rosie and Claire for all the help in identifying this male.

Cheetah

We had one sighting of the young male again. This time he was seen on Red road, heading up towards the Manyeleti main gate. We have noticed that he follows this route, just before the gate he turns east, and then follows a drainage line back south again. We then usually see his signs on Buffalo plains and south towards the lodge again.