Tintswalo Ranger's Blog

Lion

There is plenty of lion movement at the moment. It has been a bit quiet in the north, but we’ve had very good sightings of the Sizanani brothers as well as the Matimba coalition. As for the females, the Koppies females have been moving around the Main dam area but the Mphiri girls were nowhere to be found this week.

Koppies Female

I am currently working on identity kits for the different lions and their prides, but below I’ve included a very short introduction on two of the prides we were able to view in the last week. More to follow as the weeks continue.

Sizanani males

The Sizanani males are a coalition of two that move around the central and western parts of the reserve and occasionally moves into the Timbavati Nature Reserve.

Sizanani Male with bad back leg

The first sighting for the week was the male with the bad back leg at Lompfaan pan to the north of the lodge. His brother was vocalising further north and he promptly roared back, got up and started making his way to his brother. The healthy Sizanani brother was seen with the Koppies females where he was endlessly mating with the oldest female in the group. A few nights later we found him at Panicum road, about 200 meters from the lodge. He was fiercely roaring, advertising his territory, and moved right past the staff accommodation! We found the pair the next night chasing Buffalo at the Tintswalo pump house, once again only 100 meters from the lodge. They seem to be evading the larger coalitions and have set up a small territory close to the lodge.

Sizanani Male and Koppies Female

Map of Sizanani males movements

Matimba males

The Matimba males are a well-known powerful coalition of six males that frequent the central and Southern parts of the reserve and also move in the Northern parts of the Sabi Sands.

They were seen at the beginning of the week at Bushbuck dam on the Sabi Sand boundary with five males in attendance. We went the next morning to relocate them, only to hear that they were found on a Wildebeest kill on Bee-eater road. This is about 12 kilometres from the boundary which indicates the size of their territory. There were also some scattered sightings of these males around S8 dam and one male was found on a Zebra kill on S10 road. So a fair amount of movement in core of their territory, the south, with the typical Matimba incursions to the north.

Map of Matimba males movements

Leopard

We found a young male, that hasn’t been seen in a while. He used to be in the area around the lodge, but we found him down at S7 in the mid-south. Only time will tell if he has set up shop in the S7/ Pod Mahogany area and we’ll be keeping a close eye on this male. The Main dam female has been strutting her stuff with three separate sightings on Sundowner loop on the banks of Main dam. A younger un-identified leopard was seen at Ntzaka bridge.

Male Leopard found on S7

Map of Leopard Sightings

Cheetah

We had an amazing sighting of a female cheetah around Main dam. When we arrived, she was stalking Impala on a big open area. It was extremely windy and we had already found the Koppies pride about 300 meters away. We were concerned that the lions would find her, as the wind was blowing her scent in their direction. She posed for a while and allowed us to get some good photographs. Unfortunately we had to leave her to her hunt, as the light was dimming. As this is a diurnal cat, we could not view her after dark especially with lions in such close proximity.

The above video is of the same female but on a previous kill

Map of Cheetah Sightings

Wild dog

This week we have been especially lucky to have a pack of 20 Wild dogs, 9 adults and 11 pups, on the reserve. They’ve given us some fantastic viewing. The first sighting that we had this week was once again at Main dam. A few of the adults were trying to hunt and wanted to leave the pups in the drainage line. The pups were having none of it. Every time the adults tried to go, the pups would follow. Eventually the adults caught on and started playing with the pups. Cuteness personified!

The next morning we found two Wild dogs on an Impala kill on Catwalk west. We were expecting the rest of the pack to arrive at any time, but they never did. This is where it got interesting. The two Wild dogs were later seen at Wild dog dam and then at the Manor house pan that afternoon. They were moving around contact calling and had obviously lost the rest of the pack.

Two Wild Dogs found on an Impala kill

A few days later, we again found the core pack, three adults and all eleven pups, on S7 drive. Once again the pups were playing, oblivious to the possible danger, not more than 100 meters away. Werner was on his way to the Wild dog sighting when he found a Leopard watching the pups with serious intent. There we were in between the Wild dogs and the Leopard. The pups were slowly heading towards the Leopard with no adult in sight. The Leopard crouched low and like a flick of a switch, his demeanour changed. He suddenly started looking for a possible escape route. The adults had arrived to herd the pups back and lucky for the leopard, the adults hadn’t seen him.

We once again found the two Wild dogs close to the lodge, on Mantwana Mpisi. They had just finished eating something small that we were unable to identify. The core pack was seen at the same time on Pod Mahogany, quite far to the south.

Map of Wild Dog sightings

Elephant, Buffalo and others

There has been a fair sprinkling of both all over the reserve. A big herd of several hundred Buffalo have been hanging around the south of the reserve, especially in the south-west around the Dixie dam area. Plenty of small groups of males were found all over. This is one species of the Big 5 we are blessed with. Elephant herds have also not exactly been scarce and it hasn’t been unusual to see three separate herds on a single drive.