Tintswalo Ranger's Blog

Sun setting over the Drakensberg mountains

Things have been interesting in the bush lately. We’ve had our first rains and many of the smaller and equally interesting characters have started getting active again. The call of the wild has returned, from the Raucous Toad’s rasping call to the quiet symphony of the Katydids. Summer is on its way!

Lion

Sizanani males

These males have really started to establish themselves radically. We found them on a Buffalo kill on Catwalk west and on closer inspection found the tracks for three lionesses. We realised that they must have taken this kill from the Koppies females. This sighting lasted almost four days and on the last day the females returned. The sighting took a tense turn as one of the females was quite badly mauled by one of the males when she held her own on the kill. The other male lost interest in the kill and moved off to once again mate with the older Koppies female. The male with the limp was not to be outdone and when he also moved away from the kill, he was promptly seduced by the youngest Koppies female. The sighting changed again and we were awarded with sightings for the next day or so, of these lions mating. It was a very interesting turn of events and is fascinating to watch how these males are slowly but surely taking over and taking the females as well.

Map of Sizanani males movements

Map of Koppies females movements

Matimba males

The best news so far was to see one of the Matimba males being seduced by one of the Mbiri females between Ntzaka loop and Manyeleti Main camp. It was very apparent that he was not the predator here. She started the game of seduction like an old pro with the Matimba male only too happy to oblige. A few days later Fritz found another couple mating between S10 and S11. The female was older and we think it might be one of the Nkuhuma females, as it was in the heart of their territory in the Manyeleti Game Reserve. It’s going to be interesting to see how these males settle down. We are noticing the same males further north more often. It might be that there is too much competition for mating further south resulting in the quest for opportunities deeper into the reserve.

Map of Matimba males movements

Leopard

There was one very good sighting of the Main Dam female at the Mantwan Mphisi and S6 junction. She started with her normal, “Here I am. Bet you can’t photograph me” game that she seems to play. We followed her for a short distance on Mantwan Mphisi and headed east. She stopped dead in her tracks and coiled herself into a hunting posture. Low to the ground, ears cocked forward, she pounced and with one quick bleat it was over. She had a young duiker lamb in her mouth. She moved into a thicket with her prize and unfortunately we couldn’t follow without upsetting her. Upsetting her would have meant destroying several months of patience and careful work with this particular leopard. For the greater good we decided to leave her in peace to enjoy her meal. On the way out we saw the mother duiker looking for the lamb and when we returned the next morning, we found the mother in the same place, still searching for the lamb in vain.

One of the few shots we have of this elusive female

One of our projects is to slowly habituate and catalogue the leopard on the reserve. This particular female is very important to this project as she is still fairly young. Habituating a younger female leopard means easier access to her cubs once she has cubs, and is also more sustainable in the long term.

Map of leopard sightings

Wild dog

Once again, we were blessed by the presence of Africa’s equivalent to the Wolf. The big story regarding these animals at the moment is about two dogs in particular. We noticed a male and a female had slipped away from the rest of the pack of twenty. At first we thought that they might have lost their pack, but their movements were not those of dogs in search of their pack. Instead they stuck around in the area around the lodge, twice being seen right at the boom gate to the lodge. They stayed around this area for a few days, while the rest of the pack moved south. We think the female had lured the male away and that it might be the beginning of a new pack.

The rest of the pack was seen around Pod Mahogany for a few days with all eleven pups still intact. They then were found by Mpho in the south-eastern corner of the reserve but it looks as though they may have moved into the Kruger National Park since then.