Sightings Update: 23 January - 7 February 2013

 

Things have started settling after the major flooding we had earlier in January and once again all the rain has altered the bush. It’s refilled the dams and the cycle between wet and dry, and life and death, begins again. This week we had a number of electrical storms which were absolutely spectacular to watch.

 

One of the big moments we experienced on safari after the rain was a migration of young African Bullfrogs. There was literally thousands of small frogs moving from the water sources where they were born looking to find a place of their own. It’s something they have to do as once they reach a certain size, their dedicated fathers who have protected them all their lives, start to see them as potential prey. The instinct is to move away from potential danger and so a spectacular migration was witnessed. Between all the erratic bouncing I managed to capture at least one photograph of a tiny Bullfrog the smaller than my thumb.

 

 

Lion

Sizanani males

 

The two brothers were seen only once in this period. In the last blog we predicted that they might move north, away from the Matimba threat that had once again moved in on their turf and their females. This is exactly what they did! They moved into the area around Vulture pan and managed to kill a fully grown Buffalo again. Not bad for two males of which one has a severely bad back leg.

 

They spent several days feeding on the female Buffalo. Once again the strong male, who we’ve decided to name the Madiba male (so named after Nelson Mandela because of his unusual compassion not seen in lion behaviour), left his brother Gimpy to feed in peace.

Matimba males and Koppies females

These males have also afforded us one sighting. They were once again with the Koppies females and it will be interesting to see if these females stay with this powerful coalition. One male was with two Koppies girls on Helens road and had already mated with the middle female (in the previous blog). This time he was showing particular interest in the older female.

 

The Matimba’s have already secured the Nkuhuma females in the south and three of the males spend most of their time with these girls. Two of the males are generally in the central Manyeleti around Main dam. They have on several occasions flirted with the Mbiri females and the Koppies girls. Interestingly enough, the Koppies and Mbiri females are both from the Orpen/ Skybeds pride that split up early last year. I don’t think they’ll accept each other in a new pride so only time will tell if these males will be able to juggle the two groups of females.

 

Nkuhuma pride

These females are usually found in the far south of the Manyeleti, but due to the constant upheaval caused by big coalitions of males, they have also splintered into smaller groups. The core of the group still frequents the southern Manyeleti and currently has three cubs sired by the Matimba males. The rest of the group still has to accept the Matimba males further north.

 

We found one of the Nkuhuma females on a Giraffe kill at Ndlovu Manzi. This is by far the furthest north we have seen any of these females. I think she had a very lucky day as she had a giraffe carcass of probably more than a ton, all to herself. She had to be a little careful as the carcass attracted a few Hyenas to the area. They wouldn’t hesitate killing her given the chance.

 

 

Cheetah

 

We had two good Cheetah sightings in this period. The first sighting was of the resident female between Vulture pan road and Rhino Run road. She was looking around, probably for food, but had a nervous look about her. The first thought was that the Sizanani brothers had a kill in the area a few days back and she most likely smelt them.

 

Mpho, in the meantime, had noticed the tracks of two males in the area. We have seen a few single males and a coalition of four young males in the area recently. Maybe the four had split into two, who knows, we thought.

 

A few days later we had a very disturbing sighting. As it was a rainy morning no cameras went out. The guys found two male Cheetah that had killed another male and were busy eating him. I have seen canabalism before with Lion and Leopard but have never even heard of it with Cheetah. It left us all shocked and surprised as we discussed it after safari that morning.

Other views from the bush

 

 

It’s crazy time in the bush at the moment. Hope you all enjoy the sights!

Darren Roberts-York and the safari team

Photo and Video Editing by Darren Roberts-York