Tintswalo Ranger's Blog: Sightings Report: 30 April

This week saw the return of the Wild dogs to the Manyeleti and with that return came a lot of action. The large herds of Buffalo are still moving around the reserve and tend to moving to and from Main dam and the gabbro plains in the north and west. The biggest talking point has to be the huge amounts of Elephant at the moment. These pachyderms are providing us with fantastic sightings either just feeding or swimming in the large dams on the reserve.

Lions

Matimba Males

The big males have started moving to the south of their newly acquired territory and we have been seeing them more and more in the area close to Main dam again. This area was the core of their territory for most of the rainy season. They have however been very sly in their wonderings by staying very close to the drainage lines and moving in the thick bush along the dry river beds. This habit of theirs has made us work just a little harder in finding them as well as keeping sight of them.

One of the blonde Matimba’s was seen with the Nkuhuma pride in the south and was interacting with the cubs. It seemed that he had become a large, fluffy play thing and seemed to enjoy it as much as the cubs. They will definitely not have this level of tolerance towards the cubs if they were not their own.

Koppies Females

We only had one sighting of the big girls of the central Manyeleti. They had killed a young Giraffe calf on Incha road to the south-west of the koppies and fed on it for three days.

The mother of the calf was hanging around the kill site for almost two days and was seen approaching and watching as the females fed on the calf. This naturally brought some very mixed feelings to the guests, but also reminded us that the African bush has some harsh realities. Just a few months back the same pride lost one member and her cubs to starvation and the unfortunate bi-products of that starvation. The truth is that some have to die so that some can live.

Nkuhuma Females

These Lions are doing incredibly well. Eight cubs are still with the females and the Matimba males are doing a sterling job at protecting the Nkuhuma’s. The history of this pride has always been a tough life of marauding males unsettling the pride and several deaths of cubs and young males. They really are thriving under the Matimba males and control a large section of the southern part of the reserve with no competition from other lions at all.

The only sighting we had of them was with one of the big guys and showed just how patient the males are with their own cubs.

Leopard

Beacon Male

We had one sighting of the big male Leopard just off Mala run road. He still seems to be spending plenty of time in this area. A few theories as to why he is mostly in this area are that the Matimba males spend more time to the south and east and therefore have pushed him into this area. Another theory is that the bush around this area contains a lot of drainage lines and sodic sites which is perfect for Leopard.

Skybeds Male

This relaxed big tom put in a rare appereance this week. We often see his tracks in the area around the dam and this shows us his favourite haunts. Duncan was lucky enough to see him just to the west of the dam itself. He's a huge cat and we hope to find him more often.

Cheetah

We had one sighting of two young male Cheetah this week. They were found on the Kruger National Park boundary moving north, but were incredibly skittish and moved west into the bush. We tried to relocate them, but were classically outsmarted. The more we see them, the more relaxed they will become with the vehicles.

Wild Dogs

There was one incredible sighting of the dogs at Main dam. The pack of 18 dogs was found chasing Impala on the banks of the dam. They chased one impala into the dam and the impala was taken by a large crocodile. Within minutes though, the dogs had a kill of their own just behind the wall of Main dam. This was an awesome sighting and one that will stick in the minds of the guests that witnessed it for a very long time.