Tintswalo Ranger's Blog: Sightings Report: 6

As the winter months are setting in, the mornings are cooling and the colours in the bush changing daily. Cool bush burns are being employed as a management tool by the reserve management as fire is essential in bush management. By burning certain areas at this time of the year, the growth from previous years is removed creating more grazing in the early growing season without changing the composition of the bush.

Only certain areas are burnt and not the entire reserve. This is burnt on a rotational basis ensuring sweet grazing for our huge herds and a food source for our predators.

Lions

Matimba males

The big males have still been moving around the area north of Main dam. The blonde males in the south have been south of our boundary. There was one sighting of one of the blonde males with the two dark maned males on Vulture pan road. These little visits keep those bonds strong and ensure that the huge territory is secured for the future. By marking their territory they advertise their strength in size and numbers to all other lions on the verges of their territory.

One sighting of interest was of one Matimba male with a Mbiri female, who were bumped into by the TREC team. The humans were as surprised as the lions. It’s always an interesting sighting to have lions on foot and increases the excitement levels.

Koppies females

These females have been around the Matimba males lately and have been seen on two separate occasions. The first sighting was at Khoka moya dam and both females were with the two dark maned males. A few days later we found one female with one Matimba very close to the shooting range and it looked like he wasn't taking no for an answer. It’s about time these females produce cubs and grow the pride and secure their future under the protection of the Matimba males.

Nkuhuma pride

We had one sighting of the pride with the cubs far down in the south. Duncan had a fantastic view of the cubs playing close to a seasonal pan. On the banks was a fallen log which became a play thing as the cubs chased and climbed, entertaining our guests to the fullest.

Sungula pride

We had a sighting of our least seen pride just to the west of Koppies. When Mpho found them they were stalking a herd of Zebra. They were on the wrong side of the wind and the young males made a complete hash of the hunt. After the attempted hunt, the two males moved up to a large termite mound and gave us some beautiful photographic opportunities with the Koppie in the background. They still seem to be moving in the area just to the north of the Matimba territory.

Leopard

Beacon male

Duncan had a sighting of the big guy at Rians Folley road and was able to follow him for a short while before he moved into a drainage line. This male is still being seen mostly only in the northern part of his territory. We have been seeing the tracks of another male in the same area which might be a reason for him sticking to the north. This would be the first threat to his dominance in the central Manyeleti that we have seen since we started the blog.

Young male leopard

The young male that has been hanging around the lodge was eventually successfully photographed and named. He is the son of the Main dam female and the Beacon male.

We have decided that the person that takes the first identifiable photograph, has the honour of selecting a name for it. The below image was taken by my guest, Ken Chias, and he decided to call him Javas.

Javas is the Sanskrit word meaning run or swift.

Photograph courtesy of Ken Chias

Mpho found him at the lodge boom gate and he allowed us to follow him to the lodge access road. He is starting to relax with the vehicles a bit and we hope that he sticks around for a while.

Cheetah

The guys from TREC found a single male Cheetah just to the south of Wild dog dam. As they were walking, the Cheetah disappeared before they could click a quick image. This is one of the areas that we have a fairly high frequency of Cheetah sightings and have identified at least five different individuals.

Wild dog

We had a few sightings of a pack of eleven Painted dogs revisiting old denning sites all around Pod mahogany and S8 dam. This time of the year they are on the lookout for suitable real estate and have to take a few things into account. They need to consider the amount of prey in the area and the amount of other predators around. All these factors are considered before the first denning site for the pup season is chosen. We are holding our thumbs!