Idube News Articles

LATEST NEWS

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:42:51 +0000

As we move into March, the first colours of autumn start to show through the green cover of the summer and warm days and mild nights take over from the hot and humid conditions of previous months. The last few rainfalls of the wet season should pass over quickly and many of the migratory birds will start to congregate on the power-lines and dead trees in preparation for the trip north.

February itself was filled with many sightings, some rare and unusual, some more common, but all interesting in one way or another.

The biggest news of the month came towards the last few days as finally Makubela brought her new cubs into the lodge for our first ever view of them. Having heard the monkeys and baboons alarm calling around the lodge almost every day since the middle of the month, the cause of their concern became obvious as the two, two month old, cubs were spotted in the huge jackal-berry tree behind the honeymoon boma. As yet we are not sure of sexes but they both look fit and healthy and we hope that this litter, Makubela's fourth, will make it to maturity.

Staying on the subject of leopard cubs, the Hlabnkunzi female is still hiding her new litter around the lodge at Leopard Hills. Mabirri and Shangwa are still doing a good job raising their respective cubs and are seen regularly. Not so lucky was Metsi who seems to have lost her first litter within weeks of their birth, the upside to this was three days worth of sightings of her and the Tegwaan male mating in a nice open dry riverbed.

Meanwhile the Xikavi female was still heavily pregnant last time she was seen and perhaps we will see her cubs in the coming weeks.

Another pair of mating leopards was seen briefly north of the river, and were not positively identified. Andries thinks the male was probably Tegwaan with a chance the female may have been Nchila - a leopard we have not seen for a very long time.

The pack of six wild dogs was seen almost daily throughout the month and there were sightings of both the females in the pack mating. Hopefully they will den here in the west this year giving us all an opportunity so see the pups grow up. Promise was able to show his guests the pack interact with Hlabnkunzi late one afternoon as they came across her and a freshly killed impala. The dogs managed to chase the leopard away and finish off the carcass in a matter of minutes!

Both main lion prides (Ximunghwe and Ottawa) were viewed regularly through the month, as were the big males of the Mapogo coalition.

There were new additions to the Ximunghwe pride as one female was found with a den site in the Day-One riverbed and another female was thought to be denning in the south somewhere close to Savanna. The older cub seems to take perverse pleasure in annoying the adults in the pride so new additions will at least give them some relief!

Around the middle of the month we were lucky enough to have the entire Ximunghwe pride plus four Mapogo males lazing around on the clearings in front of the lodge for a day. In fact the pride were seen a number of times in the vicinity of Idube, making the necessity of escorting guests to the rooms after dark very clear!

The four cubs of the Ottawa pride are growing well but due to their numbers are not as sturdy as the young Ximunghwe cub who has no competition for milk! The playful antics of these cubs fascinate even the sub adults of the pride and the mother is more tolerant of the cubs playing with other lions now so sightings of the pride are a delight every time.

The four resident males spent a lot of their time with the Ximunghwe pride but were also seen separately on occasion and one drive even brought in a report of one of the two eastern brothers joining up in our section for the first time in what is probably over a year. Hopefully that sighting may lead to more and one day in the not too distant future we may see all six of the coalition together for a change.

Again two male cheetah were seen in the course of the month, one of which was on the clearings in front of the lodge at the same time some of the lions were. Not surprisingly the cheetah did not stick around long after coming face to face with one of the Mapogo males.
With the long grass there were not as many sightings of the cheetah as there could have been but we expect that during the winter months it will become easier and the total number of sightings will increase.

Elephant were still concentrated around the marula trees most of the month as they fed on the last of the fallen fruit, many herds were seen as well as plenty of big bulls.

Rhino were, as always, regularly sighted in the southern parts of the traversing area, However there were many sightings in the central areas and even north of the river for a change.

The large herd of buffalo spent a lot of time in our area and this coupled with the smaller groups and bachelor herds meant that sightings were recorded almost every day. An unusual incident occurred in the middle of the big herd one afternoon as we drove through them on the road. One very young calf wandered a few paces away from its mother. The cow continued feeding and moving forward increasing the distance between her and the youngster. This happens all the time in a herd and is not remarkable but what was unusual is that when the calf realised it was getting left behind, it did not start to call it's mother, instead it wandered over to our land-rover and started to look for milk under the wheel arch! By this time the mother had realised that her calf was missing and was running in circles calling, the youngster was oblivious to the panic as it continued to try to suckle the land-rover. Eventually it started to move around to the other rear wheel as it was getting no joy from the one it was at and I managed to roll away as the mother rejoined her calf.

As always video highlights of most of the sightings mentioned plus a few more can be found on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/iduberobtheranger

Best wishes,
Rob The Ranger

New Management

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:19:59 +0000

February was a month of new beginnings tinged with a hint of sadness.
We bade farewell to Andy, Delise and Weslan. Andy and Delise were with us for nearly seven years and it was time to take up new challenges. We wish them every success in their new venture.

But it is with pleasure that we welcome Melinda and Rudi Hulshof to the Idube Team. They are no strangers either to the lodge industry or to the area.

We wish them well and look forward to working with them for many years.

Sally Kernick.
Marketing Director

January Newsletter

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:48:55 +0000

The first month of 2010 has already passed us by leaving us in February, often the hottest and stormiest month of the year. Good rains in February should ensure the bush has enough water to last through the drier months of winter. February usually brings many bird sightings, especially of the insect and seed eating varieties as the grasses ripen and the insect activities increase. The animal life should also be abundant with the availability of food and water at a premium. The Elephants are expected to be searching for the last few marula fruits of the season and the large buffalo herds will be making the most of the long grass as the peak birthing season comes to an end.

January was also a month of warm, wet conditions with just under 200mm of rain being recorded. The sight of most of the small drainage lines flowing was coupled with a month of spectacular game viewing.

Regular sightings of the pack of six painted hunting dogs and views of two different male cheetah meant that even rarer animals were well represented in the sightings counts for the month.

Many people are eager to get news on the lion cubs that were seen for the first time in December. I am happy to say that the four cubs of the Ottawa pride were found again in the Christmas drainage line on the northern part of Idube. The cubs were soon used to the vehicles and by the end of the month were moving regularly with the rest of the pride providing us all with some fantastic sightings.

The Ximunghwe pride were seen with their one little cub on a number of occasions. The cub joined the pride and one of the Mapogo at a kudu kill in the south and was boldly jumping all over the very patient old male as he was trying to sleep!

All four of the western Mapogo were seen regularly throughout the month, with reports of the two eastern members of the coalition joining with the Sparta/Eyrefield lionesses and moving closer to our boundary. It has been more than a year since all six of the big males have been seen together in the west so it is a sighting to look forward to the next time the Sparta pride comes across ( they were seen in the west during the month but before the males joined them). The death of the old Rollercoaster/Shaws male on New Years day was the catalyst for the Mapogo taking over the pride that they grew up in.

The nomadic male from the Selati pride (known as the Golf Course male) was seen following the large buffalo herd again, this time coming even closer to a confrontation with the Mapogo as their paths missed each other by less than a kilometre one night.

Our leopard population has increased by an unknown amount during January as the Hlabnkunzi female has definitely given birth, the Metsi female is also reported to have given birth and the Xikavi female was looking quite heavily pregnant and if she has not given birth yet but will do soon. None of the cubs have been seen on drive yet so numbers are unknown. Add this to Makubela and her cubs that we are still waiting to see and 2010 should be a bumper year for leopard cubs in the western sector.

The Shangwa and Mabirri females continue to successfully raise their respective young female cubs. Shangwa's youngster should become independent in the next few months but Mabirri should still be with her cub until late this year.

The Tegwaan male leopard continues to dominate the northern parts our area with few sightings of any of the other, younger, males during the month.

The ripening marula fruits attracted many elephants to the area and on some days elephant sightings outnumbered the Impala sightings! The many elephant herds meant that baby elephants were a common sight, warming the hearts of all who saw them. The elephants often leave a lot of debris in their wake and many a drive has been held up as we remove or negotiate around the trees and branches the elephants leave as roadblocks.

The large buffalo herds experience a peak in their birthing during the summer months so the wobbly young calves were a common sight stumbling behind the mothers through the long grass, slightly older calves were often seen playing with one another as the adults snoozed on the hotter days.

Rhino, often seen in large numbers during the winter, were harder to find during January as the thick bush hid them away from the roads. This made sightings of these huge beasts even more rewarding as they had to be tracked through the thickets on foot before being found.
One of the rhino that we did find on occasion was the female with the very long horn and she is now much more relaxed with the vehicles again now her calf is much older. This bodes well for winter when she will probably join with her old herd again.

A lion pride with cubs on kill would usually be a busy sighting but mid-January one such sighting was abandoned as we herd distress cries in the bush close by, a quick foray into the bush in the direction of the cries uncovered a Southern African python in the process of catching a duiker. The python had not latched onto the duiker well and it was still crying in distress. It was surprising that the lions themselves had not come to investigate the sounds. As the time passed it became obvious the the duiker was too big for the python to subdue and the python soon realised this as well uncoiling and leaving the small antelope to run to safety.

As usual most of the above highlights and some others will be available to view online at: http://www.youtube.com/iduberobtheranger

Until next month
Best wishes
Rob The Ranger