January Newsletter
03 February 2010
Baby Elephant
Photo: Rick Brightman
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
Cheetah
Photo: Elaine Estall
Wild Dog
Photo: Louis Marais
Buffalo Herd
Photo: Louis Marais
