LATEST NEWS
04 March 2010
Makubela
Photo: Louis Marais
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
Wild Dog
Photo: Louis Marais
Wild Dog Pack
Photo: Louis Marais
Mapogo
Photo: Louis Marais
Egyptian Geese
Photo: Louis Maris
