MANAGERS REPORT

The bushveld has turned green over night after we received good early rains totalling 60mm at the start of the month. These conditions ultimately make game viewing a bit more of a challenge as the bush thickens with new fresh foliage. The general game benefits tremendously from the early rain, as they became stronger, fitter and faster making it more difficult for the apex predators to make a living in this on going world of survival.

We start this months report with the resident lions.

The Machaton pride was again seen hunting around the camp. On one particular morning game drive I managed to locate the pride very close to the camp hunting impala, which they failed to do miserably. The pride regrouped and moved to the Riverbed. As they walked through dense vegetation I lost visual of the pride and moved around to locate the pride cross the riverbed. It was then when I noticed a massive cloud of dust rising in the early morning crisp air. I immediately moved to the location and discovered the pride sitting on top of a termite sand mound whilst one of the older lionesses dug with earnest at the entrance of a warthog burrow under the mound. These kind opportunities don’t present themselves often and immediately the Kings Camp guides got in to position waiting for the action.

After several minutes of digging it appeared that the adult lioness had given up when another young sub-adult lioness took the leading roll and decided to dig on. Minutes later she managed to nip the warthog on the tip of its nose and with immense power and determination pulled the pig out of its hole.

The rest of the pride responded and in a cloud of dust and excitement the warthog was ripped and killed in seconds. A warthog is not a sufficient meal for the whole pride, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers.

The pride regrouped and bonded before making off to the cool sandy riverbed to rest before the hunting started again late during the evening.

The Sohobele pride is fast becoming of one of the most viewed and loved prides in our areas of traversing. In the August game report I wrote a story about the pride that tragically lost one of their cubs to a crocodile. Well, this month I am glad to inform you our guests that the pride has recovered from the sad loss of their cub. However the pride had a difficult time in providing for their litter of five during the month. These growing cubs can be demanding and pressure to provide enough food for the cubs can be very stressful for the mothers.

On the other hand the dominant male that is supposed to protect the pride has been more of an irritation than a pride male. He pirated numerous good kills from the lioness that are trying very hard to provide for the cubs. This meant that the cubs go without food for days on end. At one stage the cubs had no meat for six days. Conditions were pretty gloomy and I was concerned that they would not make it at one stage. But just as I thought that it was impossible for them to recover from their poor condition, Mother Nature threw me a curve ball.

I have seen a number of amazing animal interactions during my career at Kings Camp but I have never in my life came across a lioness so desperate that she took part of her kill back to her cubs. This kind of behaviour is not regularly seen and I would think is a desperate response of survival.

The Sohobele lionesses on one cool summer morning managed to kill a warthog that happened to walk right into the path of the lionesses as they had a morning “snooze”. The kill was made and in a blaze of fury and the carcass was shredded in two. One of the lionesses ate her share, which was not much, and the other lioness did the same with her share. Naturally I knew that the kill could not sustain the pride and in normal lion fashion the adults normally consume a kill of this size quickly. It is normally not worth the effort to collect the cubs and bring them back to the kill. However, much to my surprise one of the adult lionesses picked up part of her kill and immediately started running with it. “This is strange,” I said to my guests. I naturally assumed that she wanted to eat in privacy.

The desperate mother ran at high speed with half of the warthog in her mouth to the den site where the cubs were hidden and waiting. I tried desperately to keep up with her, which took a huge amount of planning crossing the correct roads and riverbeds so that I would not loose sight of her. I also knew where she had left the cubs and immediately placed the vehicle at the right spot. We very soon sighted the lioness now exhausted walking down the riverbed towards the cubs. With a single low contact call the cubs bolted out of the reeds to meet their mother with great enthusiasm. The love and affection shown was powerful and one could just feel the maternal bond.

In their delirious state of hunger the cubs immediately wanted to feed on the warthog but strangely the lioness acted aggressively covering the carcass with her body. “This makes no sense,” I told my guests. But little did I know that she was merely trying to protect the carcass from the dominant male, which was in the same area. By partially covering the carcass with her body it would make it difficult to take the kill from her. This will allow the cubs all to feed safely while she protects it.

This is exactly what happened. Never have I seen this kind of behaviour before and all five cubs managed to get a fair share to eat minutes before the dominant male arrived. This was excellent planning from an experienced lioness!

A few days later the sohobele lionesses then managed to kill an adult male zebra east of Kings Camp. This area is not their usual hunting ground and it is probably hunger that drives them from their traditional areas. The kill lasted 36 hours and they could leisurely feed without the presence of the male lion. The cubs are already looking better and soon settled in the riverbed to digest their meal.

Leopards

The Ntombi leopardess is fast becoming on of the most viewed female leopards in our area. This little leopardess, which will be two years in March 2008, is already at this young age doing some stern territorial advertising. Normally female leopards are only sexually mature at two and seldom advertise their presence by scent marking. This is normally only done in the 3rd year of development partly because of the presence of the other mature resident female leopards in the area.

Ntombi’s mother is not relaxed with the game drive vehicles and the pressure that might come from the game drive vehicles concerning viewing might be too much for her. One has to keep in mind that we don’t place any stress on any animal in the conservation area. If any animal does not like the presence of the game vehicles they will move away and we don’t follow the animal. Ntombi leopardess tolerates the game drive vehicles. This of course means that we get to view this spectacular cat, which all guests would love to see and spend a bit of time with.

I would like to mention that for the very first time I managed to see Ntombi acting aggressive to another very young female leopard. We are not sure who the new comer is or if it is Ntombis sister. This fantastic image was captured on game drive of Ntombi resting in a tree.

On a different note a pair of rare side-striped jackals have been seen hunting and taking up residents on one of the airstrips. The pair of rare jackals was seen daily in daylight hours, which is unusual considering that it is a nocturnal species. Side-striped jackals occupy a range of habitats from game areas to farmland were farmers often shoot them injudiciously. We remain at a distance when viewing the pair of jackals as we hope that they will remain in our area of traversing.

Kings Camps resident troop of monkey have managed to get a bit of news coverage this month. That is because they have a new member in their team. One of the older females gave birth on the 27th of October. The adult female seems to be more relaxed this year with her new born than previous years even allowing me to take pictures. In one of the images one can clearly seen the newborn as the other members of the troop groom the dominant female.

Our troop only has two adult females, which is not enough to sustain a healthy population. One of the sub adult males is becoming a tad hostile. In normal troop interaction, the dominant male should keep the young members in line. However the sub adult male seems to think his is the top male in the troop whenever the dominant male is not present. If his aggression persists we might take the necessary measures to relocate him to a different area. This would normally happen within their society and all we are doing is speeding up the process. We consider this more of a psychological boost for the young male.

Anyway that is all for this month folks. I hope you enjoyed reading the report as much as I complied it.

Patrick O’Brien – Head Ranger Kings Camp

Photography by Patrick. Mandevo Photography