WILDLIFE REPORT

Welcome back! This month was awesome and we have the most amazing sightings to share with you.

First we wish to congratulate Greg & Diane Marshall who got married at Kings Camp! May we see many more returns to Kings Camp!

Leopard

We had leopard sightings nearly every day! The male, “Mangajan” was seen on numerous occasions and was seen mating with the Rockfig female after she gave birth. This phenomenon occurs quite frequently as females often go into "false" estrus after having cubs.

Good news is that the M'bali female and her cubs (now about 4 months old) are seen very often as she now takes them to nearly every kill she makes. It looks like a brother and sister. We will keep you updated regarding happenings and changes on our web blog (www.kingscamp.com/blog).

“Ntombi”, the young female around camp, found herself in a few very uncompromising situations over the last few weeks.

Being a young inexperienced female, she lost quite a few of her kills to “Mangajan”. Not even to mention that she has the “Rockfig” female on her case now as well. “Rockfig” must have a den somewhere close to Makulu dam, which means she walks all the way into “Ntombi's” small territory to hunt.

This causes a great deal of discomfort as poor “Ntombi” loses kills and confidence. Luckily, “Ntombi” spends a lot of time now further west, away from “Rockfig's” presence.

Lions

This was a very busy month indeed!

All the nomadic prides came out in full force now that the Machaton pride relocated to the South. The Timbavati pride showed their experience as they were seen on kills most often during the month. Prey varied between Buffalo, Kudu and Zebra's.

The Voëldam pride made a few surprise visits as well during the month. Great news is that one female has two cubs of about three months old!

Another lioness in the pride is also pregnant. They've been following buffalo for a few days but with no success. Hope to see more of them.

The Schobele pride has a difficult time ahead of them. The lionesses are really struggling to provide proper food to the young ones. Impalas are enough to keep the two adults going but five growing youngsters need to eat a lot and the lionesses need to kill larger prey soon if the cubs are to survive.

Elephant and Cape Buffalo

The buffalo sightings were good. As usual we had big breeding herds moving through the area. It was not uncommon to see numbers in some herds exceeding the 400's.

We also have three bachelors that are ever present around the camp and often they wallow at the waterhole during the heat of the day, which makes for nice sightings while our guests relax or eat lunch.

Herds of 40 plus elephants frequented the areas around the riverbeds over the last five weeks and we saw elephants every single day!!

One sighting stands out and deserves a special sighting status... the picture speaks for itself.

Rhino

Our dominant bull moved his feeding range slightly more south, which only means more sightings. We saw him 42 times in the month!

We hope to see more activity from other rhino's soon as the winter approaches and there move further a field looking for water.

Special sightings

Wild Dogs!

Again the pack of 8 dogs was sighted numerous times in the month. Good news for us is that the alpha female is pregnant and we could only hope for these dogs to den in our traversing in the next few months...

One group of guests shared a very amazing feat with me. We saw the "Big 5", Cheetah and Wild dogs in less than 48hours! Visit our web blog to get the full story and to see the distinguished ones!

Until next time, take care.

Kind reagards, Morné and the Kings Camp Ranger Team.

Written by Morné Hamlyn.
Photography by Morné Hamlyn.