WILDLIFE REPORT

General

A warm welcome to everybody from A cool Timbavati region! This winter has been very productive and it is my privilege to share some of the special sightings we had over the last month...

Leopard

We shared the most amazing sightings of these cats with our guests, but this time around I am going to focus a little bit more on the opportunistic behavior of this successful beast.

Macunjani, the dominant male in our traversing, was on a warthog kill for three days over the last week in the month. This produced some lovely sightings of him displaying a wide variety of different behavioral patterns. This ranged from eating, sleeping, grooming and drinking water to aggressively chasing a female away and dragging the carcass into a nearby tree to finish it in peace! What more can one ask for? Not in our wildest dreams would we have imagined seeing him killing another warthog the very next day!

Patrick and I were following him during the late morning. He was strolling about doing what he normally does when he has a full belly; a little bit of scent marking here and there followed by a short rest... or so we thought!

While he was rubbing his head into some small bushes on a termite mound an adult female warthog charged out of a burrow in the mound just below his feet. The Leopard did not even think twice about his full belly and instinctively chased down at the hog. He managed to get hold of her within 15 meters, nicked her inner thigh, turned her around and jumped onto her chest biting strongly into the throat. WOW!!!

That produced sightings for a further two days... Talk about luck!!

Lion

All the prides in traversing has been seen frequently through the month and we are happy to see that the three "Timbavati brothers" look strong and settled in the Southern sector!

I found them on one morning drive on one of the plains chasing the Lionesses of the Machaton pride around. There was blood visible on them and our suspicion was confirmed when we moved forward. The Machaton pride had killed a female Cape buffalo and the three brothers chased them away from the kill just as we arrived. What followed after that stunned us all and resulted in a Royal brawl...

The Lionesses kept approaching their kill but every time it resulted into a big scrap between them and the males. To make things worse the local clan of Hyenas showed up. Lions charged from all directions and all hell broke loose!  The Lions managed to drive the Hyenas away. The three brothers stated their claim and dominance and finished up with the kill!

Elephant and Cape Buffalo

Large herds of both species were seen very often through the month.

Elephants were seen on most days from the waterhole at camp. That is always very entertaining, especially over breakfast or lunch!

White Rhino

We had numerous views in the month and we still see them frequently in the Southern region in crashes of 2-6. The dominant male, Mtenge-tenge was seen a few times in the presence of a lovely female which appears to be in estrus... Good luck to them!! LOL.

Special Sightings

Cheetah was seen twice in the month. A relaxed, pregnant female killed a Steenbuck on the one drive and then we saw the same female two days after that. It is always a pleasure to see them as it is a rare and special sighting indeed!

See you SOON, take care.

Kind regards, Morné and the Kings Camp ranger team.

Written by: Morné Hamlyn.
Photography by: Morné Hamlyn.