Greeting to all our nature followers
It is now that time of the year that the Timbavati slowly gives up its lush green glow to the more monotonous golden yellow, that the grass will eventually become. As well what is noticeable is the freshness in the air late in the day and especially on the morning game drives. Sunrises start slow eventually illuminating the whole sky with different colours. Thanks to the exceptionally generous summer rainfall the animals are heading into the tougher months well prepared. The impala males starting the “rutting” (courting) season now and have fattened up well. This, one can clearly see in the thickness of their necks which is reserve fat pollster for the rut ahead. They stand all proud and solitary in the mid-day sun, not at all shy like most times of the year. They also become really vocal grunting into the wild, often allowing guests to be shocked thinking a lion is nearby. Impalas rut fiercely through the night giving their positions away to predators, females are definitely risky business!? That is a general trend now with all plains game (courting) seeing a male kudu bull with kudu cows, a little bit of one on one time or giraffes courting each other the male animal’s often curling their lip back testing if the female is falling for him and ready to conceive. Our migrant bird species have left us with memorries full of colour.
This month Kings Camp guests were spoilt again with many great sightings even getting a look at a rare Timbavati white lioness. Another fantastic highlight and news is the leopardess “Thumbela” has gorgeous little roughly 5 month old cubs. She was seen with her 2 little precious cubs right on our southern traversing area on a kill. This was a lovely sighting that our guests got to enjoy with us here at Kings. It also is looking like the “Marula” leopardess is also starting to lactate. So we are just looking forward to the great sightings that we will be experiencing together with these cats. “Ntombi” our resident leopardess is doing a great job with her boys. Very adventurous now stalking to within one meter of a rhino bull who also wanted to court a female rhino that was a close call. The “Mbandi” lions were a while on Kings this month they even brought down a giraffe which was amazing to witness. The lions that we encounter the most are the “Machaton” lions. Theses lions have been making some spectacular buffalo kills themselves, remember the one I described in last month’s blog.
To see the prehistoric looking rhinos in this prehistoric looking landscape is always a great pleasure and in these tough rhino times brings joy to our hearts that they still have a home here in the Timbavati. Elephants have been around in abundance anything from your big herds of 30+ animals with all shapes and sizes to the solitary big bull elephants of the area. These largest of all land mammals are always a treat for our guests to see these sophisticated animals living their daily lives foraging, playing and how nurturing they are to their offspring and other family members. The legendary African buffalo herds have also been coming through our traversing area with regularity in search of grazing and water. These herds can reach numbers of biblical proportion, casting the nearby surrounding area into a thick black mass of animals. Really beautiful sighting to see so many animals congregate together like that. The wild dogs too have been in and out of our area on a regular basis. Many animals to be seen here!
Well this month was another superb month to be in the bush and I’m sure you will be keen to join us. So until the end of next month I Wish everyone well and have fun.
Jade, Kings Camp Guide
