Another month has flown by, the mornings and evenings are getting much cooler. The sun is rising a little later and setting sooner, but the superb sightings haven’t changed.
The rivers have all started to dry up with scattered pools along them so the animals are soon going to have to move larger distances to drink. Even the grass is starting to change colour ever so slightly.
Lion
The lion prides in the area were a lot more frequent with the remaining Machaton lioness and juvenile male being seen on a regular basis on the southern portion of our traversing. They also managed to share a bull giraffe along with the collared Mabande male. They successfully chased off a clan of hyenas who thought they had won the lottery. The collared Mabande male is still limping though an unknown injury and his partner has been doing more moving around protecting the territory. Towards the middle of the month the males were both seen mating with two Myanbula females, so here is hoping. We also saw the Mafikizolo pride still hanging around the north east but spending more time in the Klaserie Game Reserve.
Leopards
Once again this animal has provided numerous hours of guest pleasure, this month we would like to introduce you to two newly named leopards from the north, they are the Argyle Jnr’s juveniles who are starting to become independent. The young male is known as Xiviti and the young female is Tingana, both being seen on the northern part of our traversing.
The Rockfig Jnr female has been seen frequently this month and her youngster seems to be spending more and more time away from mom. The Marula female is still enjoying her new home near the airstrip. Umfana was seen pushing his luck this month as he tried to steal a few mouthfuls of a giraffe that had been killed by some lions. Nthombi has been giving us the slip and has us thinking there might be the chance of new cubs. We will keep you updated if we find anything.
Cape Buffalo & Elephant
The buffalo viewing has been really good this month as we were spoilt with a big herd spending a lot of its time moving through our traversing area. The older males have also been found around the thickly vegetated areas, as well as around the waterholes.
The elephants never disappointed this month, we even managed to view some new calves which always draw an aaaaa from the guests. One interesting sighting was a herd with a matriarch with really interesting tusks, one up and one down, she was also a collared individual so quite important to the elephant research of the area.
Special sightings
We were very fortunate this month with a few cheetah sightings, since this area is quite thick and not perfect hunting area for this lightning quick animal, but an adult female with five juveniles were seen on our property.
The pack of 28 wild dogs kept us entertained again this month and were even seen mating towards the end of the month so let’s hope they den on our property this winter. Having guided for nealy 14 years it was only the second time I witnessed this so it was extremely exciting. We also witnessed this huge pack of wild dogs chasing both Rockfig jnr and her juvenile up into trees on Cheetah Plains and Selby my tracker was the only one quick enough with his camera.
Well that all for this month, join us again for next moths updates.
Wild wishes
Dean & the Kings Camp guiding team
Report written by Head Ranger Dean Robinson
Photography by Dean Robinson & Selby Mgwena
Thank you for sharing March in Timbavati. The sightings sound amazing especially the Cheetahs and the Wild Dogs. Plus it was exciting to read about the new cats. Nice work on catching Rockfig Jr. and cub being chased by the Wild Dogs Selby.
Loved the report, Dean. Congrats on your Assignment as Head Ranger. Look forward to our visit in August.
PS: Cheetahs? My favorite cat. Hope to see them in Timbivati. (as well as the leopard ladies Rockfig Jr. and Ntombi. )