Rangers Report October 2013

Good day bush and nature lovers of Kings Camp

Wow, what an exciting month October has been! As usual lots of great sightings from the famous big 5 but this is a great time of the year when it comes to change. Now at the end of October we have received about 30 mm of good rain spread over 5 days. This is perfect for vegetation growth, instead of having all the rain as a deluge creating erosion. In this month has transformed from a golden brown landscape with evergreen trees along dry river beds into a landscape full of life with green now everywhere. Come end of November the bush will be a tropical green. We are fortunate that “good” rains have come relatively early, this area has in recent years experienced good but damaging rain fall to nature and infrastructure but the Timbavati area is regarded  semi-arid and in the  past is more synonymous with drought. Other delightful changers are the return of our beloved feathered summer visitors coming all this way to make the Timbavati a birding hotspot.  The stinging buzz of Cicadas beetles are a reminder of the temperature steady climbing (their buzz is actually reminding me right now as I write this).

As mentioned above Kings Camp is a great place to view the big 5, buffalos have been around our traversing area in force. This month we have been seeing herds of buffalo ranging from 50 to 2000 animals, so some nice big herds!  We have also been lucky to be viewing a big herd of about 20 male buffalo which we call “dagga boys”. Theses battle-scarred animals have faces full of characteristic that one can only receive living in this wild African environment. After buffalo must come lions because that’s how we like it if it is like that in the bush. Lion prides are few and far between in the heart of our area but we have such large access we have managed to see the Jacaranda pride in the north and the Ross pride further to the south from Kings Camp. Male that’s totally different; many males are in our area 3 different groups. The “Mbandi” is back with a new big male. Then we have the 2 big “Rockfig” males and further to the south 3 “sobele” males. The “Rockfig” and “Mbandi” males are very active in our area and are making some spectacular kills, killing on one instance 2 adult buffalo at once! Once dominance has been established that will encourage females to come back into the area forming again the “Machaton” pride. In the beginning of the month we saw what’s left of the “Machatons” the female with her now over 3 year old cubs. They are looking really good though. Leopards, Ntombi is the greatest  mother making kills on almost a daily basis for her now 7 month old cubs that do a little bird and shrew hunting themselves now. A leopardess that we don’t see that often we think might also have cubs. A huge male was also viewed for a few days in the south; he was special to see how massive these cats can be after we spend much time with the finer delicate females. Good sightings of elephants, many herds having ting young following their trunk like a dangling carrot. Kings Camp in the Timbavati is also a good place to see rhino with us.

I have enjoyed updating you here and we look forward to hosting you at Kings Camp, experiencing a very special part of our world.

Jade, Kings Camp Guide