Wildlife report for March 2012

Finally the internet allowed me to post the report! Enjoy…

GENERAL:
The last month of summer approached and rewarded us with amazing game viewing after the last rain we had!
The overall condition of the bush is amazing and we shared many unforgettable sightings with our guests through this month.




Something that stood out was the fact that there are single hippo‘s occupying small bodies of water throughout the traversing after the major dams broke during January‘s flood. They will probably regroup once some of these dams get rebuilt!

LEOPARD:
Rockfig jr. was the star of the show together with her 5month old cub. The little boy was introduced to us nicely for the first time towards the end of the month.



We lost out on some habituating time with this little guy during the flood and repair period of Jan. and Feb. but it looks like he is starting to settle down a little bit more towards the vehicles.

Umfana (Ntombi‘s independent boy) is now just over 2 yrs old and he spends lots of time in Rockfig jr.‘s territory to the east of us.
He was seen on numerous occasions and quite a few times on kills! Some good interaction was noted at one of his kills where Rockfig jr. tried to steal some of his kill from him. Even though she has much more experience than him, he still managed to keep her away from his food after a quick scrap.

Sightings of other leopards were also good with Ntombi filling a lot of the spaces when we did not see the above mentioned two.

LION:
The Machaton pride was very uncooperative during the month and only two sightings of them were recorded. We think the presence of the last Timbavati boy down South may be the reason for them spending so much time outside of our traversing looking for males.
We have been informed that there was a fight between them and the Myambula pride down South and this may cause them to move back “home” towards April!

Four of the Mafikizolo lions were seen frequently throughout the whole traversing and appear to be much more settled with the vehicles around. The rest of the pride when they show up are very skittish however and this causes the whole pride to be more unnerved.


The White lionesses also visited a few times however they are separated from each at this point.
The one walks with a younger female cousin from the Timbavati pride and the other was seen a few times around the Jaydee property by herself.

Both are in good condition and we will update you once we have news on all of them if and when they manage to reunite!

ELEPHANT AND CAPE BUFFALO:
Both species was very prolific and we had amazing sightings around the smaller waterholes of them in large numbers to quench their thirst!




Buffalo herds averaging 300-500 individuals and elephant herds varied from 20-80 individuals at times!

WHITE RHINO:
I will not go into much detail at this point, but sightings were fair!

SPECIAL SIGHTINGS:
Rare animals visited us again during the month.

The large pack of African Wild dogs were still in our area and numerous guests got to see the second most endangered predator in Africa!


A female cheetah and her sub-adult youngster spent about four days on Kings Camp and for the first time in months we spent some quality time with the speedsters.

Well, that is it for this month!

Keep watching the blog for more news…

Kind regards,
Morné and the guiding team.

Report written by Morné Hamlyn.
Photography by Morné Hamlyn.