Wildlife report for May 2011

May served us with amazing sightings…

GENERAL:
WOW! I‘ve never seen the Timbavati this green at this time of the year in over 10 years.

Our last rain came very late this year and we still had warmer temperatures throughout the month until it suddenly cooled down towards the end.


Sightings in general were great and because of the good “veldt” (grazing) condition we still have numerous “plains” game around. Masses of Giraffe, Zebra, Kudu, Waterbuck, Wildebeest, stunning birds and even Ostriches were common sightings in May. We also had various excellent Hyena sightings from different clans in the area.

LEOPARD:
Ntombi and her boy (now 14 months old) were seen quite often throughout the month on a number of large Impala kills. The young fellow is now quite used to the vehicles and sightings of him are a pleasant treat.


It looks like the paths between Rockfig jr. and Tumbela have now parted for good! Tumbela was seen exploring unfamiliar terrain a few times and this is a good indication that Rockfig jr. is putting pressure on her daughter to find new ground to settle in.

Rockfig jr. mated with an unknown male in February and there is a good chance that she is ready to have her new cubs pretty soon, if she hasn‘t already! We haven‘t seen much of her in the month, but we will give you proper updates as soon as we know more.

The young Xinope-nope made a few welcome appearances during May! There were some good interactions between him and a Hyena and he recently killed a big male Impala. He hoisted the carcass into a big Marula tree and this of course made for amazing sightings for nearly 2 days. He is bulking up very quickly now, and we really hope that he could become dominant in the Southern section in the next year to come.

LION:
The Machaton pride and the 2 Timbavati Boys made up the bulk of our sightings during May.


The smaller cubs (now just over 3 months old) have recently started walking further with the pride. Distance is still limited and we were blessed with great activity on our property and our neighbours….

Various kills were made and we witnessed some awesome interactions between pride members. Recently the pride and the 2 males were very focussed on a large herd of Cape Buffalo and have been following them with intent, but thus far without success.

We also saw a new pride twice during the month. They are very skittish however and move away from vehicles as soon as sighted.

ELEPHANT AND CAPE BUFFALO:
Masses of Elephants and Buffalo were scattered through out our whole traversing during the month.

Elephants appeared in numbers from mid May and it was common to see 3-4 herds on a single drive. They congregated around the larger dams and one could easily count between 60-120 animals around the water.

Cape Buffalo seemed to be more numerous than Impalas (LOL) and 3-5 herds were called in on loads of drives out.

WHITE RHINO:
Sightings were frequent and we managed on a few occasions to see two main groups.

One group is from the South and we saw them with Mtenge-tenge a few times. Up North we had some good sightings of the Nhlangula male and another group of 4.

SPECIAL SIGHTINGS:

WILD DOGS!!!
A pack of 7 dogs showed up and now spends a fair amount of time on our traversing. The alpha female seems heavily pregnant and we are praying that they make up a den in our area for some good future viewing. We‘ll keep you updated on any progress.

VIDEO CLIPS:

[FMP width=”640″ height=”360″]http://www.seasonsinafrica.com/lodges-in-south-africa/timbavati-private-nature-reserve/kings-camp-private-game-reserve/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/20110601-Hyena-drinking.flv[/FMP]
[FMP width=”640″ height=”360″]http://www.seasonsinafrica.com/lodges-in-south-africa/timbavati-private-nature-reserve/kings-camp-private-game-reserve/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/20110601-Ellies-drinking.flv[/FMP]

[FMP width=”640″ height=”360″]http://www.seasonsinafrica.com/lodges-in-south-africa/timbavati-private-nature-reserve/kings-camp-private-game-reserve/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/20110601-Kudu-kill.flv[/FMP];
[FMP width=”640″ height=”360″]http://www.seasonsinafrica.com/lodges-in-south-africa/timbavati-private-nature-reserve/kings-camp-private-game-reserve/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/20110601-Cubs-drinking.flv[/FMP];

[FMP width=”640″ height=”360″]http://www.seasonsinafrica.com/lodges-in-south-africa/timbavati-private-nature-reserve/kings-camp-private-game-reserve/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/20110601-Xinopenope.flv[/FMP]
[FMP width=”640″ height=”360″]http://www.seasonsinafrica.com/lodges-in-south-africa/timbavati-private-nature-reserve/kings-camp-private-game-reserve/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/20110601-Wilddogs.flv[/FMP];

That‘s all for now!

Stay in touch and be sure to follow Kings Camp on Facebook (Kings Camp Lodge) and Twitter (@kingscamplodge).

Kind regards,

Morné- and the Kings Camp guiding team.
Photography and Video clips by, Morné Hamlyn.
Report written by, Morné Hamlyn.