November Photos

Here are some of the pictures from November...

November Photos



ENJOY

Chaos around little bush

The last month marked the start of the first serious summer rains. These rains paired together with the large areas that were burnt led to amazing lush green grass, which in turn led to the attraction of very large herds of buffalo. And where the meat goes so do the cats. 

Our lions have been going through some very interesting changes since the death of our pride male about 5 months ago. We have since had a pair of new males move in and take over the pride. Just as a refresher, our pride consisted of 4 adult females, 5 sub adult males and 4 sub adult females. The new pride males however have no tolerance for the 5 young males as they pose a risk as they get older and have chased them off. only 1 of the young females has stayed with the adults and the other 3 have joined with the younger males forcing the pride into 2 separate entities. They do come across each other on a regular basis and the relations all depend on the presence of the new males. If they are there all you see are young lions being chased all over and if not you can see the rekindling of old maternal bonds as the youngsters are welcomed back. The new males have been doing a great job so far and seem to have successfully impregnated at least 3 of the females, one of which is off currently giving birth. 

With the arrival of the large buffalo herds there was a definite change in behaviour in the lions and the need to cash in on the major abundance gave way to an uneasy truce between the 2 prides. The dominant males were less prone to chasing off the young males on sight but instead waited for them to assist in bringing down a nice size meal that he could then steal from the rest. 

In the space of 7 days the lions managed to pull down at least 7 buffalo that we knew of and all this happened within one kilometre from Little Bush Camp...this is an unbelievable number but when compared with the numbers that passed through the property it doesn't even hit 1%. In my estimate there were times over the 3 weeks that the buffalo were passing on and off Sabi Sabi that we could have had near on 2000 buffalo on the property. This meant that there were literally more buffalo than impala and guests were getting a little bored by the sight of these beautiful creatures. Also due to the fact that a lot of the buffalo were hanging around our camp we often encountered these guys on foot while on bush walks as well as bumping into the lions on 3 separate occasions. One of which was a mating pair which were not to happy with our presence and hit some very low growls as we approached. Once we had got to safety we headed back to the lodge where we got the vehicle and went to enjoy the sighting from the safety of the vehicle.

The lions were not the only cats entertaining us around the lodge. The leopards were in full cry around the lodge with the little bush female paying regular visits to the lodge both day and night. Our young male that was staying around bush lodge has moved into our area. He managed to kill a bushbuck about 40 metres from my house in the river bed so for the next 3 days the guests saw more of my place than I did! He then also managed to kill a bushbuck in the camp and thought his food would be safest if he stashed it in the outside shower of Suite 3. Our dominant male, Sandriver, has been looking a little worse for wear and looks to be losing a bit of condition. This has meant he hasn't been marking territory as frequently and this has invited a huge new male from the east onto the property and he seems to be making a home of our area. He was responsible for the death of one of the cubs but this just means that the mother has pushed further west into the middle of the property. He has been trying to mate with another one of the females which has come into oestrus and we witnessed her trying to attract him by calling incessantly for 2 hours marking territory every 10 metres leaving a trail of bread crumbs for him to follow.

All very complicated but madly interesting to see the dynamics of these amazing creatures. Seeing their interactions, territorial changes and movements based on various stimuli and situations. The longer I stay in the bush the more I learn, the more I learn the more I understand and the understanding just leaves me gob smacked by the intelligence that underlies the entire system. And as I sit here writing this from the comfort of my home in Johannesburg on my holiday, I get home sick to be back in the bush and back to the complex simplicity that prevails! 

But for now it is time to recharge the batteries to prepare for the Christmas and New Years rush through the lodge...

Merry Christmas to you all and a happy New Year...