Spots and stripes

It felt almost impossible that I was going to be able to top the mornings drive after our close encounter with the pride of lions, but with unwavering optimism we set out on the afternoon safari. My aim was take the guests through to the kill that our female leopard, Nottens, and her cub were on and maybe see some rhino and other general game.

First to grace us with its enormous presence were three rhinos that were grazing around a mud wallow. As we watched they all took turns to go into the wallow and cake them selves in mud. Each one leaving the pool and heading to trees to use as rubbing posts. While watching them a buffalo had the same idea in mind and approached the wallow with caution making sure that the rhinos were not going to do anything unexpected. Once he made it into the wallow his demeanour changed from that of an old man to a child…he was rolling and horning the mud as if he had never encountered something so amazing!

Unfortunately on our way to the rhinos one of the other vehicles went to relocate on Nottens and her cub but could only find the cub lying in long grass, mother nowhere to be seen and the visual of the little one not worth the effort in going to see. However, I knew that as it neared darkness the cub would be forced to seek safety in the tree so we went to try our luck. As we drove in, the little guy jumped onto the trunk of the tree, stared at us for a second and then ascended. He then proceeded to pose like a super model for our cameras. He was not the only one there and we soon saw the ominous looking hyaena waiting patiently for some scraps to fall out of the tree.

This mornings plan was to see if we could find some giraffe and zebra and then just enjoy the smaller things. Unexpectedly we found a herd of 19 zebra on one of the open areas. This is by far the largest herd I have seen in my year at Sabi Sabi. With them were some wildebeest and impala and they seemed way to interested with something other than the usual feeding and grooming. We went to go investigate and saw a number of vultures in the trees and assumed that there must be something there. We headed out on foot to see if we could find what had attracted the vultures or find whatever predator had attracted the attention of all the herbivores. It wasn’t long before we saw a male leopard slinking off into the long grass. We only got to see him for a short while as he moved towards a major thicket in the river and there was no way to get in.

We had one last animal to find before my guests left and that was the giraffe. Fortunately some had been spotted and we headed out to see them. These majestic creatures were far off but still worth the sighting and this left all the guests smiling and ready for breakfast.

Male leopards and lion charges

Just when you think things are too good to be true and your luck must be running out...it happens all over again. With profoundly different weather from the mornings rain we set out on a beautiful sunny afternoon. All the general game seemed to have found its way out of the thickets and we were bumping into lots of new things. 

After seeing a rhino bull wallowing, kudu and impala we started to make our way to the Nottens side of the reserve. As we approached the open area we found ourselves in the middle of a huge aggregation of animals which included wildebeest, zebra, kudu, impala and warthog. The guests were loving it and were all taking photos. My tracker Solly even got employed as photographer for one of the guests, a job which made his face light up with joy!

About five minutes later we found ourselves watching our big new male, who has been named 'M' because of the M shaped making on his face (see the photo above), while he slept away on an open area. Whilst watching him a young elephant bull came out of the bush to say hi and then disappeared into the thick bush again. Eventually M got up and started to get on the move just after the sun had set and the temperatures had dropped. He started scent marking and we followed him for about an hour before he lay down for a sleep in the long grass and we could no longer see him.

This mornings mission was to find the lions. So we headed south and found fresh tracks in no time. After about forty minutes of following the tracks we were force to follow them on foot as they had left the road. This led to the next road and we were back on the vehicle following the tracks again. Eventually Arthur found the last tracks close to the fence line and they had headed back into the reserve. He decided to head round to the next road and I decided that Solly and I would follow their tracks through the grass on foot. So we headed off to the last tracks and saw where they had been lying...from there we could see the bent grass where they had walked and began to follow...we hadn't walked 3 metres before the bush in front of us sprung to life with four lionesses hissing and growling and then running in the opposite direction to us. I had in this time chambered a round and was staring at the fleeing cats down the sight of my rifle... WHAT A RUSH!!! The guests had been watching the whole thing from the vehicle and as we walked back to the vehicle all I could see were the whites of their eyes. 

We followed these ladies for a while and then headed off to find some elephants that had been seen earlier. The morning was topped off by a great walk through the bush back to the lodge...what a great morning!

Last three days in photos

The first two drives were quiet on the cat front but we enjoyed plenty of great sightings including a little stand off between a herd of elephant and a buffalo.

Eventually we found some cats. We found our lionesses with the cubs and enjoyed a bit of family bonding. Some of the behaviour though was a bit strange as one of the adult females was suckling from the lioness with cubs...still trying to figure that one out... see the pic below!!!

The mother tolerated it for a while then showed her disappointment...

Then came bath time...

Then time for a little cuddle with your brother....

And then cuddle mom...

Now time for some dinner... yum yum

We were also lucky to see so many owls...none of the others would sit still for photos...

The next morning was crazy as we found the new male leopard marking his new territory and following tracks of the previous territorial male. After following him for a while he found the other male and then all chaos erupted with the new male chasing the other male all over the place. If you look in the second photo you can see some of the battle wounds. They must have been fighting for a couple of hours before we got there.

Rhinos, elephants and buff were all over the place and yesterday we had buffalo fighting on the one side of the vehicle and rhinos fighting the other. It was so insane no one knew where to look. The noises we outrageous and we sat quietly, I think this was cause everyone was a little scared to move.

Then last night our female leopard was posing for us in a tree with a kudu calf kill. We have been wondering where her cub is as we haven't seen it in three weeks. After we had left the female went to go fetch the cub and on route back to her dinner the new dominant male saw the cub and went in to try kill it as it isnt his. The mother put up a mad fight and in all the confusion the little one managed to get away. He is only six months from being independant of his mother and is learning just how harsh the world is. It will be very interesting to see how things pan out for him.

 It has been a crazy 3 days full of amazing sightings. Lets hope the next 6 weeks follow suite!!

Let the tracking begin!

As I said yesterday, the plan of action for the afternoon was to find the bloody leopard that just kept getting away from us. Easier said than done... After watching a herd of elephants we headed into the area where the leopard was left in the morning. Brett picked up tracks early and headed in on foot to see if he could find anything but was unable to find her. For two and a half hours we searched for this leopard with the only sign being the tracks from earlier, eventually after stopping for a drink to wait for the sun to go down and for her to get moving again. As the sun was setting we picked up tracks on top of the old tracks and our many tyre tracks from driving round in search of her. We hadn't driven 20 metres before we completely distracted by a two metre african rock python. We then left the snake and got our eyes back onto the prize and followed the leopard tracks. They were leading straight to an open area where we had seen a herd of impala and wildebeest and we were certain that she was going to pop out that side. We scanned the edge of the tree line hoping to get a view of our prize. Time was moving on and we all reach a consensus that we would check one last time and then move on to the lodge. As we scanned the area, Solly picked up her eyes...we all watched in amazement as this magnificent creature, which had proved so illusive, walked straight up the vehicle, slipped under Solly's seat and used the vehicle to cover her approach to the unsuspecting impala. We went lights off and watched in the moonlight as she leopard crawled closer and closer. After about a half an hour and she was no longer making any progress we decided to show the guests the leopard under the spotlight and then leave her to her activities. All that patience eventually paid off and we enjoyed a spectacular dinner under the stars.

This morning was the last drive for my Swiss ladies and I decided to see if we could find the lion cubs and show them the Sabi River. We found the tracks and followed, looking for the lioness but there was no sign of the cubs with her. She had obviously stashed them while she went off in search of a meal. After a while we saw tracks of buffalo running and lions in pursuit, we walked round a bit to see if we could figure out what had happened. By all signs it appeared that the buff had lived another day and we carried on following the newer tracks. We followed the tracks till we found the whole pride of 5 females lying on the road. Again the end to another great tracking mission. 

There is nothing more rewarding than tracking and finding animals!! Morning coffee was enjoyed looking over the Sabi River and the trip was topped off when we found a female waterbuck and her week old calf!!