The winter burning season is upon us and since Rudi's return the block around the lodge has already been burnt and plans are underfoot for some larger block burns in the coming week. Fire is important for the regeneration of the bush and areas need to burn every couple of years to prevent the dead combustible material building up to dangerous levels and also to give new growth space to flourish.
There was not as much animal activity around the lodge this week with the elephants having moved on to other areas of the property. The usual nyala and warthog families were around along with the tree squirrels, plated rock lizards and the boomslang (tree snake) who lives in the tree outside the office. There were also nighttime sightings of a male leopard and hyena up around the staff quarters.
The sightings out on drive were phenomenal as always and included:
- The four Mapogo male lions and the Ottawa pride finishing off their buffalo from last week
- One of the Mapogo (MrT) mating with a Ximunghwe lioness for a few days before being displaced by his older brother with the snipped tail tuft.
- The males split up and were roaring to locate one another giving us all a magnificent experience!
- Hlabnkunzi female leopard and her cubs with a bushbuck kill and later in the week a duiker kill. The cubs were also seen alone chasing birds around a fallen tree.
- Hlabnkunzi was also seen pushing into the vacant territory Makubela left meaning she may move closer to the lodge soon.
- Mabirri female leopard and her youngster were seen interacting with hyena at an impala kill.
- The Ximunghwe lion pride killed a wildebeest at Marula dam to the south of the lodge, their cubs were there at the kill, reports of four youngsters seen outside of game drive times were not confirmed as only three were seen during drive.
- A large male giraffe somehow died and was found being fed upon by Xindlevhana male leopard. Another, younger, male was seen in the vicinity - possibly the young son of the Ravenscourt female. Xindlevhana is usually very shy but we were able to get some good views of him at this sighting. He is truly a huge animal and there is a possibility that he may have surprised the giraffe as it was sitting ruminating and managed to kill it himself! We will probably never know what actually happened but the ecologists and vets did come to take tissue and blood samples from the carcass to check for disease.
- There was plenty of hyena activity at the giraffe carcass in the early mornings with many vultures waiting their turn in the surrounding trees.
- Xikavi female leopard was seen with a bushbuck kill, she also had a run in with the Ravenscourt female a day later.
- There were many rhino sightings and the female with the huge front horn was seen regularly.
- Some very large elephant herds moved through the area, some with tiny (compared to the adults) babies.
- Buffalo were harder to find but there was a wonderful sighting of 15 old bulls moving through the bush one morning
- This morning the week was concluded with the first sighting of the Tsalala lion pride for nearly 2 years, the pride crossed in just to the south of our access road. It was the first sighting we have had of the youngsters and also the first time we had seen the older lioness with no tail known to some as 'BB'
There will be another update next week,
Take care
The Idube Team
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