February is often one of the wettest months of the year; the bush is lush and healthy providing ample food for the herbivores and cover for the predators to hunt and the dams are all close to full. The birds also have ample food supplies and a large variety of species can be seen on every drive. The marula trees are at the peak of their fruiting season so the elephant herds are also frequently encountered at this time of the year.
The first month of the new year has been filled with fantastic sightings and a lot of the activity has taken place close to the lodge, some of it even inside the lodge!
Along with the increase in elephant herds due to the ripening marula fruits we have also had a lot more sightings of big bull elephants in musth. Many people are not quite sure what musth is so I will attempt to explain here:
Musth is a periodic condition in bull elephants marked by a large rise in reproductive hormones - testosterone levels in an elephant in musth can be as much as 60 times greater than in the same elephant at other times. The word is derived from Persian مست (mast) which means "intoxicated" though in modern usage, refers to a state of enjoyment, fun, pleasure or gratification—of any kind, experienced by humans or other creatures. Musth is linked to sexual arousal or establishing dominance, but this relationship is far from clear. Signs that a bull elephant is in musth include the constant dribbling of strong smelling urine that often covers the back legs (the strong smell is caused by high levels of organic chemicals ketones and aldehydes). Musth bulls also discharge a thick tar-like secretion called temporin from the temporal ducts on the sides of the head; however in African elephants all sexes and ages may excrete temporin at times of heightened emotion so the fluid alone is not a sign of musth.
Although bull elephants in musth can become aggressive this is not always the case and many of the musth bulls we see here stay very relaxed and can be viewed safely.
The local leopard population provided our visitors with many great photo opportunities as well as greater insights into the lives of theses beautiful creatures. The dynamics of a predator population are constantly shifting and we have been seeing many leopards in the vicinity of the lodge as the different individuals stake their claim to the unoccupied female territory and the overlapping area of male territory that Idube sits in the middle of. In the past month five different female leopards and four different males have been seen on Idube property, of that number two individuals (1 male and 1 female) are still new to the area. The Hlab’nkunzi female has been seen inside the lodge grounds on a number of occasions now and it seems she is pushing her boundaries more to the east in an effort to avoid the westward movement of the Xinzele male who has been moving around ion her core territory frequently. Sadly Xinzele did manage to corner one of Hlab’nkunzi's cubs mid-month and killed it. Male leopards will often kill young cubs that are not their own in order to get a chance to father their own cubs in the area. It is a pity that this youngster was killed as at close to a year old it would have only been a couple more months before she would be independent. The remaining cub is still well and was seen with her mother close to Idube soon after that incident. Also interesting to note is the fact that Xinzele and Hlab’nkunzi’s cubs are cousins as they are all grand-offspring of Makwela.
The gradual move to the west by Xinzele has been brought about partially by the absence of the more dominant Tegwaan male in the area and partially by the increased presence in the east of the Xindlevhana and Kashane plus the as yet unidentified young male we have been seeing. Tegwaan has not been seen for a long time now but there is still a possibility he is up in the less traversed North-Western corner of the reserve. One indication of this being the case is the movements of the young Mashiabanj male in the North – He has seldom been seen going into the western half of the area North of the river, probably because the territory there is marked already.
The Mabirri female leopard was seen close to the lodge a few times after she finished mating with the Kashane male, on one occasion she was seen limping over the lawn and into the drainage line in front of the lodge. The next day the monkeys were giving alarm calls around the lodge and after some investigation Mabirri was found very close to where she had last been seen, with no obvious signs of a kill. On closer inspection it was found that she had quite a big wound on her foot, she again limped off and disappeared. She was later spotted close to the garages and there it was clear by her tracks that something was wrong, the pad of the injured foot was only leaving a three-toed track, the state vet was called as a safety precaution but when it came to darting the leopard she suddenly became a lot more agile, the first dart hit her shoulder blade and the drug was not released, the leopard disappeared. Since that incident Mabirri has only been seen once and her tracks led from there into an area of quite dense undergrowth, where it is unsafe to track her on foot. Some of you may remember that as a youngster she suffered a similar injury to her foot (the same one) and in the end she survived without help and grew into the very successful leopard we know today; hopefully she will get over this latest injury as well especially as she can use the skills she learned last time.
Mabirri’s recently independent daughter Tlangisa has been moving up and down looking for a safe place to settle, she is still mostly seen in the south where she grew up but has moved up into other areas frequently, getting into some trouble on the way - first running into the three Mapogo male lions close to the lodge and most recently she ran into her older sister Metsi and was chased away after a brief but intense confrontation.
The three Mapogo male lions seem settled now and are seldom apart unless one of them is mating – this has been a frequent occurrence with the one Ximunghwe lioness whose cubs were killed late last year. The males shared a couple of kill with the Ximunghwe pride, at a wildebeest kill close to the old airstrip the two cubs belonging to the older lioness even came to feed, it seems that all the males have accepted this pair of cubs, the first ones conceived after the return of the Mohawk maned male known as Mr. T.
The Ximunghwe lioness with the tip of her tail missing is presumed to have given birth up on one the same hill her last litter was born on, hopefully those cubs will be brought out for us to see sometime soon, the other females are probably carrying cubs as well now so perhaps this year the pride will have better luck in raising the youngsters.
The other lions in the area – the Ottawa pride have not been seen as regularly as usual due to the high water level rivers in the sand river making it impossible to cross north for most of the second half of the month.
The flooding river also meant that the painted hunting dog pack were also not seen as much as we would have liked, the one sighting we did get of them before the river flooded saw the pack chasing the Mashiabanj male leopard up a tree!
The big buffalo herd has been in and out of the southern part of our traversing area and the male cheetah has also been spotted a few times again now that some of the clearings have been opened up.
Hopefully these next few weeks will provide us with just as much entertainment; if you follow us on Facebook and Twitter you will find real time updates and pictures straight from the drives!
Until next Time,
Best wishes,
Rob The Ranger
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