Early Feb and the lion cubs are about 5 or 6 weeks old. They still only go about a metre or so from their hiding place, as their legs are still wobbly and they spend a lot of time falling over each other, or just falling over their large milk-filled stomachs which do appear to get in the way a lot! A conveniently placed tree provides a good place to exercise their front legs, and they try to put their claws in the trunk and pull themselves off. They show signs of perhaps growing up vegetarian, by trying to chew on the trunk as well, as their teeth grow. They don’t really have the curiousness as yet that will soon be upon them, content with their own small play area. Another couple of weeks, and curiousity will kick in, making life for mother lion a little more tiring as everything becomes a plaything.
In mid Feb, the lioness moved the den, in order to safeguard her offspring from intruder males. She was located about 2km away from her original den, and was seen hunting zebra. By now, we were also able to make a clearer identification on the sexes of the cubs – one female and two males.
Leopards are normally hard to come by in the green season, with longer grass, it’s tricky to see them unless they are in a tree, or on the road. So it was a great afternoon drive when not one but two leopards were found in close proximity to each other. As luck would have it, each time a leopard has been found recently, some of the guests were out on the boat. The guides with the leopards always radio to see if the boating guests would like to return to see it, but the boat itself is such a wonderful activity, that the two times this occurred, the guests opted to stay and miss the sighting. However, returning to the camp, the boating guests managed to spot a third leopard of the evening, resting in a tree not far from room number 9! This was actually done due to a little bit of magic that one guest had brought with him: a thermal imaging camera. From 500m out, in the night, a large colorful blob could be seen on the camera screen, the guide quickly identified that this was in a tree, and by the size, would have to be a leopard. So the boat was full steam ahead, until the spotlight could pick up the leopard so that it could be seen by all! As the guest said, he doubts this is the way forward with safaris, as his equipment is highly specialised, and that the guides seem to know where everything is anyway! Still, I suspect we might be seeing some interesting entries this year in our Photo Competition – there are not many cameras that are able to photograph the chicks inside a weavers nest without getting anywhere near it!
Later in the month, leopards were still around, and we managed to see seven individuals in one week. This included two sub adults feeding on an impala carcass, and a shy adult male feeding on a zebra foal.
Storm clouds had been building up day after day, but it had been rain free for some time. Other camps were getting heavy falls, but Lagoon had received nothing other than a light shower. Then, one late afternoon, about 6pm, the rain started, and began to blow sideways… As the camp tried its best to batten down the hatches, (most camps are designed for vertical rain, and architects rarely consider horizontal rain for some reason), several thoughts were spared for the three vehicles that were out on game drive in the middle of this. They were surprisingly silent… no calls advising that they were three minutes out, and heading back to camp. An hour later, as night fell with a thump and the rain continued to pour down, three vehicles came streaming into the camp, with lots of hysterical laughter from all on board. It’s rare to see such happy and excited guests that are 100% soaked through, but they’d witnessed some great game with wild dogs hunting and killing an impala, and then a speed chase home as the rain came pelting down. A few warming sherries and hot showers, and dinner was a slightly drier affair.
Later in the month the pack of 20 dogs from the north of the concession came upon the Lagoon pack of 8 dogs, and suddenly there was a fight. In the process, all dogs scattered, and although the pack of 20 was not seen again, the Lagoon pack of 8 and the five dogs from the West were seen again several times.
The overcast conditions seemed to encourage the rarer antelope to get out and about, as game drives were regularly seeing sable, roan and eland, singly, and in small herds. Leopards also took advantage of the shady times, and some good tracking provided good sightings.
The three cheetah brothers made an appearance this month on the 13th Feb, along old lebala Road. They were marking their territory and attempting to hunt – sadly not successfully. They remained in the area for the following week – good to see them after such a long absence.
Other interesting sightings this month included regular sightings of bat eared foxes (mostly of two families – one of four and one of three), hyenas finishing off a kudu carcass that lions had abandoned the day prior, and a porcupine wandering through the camp.
