Several groups of lions seen often this month, with the most common sightings being of the two lionesses with three cubs that are 5.5 months old, and another lioness with two cubs that are around five months as well. Both mothers were seen with their cubs on kills – feeding on warthog, and kudu. The two resident males are still in charge, with no threats from incoming males, meaning that all cubs are safe for the time being.
We also saw three sub-adult males that broke from the pride last year, spotted north of of the camp, close to the rest of the pride. We had a wonderful sighting of a young male lion, who we found feeding on a buffalo. That same night, a clan of 20 hyenas approached the lion, and tried to attack it, forcing it off the carcass!
A great sighting of a leopardess with her 2-3 month old cub this month. Although she has not been seen often, she is relaxing with the vehicles now, and we have every hope that she and her cub will provide great viewing in the future, as the cub grows up. We also had a brief visit from the three brother cheetahs, before they marched on by to investigate the rest of this very large concession!
Although we have not been lucky enough to find a wild dog den site in the area so far, we are still having the odd sighting of four dogs, which make up the pack of five. With only four being seen, we suspect that the fifth has denned somewhere, and the rest of the pack are out hunting in order to support her. With them favouring the thick mopane area, following and tracking them back to one site is proving difficult, but we continue to hope.
Lots of breeding herds of elephants visiting the river, which makes the boat cruises more interesting! All herds come to the Lagoon in front of camp all day, and there are lots of solitary bulls in the area. The buffalo herds are still congregating – with sizes of herds ranging from 150-500 individuals. Wonderful herds of elands as well were found moving along with groups of zebra and tsessebe.
Great vulture viewing when we came across them feeding on a buffalo. There was no sign of what had killed the buffalo in the first place, but a lot was left for the various types of vultures to feed on and fight over.
An unusual sighting this month, with a big clan of hyenas working together to attack a buffalo. They managed to kill the buffalo, and this provided food and excitement for the hyenas for some time. An even rarer sighting was of a pangolin seen in the late afternoon, about 15 minutes from camp!
Another rarity – a large python – about 3metres long, was found lying on one of the game drive paths. Surprising enough to see, but it wasn’t going anywhere in a rush, as it had just killed a steenbok and was busy consuming it!
