Dear Friends

    True to form for August, the winds started early in the month and the bush is awash with the old dried leaves of the previous year. The grass is now brown and short and many of the animals are concentrated around the water holes during the heat of the day. It is not uncommon to find the elephants swimming in the dams at this time of the year, even though the larger herds are concentrated around the still lush riverine areas.

    This time of year is generally good for witnessing the predators making kills and this year has been no exception. There have been many kills witnessed by the rangers over the last few weeks, the most dramatic being the Kashane male leopard catching a warthog in its hole at 7.00 in the morning. This was captured on video and has been posted onto Youtube, so if anybody would like to see this, please go onto http://www.youtube.com/user/SavannaLodge#p/u/6/8qCGgZ5gtJA.  This was the kind of dramatic kill that is very seldom seen and we were then able to watch him feed off this carcass for the next two days.

    Hlabankunzi has also made a number of kills this month and a dramatic kill of a steenbuck was also witnessed by the rangers. I am pleased to say that she still has both her cubs and this has provided us with some exceptional viewing this month. The older these cubs get, the greater chance they have of survival. I have only ever known one leopard that has managed to bring her first litter of cubs to independence and that was Mambiri when she brought up Metsi. So we are hoping that Hlabankunzi will be the next one to do this.

    Mambiri still has her cub, even though we have not seen much of them this month. I keep saying this, but we think that the cub will be made independent soon. She is catching a lot of small prey on her own and I am sure it won’t be too long before Mambiri starts mating again.

    We had the first clear viewing of Metsi and her two cubs at the beginning of this month, but it now seems that she has lost one of these cubs. The one left behind is a young male and it is incredible how quickly this cub has become used to the vehicles and is allowing us to view it from close quarters.

    It is with great sadness that we can confirm that the Ximungwe pride have lost all their cubs. As far as we know, all of these seven cubs have succumbed to the Mapogo male that came back from the east. There is a lot of mating going on with the Ximungwe pride, but even if these females have another set of cubs, I don’t think the Mapogo will be able to hold territory long enough for these cubs to become independent. We have had reports that the four new males that came from the Manyilethi in the north have ensconced themselves on the property east of our boundary. We think that it is only going to be a matter of time before they make a bid for the territory in our area.

    The Ottowa pride have also moved further into our area and are establishing themselves predominantly north of the river. This is taking over the area left vacant by the Sand River pride. However, the two young males within the Ottowa pride are coming under enormous pressure as they are over three years old now and are becoming sexually active, so they will not be tolerated by the Mapogo who chase them off every time they see them.

    The Salala pride, which is a pride from the east, has also been seen regularly on our territory. They have moved further west because of the influence of the four new males.

    The two male cheetah that we see in our area have been very conspicuous this month and a very graphic kill was witnessed by our guests when the male cheetah took down a fully- grown impala ewe. It is still the intention of the Sabi Sands to look at re-introducing cheetah from other areas. Our cheetah population for the past few years has decreased dramatically and this could be due to a disease called feline aids which has been evident in autopsies of some of the cheetah we have lost. However, more research needs to be done on this matter.

    As the months go by, we seem to be getting more and more of our hyena back. This is a good thing, as we have been short of hyena on our traversing area for some time now. There are reports of huge concentrations of hyena outside our traversing area and it is only a matter of time before this spills over onto our area again.

    There is great concern at the amount of rhino poaching that is happening within South Africa. The authorities are going to have to get a grip on this, as the escalation in the trade of rhino horn is getting out of control. There is a huge drive by the South African media and conservationists to raise money to help with the anti-poaching of rhino. If you would like to pledge your support, log onto www.stoprhinopoaching.com.

    As the year rambles into summer, so more and more of our migratory birds are being seen. They too are benefitting from the sparse foliage conditions in their hunting endeavours. This lizard buzzard which is not migratory was seen killing a fairly large snake. Even though it was difficult to identify the snake it had caught, as the head had already been eaten, we think that it was an olive grass snake, certainly a fairly large one for a bird of this size.

    Savanna Private Game Reserve is excited to welcome Karen O’Reilly to the Savanna Family. Karen has joined the team as the Marketing Manager and will be based in Johannesburg. She has diverse experience in the tourism industry ranging from lodge management to reservations- starting her Tourism career some 13 years ago. Her experience, combined with her love for nature and the outdoors has imprinted a passion for South Africa and the African bush.

    Spring and early summer is a very interesting time in the bush. In a few months the impala will be lambing, the first rains will arrive and it will seem as if everything is just bursting into life. This is a very good time to be here and I look forward to seeing all of you that have already booked in the near future.

With kind regards

Paddy and the Savanna Team