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February 2008
Dear Friends
We are in the middle of a mid-summer drought. Since our last Newsletter, we have had no rain at all. The dams that we mentioned in the low catchment areas have dried up and the grass is starting to go brown and yellow, typical of our dry winter period. I dont want to prophesize doom and gloom and drought or any weather patterns for that matter, as I am notoriously known for being the worst weather forecaster in the world. No one will ever let me forget February 2000 when I suggested we put away the umbrellas and we then had the worst floods in living memory! However, we are still hoping for some late rains that will give us another green flush to the grass and hopefully fill up the dams that have already dried up or are in the process of drying up.
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We are still having regular viewing of cheetah. The female and her cub have moved off and we have not seen them for a while. However, the big dominant male is being seen again on a weekly basis. This is providing us with the wonderful cheetah viewing that we had been starved of for such a long time.
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The five Mpogo, the coalition of dominant male lions, made a brief visit to our area earlier this month. It was wonderful to see them again and it made us realize what an impact they make to our game viewing experience. This brief visit was obviously a territorial sortie, insuring that area was still in tact. The Ximungwe Pride have been moving their territorial boundaries further north and are now infringing on the Sand River Pride territory. As yet no clashes have taken place, but this could happen at any time. The Ximungwe Pride killed a buffalo earlier this month which was quite some feat as they are very inexperienced when it comes to killing larger game. The Selala Pride have been conspicuous by their absence and have only made one brief visit to our area this month. The big male that is not part of the coalition got out of the reserve by digging under the fence this month and had to be coaxed back and finally returned into the Reserve at 3 oclock in the morning. The Sand River Pride continues to thrive and has provided us with the core of our viewing this month. They have spent a lot of their time along the Sand River where the early morning and evening light have provided us with some magnificent photo opportunities. These cubs are now growing up very quickly.
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As usual, our leopard viewing has been out of this world with Mkwela and her cub being seen regularly. She made a very unusual kill a few days ago of a newborn hippo. Unfortunately, we were unable to get photos as she dragged the carcass into some extremely thick bush. It is unusual that her cub is still with her and it cannot be long now before she makes this cub independent. I know I have been saying this for some months now. She is becoming very aggressive towards it which is a general indication that it is almost time to part. We came across Mumbiris cub alone one day in a clearing and out of no-where a big female hyena also appeared. It was very impressive to see the cub standing up to the hyena who was probably investigating whether she had a kill. This was an unusual sighting as hyena and leopard are normally arch enemies. The cub snarled and hissed until the hyena moved off and then she ran to the nearest tree and climbed it to make sure she was safe.
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There seems to have been a baby boom with the elephant population in the Sabi Sands. Out of a group of 69 that came down to the Mackenzie Camp clearings, we counted 7 very small babies. This was a wonderful sighting with these youngsters playing together and not knowing what to do with their trunks. For the first 6 months of their lives their trunks have a will of their own and it takes this amount of time for them to master the co-ordination! These herds have been particularly relaxed and it is wonderful to be able to get up so close and watch the young suckling and interacting with the herds. It was reported this week that South Africa had finally decided that they would lift the culling ban on elephant. I am not too sure how this will affect the Sabi Sands yet but it will be interesting to see how our elephants react when the culling starts in Kruger. |
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The breeding herd of buffalo has been prominent on our property this month. It has been frequenting the dams that are drying up to wallow in the mud and drink what little water remains. January and February are the months when the buffalo calving usually peaks. Although they will give birth all year round these 2 months are the time when most are born. This year has been no different. During game drive, we received a message that there was a small buffalo calf stuck in the mud at Georges Dam which is the one in the valley below the lodge. We got some of our staff and went down to investigate the report. On arrival it was almost impossible to distinguish the calf from the mound of thick black mud. Fortunately, by this time the herd had moved off and we did not have an angry mother to contend with. With some difficulty, we pulled the calf from the mud and took it to another dam with water so it could be washed off. We then tracked down the herd again with the calf in the back of the Land Rover and released it. Unfortunately, the calf had decided to bond with the Land Rover and it took a lot of coaxing for it not to follow the Land Rover home again. We went back to check that evening and were exceptionally pleased that within a herd of at least 400, the calf had located its mother at a small dam, fortunately with some water in it this time!
One of our directors was on the Land Rover at the time and was able to video the whole episode. Should you wish to view it, you can see it on our website at www.savannalodge.com/guests/videos.html or on www.youtube.com/user/wildlifesa and for those of you who are interested just below the buffalo calf rescue you can see and hear the Mpogo roarinig. There have already been 21,450 hits on this!
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With smaller pans drying up quickly now, we are finding quite a few larger groups of rhino forming and it is an impressive sight to see them coming down to the dams that still have water. We have one group of up to 11 now that we see on a regular basis. |
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Have you ever felt that you were banging your head against a brick wall? This oxpecker obviously felt like this! |
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We are very proud to announce that Patrick Mkansi has now been at Savanna for 10 years. Patrick started off as a tracker and through sheer hard work and dedication has built himself up into the rangers position. For those of you who have driven with him, you will know that he is a very knowledgeable and amusing man and a delight to be with.
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As we move swiftly into 2008, we would like to thank all of you who keep in touch and it is always heartwarming for us to know how well our Newsletter is received.
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