2005 : January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November |
2006 : January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December |
2007 : January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November |

     While we have had enough rain this year to keep the grass going and to give us a good grazing resource, this last month has been exceptionally dry. Our grasses have started to wilt and the smaller wallows are drying up. This is still good for the rhino and buffalo who are enjoying their daily mud packs! However, if we have no more rain, this will give us a very long and dry winter. As a result, there will be exceptional game viewing over the next season as the animals will be drawn to the larger waterholes. We are not despondent as there is still time for us to have good rain as they only generally stop in April. If we do get more downpours, the viewing will still be good but the rangers will just have to work a little harder.

     The Mpogo (the coalition of six male lions) continues to dominate and we are hoping that we will have good news for you over the next few weeks as one of the Sand River females has disappeared and we believe that she has taken herself into the river to have her cubs. The other female is looking extremely well and plump and she should not be far behind in giving birth. This is something that we have all been waiting for as it has been a while since we have had small cubs in our area. This will add a brand new dimension to our game viewing.

     The Ximungwe Pride has splintered into small groups and we are seeing two to four lions at a time. The young females, nearly three years old now, are looking extremely good and are catching prey for themselves. Their progress is very encouraging. The Mpogo will have to wait another six months to a year before these young lionesses will be available for mating. Unfortunately, we have not see Zinane, our big dominant male from the South, for at least a month. We think he must have decided that discretion was the better part of valour and because of the intrusion by the six Mpogo, he has moved further East, where life hopefully will be a little easier.

     We have been seeing more of Mambiri and her one remaining cub. It is still exceptional that a leopard female has been able to keep her cub for this long on her first litter. As we have mentioned in previous Newsletters, it is the norm for a leopard to lose her first four or five litters before she will bring any cubs to independence. Mambiri still has a long way to go with this cub but she has done well up to now. We found her and the cub on a large impala kill a few days ago. However, the next morning, a part of the Ximungwe Pride had stolen the kill and the cub was perched right on top of a fairly large buffalo thorn. These types of experiences are good for cubs as it teaches them the ways of the wild at an early age and hopefully will make them less prone to predation. This particular cub has the largest eyes we have ever seen on a small leopard cub and a long pointy face! This makes it a little peculiar looking but we have no doubt that if it does reach maturity, it will grow into a beautiful looking leopard. We hope that you can see from the photo what we mean!

     We have a large herd of buffalo that has been frequenting Savanna camp almost on a daily basis. This herd seems to be bigger than any herd we have had before so we surmise that two herds must have joined up, giving us approximately 700-800 animals. This is very impressive to see. As things get dryer, they will probably split again but at the moment they are providing exceptional viewing. However, they are not coming into our area for long periods of time. In fact, they come in, drink at our water holes and then go back east. It is also interesting to see that there are a lot of new calves. Some of our guests were very lucky to witness a birth and we hope for many more. Buffalo will give birth throughout the year but birthing time tends to peak between December to February.

     As mentioned last month, the number of elephant that we are carrying in the Reserve is enormous and herds of over 200 have been seen again. With the dryer month, the elephants have been drawn to the larger water holes and as a result we have seen a lot of swimming and playing in the water. This never ceases to give huge pleasure. It was amusing on one occasion to see one young bull spraying another bull as he came out of the water.

     You might have noticed that we have not mentioned cheetah for quite a while. They have been conspicuous by their absence. Fortunately, a couple of days ago, our dominant male turned up again and gave us some wonderful viewing. It is about time that some lady friends came into his territorial area as we have not seen female cheetah here in over six months. It should be just a matter of time before this happens.

     We were also very privileged to see the two wild dogs again. They seem to be using our area on a fairly regular basis and this has obviously been established as part of their home range. Wild dogs are not territorial but will have huge home ranges, sometimes over 400 square kilometers. There are records of wild dogs in Kenya having home ranges of over 800 square kilometers, so you can understand the thrill when we see them. When this pair decides to den we can only hope that they chose their den site in our driving area.

     The ladies in our surrounding villages have come up with the concept of making jewelry from recycled bottles. They crush the glass to make their own beads and then string these together to make necklaces and bracelets. They are very imaginative with their designs and it is amazing what wonderful jewelry they are able to produce. In order to support the community, we are selling this jewelry in our curio shop.

     We can hardly believe that we are already a whole month into 2007. The game viewing stays amazing and consistent and we continue to have wonderful compliments concerning our re-vamp. We have felt great pride in showing those of you who have had the opportunity to visit us again. We look forward to many more!