As we mentioned last month, this rainy season has been a peculiar one. While we have had enough rain to keep the grasses going and there will be more than enough food for our grazers and browsers through the winter, we have not had the huge storms that we require to fill up our dams. As a result, those dams that are in average to poor catchment areas are still very dry and will not see us through the winter to come. However, this is not a problem; it will just mean that the animals will have to move further afield to find water during our dry season.

     Our cheetah sightings have been exceptional again this month with the female and her cub making Savanna property the core of her home range. One must remember that cheetah females are not territorial. Only the males are. The females have a home range which they will change from time to time so while she is on our property we obviously want to make the best of it. Having the female here seems to have encouraged the male to come back and make our area a regular visiting point within his territorial boundaries. During this last month, he has been here twice weekly which is more than any previous time. The rangers have witnessed a number of kills by both the male and the female. There was an amusing incident with the cheetah cub. Being without brothers or sisters and obviously lacking a playmate he has got into the habit of stalking Land Rovers to amuse himself. On one occasion, the guests were leaning over to take a photograph when this small cheetah walked up to the Land Rover, snarled and spat at the guests and hit the ground hard with his two front legs. This gave the guests such a fright and it was very amusing to see all six guests sitting upright and very still and no longer daring to move a muscle!

     The Mpogo continue to be conspicuous by their absence. As we said last month, a couple of them are coming over approximately once a week just to insure that their territory is secure. However, with the absence of the males in our area on a prolonged basis, we have noticed that the hyena clans are getting extremely bold and are prepared to take on the prides of females in any situation. We had a very interesting sighting where the Ximungwe Pride had killed a wildebeest and were busy feeding. The whole pride was there, 4 females and one young male. With the commotion of the feeding, it attracted a single hyena who sauntered into the area. Three of the lionesses duly charged him and sent him on his way. He ran off about 50 meters and started to call. It was amazing to hear other hyenas throughout their territorial area responding. The lions seemed to foresee the inevitable as they started to eat faster trying to devour as much meat as possible in a short time. Within 10 minutes a group of 8 or 9 hyenas had come together and advanced on the lions. The lions took one look, put their tails between their legs and fled. The hyenas then fell upon the kill and it was fascinating to see the hierarchy structure which was very evident in the eating frenzy. One guest took some amazing video of the whole incident and we are hoping very much to be able to put it on our website in the not too distant future for all to see. Since this incident, the older female of the Ximungwe Pride has been mating with the oldest of the Mpogo but this is not proving very successful. One would have thought that he had more experience than what he is showing us and he seems unable to get it right! It was also reported that the Selala Pride females were also mating with this old Mpogo, so hopefully he will get it right and within the next 3 ˝ months, we should have a lot more young cubs in our area.

     With all the rain that we have had, the rhino have been fairly scarce as they have spread out over a much bigger area and do not have to congregate close to waterholes as they do during our dry winter months. However, we have been seeing a crash of seven rhino which includes the female with the very long horn. Every time we see this female we marvel at the length of this horn which must be more than a metre long. Within the next 6 – 8 months, she will give birth again, which means that she will split from this group of seven and take herself off to produce a new calf.

     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.