We have come to the end of another glorious month and apart from a few cloudy days, the skies have been blue, with cool crisp mornings and wonderful sunrises and sunsets. With the approach of August we start the midday August winds. These generally die down in the evenings providing clear skies and starry evenings. These winds do not really affect game drives although the animals tend to be more alert.

     The highlight again this month has been the viewing of Mkwela’s cubs. We have been seeing them on a regular basis and she is bringing them to all the kills that she makes. There have been a few tense moments. Once a hyena came running into one kill but the cubs seem to be becoming more street wise to this cunning adversary. As soon as the hyena was spotted, the cubs scampered up the tree out of harms way. The hyena soon got bored and moved off. On another occasion, Mkwela made a kill in a camp where the Federal Air pilots stay. After letting the cubs feed on this kill, she moved them away into a large Jackal berry tree. This was a wise move as that evening, a big male lion – one of the Mpogo, came into the area and chased Mkwela off the kill and would have followed her through the camp had it not been for the pilots standing on the verandah watching the action. He then turned his attention to them, snarled, growled and mock charged until they were forced to go inside! This made good viewing for the guests who were watching the scene unfold from the safety of the Land Rovers.

     At one of Mkwela’s kills, it was fantastic to see Mkwela lie down and all three cubs suckle. It is just so great to have a leopard that is so relaxed and will allow us to share these intimate moments without any concern for the Land Rovers.

     Concerning leopard there has been bad and good news this month. Firstly the bad news - we have heard that the Shangwa female has lost the 2 remaining cubs that she had, probably to hyena, and it is believed that Makubela has also lost her 2 cubs. Makubela has been seen on a couple of occasions but does not seem to be lactating anymore which is a clear indication that they are no longer with her.

     The good news is that we have had a new female leopard around Savanna Camp. We have not seen her before. She is relatively relaxed and did not run from the Land Rovers but gave us a look of irritation indicating that she has not been viewed that often. It is believed that she is also lactating, indicating that she might have cubs in our area.

     There is another leopard in the North that Savanna rangers do not often see because of the distance to travel. She is known as the Thai Dam female and we have been viewing her for the past 13 years so she is now an old female of approximately 16 years. For the first time this month, we were able to view her with a cub. This is the first cub that she has reared to the point where it is almost independent. She has had numerous litters but has always been unfortunate to have lost them all.

     It is a great delight to see our ranger, Patrick, who was only given a Canon camera a few months ago by one of our directors, now taking wonderful photographs such as this one below of the Wallingford male crossing the Sand River. We look forward to using many more of Patrick’s photos in the Newsletters to come.

     This month has been a very good month for lions as well. The cubs of the Sand River Pride that we are seeing on a regular basis are now growing big and with the manes developing of the two older cubs, it is not long before they will be participating in the hunt. It is still a year to 18 months before their “fathers” who are the Mpogo, will start pushing them out before they become a threat to their territory.

     The Mpogo have made a certain number of sorties into the southern area of our traversing rights. This is the furthest south that they have been for many months. The reason for this is that the resident Mpogo in our area has been tracking down and following the Ximungwe Pride who have made certain visits to the north and as soon as they feel there is any danger, they come running back to the south which has been a safe haven for them for the last 2 years. It was on one of these occasions that we witnessed the single Mpogo catch up to the Ximungwe Pride who was busy on a warthog kill. It was very interesting to see how the single Mpogo approached the pride. He stood back and watched the pride for some time and only when they saw him and started to run, did he let out a strangled roar and rush forward to chase them. He was obviously checking that he did not run into a situation that he could not handle. Another interesting fact was that the single roar obviously alerted the rest of the coalition and by that afternoon, there were another 3 Mpogo in the area. It just goes to show that there is a form of understanding in their communication. This incident ended with the Ximungwe Pride scattering and they all moved out of our area for a few days. The Mpogo also killed a big male buffalo along the river. This provided some very interesting viewing as the Ottawa Pride also joined them and it was wonderful to see how tolerant the Mpogo were of the Ottawa cubs. They allowed them to feed at the same time as themselves. It was also amazing to see five of the six Mpogo together in the one area again.

     The male cheetah has been making his usual visits approximately once a week and each time he comes through, he seems to make a kill in our area before he returns back east to continue his territorial patrolling. It is about time that we started having female cheetah back in our area as we have not had any females for over 6 months. I have spoken to our neighbours and they have not seen females in their area for quite some time either. Female cheetahs do not have a territory but have a home range which they change every few months, so it is a matter of time before one should work her way back here.

     There have been large concentrations of elephant along the river. This is because this is the major water source for them in this area and the only place that they can find a bit of greenery. The rest of their diet comprises of bark, and tubers that they are digging up. The bulls continue to frequent the camp and visit our water holes on a daily basis. These bulls very often seem to be on a mission. This is possibly because they are using us as a watering stop on their journey to find enough food to sustain themselves.

     We have had a few interesting birds this last month. One is the Capped Wheat Ear which is a very rare vagrant and not often seen in the Lowveld. They are quite common above the escarpment especially around Johannesburg grassveld areas. This is only the third time that we have seen this bird in the Sabi Sands in the last 25 years. So for those bird enthusiasts this is a good one to get.

     We have been approached by a woman who is running an owl rehabilitation project. She is asking to release birds back into the wild on our property. This will be very interesting and hopefully the guests will be able to participate once it is up and running. From this process, she will also be able to collect data which will help with future rehabilitation of owls in this area. We are hoping that we will be able to boost certain species that are very rare here, such as the Grass Owl.

     Spring is definitely on its way and next month we look forward to describing to you the interesting changes in the seasons. We are delighted, however, that so many of you are returning to experience these changes first hand.