Every month as we write this Newsletter we wonder how our game viewing can ever get any better! In fact, almost with each coming day something new and exciting happens out in the bush and we never cease to be amazed and overawed by nature. Apart from a few out of season showers, the weather has continued to be absolutely magnificent with crisp early mornings and cool evenings.

     Starting with lions, we have had exceptionally interesting viewing with the Mpogo establishing themselves as the new dominant males in the area. We mentioned in the last Newsletter about the two females from the Ottawa Pride splitting up. One mated with one of the Mpogo and the other took the cubs to the far corners of the territory for their safety. Unfortunately, this ruse was not effective and the Mpogo found the female with the six cubs. She obviously tried to resist these males to protect her cubs but the dominant male killed and ate her. This is not unusual behaviour during the times when males are establishing themselves within a territory. The remaining female of the Ottawa Pride joined the 6 cubs again and has tried to keep them away from the marauding males. However, there have been several occasions this month when the dominant male has found her, mated with her again and spent many hours chasing the cubs thankfully without ever catching any. The other 5 males, however, did manage to catch a cub a few days ago, killed and ate it.

     This was the most bizarre sighting as when the rangers started out on drive in the morning, they heard the commotion of hyena cackling and laughing. They followed up on the sounds and came across a leopard and some lions in a tree ( one female from the Ottaws Pride and 6 cubs) with 10 hyena running around underneath. The hyena had stolen the lions’ kill who had in turn stolen it from the leopard. Five of the Mpogo also followed up on these sounds and chaos erupted when they charged into this sighting. They unfortunately caught a young male cub from the Ottawa Pride. The leopard, the young Makubela female, spent many anxious hours in the tree, while the 5 males savaged the cub below.

     During this month, the Mpogo also had a conflict with the Ximungwe Pride, the big resident pride on Savanna, and chased them to the very south of our property. Three of these Mpogo followed this pride almost to our camp. This is the furthest south that they have been so far. This is an indication that once they have established themselves in the North, they will broaden their horizons and the Ximungwe Pride is in for a hard time. The Ximungwe Pride, being such a big Pride, still 15 strong has had to concentrate on following the buffalo herds to ensure that they catch enough to feed all the hungry mouths.

     When our “bath fairy” was running baths one evening she came across a lioness outside Suite 5, Suite 6 and Suite 7, all from the Ximungwe Pride. Fortunately their attention was on the buffalo at our waterhole! We were very lucky to see this Pride kill a wildebeest on our southern fence line and the next day they were chasing buffalo for hours and managed to kill something, we are not sure what but they were full the next morning. The day after that, they killed a huge buffalo bull at Cheetah Flats Pan and this provided us with incredible viewing for 3 days.

     At last the wild dog have returned although we have only had a brief viewing of them one afternoon. Three were seen in the Northern part of our property. We can only hope that they will make their visits more frequent.

     We were incredibly fortunate one afternoon to be sitting with the herd of buffalo when we noticed that one of the cows had started to give birth. The whole process took about 40 minutes and once the calf had been born, it took it 16 minutes to get onto its feet. This is unusual as buffalo will give birth throughout the year but most occur in January or February as this is the time that the grass is at its most lush giving the mother good lactation and the calf a better start to life. We have seen this baby on several occasions since and are very happy to report that the bouncing baby buffalo boy is doing fine.

     The Makubela female leopard has provided us with most of our leopard viewing this month. She has become a magnificent viewing leopard as she ignores the cars totally and seems to enjoy posing on numerous branches and elevated positions. She continues to be a very skilled hunter and we have seen her with numerous kills in the past few weeks even though the lion and hyena are giving her a hard time. Shangwa and her 2 cubs have been conspicuous by their absence and we believe that this could be due to the Mpogo in her area on a regular basis. However, they have been spotted briefly and all seem to be doing well. Mkwela has also been seen on numerous occasions; however, we are not sure whether she has brought her cubs back into the reserve or whether they are outside the fence.

     As we mentioned last month, with all the hippos that have moved into our dams because of excess water, there is bound to be some sort of conflict. Two young bulls having gone on an evening feeding sortie decided to come back into the same pond. The fight that ensued was extremely vicious and prolonged. However, after an hour and a half, one of the bulls came out of the water and ran off into the thick bush without too much damage apart from his pride.

     The elephant viewing this month has not been as good as last, however we have had our moments and were fortunate enough to be charged by a baby of about 2 years. He was determined to see the Land Rover off and put on such a show of strength with flapping of ears, shaking of trunk and even trumpeting. When the Land Rover did not move he ran back to the shelter of mum who was totally ignoring his antics.

     And now for a sneak preview of our refurbished luxury suites at the lodge........