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     We have felt incredibly lucky as our wonderful winter weather continues, with hardly a break from the crisp early mornings, beautiful starlit nights, and the warm sun in the middle of the day. Our sympathies go out to those of you in the UK who have suffered such torrential rain and floods, we hope that your summer will arrive soon. As we write we are expecting a cold front but this should not bring any rain. Three inches of snow fell in Johannesburg so we might feel the chill from this.

     This month has been a month of kills. Four of the big male lions, the Mpogo, killed a half grown rhino and devoured it in 4 days. It is also one of the few times that we have witnessed lions killing rhino. This rhino could have been injured in a territorial fight, but predators generally do not take on rhinos as they are so nimble on their feet and can turn incredibly quickly.

     While this was going on, one of the other Mpogo, single handedly killed a fully grown female giraffe. This is also an incredible feat as a female giraffe could weigh over a ton. It was unfortunate that this female had a calf of 4 to 5 months old. The calf stayed around the area for a few days and then disappeared. However, 10 days after the giraffe was killed, we found a single female with 2 young in tow. One of them was about 4-5 months old and the other was a new born calf, no more than 4 weeks. Although we can’t be sure we are hoping that the older of the two was the one that lost its mother. Happily, it was looking healthy. Once the four Mpogo had finished the rhino, they moved down within a day and helped the fifth lion finish the giraffe.

     While all this was happening, the sixth male Mpogo was busy courting two of the Ottawa Pride females that had moved down into the southern part of our area where the Ximungwe Pride usually resides. Some of our guests were lucky enough to watch these lions killing a warthog. The two Sand River females were meanwhile feeding off a large kudu bull which they caught near the river.

     We are very privileged at last to have a new hyena den in our area. We have not had an established den sight like this for many years. In the den, we have 4 cubs from 3 different females. They have become very relaxed with the vehicles and we are able to spend many enjoyable minutes watching their amusing interaction. People do not usually warm to hyena probably due to the fact that they have had a lot of bad press, especially in the production of the “Lion King”! However, when seen like this they fairly melt the heart.

     The rhino baby boom still continues and a few more babies have been seen. It was comical to see this particular baby trying to imitate its mother at a scratching pole. Whatever it was doing you can see by the look on its face that it was enjoying it!.

     We have mentioned over previous newsletters that we have a lot of young male rhino in our area moving together. The territorial behaviour has started to kick in with several of these males and we have witnessed violent clashes as they try and create dominancy over each other. One male was so badly wounded that this could prove fatal. Hyenas have been seen following him in this hope but one never knows as animals in the bush have a surprising way of healing incredibly quickly.

     It has been confirmed that Shangwa the female leopard has got 2 cubs and she is hiding them in a den just to the East of our property. We have not seen them yet but heard this piece of news from our neighbours. Makubela has been mating with an unknown male. He is very skittish and although we see his tracks throughout our property, he refuses to be viewed. Mkwela and her cub are still doing well and her cub, which is well over a year now, has got to the stage in its life where it confronts hyena on its own. While this cub is still being supported by Mkwela, she is becoming far less tolerant of the cubs affections. This happens as they grow up to ensure that are better equipped for their independence.

     Mambiri and her cub are still doing extremely well. We must remember that this is Mambiri’s first litter and it is almost unheard of for a first offspring to reach independence. The cub is now 7 months old and is becoming more and more relaxed with the Land Rovers. This bodes well for future leopard viewing in our area. There has been a push of new young males into our area which is putting the Ottawa male and the Wallingford male under a bit of pressure. These 2 older males are getting long in the tooth now and it will be interesting to see how much longer they can hold their respective territories.

     Our elephant herds continue to impress and we have a herd of 21 that come down to the Savanna watering holes on a daily basis. This gives the guests incredibly impressive and up close viewing while sitting on the decks of the Suites.

     We have had sightings of some very unusual birds again this month. One was a Chestnut Vented Tit Babbler (we did not make up this name!) and we were also able to get some photos of a very interesting Burchell’s Coucal. This photograph has created huge speculation amongst the birding fraternity but it has been decided that it is a Burchell’s Coucal and not a White-browed Coucal. There are some experts that are even contemplating that the bird in our photo could be a sub-species.

     In our May newsletter, we mentioned that we had a team coming in to test the DNA of our leopard. We received a wonderful letter from this team expressing the thanks for the help that we had given them and also mentioning that they felt that “the Sabi Sands is one of the best places on earth to observe leopard in their natural habitat”. If you are interested in reading their full report, it can be found here.

     This year we have celebrated four members of the Savanna staff reaching their 10 year service with us. This is indeed very special for us. For their loyalty and long service, they were presented with a 10 years badge and a token of our thanks. We are pleased to see that next year more will be joining their ranks. This all adds to the ambience and family bond that is so strongly felt at Savanna.

     We look forward to hearing from you and seeing you back at Savanna soon.