It’s quite ironic to me that the warmest colors in nature are produced in the coldest period of the year and as we explore this week’s highlights, it will be clear to see that there has been no shortage of spectacular imagery to accompany what was an absolutely stellar week in the bush.

Hues of oranges, yellows, reds and browns are the colors that make up the Autumn and Winter landscapes out here in the Lowveld. We have been enjoying some spectacular game viewing of late with particular attention being paid toward the predators of the area. Water is scarce at the moment and more so this year than in the previous two, making water a vital commodity in which all creatures strive for access.

The large aggregations of buffalo that we are accustomed to seeing in the dry months have already made their way south to our grazing lands in search of remote resources. They have arrived early though, and this may be an indicator of tough times ahead. All Africa’s creatures are resilient however, and I’m sure that all will be well, but maybe for some more than others.

Elephants have become more scarce along with the water and the massive elephant herds are beyond us now, although there are still a lot of bachelor groups and smaller breeding herds that are hanging around, making use of the resources available to them. This means great viewing in front of the lodges themselves as animals arrive from all over to drink. The bulls that have stayed are now completely over their ‘Musthing’ periods and have once again become most relaxed around the vehicles, even at extremely close quarters like this one.

We have not seen more of the cheetah female and her cubs lately, but we have been informed that another has fallen victim to other predators. We hope that she returns back to us where the pressures from lions in particular are not as high at the moment as in other regions of the Sabi Sands. We have had the great pleasure though, of having one of the reserve’s male cheetahs pay us a visit on several occasions and when he is around you know there will be a show. He was found most recently at Sabi Sabi’s private airstrip taking in some sun and enjoying the view while waiting patiently for any unsuspecting prey to wander into the area. We really have had the most amazing cheetah sightings this last year and all of us hope the trend continues.

The Southern Pride lionesses, all six of them, seem to have rekindled their bonds to one another and have been seen together for the last couple of weeks. They are able to now hunt with a lot more success, making regular kills, enough so that their conditions seem to be improving at a rapid rate when compared to several weeks ago when three of the girls still had cubs. What this means for the future, we can only speculate. We wonder whether the Sand River males will accept all six of them together, although this would make the most sense for them as six breeding females are better than three, or will the females opt to stay under the radar until more suitable males present themselves? This is the impression I get at the moment, as there has been little contact between the males and females of late, but if these lions have taught me anything, it’s that nothing is ever what it appears to be.

Ever since the untimely death of Nottins’ young cub, we have been noticing that both Warthog Wallow and sister, Little Bush have been pushing further into the territory once held exclusively by Nottins. She has also made herself far scarcer than we are used to and we wonder what this could mean. Warthog Wallow is not aligned with Maxabeni and he has shown several times that she and the young Tortilis are not welcomed in the area, but they still seem to be making themselves a regular feature in the southern edge of the big male’s territory.

The stars of the show this week are most definitely Little Bush and her young daughter, having thrilled us in a few separate and rather extraordinary sightings. The young daughter of Little Bush was seen one afternoon being chased around by an entire herd of zebra that looked set on teaching the young leopard a lesson that they are not to be messed with. This is definitely not something one would get to witness on a regular basis or even again in their lifetime I imagine, but thankfully all ended well and the young girl’s pride was all that was hurt in the ordeal.

We also watched on two occasions an almost identical chain of events where Little Bush had successfully brought down an impala ram, fed, gone off to fetch her daughter, and had the kill stolen by hyenas leaving both of them either treed or showing their distaste nearby. In the most recent sighting though, there was yet another twist in the plot with the appearance of an unknown male leopard and I think we are very fortunate that he wasn’t able to get at Little Bush’s cub. It really has been an amazing experience watching these leopards in action this week.

The male leopard, known to us as the River Rocks male, was the male in the same sighting as Little Bush and her cub on this particular occasion, but we are not certain of his intentions at this point. He is clearly exploring his options and possibly looking for a place to expand his current range or perhaps in search of a new one, but one thing’s for sure, he will not get it without a fight.

The week has not all been about the larger predators and we have had some great sightings in between the more high profile variety. One that sticks out for me and one in which I will leave you with until next week is one of a group of dwarf mongoose, Africa’s smallest carnivore. We spotted them next to the road on a large termite mound and after a few minutes of silence by us, they all became quite inquisitive toward us and gave us some of the best moments of our drive.

I hope you have all enjoyed this week’s recap of events and I’m sure there will be loads more on the way next week. Until next time...