A Week in the Bush Vol. 449
on Mar 01, 2023Our week started off with a wonderful sighting… It had been quite a long time without seeing any klipspringer on the reserve, so we were extremely excited to see this one in the road. At first, from a distance, we thought it was a common grey duiker but as we got closer it just stood in the middle of the road when we realised what it was! It stood looking rather uncomfortable in the soft sand.
Klipspringers are often found in rocky areas as their feet support rock climbing. They do keep territories, marked with the secretion of a thick, black substance from the preorbital glands onto vegetation and rocks on the boundary or inside their territories. If a partner is found, they often stay together along with their offspring.
With the sound of a leopard calling, we set out to see if we could find it. Listening carefully as we drove, we could hear elephants communicating to one another. We got excited as this means that they might have seen the leopard before we did. As we turned the corner, we found the herd of elephants playing in a pool of water on the road. Everyone, from the matriarch to the calves, played in the mud, wallowing around covering themselves in the mud. The calves would slip-and-slide belly first into the mud, and the older ones would try to be as graceful as possible getting up and down. After a good while, the matriarch decided that it was time to go, and she herded her family along, disappearing into the thickets.
Characterised by their bright orange eyes and black face brackets, they are often heard at nighttime singing their distinct “bu bu bu BOO” that echoes through the still night. Often heard and not seen, we were incredibly lucky to have spotted these fledglings in a Tamboti thicket peering down at us.
Having spent time with a pride of lions, we came across this lone Wildebeest bull. We all wondered if his persistence to remain in the area would change if he knew how close to danger he really was.
A quick flash of blue caught our eye as a beautiful European Roller sailed past our vehicle and perched on an exposed stump. This gave us a wonderful photographic opportunity with the golden afternoon light. European Rollers are Palearctic Migrants which breed in Southern Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia, and can be found as far as Morocco, Spain, and India. After their breeding season they will migrate down to sub-Saharan Africa for the summer.
With thousands of muscles that make up an elephant’s trunk, this little guy is just discovering its potential. This may very well take him a year or two to completely figure out. His determination as he mimics his mothers’ movements was most certainly palpable and brought a sense of comedy to our safari.
Finding a beautiful male leopard like N’weti is always a special treat. We found him on our afternoon safari, navigating his way through puddles of water on the road, and then carefully chose a dry spot where he could lay down. With his belly full, indicating that he had recently eaten something, he was content with the spot he had chosen, and slept for the rest of the afternoon safari.
Morning safari arrived and we found fresh tracks of a male leopard, assuming that they were his tracks. We finally tracked him, quite a distance from where he was last seen, meaning that he might be on a boundary walk, marking his territory.
With a much-appreciated break from the heavy rains, leopards across the reserve had taken advantage to remark territories and secure opportunities to hunt. This was no different for the young Golonyi female, who was found multiple times over the weekend attempting to do just that.
We were fortunate enough to watch her make an attempt at hunting an impala, but unfortunately failed to secure a kill.
We have been seeing the Tsutsuma female leopard regularly of late, and she is getting more comfortable with vehicles around her. After hosting a kill up into a tree to keep it away from any other predators, she enjoyed her meal by herself. A hyena got the scent of the kill and made its way to the tree where Tsutsuma was. Knowing that it might have to wait a while before anything gets dropped to the ground, the hyena made itself comfortable under the tree, waiting patiently.
Tsutsuma kept a close eye on the hyena, not wanting to share any of the meat. After a while she started to move around in the tree looking for a way to get down safely without waking up the hyena but chose to wait a little longer until the hyena had moved on.
Kigelia and Tsutsuma were seen together during the day, and we decided to follow up on them during the afternoon safari. We could not find either of them at first, but after driving around looking for any signs or tracks, we found Kigelia walking down the road. She was busy marking her territory which can be seen often especially when another leopard has been in their territory. We could see that she had been in a fight with another leopard, and hope she recovers soon.
It was a rainy weekend at Sabi Sabi, but what better way to spend it than with the Styx Pride. The two mothers and 7 youngsters made their way through the bush, trying to find cover from the rain. The rain didn’t seem to faze one youngster as she made use of a termite mound as a vantage point, overlooking the cloudy plains; that was until the clouds opened with a little more force. She sauntered over to join the rest of her siblings finding cover under a Bushwillow. All huddled up together, they spent the rest of their day there.
During our afternoon safari we decided to follow up on them once again. For a moment, the sun peaked through the clouds, and the cubs took this opportunity to play with one another while the moms enjoyed the heat of the last rays.
With a hint of the last location of the Styx Pride, we set off to track them down in very challenging weather. Just as we heard that another ranger found fresh tracks, we came across a big elephant bull, who guarded the road. After spending part of the morning trying to navigate around him, we eventually made our way past the magnificent beast. Soon after, the Styx Pride was found not far away from our location. As they were grooming each other, their attention was captured by a herd of wildebeest making their way into the area. There was a swift change from sleeping cats to hunting cats. Unfortunately, the open area did not provide enough cover and the lions were seen. With alarm calls the wildebeest made sure the lions knew they had been spotted and moved off to a safe distance.
Until next time
Blog by Wendy Claase
Images by Ally Ross, Coenraad Stapelberg, Daniel Greyvenstein, Dieter Lategan, Jason Street and Ronald Mutero
