The moment you think you understand nature, it surprises you with mind blowing moments!

This week in the bush has just proven to us all that we will never be able to predict anything that happens out here.

It’s been more than a year now since we last saw Solo and the Kruger male lion on Sabi Sabi. They have joined forces and have been seen in the Kruger National Park for a while, and with the two Fourways males spending a lot of time roaring in our most southern part of the reserve, we would never have thought to see these two older boys up here again. A few days back the Fourways males were found pretty bruised and the orange-eyed male being worse off. The two males then split up and the orange-eyed male was not seen for a few days while the bigger blond male was mating with one of the Southern Pride females. Normally when they are separated from each other for a few days they would call and reunite but not this time, our minds started running off in different directions as everyone had a different opinion on what had happened to the orange-eyed male.

But then on the morning of 25/09/2015 the call came through on the radio that there was a lot of vulture activity in the southern part of the reserve. Following up there we found three male lions and four females on a fresh buffalo carcass. Not being in the sighting yet thoughts of who they might be started going through my mind. Eventually I got into the sighting and I could not believe what I was seeing! A Fourways male feeding with one of the Southern Pride females and Solo and the Kruger male lying 30 meters away sleeping. Not showing any signs of aggression towards each other and the one female even mating with the Kruger male.

Could the orange-eyed Fourways male have been with Solo and the Kruger male the whole time or did they just join up as some predators do when they are really hungry and after feeding they would sometimes attack? But no, after 2 days the buffalo was finished and the males all went in separate directions.

Great news for us as Solo and the Kruger male are a lot bigger than the Fourways males and could possibly kill one of them - meaning the chances of the cubs that might still be coming would most likely not survive.

After a few days there was no sign of Solo and the Kruger male and the Fourways males continued as normal, mating with Floppy Ear and the one young female.

Until Tuesday morning, one of the Rangers found Solo and the Kruger male on the far northern part of our reserve looking in good condition and moving unfazed through the area. Are they pushing back their old territory now that the three Sand River males are almost unheard of? I cannot wait for the next few weeks to find out in which way they will surprise us again...

Leopard activity has been a bit numbered the last week with all the wild dog, hyena and lions hanging around. It was really nice to see a new face at Sabi Sabi. The Tatowa female came in from the north and lucky for us we have a Panthera project in the area and we could positively identify her. She was born early 2012 meaning she is now about three years old. When we found her she was following our dominant male leopard in the area, Maxabeni. He didn’t show any interest in mating with her even though she is ready to be mated with. The next day we found her again very relaxed moving around the vehicles like we were non-existent. We hope to see her more often and just hope that she does not get into a fight with the Little Bush female as this is her territory.

The wild dogs are going to be seen more seldom now as the pups are growing quickly and can run longer distances with the adults. It’s still great to see that all thirteen pups are still alive and well and not one looks to be injured or lagging at the back of the pack.

As we all know they are the most successful when it comes to hunting and we were fortunate enough to see them hunting an impala late the one afternoon and then the next morning another, so at least everyone is well looked after.

Some of the guys have had some really special sightings like the two giraffe mating right in the middle of one of our open areas, really not something you see every day. So if everything went well we could expect to see a baby giraffe walking around in sixteen months.

To end of the week on a good note - we were fortunate to see something called a Total Lunar Eclipse which means the sun, Earth and moon form a straight line. The earth blocks any direct sunlight from reaching the moon. At this stage it is called a Blood Moon because the Earth’s atmosphere refracts sunlight and indirectly lights up the Moon’s surface.

The next eclipse will be in 32 years so hope to see some of you here at Sabi Sabi where there’s no better place to enjoy such a moment!

Until next week...