Welcome to another instalment of our weekly round up. It has been a very productive week for the most part, with our guests all enjoying some fantastic sightings all around. The cats have all been on phenomenal as usual with guests enjoying numerous sightings of both leopards and lions. General game on the reserve has been more than abundant as well with frequent sightings of a diverse variety of grazers, browsers and mixed feeders alike. It has also been a great week for birding, even despite the intense heat. I hope you enjoy the imagery recap of the week’s highlights.

The recent rains we experienced a couple of weeks ago now, have brought about a flush of fresh new life to the flora of the reserve. Grasses are have sprouted, new leaves have emerged and flowers have popped up all over the landscape, making it a bit easier on the animals that inhabit our area. The substantial ‘growing season’ is long over and we don’t expect this new food to go a very long way, but for now all is well with the world and we see this everyday in the animals we encounter. Zebra are fairly abundant, enjoying the sweet new grasses to be found in our open areas, kudus, nyalas and bushbucks can be seen utilizing the tasty browse sprouting from tree branchlets, and elephants are a lot less stressed, allowing us to spend time with them at ease once again.

Many insects, reptiles and other small creatures have shown to be on the increase in terms of activity, which means that many birds are also present and constantly on the lookout for a meal. More aquatic species are frequenting water sources in search of frogs and small fish, while birds of prey such as Brown Snake Eagles are on the lookout for lizards and snakes. A lot of the raptors will also be going into their nesting seasons now so we’ll keep everyone updated on any new nests that we find.

The lions have made two successful buffalo kills in the last 7 days, keeping them very well fed and contented. This is great news for the lions, but not so much for the buffalos of the area, which were already showing signs of stress in the preceding weeks due to the lack of good grazing. It’s nature’s way I suppose of ‘thinning’ the herds so to speak, ridding the communities of weak, sick or inferior animals. The bonds between the pride members are really strong at the moment and the Charlestons have settled in nicely with them, showing great acceptance of the cubs even though they may belong to the Fourways males. At this point its anyone’s guess as to whom they belong, because the timelines for the larger Southern Pride female mating the Fourways and Charlestons are intertwined. At the end of the day though, its not really important. What is important is that the group has cohesion and is comfortable in their domain.

The Toulon Pack of wild dogs made a brief appearance as well earlier in the week to the delight of all the Guides here. The drier conditions we’ve been experiencing this summer are certainly more conducive to growth in predator populations, especially in terms of the dogs. The pack really is flourishing at the moment and it won’t be long before the breeding season kicks in. Let’s just hope they decide to den with us this year.

The leopard sightings lately have been mostly incredible with a few here and there that were fair, but not spectacular. I guess we are just extremely spoilt for choice nowadays and of those choices, we have several individuals that one is almost guaranteed to see show with. One in particular is catching the eye of many a Guide, myself in particular, and that is the Hlarulini female. She is absolutely incredible and an amazing cat to spend time with. I just hope to the heavens that she links up with Maxabeni soon so we can have her settle here indefinitely.

The Little Bush female has been doing very well as we’ve come to expect and frequent sightings of her and her cub have been experienced during the course of the week. On one occasion, we had both of them on a duiker kill and it was awesome to see the young cub display incredible confidence and control over the carcass. I think this young leopard is going to be a great addition to the area once she reaches independence at some stage in 2017, provided she makes it that far. For now though, they both look very strong and healthy. We’ll bring you more updates next week.

Maxabeni has been his usual distant self lately, but we enjoyed his company for several days this week. We all wish we could see more of him, but his territory has obviously increased to a level where he just doesn’t have the luxury or time to stay in any one area for too long. The good news is that he is more stable than ever with his territory and there haven’t been any challenges or serious incursions by other males that we know of.

Mahlathini was seen a couple of times and actually right at the lion kill some days back, but he’s staying under the radar and not venturing too deep into Maxabeni’s area. Mathlathini is getting older now and I just don’t think he has the will or energy to take on Maxabeni again for the rights to the land and its females. It was a surprise to see him and we’re glad he’s still ok.

Kigelia was spotted once or twice during the week and she’s still looking great and quite comfortable within her range. She spends most of time a bit further north of our traverse, but that is to be expected since her mother is trying to raise a new cub. Little Bush would not want to share any resources that may put more pressure on herself.

And lastly, we’ve had some more great sightings with the White Dam female who also is doing very well. We followed her while she hunted a couple of days ago and she has such a wonderful presence about her that you just can’t help, but be drawn into her beauty. Maybe its those eyes...

As you can tell by the recap, it was a very busy week in term of game viewing and I hope our next update will have some more exciting images for you to peruse. Until then, have a great week everyone.