It was hoped that 2021 could be a greater 12 months for all, however evidently the chaos of 2020 has adopted by into this 12 months. In some ways, it has been barely higher and we proceed to have a gentle move of native friends, with some hints at issues enhancing for our worldwide travellers. However time additionally simply appears to fly by in these loopy instances, and it’s with some embarrassment that I realised that we missed the April and Could editions. For these die-hard supporters, we apologise, however hope to make up for it with a bumper challenge in June.
Lions
A lot of you might have been following our social media on Fb, YouTube and Instagram, in addition to the updates from different lodges, and would have seen the unhappy and really surprising demise of the magnificent Ottawa male. He turned very assured and determined to problem the Birmingham males to his east, in an try to increase his territory. Sadly, being on his personal, he was killed within the battle, and we misplaced some of the unbelievable males we now have had for a while.
Leopards
We even have some children within the leopard inhabitants! Tlangisa (pictured proper) has a brand new litter and, though we now have not seen her and her cubs a lot up to now few months, evidently she is doing exceptionally nicely. She is her normal calm self, and it displays in the way in which that the 2 younger cubs are already extraordinarily relaxed across the automobiles.
Khokhovela (pictured beneath) has additionally been fairly scarce these days, however she was lately seen mating with Ravenscourt, so hopefully there could quickly be some extra cubs operating round.
Ravenscourt has been sustaining his dominance nicely within the west and appears to have picked up a bit together with his patrols to the south, presumably in response to Thamba, who’s placing stress on him from the south. He nonetheless, nevertheless, spends most of his time alongside the river, the place the situations are most suited to him.
He has additionally been getting some stress from Euphorbia within the north, and we lately had a sighting of the 2 of them mendacity about 30 metres aside, growling at one another. What was fascinating was that it was on the southern facet of the river, i.e. extra in Ravenscourt’s territory than Euphorbia’s and that Euphorbia didn’t appear to be backing down, however was holding his personal.
As talked about earlier than, Thamba is rising in dimension and is increasing his territory. He’s undoubtedly changing into far more assured and has made the south his personal. It has been actually good having a daily, relaxed and dominant male near Savanna, and we see and listen to him repeatedly.
Nyelethi continues to be the dominant male to the east of Ravenscourt, and that boundary appears to have been settled a while in the past. He’s, nevertheless, getting on at 12 years previous, and might be coming increasingly beneath stress from youthful leopards. At this level, it’s not clear the place that stress goes to come back from, however for now he appears protected.
One chance is Hlambela, who’s the son of Boulders, and is now three years previous. Nyelethi will most likely maintain on for an additional 12 months or two, which is able to imply that Hlambela might be 4 or 5, which is in regards to the time that he might be searching for a territory of his personal.
One other younger male within the space is Scotia and Nyelethi’s son (pictured within the beneath sequence). At simply over two, he nonetheless has the ‘teenage’ gene in him and we lately had the privilege of watching him stalk and pounce at a rodent subsequent to the street. It’s all the time spectacular to see the persistence, opportunism and agility of those cats!
Cheetah and different Predators
A few of our different predators have additionally been busy of late. The male cheetah has been making his normal common rounds, coming by the clearings within the south like clockwork. It’s all the time wonderful how these cats are creatures of behavior and transfer predictably to their normal mounds and fallen bushes to scent-mark and use them as lookouts for prey.
Sometimes he’s profitable at recognizing and catching his prey! Just lately, on a day drive, we discovered him on the sting of the clearing at Cheetah Flats with a big male impala kill. He should have made the kill late within the morning, as he had eaten a lot of the impala already once we discovered him within the afternoon. We seen him as he squeezed as a lot meals as potential into his abdomen, for he knew that come early night, the hyenas could be out. And positive sufficient, he was chased off the carcass by a single hyena who proceeded to gorge himself on the stays.
Hyena are sometimes painted because the villains of the bush, all the time stealing scraps and benefitting from the work executed by others. They’ve a sloping again, with their head held low, skulking about and all the time appear as if they’re as much as no good! It’s not usually that we see the extra sociable, playful facet of hyena, however some friends had the chance lately to observe a big group of eight or 9 hyena vocalising and operating in direction of a clearing. We initially thought that they have been responding to a potential kill, however as they reached the clearing, they began chasing one another very playfully and speeding right into a small pan for a swim. They’re one of many few predators within the savannah that love water, and it was wonderful to observe this extra ‘likeable’ facet of hyena.
Hippo’s
The opposite animals who take pleasure in water – and that is no shock – are the hippo. Because of nice rainfall throughout our final wet season, we nonetheless have loads of water obtainable to them. As we head into the center of our winter, we are also having common views of the massive pods popping out onto the perimeters of the dams and rivers to bake within the solar and have a very good sleep!
Uncommon Sightings
We’ve additionally had plenty of uncommon sightings these previous few months as nicely. Dan and his friends have been spoiled with an amazing view of a large-spotted feminine genet and her two kittens. These are often very shy and skittish, significantly so after they have younger. However on this event, they have been in a position to watch and {photograph} them for almost quarter-hour!
A big male ostrich has additionally been hanging out within the clearing simply north of Savanna. Though the numbers have improved over the previous couple of years, sightings of them are nonetheless few and much between and we have been handled to some nice viewing of him.
African Skies
Africa is famend for its skies, and extra particularly the sunrises and sunsets. That is much more true throughout winter, when mud, smoke and mist make the early mornings and late afternoons much more spectacular. We go away you with a number of of those breath-taking views, and hope that you’re all in a position to journey ahead of later, to take pleasure in them for yourselves in individual.
We hope that each one our associates and friends have been holding protected and wholesome, and that your vaccine rollouts are going nicely, which in flip could enable you to all return to us quickly to witness, in individual, nature at its greatest.
To atone for all of the updates throughout our lockdown, please take a look at our YouTube Channel right here.
With heat needs
Neil, Natasha and The Savanna Workforce