The lodge has been so busy over the last few months that I literally have not had a chance to blog! The sightings have however remained amazing as always and here is a brief summary of the predator viewing since Feb.
Probably the headline news is the four young Southern Pride males (now known as the Selati Males) taking over from the three old Mapogo’s. The Selati brothers had been exploring Mapogo territory for a few months but had always retreated at the sign of a confrontation. One night in March however the Selati Males came across the Mapogo’s on a buffalo kill in front of the lodge and split the older males up. Sataan was separated and the Selati males chased him for many kilometres before catching him and viciously attacking him (video). Sataan eventually died of his wounds and the two remaining Mapogo’s, Makhulu and Skoro, have been roaming nomadically to our east ever since.
The Selati Males moved on to claim the territory and seek out the Ximungwe and Ottawa prides, roaring their presence (video) and killing buffalo along the way. They came close to catching the Ximungwe pride – but the lionesses fought back (video) and have since been hiding their cubs on the extremities of the concession. The Ottawa pride was not so lucky though as the males successfully seeked them out and killed their four young cubs. With the cubs gone the females are back in season and all three females have spent the last week courting with the new males.
Leopard viewing has been as interesting with a shift in the territorial males occurring. Both Shinzele and Mashiyambanje have definitely disappeared leaving Kashane and Dewane as the two most dominant males. Ndlevane has resurfaced and taken over much of Shinzele’s territory in the north but he remains difficult to view. There are also reports that a new big male has moved in north of the river but he is skittish and seldom seen. A new young male has also arrived recently in the south. He has been identified as the son of the Maxobene female from Londolozi and is very relaxed which is fantastic for viewing. The south is however Kashane’s territory so it remains to be seen if he will stick around.
With Shinzele gone, Kashane is expanding westwards and Dewane eastwards and north. It is just a matter of time before the two overlap and have a confrontation. Kashane has had some altercation on his eastern boundary and looked a bit beaten one morning, but then again we don’t know what the other leopard looked like!
Kashane has also been in demand by the females and has been courting with Hlabankunzi, Tasselberry and Xikavi. One morning Hlabankunzi disturbed him on a kill and he viciously attacked her even though she just wanted to court (video). Dewane has also been in demand and has been courting with Metsi, Dam Three, Tlangisa and Hlabankunzi. He seems to have little pressure though and remains unscarred and therefore a wonderful subject to photograph. One morning he provided one of the sightings of the year when he patiently waited outside a warthog burrow and was rewarded when one of the piglets emerged and ran straight into him. The mother warthog promptly came to the piglets rescue, almost gouging the leopard in spectacular fashion (video), but it was too late and Dewane had pork chops for lunch!
The female leopard population has remained stable. The only female that has erratic movements is Tlangisa as she still has not settled in a particular territory. She has recently been way up in the NW corner which means we have not been seeing her as often which is a big blow. We hope she will decide to return back south so we can continue to have those amazing opportunities to photograph her as she relaxes up in the trees. Before she ventured up north she did provide us probably with one of the sightings of the year when she came across a pangolin and proceeded to play with it! (video)
Metsi was looking pregnant a few weeks ago and is now hanging around Bruce’s Koppie which is where she has kept her previous litters so hopefully there are some cubs on the way! The Ravenscourt female and Mobene female also have cubs at the moment but both are keeping their litters to the east so we have not been able to view them yet. Hopefully when the cubs are older we will get to see them as the mothers bring them to kills. Hlabankunzi, Tasselberry, Xikavi and the Dam Three female have all been mating but none of them seem to be pregnant yet. Shangwa and her son have been seen frequently north of the river and the young male now looks ready to go off o his own. He is a fine looking leopard and one morning we caught him crossing the river.
The wild dogs have been scarce. We have only seen them a handful of times in the past 3 months. The good news is that both females in the pack look pregnant again and should be ready to den soon. Unfortunately there have still been no cheetah sightings since April 2011 when the wild dogs last denned in the western sector and discouraged them from using the area.