July 2010

The fun never stops at Leopard Hills even if it is getting cooler……..

As winter is now upon us the bush is thinning out alot so spotting of the animals has become a bit easier.

Leopards:
Hlaba Nkunzi’s cubs are stiil going great guns and on a certain afternoon we found her and her cubs she walked striaght into camp between the boma and room 7, we had a bit of difficulty follwing her so we waited outside room 7. Eventually the cubs came out and were playing around on the deck. It was quiet funny to see that they were hissing at their reflection in the glass windows. (housekeeping doing a great job at cleaning soo well that the cubs didn’t know the difference between them and their reflection)

Makubela:
Unfortunately has passed away, she was aparrently attacked by a male leopard and passed away from multiple puncture wounds, she did have one surviving cub , we expect she passed away too as she was too young to fend for herself. R.I.P Makubela.

Mambirri:
Her and her cub are doing great, her cub is about 1 yr old now. She still has to look out for lions as I saw with 2 of the mapogo lions. She was going about her daily dutes and came accross 2 lions were on the prowl, it seemed that they were on her trail and following her. When they got within 30 metres from her she slinked away and launched herself and up a tree, they knew they were beaten but hang out near the tree she was now resting in. The end of the story was she did manage to get away from them, but it does show that she does need to keep aware at all times.

Lions:
Ximungwe Pride:
With all the females of this pride that have given birth we are only left with 3 cubs of the same litter, the rest have dissapeared and were thought to have been killed by “Mr T” one of the mapogos. This is thought to have been because he is back into the coolition and maybe wants to try a take over and get his blood line going forward.

Mapogos:
Coupled with the alarming story from last month 2 of the mapogos are missing and one was seen in the east but very injured. The rest are still here in our traversing area. The one mapogo called ” Mr T has” been seen with one of the Ximungwe females, hopefully making more mapogos!!!!

Ottawa Pride:
Raymond had an amazing sighting on one evening drive in the dark of the ottawa pride hinting a large male hippo just to the north of the sand river, The pride with no big male lions took on the hippo, they surrounded the hippo. The hippo that knew that was out numbered headed straight for the safety of the river. As the hippo aproached the river the lions tried for the last time and ALL jumped on the back of the hippo, luckily for hte hippo it was close to its safety the water and as we all know cats dont like water and they jumped off, Raymond thinks that if the pride had a big male with lots of experience thety may have been more successful. What an amazing sighting!!!!!!

Rhino:
Raymond had an awesome sighting of Three male Rhino on the Old Airstrip. Being early morning the 3 massive rhino walked calmly to the north while grazing, with the sun rising behind the vehicle, the red sun lit up the 3 magnificent animals in the dried winter grass, making it an amazing sighting with perfect conditions for some special photos.

Buffalo:
Gary had this awesome sighting at Tawny Eagle Pan, where Three male Buffalo shared the pan with a male Hippo. While the Buffalo were lying down, the Hippo had the whole other end of the pond to himself, but decided to take his position right inbetween the 3 buffalo. All four were very relaxed while sharing the same end of the pond. The buffalo seemed quite curious of their new visitior to the pond as they are frequently seen enjoying the water. This made for an interesting sighting, seeing these animals move in such close proximity to each other.

Heinrich has returned from his course with Lee Gutteridge in the Waterberg, where he obtained his Level 1 FGASA and Level 2 Track and Sign. He will start driving at Leopard Hills the end of July, which he’s very excited about and really enthusiastic about! In the mean time he’s been spending lots of time out in the bush, getting to know the roads and enjoying the awesome reserve. Heinrich also enjoys his photography, so he is really looking forward to spending time out in the bush with his guests and share the special experience with them.