Ranger’s Report June 2013
June has been a superb month, with a lot of sightings and beautiful scenes, leaving us and our guests in awe. There has also been some ups and downs as nature took its course.
The Ximhungwe pride moved a lot during this month and even crossed the River to go a bit North. Unfortunately for the last couple of weeks one of the cubs has been missing, leaving us to suspect the worst. One of the Females also turned up injured but has since recovered. The remaining Six cubs are very healthy.
Eight Othawa cubs are doing great and getting adventurous. They were found feeding on a hippo carcass with theSelati Males. Some of the Selati Males was also mating with the Female without cubs.
The Four Selati brothers are doing a good job of patrolling and protecting their territory. Two of the brothers sniffed out an Impala kill made by the Othawa females and stole what was left. After the Othawa pride found a Hippo carcass, both the males and cubs fed simultaneously, which is a very good sign for the future of the cubs.
Ten of the Southern pride was in and out of the Western Sector this month, not spending too much time in the area, and luckily avoiding the other prides. At the end of the month they managed to take down a Buffalo on the Southern part of the Western Sector.
The Sparta and Tsalala males also didn’t spend too much time in the Western Sector, trying to make a Buffalo kill very close to where the Selati Males also made a Buffalo kill. They have left the area and went back to the South East without incident.
Dayone has been his usual confident self, patrolling his territory and making kills along the way. He was also found mating with Xikavi.
Kashane is such a regal and beautiful male and still keeps his territory more to the East. Hlaba Nkunzi and her cub also shared a Kudu kill with him.
Hlaba Nkunzi has been moving all over her territory trying to make kills for her and her cub. The cub has also become very confident and spends most of her time on her own playing around and stalking anything she can find.
Metsi and her cub are both in good condition. They love playing together and the cub mimics all of her movements.
Xikavi wasn’t seen too much this month. Spending most of her time North of the River and in the thicker bushes that she loves so much.
Throughout the years Ravenscourt have given us plenty of amazing sightings, allowing us to spend time with her and learn from her. Unfortunately she was killed in the beginning of this month by Nyeleti. She was protecting her Fifteen month old cub with everything she had in her and she succeeded, but lost her life in the process. She will always be remembered for the wonderful Female that she was.
The Hyena population is doing very good with a confirmed den site with Seven pups playing around and having fun.
The Pack of Nine Wild Dogs spent a lot of time in the area, producing some very good sightings for our guests.
This month we were lucky enough to see a Female Cheetah and her Two cubs coming into the Western Sector every couple of days and then heading back to the East. Because of the high Hyena population in the area the Cheetahs can’t spend too much time before being harassed by some Hyena.
All of the other wildlife also provided us with some beautiful sightings with most of the animals starting to spend more time around the watering holes as the bush starts to dry up.
Even though winter is here we still had some very good bird sightings this month.
This month was ended off in a spectacular fashion with amazing sightings as well as a Super Moon, the closest that the Moon is to Earth in its elliptical orbit. We are all excited to see what the bush will produce in the coming month. Follow our Facebook page for daily updates.
[FMP width=”640″ height=”360″]https://www.leopardhills.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/SelatiGrooming.flv[/FMP]
Video courtesy of Louis Röntgen.
Blog compiled by Johan de la Rey and Hugo Breed