It was hoped that 2021 could be a greater yr for all, however evidently the chaos of 2020 has adopted by way of into this yr. In some ways, it has been barely higher and we proceed to have a gentle move of native visitors, with some hints at issues bettering for our worldwide travellers. However time additionally simply appears to fly by in these loopy occasions, 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
Lots 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 and increase his territory. Sadly, being on his personal, he was killed within the battle, and we misplaced probably the most unimaginable males we’ve 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’ve not seen her and her cubs a lot previously few months, evidently she is doing exceptionally nicely. She is her typical calm self, and it displays in the way in which that the 2 younger cubs are already extraordinarily relaxed across the automobiles.
Khokhovela (pictured under) has additionally been fairly scarce currently, however she was lately seen mating with Ravenscourt, so hopefully there might quickly be some extra cubs working 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 circumstances 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 turning 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 frequently.
Nyelethi remains 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 will probably be coming an increasing number of beneath stress from youthful leopards. At this level, it isn’t clear the place that stress goes to come back from, however for now he appears secure.
One risk is Hlambela, who’s the son of Boulders, and is now three years previous. Nyelethi will in all probability maintain on for an additional yr or two, which can imply that Hlambela will probably be 4 or 5, which is concerning the time that he will probably be in search of a territory of his personal.
One other younger male within the space is Scotia and Nyelethi’s son (pictured within the under 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 highway. It’s all the time spectacular to see the endurance, 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 typical common rounds, coming by way of the clearings within the south like clockwork. It’s all the time superb how these cats are creatures of behavior and transfer predictably to their typical mounds and fallen bushes to scent-mark and use them as lookouts for prey.
Sometimes he’s profitable at recognizing and catching his prey! Not too long ago, on a day drive, we discovered him on the sting of the clearing at Cheetah Flats with a big male impala kill. He will need to have made the kill late within the morning, as he had eaten a lot of the impala already after 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 certain 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 performed 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 visitors had the chance lately to observe a big group of eight or 9 hyena vocalising and working in direction of a clearing. We initially thought that they had been responding to a potential kill, however as they reached the clearing, they began chasing one another very playfully and dashing right into a small pan for a swim. They’re one of many few predators within the savannah that love water, and it was superb to observe this extra ‘likeable’ facet of hyena.
Hippo’s
The opposite animals who get pleasure from water – and that is no shock – are the hippo. Due to nice rainfall throughout our final wet season, we nonetheless have loads of water accessible to them. As we head into the center of our winter, we are also having common views of the big pods popping out onto the sides of the dams and rivers to bake within the solar and have an excellent sleep!
Uncommon Sightings
We have now additionally had plenty of uncommon sightings these previous few months as nicely. Dan and his visitors had 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 once they have younger. However on this event, they had been capable of 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 had 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 depart you with a number of of those breath-taking views, and hope that you’re all capable of journey ahead of later, to get pleasure from them for yourselves in particular person.
We hope that each one our mates and visitors have been conserving secure and wholesome, and that your vaccine rollouts are going nicely, which in flip might assist you all return to us quickly to witness, in particular person, nature at its greatest.
To compensate 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 Crew
