Author: Focus Online Dev

Hi Everyone,

Tuningi had a fantastic September with extraordinary sightings and great guests. We even had the pleasure of being blessed with a bit of rain that was just enough to get that amazing fresh smell you can only experience in Africa called Petrichor. Petrichor is a new word Cornelius taught me recently which is the earthy scent produced when rain falls on dry soil. Lets get to some of the sightings and news we have for you.

 

 

I cannot start with any other sighting than this incredible encounter between buffalo and lion. On departure from the lodge one morning we were informed by one of our friends that he has found two of our dominant male lions. The news were welcomed with great enthusiasm since it was close to the lodge and what more exhilarating way to start the day.

 

 

As we arrived at the location we observed two lion brothers interacting with two buffalo bulls. The intention of the lions were to separate the buffalo from each other which would allow them to focus only on one and to prevent the other from helping his comrade. Buffalo are known to defend each other in occurrences like these and might even return to settle the score and retrieve its fallen comrade. Male buffalo physically peak at about 10 years of age and normally leave the herd once they have been conquered and replaced. This by no means mean they are easy prey. The lions succeeded with only one buffalo left to take on the fight.

 

 

Then the struggle began. Even though this was quite an old Buffalo, they knew it would be a struggle to take him down. Buffalo, in my opinion, is the real life representation of never giving up, being known for their brute strength and and mean demeanor.

 

 

In this photograph, if you look closely, you can see both his back legs are pointing forwards. Lion are known to attack the hind side and rear legs. By this point the lions have tried to immobilize him by chewing of the back leg tendons. The buffalo is chasing the Lions around on his knees. This Buffalo would not give in, he would not surrender, showing of his never say die attitude. What a legend.

 

 

This continued for about an hour before the third male joined in the action. Now three male lions were still unable to bring down the interminable fighting buffalo. Enter the five females and the six cubs, still being unable to end the struggle.

 

 

After the female Lions entered the fray, one male started showing a bit too much interest in a female in in heat. The dominant brother of the three took offense and the brothers had a scuffle. This while the Buffalo on three legs were still alive and surrounded by the remainder of the pride. Two and a half hours later we eventually decided to head back to camp.

 

 

The following morning, almost 24 hours later, the lion pride managed to finally take the Buffalo down. Almost five kilometers from where it all started. What a sighting. Hats off to the Buffalo that wouldn’t stop fighting.

 

 

The Wild Dogs have finally started moving away from the den site in the mountains. They came to visit our area for a while. The pups are about six months old now and looking very healthy. We are proud to say the Wild Dog population is now up to nineteen Dogs. They are slowly rebuilding after the rabies outbreak a few years ago.

 

 

The male Cheetahs are still doing very well and we see them often. There is some news on the Cheetah front. The shareholders of some lodges banded together to get some female Cheetahs to Madikwe. This is a very difficult process since there are so few wild female Cheetah out there and owners’ don’t really want to let their females go. They eventually got three females from a breeding center. This is not ideal since they have never been in the wild, are not familiar with the new environment and being around other predators. An action plan is in place to overcome these issues, but only time will tell. At this point we are trying to be positive and hopeful that they will make it once they get released into the main park.

 

 

And that is all the news we have for you. Who doesn’t love a Giraffe and a sunset…

 

Kind Regards

Jacques and the T-Team

To drive before sunrise and after sunset has paid off massively the past month.

Every day the sun is rising earlier and setting later, so, we changed our game drive times accordingly. So, the wake-up calls are slightly earlier and we are out on drive a bit later.

The landscape has changed a sicnificantly the past month.  Most trees only started lost their leaves recently and in some areas the grass is still very tall. The August winds are here in full force making some days a bit uncomfortable with the dust all around, however the very next day we have beautiful clear skies.

With the strong winds, our tracking skills were tested as the tracks disappeared in front of your eyes. But, we succeeded at the end.

The past few weeks was, for me, a very rewarding time with the verity of sightings we had.

The Jamala lioness have four new cubs of about 2 and a half months old.  She is hiding them very well and protecting them rather aggressively.  She does not even want the vehicles get too close and warn us when we are close enough.

We saw them one day without her presence, when their older siblings lured them out of their hiding spot and played with their new family members.

Luckily we were gone by the time their mom came back.  I am sure a few growls and claws were lashed out at the older youngsters.

All the waterholes that still have water are full of activity. The waterhole at the lodge are busy on a daily basis with a variety of general game but also big herds of elephants enjoying a mud bath and a drink.

We saw both the coalitions of male cheetahs a few times in the north and south of Madikwe.

On one particular morning we went looking for them in the north western part of the park. After a while without any tracks to follow and the odd crow sitting without any indication of a kill around it was time for us to stop for morning coffee.

As I was about to stop, I saw a very excited Brown Hyena, and then a couple of Jackal. All of a sudden, hell broke loose behind a tree close by, when the Cheetahs defended their fresh kill from the hyena. They jumped and hissed at the hyena, saving their kill.

The hyena knew he would not stand a chance and left them to eat. He was still in the area as cheetahs will certianly leave something for the scavengers.

The young Hyenas at the den entertained us a lot the past month.  The younger one of the three has started to change color, looking more like a spotted hyena and less like a bear cub.

With warmer, longer days, come visit us and experience all of this and more with us.

 

Regards

Cornelius and the T-team

A hearty welcome to all our fans once again….

This month has seen winter on its back, and we look forward to some warmer temperatures to follow from next month onwards.

Ok, so this month has as usual been a cracker month as far as wildlife sightings go here at Tuningi Safari Lodge.

We will kick off with a very unusual sighting of White-Faced Owls that I found one afternoon just sitting in a dense acacia thicket right next to one of our game drive roads. What makes it unusual was that there were 6 owls all together, which is the most I have ever seen together in 18 years of guiding, as you usually will see them at night, not in the middle of the day in those numbers !!

Our local pride of lions has been spoiling us with a variety of awesome sightings this month, however they very seldom all been together all in one place at the same time. This is probably due to the fact that the females all have cubs of differing ages….. From 1 ½ years to just 4 weeks old… yes, our newest addition to the Mica pride is the Jamala females litter of 4 brand new cubs that we have located just last week, and this is causing the split in the pride, as the females with the younger cubs do not want the older cubs to come close and play with the very small ones, as they could be a little too rough with them.

They have however been very good at killing prey this month, with zebra been the preferred flavor for this month. As the cubs are growing older, their appetites are growing even larger, and the girls are having to work even harder to provide enough for the pride. Competition around the carcass is increasing and creates amazing sightings as they squabble to get the lions share.

The boys have also had their hands busy, as the Kwande and Monomoholo males have joined up to create formidable opponents to the north of the territory. The opposing coalition has been making regular incursions into the Chimbro brother’s territory, but they have been very successful in sending them back to their own territory further north of the ridge.

And while they have been away from the females, they have been eating well…. Yes male lions do hunt !! They hunt extremely well, they just go for the larger, slower prey like buffalo bulls, as they managed to kill this old guy, and they fed on it for about 4 days before leaving it to the hyenas and jackals.

The carnage does not end here…. One morning we following the older Chimbro and Mica female, as they were hunting what we could not see, when all hell broke loose, and the Mica female managed to catch a young warthog, and had it firmly in her jaws, and once the life had left the hapless pigs body, the big old guy decided that he was going to steal it for himself….. I suppose the king will always have right of way !!

As tough as the males can be, so can they also show some affection and be gentle to their offspring.

Here the king shows his softer side as some of the cubs come over to greet him, but as you can see he really just tolerates them by showing his massive teeth.

And sometimes the big guys just need to rest….

The cheetahs have also given us some WOW photographic opportunities, as they lay around in classical cheetah pose. They are still moving long distances throughout the park, still in search of females, but luckily for us they are frequenting the south west of the park, and we as rangers love tracking them down.

They also seem to have cottoned on to the flavor of the month, being zebra, as one crispy cold morning they managed to bring down a young zebra foal, and made short work of the meat, as they engulfed it in a very short time.

The wild dogs….. Well…. What’s that again…??

Yip, we are still not having much luck with them, as they are still denning in the mountains in the north east of the park, and we are still eagerly awaiting the time for them to bring their puppies down so that we can see how many there are…. But, we have been having a few sporadic sightings of what seems to be a breakaway pack of 3 females, that are roaming the boundaries of the park. Wild dogs will often create these breakaway packs of either females or males that will go in search of similar packs of the opposite sex, where they will then join to create a new pack, and this is how they ensure genetic diversity within the bigger population.

Our leopard sightings this month have been good, due to some very persistent tracking by us rangers, as we have been working tirelessly to find our guests the pinnacle of your safari.

Tsala has been the most difficult to find, and has made a few appearances, and seems as though she has definitely lost her cubs again !! Lets hope she can get this monkey off her back in the future.

Munye on the other hand is travelling huge distances, and has covered the whole south western section of the park, and on one occasion even went on a “ vacation” to the north west of the park, which has caused somewhat of a stir of amusement among the rangers in that we are left wondering why he is moving these large distances among the bigger males in the area. Perhaps he is testing the boundaries of his opponents, to see if he can settle in a space without too much competition from other males. He always seems to find his way back to the south western section of the park, and we hope that he will soon settle down and become the territorial male in our area, and who knows… maybe even mate with Tsala one day….

One morning we made our way to the north eastern section of the park to go and have a look at the new kid on the block… “ Dineo “, a young female who has been giving the guys up in the north east a steady supply of good sightings, as she seems to have accepted the vehicles and has habituated very nicely to us coming to get some good images of her as she goes about her daily chores of being a leopard.

This particular day, she had managed to kill a very large male impala, and dragged it up into a shepherds tree, just in time before the hyenas could get to it. This was quite the feat, as she is not a very large female, and we certainly hope that she will soon be the mother of some cubs, which would mean an awful lot to us here in Madikwe, in that she will be the start of getting more habituated leopards into the park.

The hyena cubs at the den in the south is a great filler sighting to the bigger ones, as the 3 cubs have been parading their cuteness around the vehicles, and the younger cub has just started his transformation from baby fluff into his adult “plumage”, which is a must see… Your expectations of what hyenas are will be changed forever, as they are for me, one of the cutest things out here !!

As the temperatures start getting warmer, the elephants are starting to feel the need to even mud bathe at some of the pans, and sometimes becoming very protective of the scarce commodity, chasing any other animals away from their patch of fun in the sun.

Well, that’s it for this month….

Hope to see you all soon here at Tuningi Safari Lodge ….

Regards,

Gavin and the T-Team.

As the early winter mornings are getting colder, the trees and grass is getting thinner and viewing is getting easier.

With another month gone there is a lot of news to share.

The first big news is that a Hyena den was found. Jip, finally we get to see young and baby hyenas that are getting very relaxed with the vehicles.

They are not always out, but if we visit frequently enough we get to see them.

There are 2 four month old youngsters and one of about two months.

We were struggling to find leopards the past few weeks but we got to see Munye the young male from the south as well as Tsala the resident female.

She killed a male impala, but unfortunately she could not get it up a tree and she lost it to hyenas that night.

The waterholes are getting busy as winter progresses, with all the water in the bush drying up. Even on cold days the elephants have fun in the last spots of mud.

Both coalitions of male Cheetahs made themselves seen a few times and for a short while all of them were spread out in the south of the park.

The lions are doing very well in the cold weather. Their bodies obviously function a lot better than ours when the chill sets in.

They were not always together but within  a week they had four kills between the lot of them.
The Mica female had a wildebeest kill all by her self but then also spend a lot of time with the two Chimbro males.

The rest of the females and young ones had two zebra kills and a wildebeest in less than a week. There is also a possibility of new cubs with the Jamala female but still needs to be confirmed.

With the Wild dogs in a den far to the east of the park we do not get to see them very often. There are three females that has split from the pack and we get to see them when they move closer to our area of operation.

Hopefully the next cold month produces just as much excitement.

Hope to see you soon!!!

Regards

Cornelius and the T-team

Hello again to all our fans !!

May has been a pretty quiet month as far as the lodge not being as busy as we are used to, but has given us some good time to spend on maintenance activities in and around the lodge.The winter has arrived in earnest, as the morning temperatures have dropped substantially, especially in the mornings, but there is nothing that a nice hot water bottle cant fix while you cuddle up with it and your nice warm blanket as you watch the sun get out of its lazy bed of darkness and poke its warming head out of the savanna horizon accentuated by the distant roar of lions.

Our bushveld celebrities have however been doing very well, and have given us some very good sightings over the last month.

Munye, our local young male leopard has in the past reports been showing signs of setting up territory in the south west of the reserve, and has continued doing so, and is marking his territory more seriously now, and he is still overlapping his home range with a very large male, and on some occasions he has been following him in an attempt to oust him from his throne in these areas.He has also been on the scent of a female, which has got his utmost attention, and has been covering large distances in search of this female, which may be in estrus by bellowing out the rasping grunt that only a leopard can…. We hope he finds her, and begins his own empire here in the south.

Tsala, our local queen has made a few abrupt appearances, and seems to be behaving very strangely, and on one occasion we have noticed she may have a developing teat line once again…. Here we go again, and we should all have a special prayer for her so that she can actually raise the cubs this time around.

The cheetah boys in the park are also doing very well, and are moving huge areas across the park in search of a female which we are still struggling to find for them, as there just are not enough genetically unrelated females available in the country to be brought here, but we are still on a priority list to obtain a female as soon as one becomes available.

They also have had their tracking collars removed this month, and I am sure they feel very happy to get rid of that hideous set of jewellery

Our local pride of lions is doing exceptionally well, except for that fact that 2 males have started putting pressure on the Chimbro males from the east, and have made some incursions into the territory once or twice, which has resulted in the Chimbro boys coming home with a few more scars in defense of their stronghold, and seem to have settled the dispute as the intruders have fled further east.

The growing cubs from the Jamala and Matlapa females have endless amounts of energy at the moment and are spending most of their time playing which is very important in their muscle and coordination development for one day when they will use these skills in the hunt to feed the pride.

We also welcomed back the Club Excel group from London which is an incentive based holiday for their top performers, and boy… were they treated to a once in a lifetime opportunity…..

Thanks to the generous donation of the owners, Jim and Isobel Smith, they contributed towards the conservation of our rhinos in the park, which is extremely important as the rhinos are facing increasing threats from poachers on a daily basis.

So this is what went down…….

It was up early one morning to meet the vet, helicopter pilot and parks officials where we given a brief of the activity to follow, which was to treat an injured female rhino, and to notch the ears of her 3 year old calf.

On the arrival of the chopper, we were called in by the pilot who had found our target, and we raced off in the direction that the chopper was hovering.

Once we all arrived, the vet darted both mom and calf, and herded them towards the road we were waiting on with astonishing precision, as the drugs started taking full effect.

Once the two of them were immobilized the vet and his team got to work, as the group helped pushing the calf from its side onto its chest to aid its breathing.

The following procedures are carried out on the rhinos:

• DNA samples from the blood, toe nails, and horn is taken
• The rhinos are given a shot of vitamins and antibiotics
• The ears are notched
• A micro chip is inserted into the horn and shoulder of the animal
• Horn measurements are taken
• The vet treated the female who had a hole in her cheek caused by fighting with another rhino

All of this work is done and the info is captured in a central database in south Africa, which is integral in the management of the species , as well is it also helping in the local management within the park to see where certain individuals live in the park which can also help in the event of an animal been poached, so that we can if the horns are retrieved from an incident, which can then link the crime to the animal, which ultimately helps in strengthening a case should it be needed once poachers are caught.

Ok….. so once all the guests got involved in the procedures and touching and feeling the soft shoulder and behind the knee bits of a rhino, and inspecting the horn… it was time for the vets to administer the reversal drug, and our rhinos got up with shaky legs for a few minutes before gathering their wits and bearings, and then trotted off into the bush all in much better condition that we found them in.

THE RHINOS WERE NAMED IN HONOUR OF JIM AND ISOBEL BY THE GROUP, AND WE WISH “BELLA” (FEMALE) AND “ SMITHY” (CALF) A SPEEDY RECOVERY.

If any of you out there want to get involved with any conservation work like this in the park, please contact us and we can arrange something for you on your next stay here at Tuningi !!

Well…. That’s it for now….

Best regards,

Gavin and the T-Team.

Another newsletter after our long absence.

The mornings are getting cooler by the day and we’ve had a few spectacular misty mornings.

You never realize how many spider webs are around until they are covered in dew.  You get to see all the different types of webs and sometimes the spiders.  This is a combination of Tent web Spiders.

 

 

Our local pride of lions have split up into smaller groups for a few days but then the whole family will reunited after some alone time.  The youngsters of about one year old went on an exploring mission for about a week but then needed the safety of the pride again.

The leopards were not easy to locate over the past month but Munye did show himself a few times.  He was seen on the southern fence walking up and down which could mean that he is looking for better opportunities.  Hopefully he will stick around.

In some areas of the park the long grass is thinning out, making it a bit easier to spot the animals.

However a Cheetah on top of a dead tree are much easier to see.

We had another stunning visit to the Tswene Tswene in the middle of Madikwe, one of my favorite views in the park.

In between all the big and exciting things we saw there were also the unexpected.

Hope you all enjoy reading about our adventure as much as I did.

Regards

Cornelius and the T-Team

YAY !!!!

THE NEWSLETTER IS BACK !!!

Yes, after having our computers back from the lightning strike we suffered in November last year, it has been very frustrating not to have been able to write any newsletters for all of you fans….

Anyway, that is now in the past and lets not waste any more time… lets get into this Months happenings in the bush…..

Ever heard of GEOPHAGEA ?

This what this giraffe is doing… They will actively search out old bones lying around in the bush, and chew them to get calcium which is lacking in the vegetation that they eat. This is quite a lengthy awkward looking exercise, as they jostle the bone in their mouths towards the back teeth which makes for a very comical sighting, pulling very funny faces as they do so.

We don’t often get to put up some worthy images of buffalos, as they seem never to portray their beauty, power and danger through the camera too well…. Until you are lucky enough to witness this…

One fresh morning, we arrived at one of the larger waterholes in the south, and found these two old bulls having one serious go at each other !! They bashed heads with the crack of a gun sounding as they wrestled each other for about 30 minutes with no sign of either of the males giving up. If you look closely you can even see the horns penetrating the eyes of the one bull, and also the blood oozing from his body from the lusty blows been dealt out in the fight.Males within the herd will fight and set up a hierarchy among themselves in order to win the breeding rights on the females.Nevertheless, the buffalo in this sighting got some well earned respect for their power and aggression once more.

Our local pride, The Mica pride, is blooming !!

There have been 2 new cubs born to the Matlapa female, they are around 3 months old now, and together with 4 other cubs in the pride their total is now at 14. Yes they are growing their need for food, and are having to search harder for prey, and that they are doing !!

We located them one day on a very large giraffe that they must have killed in the middle of the day, as we did see them the previous morning looking very hungry. The afternoon revealed that they had killed the giraffe, which is one of the bigger kills they have had for some time now. The interactions between all the males and the older Mica females was an awesome to witness, and it was a sighting that lasted for 3 days…

On another occasion, we located them at Tau dam, and noticed that they were not all together… The males seem to be splitting away from the pride very often, as they are moving to the extremities of their territories to patrol and reinforce the scents for other males which may want to enter the now very fragile territory with all the cubs running around at this stage. This never stopped the cubs from enjoying some naïve fun unbeknown to them the possible dangers they could face.

The males have also been helping the pride out with kills of their own… Yes, males od hunt. In fact they are very good killers, they just go after the more cumbersome larger prey, such as buffalo and giraffe, etc, much to the appreciation of the females in the pride.

In the months that we have been offline, the rains came down hard, which created a party atmosphere for the bullfrogs, and as you can see here they seem to be in their element with all the free standing water around, where the males are hard at work trying to secure a female to mate and create more little bullfrogs for the next season.

Where do they go when it is dry ?

They can actually bury themselves into the mud and go into a very inactive stage called aestivation, which means that they lower their heart rate to almost nothing, where they waiting for the following years rain before emerging and staring the cycle again.

The cheetahs and wild dogs have been very scarce over the last couple months due to the very long grass that has taken over the Ophir plains area where they liked to hunt frequently. You can see below by the size of the grass that it will make life very difficult for them to hunt, as you can barely even see a full grown kudu in this grass… try to see if you can spot the kudu yourself….

We did however manage to see them on a few occasions and they are doing very well…. The Wild dogs are moving vast distances throughout the park at the moment trying to locate a possible den site for them to have their next batch of puppies. The alpha pair have shown signs of mating, and now we are hoping with bated breath that they will give us the amazing sightings around the den soon….

Tsala has been also very elusive, as it is hard enough trying to find tracks of her, never mind to try and spot her in this long grass at the moment. But, she has given us some great sightings of her up in the maroela trees she loves so much. The last reports of her having cubs have seem to be something of the past, as she no longer is lactating, and we have not seen any signs of her cubs anywhere. So we presume she has lost them once more… This is the umpteenth time that I have seen of her not raising her cubs to any decent size. Maybe she just doesn’t have what it takes to raise them successfully, but we still hope that she will have another shot at it soon !!

Munye, the young male has also been very active here in the south west, and is definitely showing signs that he wants to kick out the massive territorial male that resides there, so he will have to be very careful before he takes on this monster of a male leopard. You can see the result of the last fight on his upper lip, but it has healed rather nicely now, and we look forward to him becoming the new Prince of stealth in our area.

Closer to home, we have also got some very exciting news… “Klippie” our local klipspringer has finally brought home a female !! Yes, they seem to have created that monogamous bond, and are enjoying the confines of the camp and can be seen lazing around the camp on the room pathways, or even popping in to the lodge to say hi… They are our ambassadors, and gave us a nice surprise one morning as they were lying on top of our entrance gate posing and admiring their territory that is Tuningi !!

Some other random sights from the last couple of months….

So to finish off… we have had some really nice sundowner stops on top of the Tschwene Tschwene Mountain in the centre of the park which makes for some unbelievable landscape photography.

So ….. until next time….

I send you my best bush regards,

Gavin & The T-Team

Hi there everyone,

 

So this newsletter is going to be about only one sighting we had this month. It was the ULTIMATE Lion sighting anyone can ask for.

Before we get in to it, you can also follow us on Facebook at Tuningi Safari Lodge. The rest of the month’s sightings are on our Facebook page.

So it started out as the typical afternoon for Cornelius and I, we went down to the lodge and discussed what we are looking for and where we want to go. We decided to look for Lions and the only ones close to us was still a little drive away.

Because Lions tend to get active only when the sun goes down, we decided to take a slow drive there, have sun-downers and then go to the Lions. We were very excited because it has been a long time since most of the pride has been together, little did we know what we were in for.

So we ventured out and had a lovely drive up to our sun-downer stop where we were greeted by an amazing sunset. We had our drinks and eventually it was our turn to go into the sighting.

As we approached up to the sighting the pride came out of the thicker bush for the first time that afternoon, first goal complete. They went to lie down in the open for the normal bonding and stretching session after napping the whole day – good interaction between them, second goal complete. At this point we already had a better sighting than most people before us, little did we know…

Shortly after stretching they started off heading north towards the local waterhole. Probably needed some water after a long hot day. The sun has set and we have our lights out. As we followed them, we started noticing their body language changing from calm and relaxed to an incredibly focused killing machine using all its senses. Heads down low, eyes focused forward and ears pointing straight in the direction they are looking. The excitement starts to build, what could it be that has triggered their interest…

As we moved closer slowly we started to hearing noises coming from the water. The splashing sound was coming from about thirty Buffalo drinking. They had no idea that the Lions were so close. By now Cornelius and I were so hyped we could barely sit still.

The Lions approached the dam slowly and carefully, not to alert the Buffalo of their presence. Hunting Buffalo is no mean feat but it helps to have some muscle with you when you do. Lucky for the four females present, the big Chimbro male was also in attendance.

As we settled in to watch, I advised my guests to sit still and to be as quite as possible. It may take a long time before anything happens.

My words weren’t cold yet and all chaos broke out. Lions bursting into full flight, Buffalo turning and stampeding away and us trying like crazy to keep up with them. It was just dust and lights and a complete mental dash. We tried our best to keep up with them but the dust everywhere and we couldn’t see a thing.

We decided to go around and see if we couldn’t keep up with them from the side. All of a sudden the bleating started, we knew they had a Buffalo. The question was, if they were going to be successful in their kill.

As we arrived, we saw the Chimbro attached to the female Buffalo’s face. He was trying to suffocate her by biting down over her mouth. Lions will do this  in cases where the animals’ throat might be too large. The female Lions were running around in all directions. They were trying their best to keep the other Buffalo from coming back to help the caught one escape.

After a minute or so the females eventually got rid of the other Buffalo. Now they could help the poor Chimbro out. He has been holding on for dear life as this Buffalo was dragging him around like a rag doll.

In an effort to get it to the ground, the females started jumping on the Buffalo and biting her back legs. After another five minutes they eventually got her to the ground. The Buffalo’s last breath followed soon after. After catching their breath, The Lions dug in.

Unfortunately the video that I took doesn’t work on the blog. So feel free to watch it on our Facebook Page.

Till next time

Kind Regards

Jacques and the T-Team

Welcome to all our bush loving fans once again….

This month has been hectic !!

So here goes….

We will Kick off with the annual “WALK FOR RHINO’S DAY”, the second of its kind in Madikwe.

This fundraising event , focuses on the rhinos, and with the current state of affairs of rhino poaching statistics whereby we are still losing almost 3 rhino per day in South Africa due to illegal poaching, these magnificent creatures need all the support they can get.

The day starts with an opening ceremony held by the park management, and then all who attended continue on to do a 5km walk for the rhinos of Madikwe. Walking through the bush with our Counter poaching unit making the area safe, with many drinks stations on route, our guests even managed to bump into a black rhino and her calf along the way which was extremely fitting to the occasion.

Once you reach the end of the walk, there are many food and drink stalls available to quench the thirst and kill the hunger after some good exercise. A display by the counter poaching unit was also put on for some light entertainment and the neighboring community members also adding to this amazing vibe by singing traditional songs all the way through.

All the funds raised through the auctions, and donations from guests and the participation fees all go straight into the trust fund which has been created for Madikwe specifically, and will be most needed to acquire some equipment for our own counter poaching unit who spend most of their days out in the bush day and night, risking their lives to protect our natural heritage !!

WELL DONE TO ALL THAT MADE THIS DAY A HUGE SUCCESS !!

IF ANYBODY WOULD LIKE TO DONATE ANY FUNDS INTO THE TRUST ACCOUNT PLEASE DON’T HESITATE TO CALL US OR SEND US A MESSAGE ON FACEBOOK FOR DETAILS ON HOW TO DO IT.

YOUR CONTRIBUTION COULD SAVE A RHINOS LIFE !!

So lets get into the bush grapevine…

The lion prides here in the south are doing extremely well.

The Matlapa female and her 3 male cubs seem to be past the most vulnerable stage of their young lives, and mom seems to be feeding them on a regular basis, as she is very successful in providing for her cubs.She did however come into contact with one of the nomadic males called the Cabo males, as you can see on her right cheek. This happened one morning as she tried to defend her zebra kill from him, but to no avail, as he stole her prize breakfast. This turned out to be a good thing, as he was more interested in the kill than going after the young cubs.

There is a bit of sad news, in that the old Mica female from the south east pride seems to have lost her cubs as reported last month. We are not sure how, but I would guess that being very old now, that she seems to not be overly motivated to care for which could possibly be her last set of cubs in her lifetime. She has raised many cubs successfully over the years, and is still a legend in her own right !!

The best news is that we recently have located the daughter of the old girl…the Jamala female with 2 brand new cubs that are around 1 month old now, and are super cute. The Chimbro male has been on guard around the den site, and he seems very chuffed with his new arrivals.

The other Jamala female is also doing very well, and is raising her 2 cubs very nicely, and have been on many kills this month including a big buffalo kill.

So the report last month from the situation with the Kwandwe male from the north who lost his brother in a fight a couple months ago seems to be getting over his injuries too, and even killed a young buffalo all on his own one morning. It will be interesting to see how he reacts to the 2 Bakgatla males that killed his brother when he gets back to full power…..

We also had a very interesting sighting with the Bafefo male, and a paralyzed wildebeest one morning…..We came across the drag marks for this wildebeest in the south, and decided to track it to see where it ended, and to our huge surprise the poor thing had dragged itself for about 2 kilometers to water and then back to the rest of the herd. But as we tracked the wildebeest we also noticed that there was a male lion track on top of the drag marks !!

Yip, as we located the wildebeest, the Bafefo male was sitting there with the wildebeest and they were giving each other a good stare down…

You would think that the lion would take the gift on offer without even thinking, but as it turned out this went on for the whole day. As soon as the wildebeest turned and dragged itself towards the rest of the herd, the lion gave chase, but the wildebeest then turned around to face the lion, and he stopped… !!Again and again this played out, and after a few hours of waiting for the kill, the same actions repeated themselves, and we soon had to get back to the lodge. The next morning we followed up and the inevitable had happened and Bafefo was enjoying his meal. This was a very rare exhibition from this massively powerful male lion !!

We also came across a pair of ostriches on the plains, that had successfully raised 3 chicks to a reasonable sub-adult size, and this was a first for me in Madikwe, as you do find the adults with a bunch of chicks as they have hatched, but to see 3 of them making it to this size was pretty impressive. Ostrich chicks get predated on by various predators, and like a have said, I have never seen them get to this size which is awesome news !!

Tsala, our resident leopardess has been rather scarce this month, but she did display her agility in the trees one morning as she was found on one of her territory patrolling missions. She is looking good, and we are still awaiting for her to become pregnant and show us some cubs again !!

The wild dogs and cheetahs have also been very scarce this month, spending most of their time in the east of the park, making us drive long distances to see them, but we did have our share of some good hyena action, and them calling around the lodge on most nights !!

Hopefully next month we can have a few more sightings of them.

I am going to conclude this months newsletter with some images of the wedding of Chris and Melanie, which was an absolute blast, and what an amazing group of people which opened up their hearts and pockets by donating a lot of toys, equipment and clothes to the local village’s pre-primary school which brought out many a smile to the youngsters who must have thought that Christmas had come early !!

Ok…. So that’s it….

We hope to see you at Tuningi soon….

All the best…

Gavin and the T-Team !!

Good Day Everyone,

We have had a wonderful month out in the African bush. We hope everyone who stayed with us in August had a great time, may you be back soon. It’s been very warm for August and the winds have been kid to us. There has been the occasional cold front but nothing to write home about. September looks like it’s going to be nice and warm but it’s advised to still bring layers as we are bound to be surprised by at least one last cold front.

 

The Buffalo have been doing well after the resent TB testing and they have relaxed again with the vehicles. We were disputing long and hard on how many there were in this, the kids decided 200 so we went with it. They might seem like big cows, but to us they have so much character. Their nick name is not Black Death for nothing…

They are the only animal that looks at you as if you owe them money…

We have seen the Cheetahs a few times and they are looking healthy and as beautiful as ever. From all the talk around the park, we gather that all six of them are still healthy and doing well. The female did decide one morning that she had enough of the boys and left  Madikwe. After a morning of running around the Park Management managed to locate her and bring her back safely.

The Elephants ate to be seen everywhere. This afternoon was just magical and we had to share it with you. The setting sun accompanied with very busy Elephants around Thlou dam made for wonderful viewing.

This month has been particularly good for Leopard viewing as Tsala and Munye came out to show them.

This was Munye on Ophir plains strolling around looking for something to eat.

Tsala, on thr other hand, was already successful in hunting and was just lying around eating. The ultimate Leopard sighting.

She did move it around from time o time to get a better position on the meat. I haven’t seen Gavin so proud of his girlfriend in a long time, it is a very big Impala.

There is good and bad news on the Lion front. We have is discovered a brand spanking new cub, which looks like the Micas. We hope the little thing pulls through. We have not yet been able to get a photo of her, mommy keeps her well hidden. The rest of the pride though are eating well and thriving with the stability the Chimbro and Bafefo males have brought to the area.

We might even see more cubs soon enough. This is what happens when the honeymoon ends…

So for the bad news. We recently heard that one of the Kwandwe males have been killed in a territorial dispute with other males. The limping one is the one that has passed. The bigger male got away and has been sen moving around better and recovering from his injuries. This is unfortunately the fate of every male Lion, fight for every inch until you can’t fight no more. RIP Kwandwe.

This is the last picture we have of him in better days.

Well that’s all folks. Hope to see you soon and if we don’t – take care of yourselves.

With kind bush regards Jacques and the T-Team.

A STAR HAS FALLEN

A tribute to the Naledi Male

The Last of the Naledi ( Which means STAR in Tswana) Male lion coalition has died.He seems to have died from a possible fight from other male lions, and was discovered yesterday in the north of the reserve by one of the field guides.

The Naledi male was an absolute legend in Madikwe, and I myself knew him and his brother from when they were just more than 2 ½ years old when they were kicked out of their natal territory in the north west of the park, some 10 years ago…..

The Naledi males came from a very powerful family, which were the Dithaba and Sepedi Males as their fathers and the Tshaba female being their mother, which in their own rights also were legend lions of Madikwe.

The Naledi males were born on the 15^th of October 2004, and lived a full life as far as male lions in the wild are concerned.

The two brothers after leaving their natal pride in 2007 went in pursuit of their own piece of real estate, and did not take them long before settling down in the east of the reserve where they had some success in taking over the Mica pride which resided along the Groot Marico river on the eastern boundary of the park for a couple of years before being pressured by other males from the north.

The Mica pride and the Naledi coalition then started moving westward towards the Vlei pan area where they settled down for most of their life, fathering cubs and being very successful at hunting and by now were in the prime of their lives!

They then were pushed further west by their nemesis’s, the Kgala and Etali males and settled down once again with the very Loyal Mica Pride females which did not want anything to do with the Kgala/Etali males.

Then came the introduction of 2 new males from the Kwandwe Reserve in the eastern cape towards the end of 2013, and this is when the Naledi males started having their fairytale lives turn upside down.

On one rainy day I witnessed the Kwandwe and the Naledi males having a serious fight with the power of their roars resonating through the bush as they chased each other at high speed all over the Vlei pan area. I lost sight of the 4 males, and the result the following week we realized that one of the Naledi males was not going to return….. We never found his body.

The Naledi did not give up his pride though even after losing his brother, but life was never going to be the same, as he now had nobody to back him up in fights with the new threat….

He managed to hold his territory for some time, before the inevitable had to happen and become ousted from the area by the Kwandwe males, which were by now looking really strong.

So after been kicked from his territory, he became nomadic as males do when they lose their territory, but it was not long before he found yet another lease on life….. He joins up with the much younger Monomoholo male, which is unheard of in the lion game… So once again his fighting spirit comes back, and has a renewed vigor on life and the two of them settle down in the far south west of the park for a short while, and even giving the Kwandwe males something to think about by chasing them further north, so avenging his brother to a small degree….

So after all the dust settled the, the two new best friends left the south west and marched up into the north eastern parts of the park where they started to engage with the dominant Lenyalo males that were established there.

The two of them caused much havoc up there with a mix of experienced war commander and brave new warrior forcing the females in the area to become very confused as to the happenings of this phenomenon !!

The two of them managed to settle in that area for some time, but the signs of old age had now started showing on the old guy, and soon started losing condition, but the Monomoholo male did come to his aid a few times making a kill or two for him to gain back some energy.

Naledi’s lust for life eventually ran out, and as most old males die, we presume he had been attacked by other male lions, and so his STAR HAD FALLEN……

R.I.P NALEDI….

YOU WILL BE MISSED !!

I leave you with some memorable images of the LEGEND that was The Naledi Male.

R.I.P. NALEDI

15 October 2004 – 17 July 2016

A good day to all of Tuningi and Madikwe fans out there.

 

It is very chilly out in Madikwe at the moment with cold fronts seemingly rolling in and out weekly. We hope that at the time of reading this you are very comfy and warm. If you are coming to Tuningi in the coming months we urge you to bring enough and proper warm clothes with as the morning and evening game drives can get very cold. So with all the proper warning out of the way lets get to the animals.

This month I am doing a little something different. I will be giving you all a proper update on most of the Lions in Madikwe. The different prides and how they fit in with the male coalitions and some of the changes that has happened in recent times and how it effects the dynamics in certain prides.

In the map above there are color outlines that represent the male Lion coalitions in the park.

The Red outlined area are the territory of the Chimbro and Befefo males. This is the area we operate in mostly. These three males have recently taken this area over from the Kwandwe males. The Kwandwe males are the Blue outlined area. They have since moved north. The pride of females with the Chimbro and Befefo males are the Mica and Jamala females. They are four females with two cubs. They use to have two Matlapa females with them but they moves north since they have three cubs with the Kwandwe males. We are still unsure what will happen in the future regarding this pride since the Matlapa females are the Mica females daughters and might want to rejoin. Interesting times ahead for this pride.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Kwandwes, Blue block,  have been pushed north and have moved on fairly peacefully. They have the Sebaba Bolakega pride in that area. They are three females and their two year old sons, the Kabo males, have been chased out to be nomadic. They have been seen around the south western corner of the park over the past week. They have no cubs at the moment but the Kwandwe males have mated with two of the females.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Purple block belongs to the Modimo males. They are still young males but are making a name for themselves. The refuse to back off from a fight and will do anything to keep their small peace of the park. They have the Kwena pride with them. They have four females and two young boys in the pride. They are mostly in the purple block but have been seen to wonder away and explore. They are a pretty stable pride and we expect them to be dominant in there area for quite some time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Green block is where all the action have been of late. Many of you that have been to Tuningi before would remember the Naledi male, The Troll as we affectionately call him. He was nomadic for a few years after being kicked out of his area by the Kwandwe males and basically left to die.On many occations we thought “this time is the last time we will see him” and then he always came back stronger. He eventually met up with a younger male called Munamogoeloe. They formed a coalition and moved east. They came into contact with the Linyalo males that was dominant in the green block. The old man with his young backup won the fight and the Linyalo males ran for the hills. They are still spotted in the area from time to time but they are staying clear from trouble. The female pride is the Kitemetsi and Matata pride. Also four females with two sub adults. Kitemetsi is the oldest female in the park at 15 years old. We saw the Naledi a couple of days ago and he is looking in bad shape again. Once again we said this will be the last time. Only time will tell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you have enjoined all the Lion information. All the best and till we see again, farewell.

 

Kind Regards Jacques and the T-Team