Category: Tuningi Safari Lodge

A very warm and fuzzy welcome to all of our fans…..

Well, it has been a year of amazing sightings, tough climatic conditions and exciting happenings…..

It would only be right to review the year, and pick out some of the most memorable sightings we have had this year, and we will kick off with this one……

The four cheetah brothers gave us some awesome sightings this year, and these were some of them….

1)  When they killed a young zebra. From start to finish, everything was witnessed

After stalking and resting and some more stalking they went for it. Unbelievable how quick these cats are. Not long after the kill, someone saw a Spotted Hyena running towards the action.

The Cheetahs had no intention of giving up their food and made it very clear when the hyena came closer. The Hyena was waiting patiently and only when the cheetahs all had enough to eat did the hyena take the rest without a fight.

 

2)  There was also one special afternoon when Cornelius was following the 4 cheetah brothers in the north when they were hunting, and this is what happened according to Cornelius……

” Late one afternoon the four male cheetahs were found around the middle of Madikwe. As I was close enough I got a spot to join the sighting and the middle of the action.

The one male walked past us as we drove in and the other 3 was looking at some Red hartebeest in the distance. We knew the one that left was setting up the ambush. Now we just had to wait.

After a short while we saw dust where the hartebeest were and the cheetahs were gone. We tried to keep up with them, but man they quick. We caught up with them and we had no words. All four cheetahs were hanging from a fully grown male Red hartebeest. It took them a while to get it down and kill it, but in the end they won.

It was a true fight for life and death. ”

Our local pride of lions have also had their fair share of ups and downs this year, as the new Kwandwe males started making their presence felt, defeating the Naledi coalition, and taking over the territory and even siring the next batch of future kings of Madikwe…..

1) The other brilliant sighting happened one morning in the mist when we found the Mica, Jamala and 2 young Matlapa lionesses lounging around. We sat with them for a while before they picked up on something on the nearby hill. We could not see what they were after but they kept on looking and slowly making their way towards the thick bushes at the foot of the hill. It was only after a kudu gave an alarm bark and a small group of kudus scattered up the hill side that we realised what they were after.

The lions lost interest and playfully walked in the other direction before something else caught their attention. The lions fanned out and in the mist and tall grass we lost track of some of them. One of the older females stayed behind close to the road as we followed one of the youngsters as she cautiously made a big loop around whatever they were after.

Eventually in the distance we saw some zebra, the cause of their stealthy stalking. We were still watching the youngster when the zebras burst into a thunderous run, spooked by a lioness we lost track of. This clever lioness sneaked passed, to behind the zebras before she launched her attack, cleverly knowing the position of the other older female that stayed behind close to the road. The zebras were oblivious that they were being herded straight towards the other lions. I sprang into actions and hastily made my way towards the lioness close to the road, hoping that the lionesses’ plan had worked. It did, the lions had managed to grab hold of a big mare and were struggling to bring the zebra to ground. The zebra fighting for dear live stayed on her feet and miraculously managed to spring free from the lions. Running right passed us with the lions in hot pursuit. The zebra did not reach far until one of the big lionesses’ again managed to grab hold and execute a powerful dive on the zebra, which made the zebra execute a sideways summersault.

The rest of the pride was quick to pounce and soon the zebra succumbed to the lion’s death grip on the throat. This sighting again left us in awe of nature’s brutal and unforgiving power and would definitely last in our memories for a long time.

3) From rare too just mind boggling.

Lions playing with their food. For almost thirty minutes we watched as the Impala tried in vain to escape. And then they worked up an appetite…

 

4) Then finally out of nowhere the Maklapas cubs came out and we had some great sightings of her and her fur balls. They are now about ten weeks old and healthy.

 

The Wild Dogs also have given us some seriously nice sightings this year, having 9 puppies at the den site in the Dwarsberg mountains certainly was the highlight, but there were many more…

All 9 puppies are still doing very well, and seems as though they will see 2016 in style !!

1)  Lets start off with the best news ever !!

The south pack of wild dogs have finally settled down at their den site deep in the Dwarsberg mountains, and showed off their offspring to us for the first time this week. There have been various counts of exactly how many puppies we have seen, but the biggest number has been 12, and there may even be more.

This is super big news and, even got us rangers to spare a tear or two as the adults come back from their hunting escapades to regurgitate meat for the puppies, which are about 4 weeks old now. Once they get fed on both milk from the alpha female as well as fresh meat from the minders, they will be growing very fast in the next few weeks until they are weaned, and then hopefully will all be fit and ready to run with the adults on hunting expeditions in the next couple of months. See the video below for our first encounter with the little guys as the adults feed them.

[KGVID]https://www.tuningi.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Wild-Dog-Den-2015-resized-for-web.mp4[/KGVID]

Our resident leopards, Tsala and Samson were showing off their elegance on mass this year, and long may it continue…

1) The big news if not the biggest news, is that Tsala the female from the south west has two cubs. We now see her on a regular basis around the little koppie where she is hiding her cubs and if one is lucky and patient enough, you might even see the cubs playing on the bare rocks on the koppie.

Sadly, she lost these cubs possibly to hyenas, but she thrives today, and hopefully will manage to raise her next litter successfully…

2) Next best news is that we saw the female from Tlou dam with a cub. The cub is about 8 months old and we saw it for the first time. We had no idea where she hid him all this time.

3) One such sighting in particular was one afternoon, when we decided to head into the south-east of the park searching for rhinos and whatever other treasures the bush may hold. We were not far from the lodge when the call came in that there was a glimpse of a leopard as he jumped out of the tree where it had stashed a kill. Well great news, but we know how fruitless it can be to go and look for a skittish leopard; basically you have two chances of seeing a skittish leopard, zero and nothing.

So continuing on our merry way we head of to the east, finding a few good sightings, while listening with half an ear how hopeful guides call into the area where the leopard has been seen, but a while later departing without a leopard sighting.

After our sun downers I decide to go past the tree where the kill is stashed, so at least the guests can say they saw a leopard’s kill in a tree. Cornelius had the same idea and we meet up next to a large Leadwood tree where the kill is supposed to be, but the leafy canopy is very thick and one can’t really make out the kill in the glow of the spotlight, so I resort to telling the guests how sneaky and sly a leopard can be and that the chances of seeing this particular leopard is zero due to it not being used to vehic….. O hello. From nowhere a magnificent leopard appears and stands in the fork of the tree with an expression of “what were you saying about me”. My mouth continued the rest of my sentence but no words came out. I looked over to Cornelius and was glad to see it was not only my jaw lying on the road next to the game drive vehicle. For a split second I thought of actually taking a picture of Cornelius rather than the leopard, just to catch that stunned expression on his face.

4) Samson, our resident male leopard has been treating us royally this month with a couple of awesome sightings as he killed a kudu and fed on it for 5 full days much to our delight… This made our job as rangers so much easier that week as the leopard is something that we need to spend many hours of hard tracking on.

5) Samson on the other hand, is a killing machine, and has had several kills this month, including wildebeest, kudu and impala. He is growing stronger every day, and is starting to fill out into the adolescent skin of his. Once he is confident enough, I am sure he will defeat the big male in the area, and start running his own territory, which he knows so well.

 

To see an Aardwolf is amazing, and this is what happened….

Additionally there was…or rather still is a sighting that is sending a buzz around the park. An aardwolf den has been discovered on the northern side of the park and has been giving us some amazing opportunities to view this usually shy nocturnal animals. Even though aardwolf’s are distributed across South Africa not many people get an opportunity to view these fascinating animals. Feeding almost exclusively on termites, as much as 300 000 termites per night, there is still controversy as to whether the aardwolf belongs to the hyena family or a single species family of its own. Most believe that the aardwolf is in fact a very specialized hyena after all, due to some anatomical and behavioural traits.

 

September was also the month to show our support for the rhinos of Africa, as we got involved with the very first “WALK FOR RHINOS” fundraising event held here in Madikwe. The fun walk was attended by more than 250 people from lodge staff, guests, and sponsors including several radio stations, and many more big companies.

 

We were closed for a maintenance week where we tackled the arduous job of refurbishing the swimming pool at the main lodge, and combing the thatch roofs throughout the lodge, and giving the kitchen a facelift by tiling out the entire kitchen, as well as oiling all the decks, this all in a week !!!

 

The waterholes in the park have been hectic to say the least, as you can see up to 100 elephants all at once around Tlou dam to the north, and even around the lodge, it has been crazy busy with herds of up to 200 buffalo visiting us frequently, together with all the different species of plains game joining you for lunch as you sip on a crispy cold beer or a tasty G&T…..

 

Two Brown Hyenas fighting, seeing only one is something in itself but to see these animals interacting like this was almost unheard of.They are solitary animals and we believed this was a territorial dispute.

SO…. THATS JUST SOME OF THE HIGHLIGHTS WE HAD OUT IN THE SAVANNAHS OF MADIKWE THIS YEAR, AND WE WOULD LIKE TO EXTEND OUR MOST GRATEFUL THANKS TO ALL OUR GUESTS WHO VISITED US THIS YEAR, AND TO OUR RETURN GUESTS WE HAD AN AMZING TIME CATCHING UP WITH ALL OF YOU AGAIN, AND WE HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL IN 2016……..

SO THERE IS ONLY ONE MORE THING TO SAY……..

 

 

November News Letter 2015

 

After a long and patient wait we finally got some rain this month. The waterholes are full and there are beautiful green shoots everywhere. All the cloud activity also gave us some beautiful contrasting color in the landscape.

The guests have been blessed with amazing sightings this past month. From the extremely rare-

Two Brown Hyenas fighting, seeing only one is something in itself but to see these animals interacting like this was almost unheard of.

They are solitary animals and we believed this was a territorial dispute.

From rare too just mind boggling.

 

Lions playing with their food. For almost thirty minutes we watched as the Impala tried in vain to escape.

And then they worked up an appetite.

 

We were able to see our fair share of Leopards as Tsala and Samson graced us with their presence.

We were also pleasantly surprised to see an older female we have not encountered before. She had no escape route seeing that the Mika\Jamala pride of Lions was camped at the bottom of her tree.

 

Time for some pups! Yes, the Wild Dogs. All nine pups are still doing great. We are so pleased.

 

They were camped around the mountain side the past month but have recently started moving around much more. Seems the adults have faith that the pups can keep up. They have been doing great in that regard.

The adults have been hunting very effectively as always and the pups are never far behind to enjoy the spoils.

They have taken down allot of Kudu this month. We have seen some very fat dogs this past month.

When the puppies are hungry, the adults oblige…

Then finally out of nowhere the Maklapas cubs came out and we had some great sightings of her and her fur balls. They are now about ten weeks old and healthy.

They are three boys with a very bright future in the park. We believe they will grow big and strong and sire plenty offspring of their own one day.

They have been visiting the Tuningi waterhole often, great to see the cuteness from the deck.

So after a bountiful month filled with rain, babies, great sightings and beautiful sunsets we say, until next time. Hope to see you soon.

Kind Regards

Jacques and the T-Team

 

We have had an extremely dry month here at Tuningi as we continue to wait for that precious gift – rain.  Wind and dust were the only things in abundance as the wildlife struggled through the brown landscape.

However, a lack of rain does mean that the water holes were very busy with a lot of action from different animals.

The young Matlapa female is still not showing her cubs and is building a reputation of being a secretive and protective mother.  The rest of the pride is proving to be quite challenging to find most of the time, spending most of their time on rocks and in areas we cannot reach on the vehicles.

But we keep on trying and are occasionally rewarded with a good sighting!

Following a long absence, we saw the pride from the North.  We ventured out to find them in the hopes of seeing the two cubs – and we were rewarded!  It was so amazing to see and hear those little ones, a sign and promise of new life in the midst of the wait for rain.

The two Kwandwe males have been very active, having killed two Buffalo in two weeks.  The first kill was at Inkwe pan and, to our surprise, they finished it in only two days. Those boys must have been hungry!

The second kill was close to our lodge and we located that after a rather quiet morning drive.  We love the challenging of tracking something with a successful find! To find the kill was a massive bonus at the end of the search.

Leopards were few and far between but when we did catch sight of them, they were around for a while providing us with wonderful sightings.

First was Tsala on a Duiker kill in the South of the park. What a beauty and always a pleasure to see!

Just as we thought we would have a dry spell with Leopards, I found Samson.

He is the young legend in our area who is always amazing us with his strength and skill.

We came across a drag mark across the road that looked suspicious.  So I stopped and had a good look around and spotted the Impala in a tree.  Upon closer inspection, there he was, as if he was waiting to show off his kill.

Lucky for us the Cheetahs were in the Southern part of the park most of the time and we got to show them to most of our guests. These sleek brothers are always a treat!

Following our sighting of the Wild dogs with their pups early in the month, they disappeared!!

They were in the vicinity of the lodges on the ridge but we never found them.  The puppies are moving with them and never remained stationery long enough to be seen.

Later, we saw them twice in one week on big male Kudu kills.  But the puppies were unfortunately not spotted.

We know all 9 puppies are still alive but we have yet to see them with the pack again.

And so the Tuningi team waits! For pups, for cubs and for rain!

 

Until next time!

Cornelius and the T-Team

Springtime !!

Yes, the little bit of rain we had earlier in the month has sent the bush into maximum growth phase, and flowers, grass shoots and new leaves are breathing life back into the rather dry and harsh Madikwe bushveld.

 

The browsers and grazers of the savannas, are enjoying some fresh food, and seem to be converting it into putting their undernourished bodies back into prime condition.

September was also the month to show our support for the rhinos of Africa, as we got involved with the very first “WALK FOR RHINOS” fundraising event held here in Madikwe. The fun walk was attended by more than 250 people from lodge staff, guests, and sponsors including several radio stations, and many more big companies.

There still seems to be no end to the needless slaughter of our rhinos in South Africa, and at a rate of 3 rhinos been poached every day in the country.

When are we going to realize that without the help from generous people from the private sector, rhinos may go extinct before we know it.

IF YOU ARE STILL WANTING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE, AND GET INVOLVED WITH A DONATION TOWARDS PROTECTING OUR RHINOS HERE IN MADIKWE, WE URGE YOU TO GET IN CONTACT WITH US, AND WE WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH THE BANKING DETAILS FOR OUR FUNDRAISING ACCOUNT SPECIFICALLY SETUP FOR PURCHASING NECESSARY EQUIPMENT FOR MADIKWE’S COUNTER POACHING UNIT.

So… please !!!

Do the right thing… help our rhinos for our future generations to someday be able to go into wild areas such as Madikwe and enjoy the precious rhinos that we have roaming here.

Now… As far as the animals that live here, well, it has been a great month of some interesting sightings.

Here we go…..

We kick off with the lions, and the old boy “Naledi” is enjoying the company of his new friend “Monomogolo”, and they seem to be settling down in the south western section of the park, hunting very successfully, and have even been showing signs that they are intent on taking back the territory from the “Kwandwe” males who have been making regular incursions into the south and actively pursuing the two older males.

This happened one morning when we found the Monomogolo male looking rather bewildered and foaming at the mouth with wide eyes, and then not far from him, the Kwandwe males were roaring at full tilt. The Naledi male was nowhere to be found, and we presume they got split up during the fight, and we are still looking for the two old boys to join up again.

This is very interesting behavior, and at the moment seems as if the two younger Kwandwe males seem to have the edge.

The local female pride have been very elusive this month, and they also seem to not be enjoying the skirmishes that are going on between the males. Thus making them tough to find, and I am sure they will settle down again once we have a definite winner of the territory.

 

In the meantime, one of the younger females has had cubs somewhere west of the lodge, as her teats are very dirty, which is very good news for us, but she will have to bring up these cubs with all this testosterone in the air. Hopefully in the next month or so she will show us her first born cubs.

The pride to the north have also had 2 new editions, and seem to be following the adults as they go hunting.So this means now that the Kwandwe males are now running two different prides, and they will have their hands full if they are going to keep both prides safe from any other male attacks in the future.

The Wild Dogs have moved their puppies deep into the Dwarsberg mountains, much to our disappointment, and we have now changed our game plan at trying to find them, as we have to intercept them when they leave the den site and go hunting . This has been proving to be very difficult, as we have had very few sightings of them this month. The good news is that they are still hunting, and going straight back to the mountains every time, so hopefully they will show the puppies soon again.

Sadly, we located on a dead elephant which seems to have died from natural causes close to the airstrip and over the last month has provided us with some really good hyena and jackal sightings. The tensions between all these scavengers boiled to a point when the Naledi and Monomogolo male lions pitched up there creating a blur of hyenas and jackals scattering in all directions avoiding the wrath of the apex predator in full flight.

They did not however seem to enjoy the rancid maggot dripping meal they had just discovered, and had a couple of sniffs around the carcass, and then left with much disappointment in their faces.

The hyenas on the other are really enjoying the free meal, and have been seen climbing right into the carcass, and even rolling around in the rotting juices coming out of the giant slab of meat.

 

The 4 cheetahs are still moving large distances throughout the park, and are doing extremely well even though they are still looking for any signs of females which unfortunately are no longer to found in Madikwe at the moment.

 

For those of you who don’t know… the 2 females we introduced into the park at the beginning of the year have died. One died of complications in the holding facility before release, while the other female was successfully released, and for 3 months seemed to do really well until we found her collar in the south of the park with no signs of skin, bones or fur in the area. We think that the male cheetahs may have had something to do with this, and as she was a very inexperienced female, she probably did not know how to deal with the aggressive interactions of the males.

There are currently plans in the pipeline to locate more females for our boys, and we hope that they come soon, so that we can get the ball rolling again to have cheetah cubs in Madikwe again.

 

Leopard sightings have been off the charts !!

Yip, Samson and Tsala have been making regular appearances, and looking supreme.

Tsala, the resident female is an absolute gem, and she has such a soft nature, and we hope that after losing her cubs at the beginning of the year will fall pregnant again soon, and maybe she will raise them to adulthood with some luck this time.

 

Samson on the other hand, is a killing machine, and has had several kills this month, including wildebeest, kudu and impala. He is growing stronger every day, and is starting to fill out into the adolescent skin of his. Once he is confident enough, I am sure he will defeat the big male in the area, and start running his own territory, which he knows so well.

 

The waterhole at the lodge has also been very busy with elephants making an appearance almost every day, and enjoying the cool effects of the mud on their skin while quenching their big thirsts at the same time.

 

The Kwandwe males are also using the valley past the lodge on a regular basis to get to the northern areas of the park, so don’t fall out of your bed when they let rip with a powerful earsplitting roar on their way past.

The general game has not been shabby either… loads of “safari fillers “ to keep everyone happy while we looking for the big guns !!

 

Well… that’s it from the bush grapevine for this month….

We hope to see you soon at Tuningi, so that YOU can experience the day to day lives of our superstars that we love soooooo much.

Wishing you all the best,

Regards,

Gavin and the T-TEAM !!

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the rapid changing weather, from cold to very pleasantly warm, we have had an amazing month.

The August winds and dusty conditions created spectacular drama and beautiful sunsets.

First of all, the Wild dogs are doing very well. With the number of pups now confirmed at 9, they all are healthy and doing well.

The little ones are exploring the area around the den more and some of them are getting very close to the vehicles, which is a good sign of them getting used to the vehicles.

With the pups getting more active and moving around, the adults have to hunt every day. We had a few amazing opportunities to follow them while hunting.

The furthest they had a kill from the den was about 15 kilometers, but then one adult is always staying at the den to keep the pups safe.

There is still some uncertainty amongst the lion in the park. The Kwandwe males still move between the north and south of the park setting up territory, but the Mica and Jamala females are still trying to avoid them.

The Matlapa females with their mothers are doing very well in hunting and we got to see them on kills a few times.

We were very surprised to see the Naledi male back in the south. Too much competition in the north pushed him back to where he had his territory until a few months ago.

Amazing what a few good meals can do to an old body.

Further to the east the Monamogolo male was chased out of his territory by 3 younger males and to our surprise he and the Naledi teamed up.

So the Naledi have a chance of better survival and the Monamogolo has an extra pair of eyes and ears helping him.

To add to all the excitement we saw more leopards than we could ever hope for.

Samson the local male had another big kill, a young wildebeest, which he dragged up a tree. He was around that tree for four days. So, to find a leopard that week was not too difficult. We saw him on another occasion as well.

Next best news is that we saw the female from Tlou dam with a cub. The cub is about 8 months old and we saw it for the first time. We had no idea where she hid him all this time.

The warmer weather is always welcome, especially if it comes with such great sightings. Lets hope for more special sightings during the next few months, that only Madikwe can offer.

Hope to see you soon

Regards

Cornelius and the T-Team

A chilly and season changing greetings to all of you Tuningi Fans out there !!

Yes, the season is slowly changing, as the August trade winds start blowing south sending plumes of dust into the African sky and creating some amazing dawn and dusk colors here in Madikwe.

As far as the amazing sightings are concerned on our safaris in the park… well, nothing has changed……IT IS STILL AMAZING !!

Lets start off with the best news ever !!

The south pack of wild dogs have finally settled down at their den site deep in the Dwarsberg mountains, and showed off their offspring to us for the first time this week. There have been various counts of exactly how many puppies we have seen, but the biggest number has been 12, and there may even be more.

This is super big news and, even got us rangers to spare a tear or two as the adults come back from their hunting escapades to regurgitate meat for the puppies, which are about 4 weeks old now. Once they get fed on both milk from the alpha female as well as fresh meat from the minders, they will be growing very fast in the next few weeks until they are weaned, and then hopefully will all be fit and ready to run with the adults on hunting expeditions in the next couple of months. See the video below for our first encounter with the little guys as the adults feed them.

[KGVID]https://www.tuningi.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Wild-Dog-Den-2015-resized-for-web.mp4[/KGVID]

The waterholes in the park have been hectic to say the least, as you can see up to 100 elephants all at once around Tlou dam to the north, and even around the lodge, it has been crazy busy with herds of up to 200 buffalo visiting us frequently, together with all the different species of plains game joining you for lunch as you sip on a crispy cold beer or a tasty G&T…..

Samson, our resident male leopard has been treating us royally this month with a couple of awesome sightings as he killed a kudu and fed on it for 5 full days much to our delight… This made our job as rangers so much easier that week as the leopard is something that we need to spend many hours of hard tracking on.

 

Tsala our resident female also made a few appearances, and it seems as though she may be coming back into estrus after she last her last set of cubs to a possible hyena attack. She has over the years never been a great mother, and I am yet to see her raise cubs successfully.

The resident female from the north, Phodile has not been seen all that much lately, but she did give as a memorable sighting one afternoon when we found her been a bit lazy, listening to the sounds of clicking impala hooves in the distance. She posed for us for some time before suddenly standing up and moved swiftly into the direction of the impala that she was after and disappeared into the dense thickets.

The lion politics in the south west is still raging on, and the Kwandwe males are causing absolute chaos, as the Mica pride have now split up into the 2 older Mica and Jamal females, and the 2 younger Matlapa females which defiantly don’t seem to enjoy the presence of their new kings.

 

The Matlapa females seem to be doing well even if they don’t have the support from their mothers, and are killing often keeping them in tip top shape, but it cant be too long before they too will have to mate with the Kwandwe boys, and then we will have new cubs in our resident area.

The pride to the east… The Chimbro males and the other Mica and Jamala female have also had their share of politics as the 3 new boys fight their way into the rights to mating and the kills, and the males are bearing the scars to prove it, as it seems that the completion between them is strong at the moment.

We also had an idea that the Jamala lioness did have cubs a while ago, but we think that one of the 3 males are responsible for killing them, much to the anger of the females, and now gives them no choice but to come into estrus again and mate with them in public, so that this does not happen again, which will make the males realize that they now have the responsibility of protecting the cubs for the future.

 

As far as the rest goes… well it has been a special month with 2 full moons in a calendar month, which is very rare, and the image below is one of the moon rising over the Dwarsberg to the south, with Cornelius’s guests in the vehicle.

Until next time……

Bush Regards,

Gavin and the T-Team. !!!

Another month has flown past and it is hard to believe that more than half of 2015 is already something of the past.

Thus far winter has been treating us kindly, with only the occasional chilly day or two, but on the whole we are enjoying very moderate sunny days, that burn off the bit of the chill from morning game drive very quickly.

With it being winter the bush is still getting dryer, one advantage of this of course is that it makes game spotting a little bit easier and game spotting has as always been pretty good this month.

Tlou dam was still a hit this month, even though the dam’s water level is now very low, lots of game still rely on the dam as a main water source and it is not uncommon to sit on Tlou dam wall and see a swirling dust cloud approach as a big herd of buffalo or elephants make their way to the water.

After the unfortunate outbreak of rabies we’ve had over December that almost decimated our wild dog population, the good news is that the alpha female is heavily pregnant and would hopefully drop her pups very soon.  Even though the dogs have been pretty elusive lately we got a really great sighting of them one morning as they were finishing off an impala close to the park admin offices.

Samson and Tsala our famous leopards from the south have also produced their goods this month.   But it was Samson that stole the spotlight after spending 3 days up a tree with an impala kill, giving us some magnificent photo opportunities.

The lion politics in the south and north west of the park is still continuing. The Kwandwe males that took over both territories have still not been able to convince the females that they are now in charge and thus the females are dodging and hiding from the males as best they can and unfortunately from us too. However, with some tracking and a bit of luck we are able to track them down most of the time.

The Chimbro males are still very settled around the centre of the park and are often found at the watering hole close to the park management offices to quench their thirst.

 Additionally there was…or rather still is a sighting that is sending a buzz around the park.  An aardwolf den has been discovered on the northern side of the park and has been giving us some amazing opportunities to view this usually shy nocturnal animals.  Even though aardwolf’s are distributed across South Africa not many people get an opportunity to view these fascinating animals.  Feeding almost exclusively on termites, as much as 300 000 termites per night, there is still controversy as to whether the aardwolf belongs to the hyena family or a single species family of its own.  Most believe that the aardwolf is in fact a very specialized hyena after all, due to some anatomical and behavioural traits.

A few other species that have also been entertaining us this month include some spotted hyena’s that we are seeing more and more of in the park. This is great as they provide an essential role in the ecological system.

We also spent a bit of time with a troop of baboons one early morning as they were sunning themselves before heading out foraging for the day.  One can spend hours with a troop of baboons as there is always something happening and the likeliness to humans will fascinate one time and time again.  For instance, this big male baboon and the resemblance between him and some rangers after a long night of hosting guest in the bar is just uncanny.

Well that is all from me this month, hope to see you in the bush the first opportunity you get.

Kind regards from Christo and the T-team

 

Welcome to a very dry and crispy cool Madikwe…….

This month has been a month of fresh new changes in the wildlife department as well as at the lodge.

We were closed for a maintenance week where we tackled the arduous job of refurbishing the swimming pool at the main lodge, and combing the thatch roofs throughout the lodge, and giving the kitchen a facelift by tiling out the entire kitchen, as well as oiling all the decks, this all in a week !!!

 

After all the hard work it was well worth all the effort as the lodge is looking really stunning, and better than ever.

 

As far as the wildlife is concerned, we kick off with the new changes in our local male lion coalition, the Kwandwe boys. They have officially now taken over from the Naledi male who reigned here on the ridge for than 8 years, but is now been forced into nomadism and is fearing for his life as he is still been pursued by the Kwandwe males who want to finish off the task of eliminating him for good as they had done to his brother about a year ago !!

This is not all bad news, as it is nature’s way of making sure that the strongest genetics are going through to strengthen the population.

The females on the ridge have also accepted the change, and were even seen mating with the new force on the ridge, and we hope that we will have cubs in three months from now. So for the time being, until the dust all settles down I am sure that we will get back to having some awesome sightings of our local pride in the close future.

These boys were even responsible for taking down a full grown giraffe during our maintenance week, so we don’t have any images of them on the carcass, but we did have some amazing sightings of vultures, jackals and hyenas finishing off the carcass for another week after the lions had moved off.

 

The presence of these scavengers is a very important part of the safety of the ecosystem as they are able to eliminate all the disease that generates from the rotting carcass by digesting and neutralizing any pathogens that could create an outbreak of disease.

 

Tsala, our resident leopardess who we reported had cubs a couple months ago, seems to have lost them once again, and is proving to be an extremely unlucky or bad mother as she has in my time here never successfully raised her cubs to adulthood. She is however looking stunning as ever and has been giving us some really awesome sightings this month, with the highlight been one morning when she was hunting impala around our vehicles, and we watched as she narrowly missed.

 

The female cheetah which was in the holding facility has been released this month, and is doing extremely well, and she is starting to explore her new home, much to the confusion to the 4 males who are still returning to the holding facility to see if she is still in there, but I am sure it will not be long before they latch on to her scent, and track her down and introduce themselves to her.

Hopefully she will be coming into her first estrus cycle in about 4 months from now, and if those boys are worth their salt, we will have cubs early next year which will be amazing, as we will not have had this happen in the park for about 13 years now !!!

 

There was also one special afternoon when Cornelius was following the 4 cheetah brothers in the north when they were hunting, and this is what happened according to Cornelius……

 

” Late one afternoon the four male cheetahs were found around the middle of Madikwe. As I was close enough I got a spot to join the sighting and the middle of the action.

The one male walked past us as we drove in and the other 3 was looking at some Red hartebeest in the distance. We knew the one that left was setting up the ambush. Now we just had to wait.

After a short while we saw dust where the hartebeest were and the cheetahs were gone. We tried to keep up with them, but man they quick. We caught up with them and we had no words. All four cheetahs were hanging from a fully grown male Red hartebeest. It took them a while to get it down and kill it, but in the end they won.

It was a true fight for life and death. ”

 

Another special morning unfolded as were trying photograph bee-eaters at Inkwe Pan , when suddenly the ridge pride appeared out of nowhere for a drink, and all was clam until a parade of elephants showed up with the same idea…. Well the jumbos took offence to the apex predators drinking their precious liquid, and duly dispatched them from the prime position at the waters edge.

 

So… as far as the rest of the game sightings goes.. …well the waterholes are cooking, especially at the lodge as we are have large of elephants every day at around lunch time, and they are entertaining guests non-stop. General game every morning as you are enjoying your breakfast come down to quench their thirsts, and the odd buffalo giving you the beady eye all happens on a daily basis. The bigger waterholes throughout the park are also amazing this time of the year, as the dusty arenas create some exquisite photographic opportunities as the sun sets.

 

So there you have the highlights for the month …..

We hope to welcome you next month as we turn up the heat in the fireplaces all over the lodge, as you sip on some homemade Gluwein, listening to the distant roar of the Ridge Pride under a sky full of jewels as you enjoy a scrumptious dinner under candlelight…… Sounds good hey ?

Book now to avoid disappointment…..

Wishing you all the best from the bush…

Regards,

Gavin and the T-Team !!

Hello again from slightly more fresh and nippy Madikwe.  Yes the season has started to change and the mornings and evenings already have a bit of a bite in them.  Not too long before you can look forward to hot water bottles in the beds and crackling fires in the rooms and main lodge.

A last bit of rain earlier in the month, has given new live to the parched bush and the trees vigorously started pushing new leaves and dead grass became green almost overnight.

Despite the drought we had some of the most amazing sightings this month.  What makes it even more special is that some of the best sightings this month happened completely unexpected, well more unexpected than usual, sometimes leaving us guides to pick up and dust of our jaws that have dropped on the floor.

One such sighting in particular was one afternoon, when we decided to head into the south-east of the park searching for rhinos and whatever other treasures the bush may hold.  We were not far from the lodge when the call came in that there was a glimpse of a leopard as he jumped out of the tree where it had stashed a kill.  Well great news, but we know how fruitless it can be to go and look for a skittish leopard; basically you have two chances of seeing a skittish leopard, zero and nothing.

So continuing on our merry way we head of to the east, finding a few good sightings, while listening with half an ear how hopeful guides call into the area where the leopard has been seen, but a while later departing without a leopard sighting.

After our sun downers I decide to go past the tree where the kill is stashed, so at least the guests can say they saw a leopard’s kill in a tree.  Cornelius had the same idea and we meet up next to a large Leadwood tree where the kill is supposed to be, but the leafy canopy is very thick and one can’t really make out the kill in the glow of the spotlight, so I resort to telling the guests how sneaky and sly a leopard can be and that the chances of seeing this particular leopard is zero due to it not being used to vehic….. O hello.  From nowhere a magnificent leopard appears and stands in the fork of the tree with an expression of “what were you saying about me”.  My mouth continued the rest of my sentence but no words came out.  I looked over to Cornelius and was glad to see it was not only my jaw lying on the road next to the game drive vehicle.  For a split second I thought of actually taking a picture of Cornelius rather than the leopard, just to catch that stunned expression on his face.

The leopard stood in the fork of the tree a while longer, then probably realized we were a bit stunned and were not going to make any further remarks on his character and promptly went for a nap on a nearby branch.  We sat there for a while longer occasionally shaking our heads in disbelieve before going home.

The other brilliant sighting happened one morning in the mist when we found the Mica, Jamala and 2 young Matlapa lionesses lounging around.  We sat with them for a while before they picked up on something on the nearby hill.  We could not see what they were after but they kept on looking and slowly making their way towards the thick bushes at the foot of the hill.  It was only after a kudu gave an alarm bark and a small group of kudus scattered up the hill side that we realised what they were after.

The lions lost interest and playfully walked in the other direction before something else caught their attention.  The lions fanned out and in the mist and tall grass we lost track of some of them.  One of the older females stayed behind close to the road as we followed one of the youngsters as she cautiously made a big loop around whatever they were after.

Eventually in the distance we saw some zebra, the cause of their stealthy stalking.  We were still watching the youngster when the zebras burst into a thunderous run, spooked by a lioness we lost track of.  This clever lioness sneaked passed, to behind the zebras before she launched her attack, cleverly knowing the position of the other older female that stayed behind close to the road.  The zebras were oblivious that they were being herded straight towards the other lions.  I sprang into actions and hastily made my way towards the lioness close to the road, hoping that the lionesses’ plan had worked.  It did, the lions had managed to grab hold of a big mare and were struggling to bring the zebra to ground.  The zebra fighting for dear live stayed on her feet and miraculously managed to spring free from the lions.  Running right passed us with the lions in hot pursuit.  The zebra did not reach far until one of the big lionesses’ again managed to grab hold and execute a powerful dive on the zebra, which made the zebra execute a sideways summersault.

The rest of the pride was quick to pounce and soon the zebra succumbed to the lion’s death grip on the throat.   This sighting again left us in awe of nature’s brutal and unforgiving power and would definitely last in our memories for a long time.

Tsala the relaxed female leopard from the south-west was also out and about and we found her one afternoon leisurely strolling about.  We followed her for a while through the bush and then our hearts skipped a beat as she made her way to a big Marula Tree.  Climb the tree, climb the tree, we were prying in unison.  Then in the blink of an eye she is up the tree and nonchalantly goes and lies on a branch, as if to say now you can take pictures, humble servants.

Well I can certainly wright a book about all the sightings we’ve had this past month, but think it would be better if you come and see it for yourselves.

Hope to see you back in the bush soon to join us on our daily adventures and endeavours.

Kind regards,

From Christo and the T-Team

It’s been a dry month. The mornings are getting rather chilly but as always, a little effort is rewarded double fold.

With the dry and dusty air we have had some spectacular sunsets and sunrises. The waterholes provided us with many opportunities to witness some interesting interactions.

The dogs made themselves seen a few times. The search for them resulted in long drives and extensive tracking sessions, but well worth every step.

They killed a big male Kudu in the south east of the park, not a bad achievement for only 5 adults in the pack. As the kill was in the open, it attracted a lot of vultures and some hyenas also had time to feed on the kill.

As we left the sighting the Alfa female went to fetch the 2 wild dog pups. We had just enough time to catch a glimpse of them in the last sunlight for the day.

A few weeks later they moved closer to the west of Madikwe and we had the opportunity to view them again.

Eating another kudu.

Early this month I was fortunate enough to witness two kills.

It did not end well for the zebras though. The first kill was made by the two young female lions from our local pride that took down a young zebra. We followed the two for some time and they just had that look in their eyes…

From miles away they knew what was going on. It was only when they started the ambush that we saw the zebras. In the end it ended well for these two girls, only for their meal to be taken away by the Naledi male, but not without a fight.

The four male cheetahs also killed a young zebra. It was late afternoon when I arrived at the sighting.

As we drove in they were on the move and shortly after that we saw the zebras, with a youngster. It took them ages to get close and then they waited. We all kept our distance and joined the waiting game. My patience was wearing thin but the cheetahs persisted. Once everything was in place, they went for it.

The chase took about 5 seconds… It was all in the preparation.

Our favorite leopard, Tsala, was spotted one morning after great teamwork from all the guides. When she was found we all positioned ourselves out of the way where she was followed.

When it was our turn to view her, we were the last vehicles, so we followed her for a really long time. She called her cubs but unfortunately we did not see them.

Then she jumped into a tree to get a better view of the impala she was following. Having seen her, we all were happy and satisfied and went for breakfast.

The lion pride in the South east of the park was spotted hiding in a one spot for about a week, it is possible that one of the females has cubs.

Then one of the Chimbro males mated with the other female of that pride, updates will follow soon.

Another eventful month here in the bush. We only hope to get more rain by the time the winter sets in.

Kind Regards

Cornelius and the T-Team